Allow Me to Explain...

Now that you've heard from Miss Characterization, let me explain what's really going on in two quick points (I swear I won't belabor this and make it any more awkward than it has to be):

1) On the issue of work, it was literally 20 minutes of me typing up the notes that I'd written on the plane and train, and emailing them to NY. It had to be done. What Yvonne sometimes forgets is that she has the luxury of not having a job to return to. I'm not usually a big work-on-vacation guy, but when you're only away for a week as opposed to indefinitely, your level of responsibility is different.

2) Lonely Planet is weak. I don't need to know everything ahead of time, but if I'm going to see the sights, then I want to know what I'm looking at. I don't think that's so much to ask. But once we got back into Pest, we went into a different travel mode and everybody was happy.

In Pest, we visited St. Steven's Basilica. First King. Patron Saint of Hungary. Paid 110 Florints (about 75 cents) to see his venerated, 1,000-year-old, shrunken mummified hand. Totally worth it.

Also saw the great Opera House. Weren't able to tour the inside, which is supposed to be amazing. Bummer. From there, we did the walking that led us to the bad restaurant with the smooth jazz, and we just sort of ambled down main streets, looking around, taking it in. I didn't need to ask any questions about what we were looking at or where we were going -- because we weren't going anywhere in particular. And that was fine!

(By the way, I'm less of a "guest editor" than "guest author" on this blog, because I can't edit Yvonne's posts. But in that "view of the city from Buda" that's the Parliament house next to her.)


It's all about the Itsvans. I could buy you and sell you a hundred times over! (Actually, no. All this bread, even with the 1,000-Florint bills, comes to like 65 bucks.)


Sweet roof on a church in Buda.