Category: Uncategorized

Going Home

Good morning.  If you see a bunch of posts roll by on your blog roll, and then can’t get to them because you get the “sorry” message, it is because I am following Erin’s suggestion that I publish from Blogsy and then revert immediately to draft. 

I can then bring everything back into LiveWriter and add photos.  I never did get good at the photo placement in Blogsy, but I did manage to keep notes for myself.  As you can see, I am working on it and eventually something I can live with as a memoir will emerge. Maybe by the next time I go on a tour with the iPad I will be better at the Blogsy thing, then again….maybe not!

I am writing from the hotel in Vienna, where we arrived yesterday afternoon. It is about 55 degrees F and overcast. This is only the very beginning of the story, but I thought it might be nice to at least check in a bit. I originally had half a dozen photos in this post and Blogsy keeps saying “1 photo cannot be found on the iPad, delete these photos and post again”. So far I have deleted all of them, so we will see if the dang thing posts this time. If so, I might go back and try again! Of course you can always check out the current stuff over on the Picasa or Google plus link to the left. Maybe something will be there, who knows. HA!

Our hotel in Budapest was the Marmara Hotel, on the Pest side of the Danube, in what is considered the more modern part of the city. Although the hotel is very close to a large metro station, it is also close enough to the Danube River and the hub of the city that it was easy for us to walk almost anywhere we wanted.

Arriving in a big tourist bus is always a bit daunting, and this was no exception. The bus eased its way down the narrow street between parked cars slowly enough that shopkeepers came out to watch and be sure that their parked cars were unscathed.

The hotel itself is decent enough, but we were surprised to find a lumpy rollaway bed pulled out into the room. The main bed was enough for us and we used the rollaway simply for spreading stuff out and storing luggage. The room was adequate, with a door that opened to a small balcony, but the balcony opened only to an atrium and we were surrounded by cement above and below us. Still it was good to have fresh air at least after being cooped up in an airplane for so long.

After settling in, Melody and I immediately took advantage of the central location and the sunny afternoon to go walking and begin exploring our surroundings. Both of us had walked these streets on Google Earth so things looked a bit familiar, and we had a small map to understand the lay of the land. The buildings are very tall, though, and it is hard to actually figure out where you are on the map and which direction you are walking!

We found our way to the Danube, and to the Parliament buildings, and then found a great little coffee shop in the basement of the National Museum where we had our first of several good cappuccinos that we would enjoy in the next few days. Once fortified with some caffeine to keep us going we stood on the banks of the Danube. After 24 hours without any sleep to speak of, both of us were a bit loosey goosey, and we knew it was important to stay awake until a regular bedtime to keep from extending the jet lag thing into the next da. We returned to the hotel without getting lost and again, as I look back from this vantage point I see really now little ground we covered that first afternoon, but it seemed like a lot at the time.

At 5:30 we met downstairs in the atrium for an orientation meeting with our guide and the group. That is always an interesting part of the trip, seeing just where everyone is from and who might be fun to know and who might be good to avoid. There are always both kinds. Lorena, our trip leader, is from Argentina, but relocated to Berlin 13 years ago and has been leading Go Ahead Tours for almost as long. She is personable and pleasant, quite lovely, and seems to do her job well. There are a few prickly folks who showed their colors right away and it was interesting watching Lorena handle them so gently.

The restaurant was nice enough, but they didn’t seem very well prepared for a group of 30 people. There are vegans, lactose intolerant, wheat intolerant, and vegetarian folks along who have special dietary needs and this seemed to throw them a bit. Our one vegan companion wasn’t difficult at all, and decided that the fried cheese they gave her was just fine.

We, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the Hungarian Beef Goulash with Spaetzle. I used to make a midwest version of this dish back in the days of kids and casseroles, and believe me, it wasn’t the least bit related. I especially loved the spiciness of the paprika. Dessert was some kind of a sponge cake which I believe is also traditional, covered with a bitter chocolate sauce. I know European desserts are not sweet, but to me this was mostly just plain boring.

Back at the hotel, Melody was relieved to find that she could hook up her iPhone to wireless in the lobby at least. She really needed that connection to her kids and her husband and was happy that they could all communicate via facebook and skype without it costing a fortune as it would have without wireless availability. whew

I have no idea how late she stayed up, but when I fell into the moderately hard bed it didn’t bother me in the least. I slept like a rock. My cold was getting worse, but my knee seemed to be holding up well so I was grateful. Sometimes when I am that tired I can’t sleep at all, so I took an Ambien from my hoarded stash and didn’t wake up till morning. Best cure for jet lag is a good night’s sleep!

Here in Vienna, I am still trying to figure out how to get photos from my phone onto the iPad, and ready for the blog. I did manage to upload a bunch of photos to my Picasa albums, but I have no clue if they are the edited photos or the originals. Sometimes there just isn’t a substitute for a good old laptop! It seems as though even after I do some fine tuning of the photos using my iPad app, when I attempt to access them for the blog they are in their original format. I have written about each day, but it may be a bit of time before it all comes together and the photos are in the blog and all the towns are spelled correctly.

Some news is better then no news, right? Melody, on the other hand, has written volumes and posted a ton of stuff in FaceBook. I can’t even begin to keep up with her on that one! Tonight we are off to the Prater Ferris Wheel and tomorrow we will wander around the central city of Vienna on our own. So much to tell! Stay tuned.

Seasoned Travelers

There is something that happens after a certain number of hours on an airplane. Giddiness sets in. Melody and I aren’t exactly acting like the seasoned travelers who sit quietly in our seats and don’t disturb anyone. At the moment we have been flying for ten hours or so, and we are giggling. Uncontrollably.

The seasoned traveler who is sitting next to Melody is not amused. I don’t think he has smiled once throughout this entire flight. He does speak English, as we know, because he informed me gruffly that the button that turned on the overhead light was in the remote by my seat and not next to the light. Ok Ok. I have flown in lots of airplanes where the dang button is over my head. I am not completely stupid. Really. Except I spent the first half hour of this flight trying to operate said remote in the seat arm before I discovered that, oh, the remote unhooks and I could hold it in my lap. oh. Melody figured this out when she turned to Grumpy and saw the remote in his hand.

Then of course, I had a remote that didn’t actually work, and after trying to hit the button repeatedly to the left to WATCH THE DAMN MOVIE, I used said remote to call the flight attendant. I had paid my 2 bucks to watch “Newsroom” on HBO, but the sweet attendant said, “Can’t you watch something else? I am very busy right now.”

Now we are approaching Amsterdam and my little seat monitor says we will be there in 1 hour and 04 minutes. It has said that for some time now, and Melody’s flight tracker says we will arrive in 41 minutes. I guess she will get there before I do. There is something a bit disquieting about small computer glitches on a very big airplane that is 41K feet or so in the air, especially when NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE! Of course, acting like a seasoned traveler is a bit difficult when I have Melody grabbing my arm and looking terrified every time the plane does a dip or a drop. Somehow I never imagined she would be afraid to fly.

By the time we reached Amsterdam Melody was a bit more calm, but landing in the rain and fog on bumpy clouds didn’t do a lot for her. Amsterdam is a very nice airport, and the map on the internet and in the Skye magazine made it seem a very simple place to get around. We had almost an hour and a half to find our gate, from G to D81. Once we started following the signs however, things were a bit less clear. Add to the interest with the secret that my daughter likes a smoke now and then.

She did well, not smoking for 24 hours and two a day is about her limit, But then when her limit is reached she is READY for a cigarette. We found signs but couldn’t find the smoking area until a gentleman helped with the very nice comment, “down there in the black box”. When Melody arrived at the black box, she quickly did a turn around and said, “nnyuh uh!” The Black Box was literally that, about 8 foot square filled with several very large Middle Eastern men with very big bellies all jammed in there and smoke so thick you couldn’t see. She opened the door, took one look and backed away immediately. Great way to quit smoking!

Once again in the air on Dutch KML airlines, we flew the short distance from Amsterdam to Budapest, with most of the window view obscured by clouds until we were almost over the city. We had a lovely window seat this time and I could lean over Melody to peer out the window and the beautiful Danube River winding through the countryside below us. I think that is the moment that I first felt the excitement of the trip.

The landing was smooth, there was a gentle warm sun creating an early afternoon glow around the city, and the half hour drive from the airport to our downtown hotel was delightful. We are staying at the Maramar hotel, just a few blocks from the river and Parliament in one direction and a few blocks to city park and the Szechenyi baths in the other direction.

After settling into our room, adequate but interesting with a truly nice bath and thank goodness a balcony door that we can open, we decided to go for a walk. I knew we shouldn’t sleep, even though we were both seriously rummy from 24 hours of traveling. We wandered toward Parliament and the River, confident that we wouldn’t get too easily lost with as much time I have spent virtually walking this area on google earth.

At 5:30 we met downstairs in the Atrium to visit with our tour guide and to meet our fellow travelers. That is always an interesting time, with people coming from many different places and backgrounds, blending their personalities into some kind of cohesive group, or not. I guess we will find out as the days progress.

Lorena, our guide throughout the trip is charming, a young Argentine girl who emigrated to Germany and has led tours with Go Ahead for the last 13 years. After out get together, we all walked the few blocks to our dinner spot, the Red Pepper. We had a great meal of red beef paprikash, spicy and rich with Hungariam paprika, and spaetzle, started with some warm bread and a perfect light creamy chicken mushroom soup. The three ladies at our table opted for wine, something I read about in advance, and they were quite jealous of my large frosty glass of good beer as they sipped there 3 ounces of chardonnay.

Today we will begin to see the city in earnest, with a morning tour of both Parliament and the Castle Hill before we take off for an afternoon at the Szechenyi baths on our own. Both of us are feeling much better today after a good night’s sleep on the somewhat hard, but surprisingly comfortable bed, down comforters and all. I am still working on my somewhat limited skills at putting photos where I want them with blogsy, but hopefully I’ll get better at it as we go along. Erin suggested some alternative blogging platforms, but somehow I never managed to actually have the time to find them, download them, or learn them, so for the time being, Blogsy it is!

 

With a new iPad and a big trip on the horizon, I thought it might be time to figure how to post from Blogsy, the app that is supposedly a reasonable way to replace LiveWriter when not using a compatible device. Gates and Jobs really hate talking the same language. So far I am not impressed, but neither am I all that impressed with my typing speed on this glass screen!

Ah well. Life does throw curves now and then. For my birthday on Saturday I had a great day, unaware that the twisted knee that I started with would morph into a torn meniscus making it nearly impossible for me to walk without crutches by the following Monday.

A much better surprise was the huge flock of young pelicans I saw on my way to town for a birthday breakfast. Or the gorgeous diamond hoop earrings my daughter brought to me on Sunday. Or the special pieces added to my heirloom dishes found by my other daughter on eBay and shipped my way.

Still, this way to post leaves a lot to be desired so for now this will have to suffice. Just practicing.

 

 

Seems as though Live Writer can’t get to the blog today.  Since I have been remiss in posting and finally managed, I am bugged that the thing refuses to go up.  So this is a test to see if I can make a post directly from draft blogger.  Just a test. minus the photo that I just tried to add and it wouldn’t add it.  sigh.  Thanks for the comments, guys, I can see this post as well, but the dang LiveWriter post is still grinding away after more than an hour.  Hopefully it will work eventually, since I haven’t created a post with photos, formatting, etc here on draft blogger in at least two years and I am sure it would look like …well…excrement?