Czeski-Krumlov

The vacation picture posting has begun! For fun, I'm doing them in reverse. This is my last day in the Czech Republic. Click on the pictures and they will get larger. I recommend doing that with the mural below.

Touched, and Not Just In The Head

For all of you who forced me into acknowledging the inevitable, thank you!

Particularly:

Betster - For the Eddie Izzard DVD. And by the way, thank you for introducing me to him in the first place.
Bev - For the strudel, dinner, the "theater," a day of just being stupid, free and old.
GeeZee - For the milk frother that not only matches the French press, but works like a charm, the angel/devil duckies, and for putting up with me the night before.
Josh and Lauren - For my new favorite necklace. So beautiful, so generous!
Lilster - For David Sedaris' latest, and the George Harrison biography.
Mikey - For the entire ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT series. How do I love you? I'm still counting the ways.
Stenns - For the Very Serious Reading Material and the Coldplay CD.

And to all the friends and family who called, sent cards and condolences: Aunt Ruth, Barbara & Ev, Bari, Chantal, Günter, Jodie & Tony, Kallenberg, Karl & Steph, Little Guy, Sqwali, Marise, Rebbecca, and Romeo.

I am truly blessed to have all of you!

When the Party's Over

That's right - 7 hours 43 minutes since departure, 445 miles left to go. Right around the time I want to get off the plane THIS INSTANT, no matter where we are. Leave it to United Airlines to take the long way through Canada.

I've downloaded the pictures from Austria, Hungry, and the Czech Republic and have spent tonight sorting through and editing them. There are over 250 to go through, so it might be a little while longer before I start posting.

But I'll leave you with this shot of me and the boys:


And one of my dear friend and host Romeo in probably the most apropos photo I have ever taken of him:

Lookit Here!

Since I know you won't all understand this, I've used the Google translating tool to translate an article from German. The result is pretty funny. The original text is here.

But I wasn't posting to be funny, I was posting to express extreme joy!

My favorite author in the whole wide world, Christa Wolf, is being considered by the leftist party in German as their candidate. This bit of excitement is helping to lift me from the doldrums after watching Austria get defeated in soccer against the Germans.

I won't lie to you, my dear Christa is missing a few screws. She's brilliant though, and has such a way with words.



In other news: I've had emails asking for my vacation photos. They are coming, I promise. I took over 300 and I need to go through them all. I would expect at least pictures of Vienna to start showing up late this week, early next week.

Vienna and Beyond

Now where was I? Ah yes, Friday evening! Fun, Fun.

Romeo met me at the train with his bike, and we went over to one of the rental bike kiosks that are scattered all over the city. You stick your debit card in, you rent a bike, you return it at any of the other rental locations, you pay a small fee. I wish we had this in Chicago.

We rode around the Mariahilferstrasse a bit so I could get my bearings, and went out for dinner at Nice Rice, a vegetarian restaurant with outdoor seating. I got a dish of spicy lentils with 'soya fleisch' and paired it with a Grüner Veltiner. As we called the waitress over to get the bill, the cell phones started ringing. Friends of ours I hadn't seen yet were hanging out at pub around the corner, so of course we met up with them.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of this evening. We ordered some drinks, sat around on some really posh couches and after catching up, we had the conversation I was fearing: 'Who do you think is going to win? Obama? Clinton? Oh, and What the HELL are you people doing to Iraq?' It is amazing how quickly I forget how to speak German when topics that annoy me come up.

It was an early night for Romeo and me, because we had to get up early the next day and drive to Budapest. The ride home was fantastic- I love biking in the city. The bike paths are really well marked (and full of pedestrians to ring your bell at) We zoomed past the downtown area with all the lights and sounds and smells.

Then it was early to bed and up at 7 on Saturday. We were on the M1 before 8 and had a very pleasant drive. It is interesting to see what has become of the boarder that once created 10-mile traffic jams in the days of Communism. The customs booth is still there, but it is full of ads for oil companies and places to exchange money. Just across the boarder you buy your toll sticker for the Hungarian highway system, change money if you like, and zoom. You are on your way through flat, green, amazingly unpopulated Budapest. Suddenly, all of the signs and advertising on the highway are in Hungarian, including the warning signs. I mean, what is the non-Hungarian speaker supposed to do when confronted with an urgent-looking computerised message over the highway that says:

!!!!!RTZU sdflib gsdlkflökölkgh JJL*ÄÖÄLÖÖÖ!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as I know, it was just telling us rather emphatically to have a good day, because we saw no cause for alarm.

We got to the city, car parked and all by 11 and started our long trek through both sides of the city. Parking is FREE on Saturdays, and that is awesome. Because the rest of Budapest? Definately not free. In fact, it was about 3x more expensive than I thought it would be. The wine I was asked to bring back from Hungary was never purchased. It cost $60.

It was a day of food and lots of delicious coffee. We ate lots of spicy eggplant spread on crispy bread, a few strudels (apple, cherry, and cheese)and had dinner at one of the few and hard to find non-touristy Hungarian restaurants. If we had wanted Wienerwald (schnitzel place) or Burger King, it would have been less of an adventure. All kinds of American and Austrian chain restaurants all over the city have taken over. We went into the cathedral, window shopped all around Vaci street in Pest, and then crossed the bridge into Buda to look at the palace and churches there. We didn't go into any of the museums because it was so beautiful outside. I took many pictures of Parliament and the bridges over the Danube. No discription of the city would do it justice without the pictures.

Exhausted and thirsty, we filled our water bottles at a fountain, and left Budapest at 8 and were home, in bed, by midnight. Well, I guess I would be remiss if I didn't add here that we stopped at a gas station on the way home and bought a couple of half-liter cans of Gösser beer to drink before bedtime. I mean, you've got to have something to drink while you hash over the day's events.