The Almost Bike Trailer
Nora and I are going bike the Katy Trail in Missouri in June. 250 miles more or less in 7 days more or less. As we’ve been preparing for it, I’ve been a bit concerned that we might not be able to put all our stuff for the trip in our rather small saddle bags, […]
The Katy Trail Day 3
The Katy Trail Day 3 Our mileage is increasing. 34 today. Or 35. We’re not sure, although as tightly as we count our miles, one would think we’d know. It’s just that the GPS sometimes gets even more confused than we do. We had breakfast in the small Truman dining room in the basement. If […]
The Organist — April 24, 2024
Sometimes we just get lucky. Looking through a very long list of possible things to do in our last week in Budapest, I came across ads for an organ concert at St. Stephen’s Basilica. It sounded interesting because if we bought the right ticket, we’d get to meet the organist. He would talk about the […]
Budapest Segway Tour – April 23, 2024
I’ve wanted to ride a Segway for a long time. I mean, for a long time I’ve wanted to ride a Segway. Since I hadn’t done it, I had no idea if I’d want to ride one for a long time. We got our chance when I happened on a pop-up advertising things to do […]
Memento Park – April 20, 2024
It’s a question that has certainly plagued more than one country: What do we do with statues and plaques that are part of a history we do not want to honor? Hungary has a tortured past, both literally and figuratively. Setting aside everything before the 1900’s, which is a lot of complicated history, Hungary lost […]
The Gulyas Party – April 18, 2024
The text message was brief: “On Thursday evening Gulyas Party at 7:00 pm on the 6th floor. No formal dressing is required.” That would be the 6th floor of a building in Budapest overlooking the Danube, and the message was from Tamas, one of our superhosts at the AirBnB where we’re staying for 3 weeks. […]
A Day of Remembrance – April 17, 2024
We decided to put some effort into local attractions today. Attractions meaning what guidebooks highlight as attractions. So… The Jewish Synagogue and The House of Terrors. Both, of course, housed terrors. Mistaking a bit of knowledge for actual competence, we exulted in our ability to catch the right tram, exit at the right place, catch […]
Have You Been To Hungary? April 15, 2024
Have you Been to Hungary? We all do it, it seems. We set foot across a border or breeze through a city and add a country to our bio: Been there. Check. It may have been a day, or a highly scripted week, or 6 years living there, but they all count the same. I […]
Turkish Memorial & Gellert Hill Hike – April 13, 2024
Mid-morning we geared up for an actual hike, a la All Trails recommendation. We’ve been walking the soles off our shoes/sandals ever since we got here, due in large part to metro misunderstandings, but hiking 10 miles is different than walking 10 miles. If you don’t know the difference, you should try both and see […]
The day not at the lake – April 12, 2024
Thursday we got a message saying they would be working on the plumbing Friday and would we please not use the faucets or toilets from 8 AM – 3 PM? Because we are North Americans who are always so happy and positive (according to the ticket taker at the museum yesterday), we responded with “No […]
Learning the Metro, or not – April 10, 2024
Day three it’s time to learn something about getting around. First attempt: Go online, get the app, purchase a one-month pass apiece. Of course that didn’t work because for some reason my credit card was rejected. I suspect I’m the reason, but I prefer to blame the app. So we walked to the nearest metro […]
Where Are The People? – April 9, 2024
When we decided to spend three weeks in Budapest, we told ourselves we wanted to meet “the people.” We didn’t exactly define who the “people” were, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t mean tourists. We were thinking “the people who have lived here all their lives.” We wanted to know more about those lives, even […]
Magrit (Margaret) Island – April 8, 2023
Magrit (“Margaret” to English speakers) Island, first called Rabbit Island, is in the middle of the Danube right in front of our home. It’s a 1.6-mile-long island well known for its attractions, so wanting some outdoor time/exercise, we made it our first exploration. A couple hours later, we were glad we had. For starters, it’s […]
welcome to Budapest – April 7, 2024
Traveling is an act of faith, start to finish. If you have no faith, you stay home. You pay an unseen force an unseemly amount of money to take you and your bags to a place you’ve never been. You hand your suitcases to someone who puts a tag on them but makes no promises […]