Last day in Turkey. Time to go home

Sunday, June 22,2014

Yesterday, after checking into my hotel, I went to walk around the new neighborhood and to get lunch. I had a nice spicy lamb kabob and vegetables. I definitely prefer Turkish food to Eastern European food. Then, I went to see the Little Hagia Sophia. The man in the hotel reception had told me about it. I had never heard of it.  I stumbled on it as I was walking around the neighborhood, but I had to go back to my room for my scarf first. It's beautiful. It was built in the 6th century and remained a church until the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century, when it became a mosque.  It seems to be a secret gem in Istanbul. When I was going through, there were only two other tourists there. Later, I sat on a bench in the garden and I did see a group of 12 go in. (The Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque probably have hundreds of visitors per hour). It's an active mosque. I saw several people wash and then go in to pray.

 

For dinner, I just went to a little shop and bought some bread and cheese - way too much, of course. Everywhere, they speak some English and are very friendly. They always ask where you are from. The wifi is very good at this hotel so I did my online check-in for my flight tomorrow. I have also booked transport to the airport  

Breakfast at this hotel is on the terrace and it's lovely. If you sit outside, you can look out on the Sea of Marmara. They still have the cold meats and vegetables, but also bread and many kinds of jams. Everything is labeled in English. I don't think I've mentioned that rose petal jam is common here. This is also the first place on this trip with real coffee urns containing, coffee, hot water, milk - again English labels. Everywhere had those cappuccino machines with buttons labeled in a language I couldn't read. Turkish is quite difficult to decifer also but there's almost always an English translation under it. In this hotel, if you spoke only Turkish, you'd be in trouble because all signs are in English. 

I seem to have left my toothpaste at the last hotel. Ugh! Really didn't want to spend this long day without brushing my teeth. I went back to the little store where I bought the bread and cheese and bought toothpaste. ☺️  Now, I've paid my bill and am sitting in the lovely hotel lobby waiting for my airport transport. The flight leaves at 1:45pm and arrives 11.5 hrs later at Dulles (6:10 pm). Everyone says Turkish Airlines is very nice and has great food. 

OMG! An American couple just came in, said they were here before, left for a night because no rooms were available, and now want to come back. They live on a sailboat, which is coming from Thailand, and they're not sure which day it will arrive and clear customs. 

Second Istanbul hotel

Saturday, June 21,2014

The hotel that G Adventure booked for our last two nights wasn't available so I booked another one for one additional night on the internet before I left. I probably should have gotten one nearer to my first hotel, but I think maybe I didn't know which hotel we would be in. Anyway, this place only about a 20 minute walk from the other place, but it would have been too difficult with my bags.  The first place was the Hayan and this one is the Saruhan. They seem to be about equidistant from the Blue Mosque and Aga Sofia, but in opposite directions. This neighborhood seems much older. The poor taxi driver had a lot of trouble getting down the narrow streets here. I haven't gone to my room yet. It's not ready yet. I arrived at 12:30 and check-in is at 1:00. The hotel seems a normal size, but when I walked in, the guy behind the reception desk knew my name before I said anything. 

This morning I returned to the Blue Mosque. Yesterday afternoon it was so crowded that I felt I couldn't really see anything. It's free so I thought I might as well go again. It was less crowded at 9:30, but I still waited a while on line. I had thought it opened at 9 (that's what all the tour books say), but it opens at 8:30. It would have been better to be here then. Anyway, I did really enjoy wandering around and taking photos. Then I walked back toward my hotel and stopped at a little souvenir shop. They had little evil eye keychains and pretty spoons. As I was looking, the girl from the shop talked to me a little. She was struggling with her English and then asked if I spoke French. We talked in French a little and I asked if she had studied in France. She said that she speaks French because she is Moroccan. I told her in Arabic that I had studied in Fez. We had a nice conversation. Usually when I try to speak Arabic with a stranger, the words won't come. Then, later, I think of all the words I couldn't remember. This time it was easy. I decided to go inside and look some more. I bought a purse. I think the girl gave me a better price because I had lived in Morocco. She had to check the price with her boss. Then she snuck several trinkets in the bag also. 

After that, I checked out of my hotel and got a taxi to the new one. Now I'm using their wifi in the lobby. I'll post for now and maybe write more later. 

Okay.  Got the room. It's lovely with a little balcony. Going to get lunch. I can hear the call to prayer as I am typing this. 

Istanbul

Friday, June 20,2014

Yesterday we took a bus to Plovdik. We had lunch and walked around the city. It's a vry pleasant place. Than we too k a ghost bus to Istanbul 7pm - 2 am). We all slept a little on the bus but were still really tired this morning. I had wanted to be up early and out by 7. I ended up going to breakfast at 8 - that same European breakfast of cold meats and cheese. I had really been hoping for a French breakfast of croissants. Then Kate, Cindy and I went to the Haga Safia. We got there at 8:45. It opens at 9. The line was short and we got in quickly before the crowds. It was very impressive. Then we went to see the cisterns. They are very beautiful. There are also 2 columns with Medusa heads on the bottom. Internet has been spotty the last few days. I'll post this now and try to add to it later.  

Best night of the trip

We are now in Sofia. Every night Naviana plans something for us for dinner. People are free to join the others or not. She said that it would be more folk dancing. We all misunderstood. Here's how it was. We ordered an appetizer plate. It was huge. Unfortunately, we were only seven. We would have been plenty for our entire group. Then the entertainment came out. There was dancing and singing. I really would say it was Broadway quality. They were dancing, playing instruments, and standing on top of barrels. It was incredible. Then they came around our table - fanning the men and dancing around.  We gave them money, of course. After all the entertainment, others joined in the dancing. There was a bachelor party there. Those guys were really having a great time. 

Tomorrow, we take the bus at 8:30 for Plovdik. We will spend the day there and then take the overnight bus to Istanbul. That means there will probably be no internet tomorrow night so I will not post to the blog b

Belogradchik day 2

June 17, 2014

Yesterday I thought I had posted my blog entry, but today I saw only a few sentences went up. If you read it and it was incomplete, you can check again. It should be longer and with photos now. 

Today we went to see the Belogradchik fortress. It's build into some rock formations. The rocks around here are quite impressive.  

Then we went to a cave with paintings in it. The paintings were interesting, but the stairs and slopes were really treacherous. There were some lights, but it was difficult to see and extremely slippery. Before we went in, Naviana said it would be 2 km walking and we needed to be sure because you can't turn around and come back out since we would be exiting in a different place. I was surprised she asked since we've been on walks that were much longer than 2 km on this trip. The cave visit was very tiring, but I think it was more because of how much you had to constantly concentrate on where you were walking so you wouldn't fall. When we were almost back out ( we could see the light at the end), there was a slippery incline. I couldn't seem to get traction. I just kept slipping down. Sue had to give me a push!  It was definitely worth it, though because of the paintings. 

When we got back to the inn, we were exhausted, but about 45 minutes later, Kate, Cindy and I had a cooking lesson. We made and tarator (cold yogurt and cucumber soup), banitsa (a layered pudding type dessert) and biscuit cake. 

   

Belogradchik

We took a private van (minibus?) to Belogradchik. The trip was over 4 hours and when we stopped for a pit stop, Naviana bought several bottles of plum brandy.

Then we got to our hotel for tonight. We're kind of out in the woods. It's cold here. It's 70 degrees. It's kind of nice after all the hot, sunny days. In front of the hotel were two little girls I traditional Bulgarian clothes holding baskets with bread and salt, pepper and paprika. When the Russian freed Bulgaria from the Ottomans, the Bulgarians greeted them with bread and salt. 

We put our bags in our rooms and then headed out to a winery. It was very interesting. The owner was very knowledgable. Winery photos are on my camera so I can't upload them. But Sue just told me that she has something. So I will try to use her device tomorrow.  When we got back from the winery, we ordered dinner at our hotel. It's kind of like a guesthouse none man owns it. His wife cooks. His daughters greeted us. When we were about to have dinner, Naviana had a surprise for us. She had hired an ensemble of Bulgarian folk dancers. After they danced several dances, they insisted that we dance with them. 

Then we had a fabulous dinner. 

Day 2 in Veliko Ternova

We are so loving Bulgaria. Last night's restaurant and tonight's were fabulous. They were restaurants that would really be 5 star in the US in terms of quality of food and service. The servers spoke  excellent English and were very attentive. Tonight's waiter brought out our silverware according to what we had ordered and wore white gloves when he placed it on the table. The Bulgarian wine was fabulous and he was always there to refill our glasses when needed.  All for under $20 - with dessert.  Apparently Viking cruises come here. When I was shopping in the shops, there were suddenly tons of American tourists and the shops accept dollars. 

This morning I was feeling pretty tired. Most of the others were hiking up to a little village. I chose to stay here and rest. We have hiked up steep hills and climbed tons of stairs and I just felt that I needed a rest. I just basically stayed in my hotel room this morning. (The hikers ended up seeing a gypsy wedding. Not fair!). At around 1:00 I went out to get lunch. I was sitting at an outdoor table when I saw Cindy go by. She had intended to take a bus to the Black Sea for the day, so I was surprised to see her. It turned out that she got a migraine and didn't go. So we had lunch together. Then I shopped for a while. I bought a silver bracelet. 

Tomorrow we leave for Belogradchik at 10. It's a long drive and we are taking private transport again. Naviana has instructed us to take some things from the breakfast buffet for the trip. We told her that is illegal. She saw it totally differently. She said we've paid for it.  I'm not sure what would be good to take. The buffet hasn't changed much since Budapest: cold cuts (today there was bologna and boiled ham), sliced cheese, boiled eggs, toast, jam, plain yogurt, granola and cereal. I always eat granola and yogurt.   In Bucharest there were also tomatoes and oranges. (The tomatoes are incredible here.). There were cherries here this morning. I love cherries, but for about the last five years I haven't been able to eat them. They give me an awful stomach ache.  So, hopefully, there will be another fruit tomorrow. 

We've  been making a specific effort to eat some fruits and veggies. It's always hard when you travel, but especially in Romania everything was pork (schnitzel, cutlet, sausage, etc) and potatoes or polenta. No vegetables. In Bulgaria, there are more vegetables, but you still have to make an effort to get them with your meal.  And the most common meat is still pork. Last night I had eggplant (with some pork) and tonight I had Bulgarian roast lamb. 

Bulgaria

Today we took private vans (2 for the 13 of us) to Veliko Tarnova. We left Bucharest at 10 and got here at around 2:00.  They checked our passports at the Bulgarian border, but only Ishwar got a stamp in his Indian passport. Veliko Tarnova is a very cute little town with a fortress. It was the capital of Bulgaria before they were conquered by the Ottomans. We hiked up to the old fortress. I'll post a few photos here, but, unfortunately, I left my camera adapter (that makes it so I can connect my camera or my phone to my iPad) in the hotel in Brasov. So now I can only upload photos that I take with the phone. The camera takes much better photos, but I won't be able to upload them till I get home. 

The hotel is very nice. It has an elevator, also, but I am on the ground floor. 

Bucharest

June 13,2014

Today is our last day in Romania. Naviana took us on an orientation walk of the old part of Bucharest. There are some beautiful buildings from the 18th century. They belonged to rich people. When the communists came, they forced the rich out of the homes, but didn't maintain them. After the fall of communism the original owners didn't return to their homes. Recently the government has begun selling them to investors to renovate them and renew the city.

We also saw the statue of King Carol I, the first king of Romania. When the tore down King Carol's statue and erected one of Stalin. After the fall of communism, the Romanians wanted to put the statue back, but it was destroyed. They created a new statue modeled on the old except they changed the tail. The story is that when Carol said he wanted to be king of Romania, others told him he didn't have the "cojones". He said "I might not, but my horse does."

We also went to the parliament building.  It's a huge building built by Ceausescu to be his palace. He never got to use it. When it was about finished, the people were coming after him. He and his wife fled to the roof where a helicopter was waiting, but the pilot wasn't supportive of him and dropped them off in the forest. They were found a few days later and he was executed by firing squad. The guide told many stories that were not at all flattering to Ceausescu. The building is quite cool. It has high ceiling, marble everywhere and ventilation in the ceiling. There is no AC because Ceausescu was afraid someone would try to poison him.

Dracula's castle

June 12,2014

Today we traveled in a van. It was really nice to have our own vehicle. First we went to Bran Castle (Dracula's home). It was fun. It's a big castle with lots of narrow, winding staircases. They have the original furniture in many of the rooms. There were also lots of kids. It seemed like every school in Romania had taken a field trip there today.  When we came out of the castle, Naviana had bought a big pretzel for everyone. She said we wouldn't have time for lunch till late and she wanted to make sure we weren't hungry. After the castle, our driver took us to see the royal family's summer castle.  It was incredibly ornate. By the time we finished the tour, it was about 2:00. We found a little cafe nearby and had lunch. I had the Queen Salad (arugula, raspberries and mozzarella).  I was glad to find a salad on the menu. It's hard to get enough fruits and vegetables. Meals tend to be meat and a starch.

We then headed to Bucharest. We got here at around 5 and checked into the hotel - the first one with an elevator!  However, we still haven't gotten to a hotel where the AC works. Fortunately, it gets cooler in the evenings. We are here for tonight and tomorrow night. Then we go to Bulgaria. 

Sighisoara in the morning. Brasov in the afternoon

June 10, 2014

This morning after breakfast I climbed to the top of the hill in Sighisoara.  You have to go up a ton of stairs in a tunnel. At the top is a very interesting cemetery. Have I mentioned that almost everything in Transylvania is written in German? If they would write in Romanian, I could understand most of it because Romanian looks like French spelled a different way. It was a very misty morning. I've been reading Dracula at night on this trip and the misty morning just fit right in. 

Then we got taxis to the train station to go to Brasov. The trip to the train station turned out to be pretty eventful. We need four taxis for our group. I was in the taxi with Ishwar, Judy and Paul. When Judy closed her door, she pulled on the handle that opens it by mistake. It came right off.  The driver wanted her to pay but it clearly was already broken. Then, when we arrived at the station, another driver couldn't get his trunk open. Naviana and Cindy's bags were in it. Naviana gave our train tickets to Peter and told us to go to the platform. The train was supposed to leave in half an hour at 11:16. She also gave instructions on how to get to our hotel in Brasov. We could see Naviana was very stressed.  We went to the platform, but, fortunately, the train was delayed 80 minutes.  Then another train came in about 20 minutes. We didn't know whether to get on, but thought it wasn't our train. Naviana came running to the platform to say not to get on that train. I should mention that to get from the entrance to the station where Naviana, Cindy, and the taxi with their luggage were, you had to go down the stairs and up again to get to the other side of the tracks. The guys trying  to open the trunk tried taking out the seat, but there was a tank In the way. Then they went through the backseat to disconnect the hinges. When they did that, the trunk popped up and broke the rear windshield. But they got the bags out and Naviana and Cindy were able to join us while we were still waiting for the train. Naviana was so concerned about us that she went into tne station coffee shop and bought us all ice cream cones, plastic cups, and three huge bottles of beer.  The ice cream was good. The beer was way too much. 

The train was lovely. We had to get the luggage on those overhead racks, but people helped each other. It took about 3 hours to get to Braslov. When we got there, all the taxis insisted on not turning on the meter (illegal) and charging 20 leu. The metered price is 13. (3 leu = 1 dollar)

After we settled in our hotel rooms we went out to see the black church, built in the 14th century. It's called the black church because there was a fire in the 15th century that blackened the walls. 

Then we wanted to ride the cable car to the top of the hill to see the view. We climbed up tons of steps to the entrance and got there at 5. It closed at 4:45. 

For dinner, we went to a great Romanian restaurant. The waiters were dressed in traditional clothes. On the tables they had placed really delicious bread and fried bacon with raw onions. I chose not to try any, but some others loved it. We ordered our own things, but also ordered  Sarmalute, a typical Romanian dish to share. It's just stuffed cabbage with polenta. The cabbage is much more sour, though. 

Tomorrow, we'll see a few more things in Braslov and then continue on to Bucharest.  

My travel-buddies

June 11, 2014

I need to tell you about my group. We are twelve plus Naviana, our CEO (chief experience officer).  She's young and Bulgarian. I like her a lot. She's very enthusiastic. There are two married couples: Paul and Sue and Peter and Judy. They didn't know each other before, but both are from Australia and they are my age or a little older.  There are two Australian women friends traveling together, Julie and Lisa. The rest are all single travelers: Kate (about 45), Cindy (about 60), Jenny (about 60), Brian (about 70) and Ishwar (32). So, this is a much older group than I went to India with - except for poor Ishwar who is a real trooper and just gets along fine with everyone. All of these people are very fit, though. Sometimes I have trouble keeping up. We have walked up hundreds of stairs on this trip!  Anyway, the group is just fine and we are all enjoying each other's company. 

Overnight to Transylvania

June 10, 2014

We took a sleeper train from Budapest to Sighisoara, Romania. The train wasn't bad. The hardest part was getting our luggage stored up above the hall by our cabin. It didn't fit under the seat like in India. So you have to climb up to the top bunk and pass the luggage into the space above the hall. We were 6 women from our group in our cabin. Some others shared a cabin with strangers. It was nice because you can lock the cabin during the night. We left at about 7:30 pm. Once we were settled, a few of us went down to the cafe car and had some wine together. We stayed there till about midnight. We wanted to wait for the passport check (two of them - one for leaving Hungary and one for entering Romania.). While we were there the others made up the beds. The train has a nice bathroom, so we were able to brush our teeth and use the toilet. 

We got into Sighisoara in the morning.  We took taxis to our hotel and expected to leave our bags because it was too early to check-in. But the rooms were ready, so we were able to freshen up.  We also went to the ATM to get Romanian money. Then two vans came at 9:30 to take us around the Transylvania countryside. 

The guide was excellent and explained all kinds of things. Transylvania has 3 main ethnic groups: the Romanians, the Roma, and Germans.  The Germans are Evangelical Lutherans.  They built many churches in Transylvania. The first one we saw was near a fortress, which was on a steep hill. The church was at the bottom of the hill. If they were attacked, the women and children would go to the fortress. The crops and large animals (cows, pigs, horses, sheep) were also kept in the fortress because you  wouldn't have time to move them when you're attacked. The men would stay in the church to defend the city.  The church has holes near the top for guns and the arches have space between them and the walls to pour down hot oil, etc

In World War II, the Romanian Germans fought on the side of Hitler. When the Russians liberated Romania, they were angry at the ethnic Germans. Many were sent to work camps and did not survive. Now, many are emigrating from Romania, especially to Germany. The churches we saw are mostly In ruins and have tiny congregations. A priest comes about once a month because there aren't enough people.

This evening we had dinner at the restaurant Casa Vlad Dracul. They have the room where Vlad was born. You have to pay extra to see it. We were going to, but it was closed. I guess Vlad was getting ready to go out. It was 9pm, but still light here. 

Last day in Budapest

June 9, 2014

Just a very quick note: I need to get dressed, pack and get down to breakfast. Our guide is taking us on a walking tour of Budapest at 9:00. I need to check out and leave my bag in the bag room before then. At 6:15 pm we take a taxi to the train station and take the overnight train to Sighisouara, Romania. We will arrive there too early to check in to our new hotel, so we'll leave our bags in the bag room there and go off to see things inSighisouara. This means I will not have internet access for about the next day and a half.  

Not all perfect

June 8, 2014

I've still got another day here and this country is beginning to get to me. There definitely is the communist legacy.  There are two hop-on hop-off bus companies. I didn't really choose, but I wouldn't have known which one to choose anyway. I ended up on the Giraffe one. The other Big Bus looks identical to the one I took in London, so I wonder if they're the same company.  There are two people working on the bus: one driver and one guide.  The guide doesn't really talk. There's a recording in 20 languages with headphones. You select the language. When you're coming to a stop, the guide interrupts the recording to tell you which stop is coming up. The guide just tells you the name and number. She doesn't tell you anything about the stop. Yesterday, I got on a bus and rhe guide was an older woman (my age!).  She yelled at people if they stood up or tried to go out the front door instead of the back. She didn't talk to anyone in a nice way and when I tried to ask her which stop to get off for my hotel, all she would say is, this is stop number __.  I tried two different times to ask her. Finally I got off at a stop which turned out to be one too soon, but I found my way back to my hotel. That guide really reminded of the way people would describe the Soviet women on Aeroflot and places like that. Later, I took another bus with a young girl who was much nicer. She pointed out that I had an old map and my numbers were wrong. She gave me a new map. However, since then I've always had young girls who are very sweet, but I think they should volunteer more information. Today I got off at the Market Square stop. Don't you think it would have been a good idea for the guide to tell us that the market is closed on Sunday?  It turned out okay because ther is a lovely street that runs into it and I walked down there and even got lunch (mozzarella and cheese baguette). This time I am following Gavin's example on journals. I never read his journal but he kept one when we were in India. He said his journal was totally filled with what he ate each day. He said that Jews only care about what they have to eat. I think my other Jewish friends would contradict him and say that it's 20 something guys - of any culture - who are preoccupied with food.  And Gavin ate twice as much as anyone else and he's still a thin guy.  

Then I took the bus to the Buda Castle. Everyone was lining up to buy a ticket for the funicular,   I had to ask someone in line if the funicular goes to the castle. I got an affirmative answer to that but no one could answer anything else - like do you take the funicular up and then walk down. We could see people walking down a path to the bottom of the funicular. In the end, everyone bought a one-way ticket. When we got to the top, I walked around a little but was getting really hot. I bought a coke and asked the girl how to get down the hill. She said she didn't know!  I asked several people, but everyone was in the same boat as me. Finally, I saw people walking down a path and followed them. Does it occur to them to put up some signs. And the signs need to be in other languages. No one but the Hungarians can understand Hungarian, which they call Magyar BTW. It's not related to any other common languages so you can't guess at meanings. It's a Finno-Ugric  language. 

I've changed hotels. I left the Medosz, which I loved, to come to the Cotton House to join my G Adventures group. I only had to walk 5 blocks from one hotel to the other. The girl at the desk - who is very helpful - says that our guide is Bulgarian. I've got a list of the people's names and met two of the other women when I was checking in. We are 12 in the group - 3 or 4 guys and the rest women. We meet in the lobby at 7 and then we'll go to dinner. 

Here are a few photos from today. 

Energy efficiency and sight seeing in Budapest

June 7, 2014I'm always amazed at how other countries do so much more to conserve energy. In both India and London, the lights wouldn't come on in the hotel room unless you put your key in a little slot on the wall --meaning that you couldn't leave the lights on when you  weren't in the room. Here, in Budapest, you can leave the lights on, but last night when I arrived, I opened the window to see the view. Later, it was hot so I left the window open. It still stayed pretty hot and it was very noisy in the square below late into the night. I still kept the window open because I thought it would be unbearably hot with it closed. Today I noticed a sign that says if the window is open heat or AC will turn off. So I shut the window and now it's perfectly comfortable in here.

They have the same tour buses here as in London.  And, as in London, you also get a river cruise with  it.  So now I have sailed on the Danube.
Some photos:

Today's lunch: really good salad and paprika chicken (famous Hungarian dish)

First day in Budapest

June 7, 2014

I really need to make some German friends. They are great travelers. I'm pretty sure I remember that when we were at Yosemite someone who worked in the park told Susan that the most useful language for her was German. In London and in Budapest, everywhere I go, people are speaking German. Signs in this hotel are in Hungarian, Russian and German. Some signs are in English. Breakfasts seem catered to the Germans. The buffet always has cold cuts and cheese. Maybe Hungarians and Brits eat those things for breakfast, too. I know it's definitely not a French breakfast. (I should say I also heard a lot of French in London.) This morning there was even broccoli on the buffet and I saw people eating it. There is also always a cappuccino machine for the coffee. That was true in Morocco, too. Here, I had to choose the first button because I could tell that said coffee - couldn't figure out what the other buttons said. 

Budapest is an hour later than London and MUCH warmer. The temperature will be the same as in Alexandria today. My room looks out over a square so I have a lovely view (the photo is in yesterday's post), but incredibly noisy late at night. 

Here's a phot of the square in front of my hotel. You can see the tall Hotel Medosz behind it. 

London to Budapest

June 6, 2014. I guess I was really tired. I slept till 8. So I just had breakfast in the hotel, packed and waited in the lobby for the shuttle. Now I see the advantage of the Heathrow Express over the shuttle. The shuttle takes forever. I was the first one picked up. Then we drove through tons of traffic in London to pick up others at 3 different hotels. I still think I prefer it, though for the convenience. But it might be a good idea to take a taxi to Paddingtin Station (not far) and then get the Heathrow Express from there. Apparently British Airways is having baggage issues. Something to do with tech issues. We were delayed while they got our luggage on the plane. But you have to give them credit for refreshments. Air Icelandic took me across the Atlantic on 2 long flights and didn't give me a bit to eat. BA takes me on a short 2.5 hour flight and we get sandwiches and "complimentary drinks from the bar."  I had red wine. The two young guys next to me had vodka and coke. Then they each had a beer. One lady asked for tea and the flight attendant said, "Tea! That's not exciting!"

Budapest Airport is small and easy. There are only 3 baggage carousels and there were no other flights coming when ours did. I got my bag right away. Then I went to the ATM right away. A lady from New Zealand couldn't get her card to work in the machine, but I got money with no problems.  On the floor of hoe airport is an orange line that says Airport Shuttle. You just follow it. Then I bought a ticket and waited about 10 minutes. The van came and I got to my hotel in about 40 minutes. This time I was the second to be dropped off. The hotel seems fine. Tomorrow I'll start visiting Budapest. 

A full day in London

June 5, 2014

In my only real sightseeing day in London, I feel like I accomplished a lot. but first, I have some VERY EXCITING non-travel news that I think I can tell now. When I was waiting at the gate at Dulles, Oumar and Lisa called me and said they had something to tell me. They were getting married the next day. They had planned this for a while but intended to surprise everyone and tell us after the fact. They had to call and tell me the day before because I was traveling. I had known they were leaving on a cruise this Saturday, but I had no idea it would be a honeymoon. So, they were married on Wednesday at the San Francisco courthouse. They had a photographer, so we will get photos, but I don't have them yet. I am VERY, VERY happy. 

Now, for travel news. Today I had breakfast at my hotel (no big thrill - self-serve similar to US). Then I walked over to Marble Arch and took the BigBus tour. It's one of those hop-on buses where you buy a ticket for a day and can ride as much as you want. I rode on top. It was pretty cold and I noticed I was the only one without a jacket. I did have long sleeves and a scarf. I saw lots of things from the bus and heard interesting stories from the tour guide. I got off at Tower Of London and took a tour of the tower. They also keep the Crown Jewels there so I went to look at those too.  Afterwards, I took a cruise on a boat on the Thames (it's included in the BigBus fare). I saw the London Eye. Then I got off the boat at Westminister Abby. I was taking my time, not feeling there was any reason to hurry. It turned out that Westminister Abby closes at 3:30. I was the last person they let in. They have audio tours that you can take around. You have to tell it where you are and then you hear a description. It's well-done, but not nearly as good as the audio tour at Alcatraz.  Then I walked over to Buckingham Palace and arrived just in time for the changing of the guard. Then I rode the bus back to Marble Arch and walked back to my hotel. I had dinner at an Indian restaurant. Yesterday I had fish and chips, so I've eaten the two  foods that I wanted to have in London. Neither was anything special. I really like London and definitely want to come back. I didn't get to see Saint Paul's Cathedral or the British Museum. And next time I'd like to take a trip to see Stonehenge and Bath. They have day trips that go there. 

Tomorrow I fly to Hungary. My flight leaves at 2:45. I'm having the shuttle pick me up. The Heathrow Express was nice, but then you still have to take the underground (carrying luggage up and down several flights of stairs) and walk a ways. The shuttle is easier and doesn't cost any more. I contacted the Medosz Hotel in Budapest and they said I can get an airport shuttle there. Now I just need to organize my stuff.  Some photos:

1 & 2 Tower of London   3 London Eye.  4 Twinings Tea. 5 London phone booths. They still have them! I don't know why since everyone walks down the street talking on their cells just like in the US