At last.

At long last there are a significant number of trip photos on my Picasa album.



This set of 500 is essentially the second half of my trip. Five hundred from the first half (mainly Munich) are imminent.

bye bye europe

im leaving in just over six hours for vienna and then a quick transfer at about 0645 to munich. im going to have to hustle to make that train. once back in munich i want to go see a castle. my flight leaves 0710 wednesday. i plan to stick my stuff in a locker and just stay up until i go to the airport at about 315, it's a 45 minute train from the center of munich.

bye europe! hello america! and my family!

ALERT ACHTUNG LOOK HEY OVER HERE

I've uploaded a few pictures because I am very nearly out of space for pictures. I just need room for a few more.. They are all from today. My cake, the main market in Budapest, a bridge, a tram up to the palace, St. Ivan's Basilica, me at the opera house (where I'm going at 7), the restaurant where I ate last night called Menza.


http://picasaweb.google.com/agbergan/Yer08?authkey=1sf-TMr6YtA#

Like a farmer's market, I guess.

I love the main market here in Budapest! Cheap and fun to browse. Good place to stop and dry off on a wet day like today.

pest

I had a short day of sight seeing on the eastern side of the Danube, the side that is Pest. The weather today was beautiful despite the know-nothing's weather people's forecasts. Beautiful, original buildings. World War II didn't destroy Budapest or Hungary as a whole, the way that it hit Poland or most of Europe. Tomorrow my plan is to soak in the baths and go to the opera.

For dinner tonight I had Hungarian stuffed cabbage. The Poles make a stuffed cabbage dish call golubki. These two dishes are almost identical. Cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and minced meat and then (I think) steamed. In Poland I had golubki with a tomato sauce. Tonight it was covered/surrounded in a spicy sour kraut that was delicious. With a piece of bread, that saucekraut, and the stuffed cabbage...one of my new favorites!

Buda and Pest

even though i shared my compartment with one fellow i did sleep pretty well all night. got here to budapest around 915 am. the weather was better than expected. last night the forecasts covering the rest of my trip had the highest temperature as 48 F and lots of rain and snow. partially cloudy when i got here and not too cold. probably near 48 F.

taking a timeout at the hostel before i head out. need to find an atm and get some hungarian forints. about 200 to the dollar.

good day.

6 days, 7 nights

left. spent all my zloty's, only a fraction left. 77 groszy. in exactly 2.5 hours the train is supposed to be pulling out for budapest. hopefully i'll end up getting my very own couchette compartment. my guess is that that is doubtful though. if that happens ill wake up in hungary rested. if not, ill have come off of a night of clutching my belongings and darting my eyes.

the shock of the concentration camps has mostly worn off. i don't know if that's a good thing. i mean i don't want to live in that shell shocked kind of disgust and realization of evil. those images and truths will always be with me and that is probably enough. never forget.