The trip to Vienna, like all my trips since I’ve been in Hungary, really started on Thursday night. See, my bus to Austria left from Budapest at 7am which means I needed to be there by 6:45 which means I needed to spend the night in Budapest since there are no trains or anything else which will get me there that early. This also held true for any trips which had me leaving the country. Continue reading “Vienna”
Obituaries
For some reason today I went looking for an old friend on facebook. In the past few months I’ve reconnected with several people from past, some I have spoken to in as much as 27 years so I thought I’d try to find this girl I used to know. We exchanged an email or two about 6 years ago and then nothing. So I do my search and naturally, I don’t find her in the list… but then I see her name in the supplemental links at the bottom – in a link to her obituary. Continue reading “Obituaries”
Great Day in Lithuania
Thursday was a long, but really good day! It started early when we caught the train to Kaunas – which, of course, was late due to the snow. This worked out in our favor since we were waiting on Rokas, Roo’s magic partner, who was going to spend the day with us and HIS train was delayed so he made it to Vilnius before we left. Continue reading “Great Day in Lithuania”
White Christmas
Well…
It’s been a while since I updated, I know, I’m bad. That said, not much new has been going on. I have been going to Budapest on a fairly regular basis, both for work and to see friends I’ve made there, and I took an early Christmas trip to Heidelberg to see Claudia and David and even met up with Thom and Jerri, my cousins whom I never saw in the states, but here in Europe, will probably be seeing much more of. Continue reading “White Christmas”
Chateau de Chillon
Switzerland, while nice, is, as I’ve said, incredibly expensive. And since I’m not sue I’ll ever be back here, I wanted to see this castle which is about 45km from Geneva, just outside the Jazz Festival home Montreux. It’s also where Byron wrote a fairly famous poem, “The Prisoner of Chillon.” about Francois de Bonivard. Evidently this trip was becoming a fair bit about Lord Byron. Continue reading “Chateau de Chillon”
CERN
Friday morning I was excited! This is what I had been waiting for! As soon as I decided on Geneva as a destination (I was originally going to go to Croatia but decided to go there in the spring when it’s warm and I can fully appreciate the beach!) I booked a reservation for the grand tour at CERN labs, home of the Large Hadron Collider Continue reading “CERN”
On a clear day you can see… Mont Blanc
So Thursday I woke up early and headed out. After my long walk the day before I figured today was a day of standing around and looking at things. I already knew I was going to go to the Fondation Martin Bodmer, a rare book museum which seemed to be open only Thursdays between 2 and 6pm and the odd Friday so this was going to be my only chance. So the question was, what do I do with my morning? Continue reading “On a clear day you can see… Mont Blanc”
Geneva
This entry actually starts on Tuesday, November 2nd with a lot of travel. Malev, the Hungarian Airline, is okay. Nothing fancy but then there doesn’t need to be. I made my flight (not as easy as it sounds, I got confused at the gate – there’s a difference between Gate 22 and Gate 22A – and they took me into a special room to make the power cord of my computer wasn’t a bomb) and made it back to Budapest easily enough. I even felt like a native as I was able to help some newly landed folks find their way to their destinations. Continue reading “Geneva”
Heidelberg
Here in Europe, at least in some parts of it including Hungary, this week was fall break. This meant I had a whole week off from work and I was going to take advantage of it. My first stop was Germany.
It’d been a while since I’d been to Heidelberg – almost a year in fact. So I was a bit nervous. I was nervous flying in and nervous on the Lufthansa Bus for the 50 minute ride from Frankfurt…I needn’t have been. Continue reading “Heidelberg”
Fred Travalena 1942-2009
When I was a kid, about 11 or 12, I used to stay up all night watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon. That year, there was this great impressionist named Fred Travalena on and I was in awe. A few weeks later, he was appearing at the Riviera hotel in Vegas, where I lived.
Not knowing any better, I called the hotel and asked for his room. I wanted to meet him and that’s how I thought it was done.
I was put through.
Iceland – End of the Road…
Waking up on my last day of the trip was hard. I stayed in bed longer than I had to. I really wanted to rush out and say good-bye to Claudia and David, but they had to get up and go horseback riding. So instead, I stayed in bed, then went down for breakfast and finally went down to the souvenir shop to pick up some last minute gifts. Then I went back to Guest House Pavi, packed up my bag and headed to a different hotel where I would get picked up for the Blue Lagoon. It was a mini-van that came to get me, but that was only a short ride to get to the main bus terminal. Continue reading “Iceland – End of the Road…”
Iceland – Dangerous Beauty…
Landing in Keflavik I was two hours earlier than when I left Copenhagen at 10:30pm so after a 3 hour flight, it was still only 11:30pm and going outside to catch a bus to my hostel I realized, for the first time on my trip, that Iceland was cold, even in the heart of summer, and I may not have packed enough warm clothes. Continue reading “Iceland – Dangerous Beauty…”
Copenhagen – a very fine last meal on the mainland…
I got back to Malmö in the morning, made my way to Malin’s place and promptly collapsed on the bed – but not for long. We had a lunch date with Marie at the special, top secret sushi place where I got the best present of my trip – a jar of salt licorice candy (no, that’s not the special part) with a custom label, words by Malin, art by Marie. It’s awesome! Continue reading “Copenhagen – a very fine last meal on the mainland…”
Amsterdam’s cultural showdown…
Waking up on my third day in Amsterdam I had a bit of a hangover. Not that I had indulged in anything particularly, but when it’s all around you can’t help but get some effects. So I woke up still a bit groggy and my teeth itched (I discovered that when I am… under the herbal influence… I clench my jaw – weird). BUT, I woke up in time to actually catch a breakfast downstairs. So I made myself a sandwich and had a few hard boiled eggs (LOVE the hard boiled eggs!) and headed out catch the more cultural aspects of the northern city of canals. Continue reading “Amsterdam’s cultural showdown…”
Amsterdam – City of contradictions…
Overnight trains leave a lot to be desired. In this instance, I got on board at 7pm and wasn’t going to get off again until 10 the next morning. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing except when you’re in a train compartment with five other people and your legs are intertwined it gets hard to sleep. Add in the fact that people are constantly leaving the train and the sun is coming up and someone forgot to draw the blinds and really, not the best night’s sleep. Continue reading “Amsterdam – City of contradictions…”
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 