A Great Day

Today was a GREAT day as in Great Synagogue and the Great Market Hall. The Synagogue is beautiful. Very ornate. Rick -- you know my good friend Rick Steves -- wrote that they wanted to build this Synagogue to rival the ornate churches being built. While I have only been in one other Synagogue, this one is definitely more elaborate then the one in Seattle.

I am not sure the musuem attached to the Synagogue was worth the three flights of stairs! I am sure it is worth it to folks who know more about the Jewish faith then I do. The cemetary beside the Synagogue was almost more depressing then the metallic weeping willow. The cemetary is for everyone who died in the ghetto there during World War II. The weeping willow has metal leaves with the names of all the Hungarian Jewish people killed.

We then stopped across the street at a cafe that had gelato.

We then went to the Great Market Hall. We had Langos for lunch at about 4:00! Langos are like elephant ears with toppings. I had sort of the standard one of sour cream and cheese. Carrie have one with peach jam. We switched half way through. We only went through the 2nd floor of the hall. It was the one with all the trinkets with Budapest one them as well as leather bags and lots of embroidered tableclothes, runners. doilies, etc.

Yep I bought some tourist trinkets!

We managed the metro and the trams today -- no taxis!

I even figured out how to use a pay phone. We tried to reach Carmen to see if she wanted to join us for dinner. It is probably a good thing we did not reach her -- she got a new fridge for her dorm room -- best thing to happen to her this week (I hope we make second best). When we got to Deak Ferenc Ter -- the hub of the 3 metros. There were THOUSANDS of bikes on the streets. When we got off our metro subway (metro 1, Opera stop) there were thousands of bikes there too! It was a critical mass bike ride! I am glad we decided to use the subway and not the buses or a taxi since traffic was a mess!

Tomorrow is Wednesday. Hopefully we will be able to find the restaurant where the women meet to crochet.

Well, people are looking longingly at the computers again...

Bath Number 2

Monday in Budapest. We had a slow start to the morning. Of course, I was up at 5 and blogging at 6. We didn't leave the hotel until 11:30.

We went to a yarn store! Well, really a fabric store with a little bit of yarn (I almost said wine!) There were very few colors with more than one skein! There were several Red Heart labels I have not seen in the states (it was Red Heart who gave me the addresses) I saw one skein of yarn that looked like it was from somewhere other than England. So not a great source for yarn but it got us off the main tourist streets and saw a bit of "normal" Budapest.

We stopped for a pop -- and to study the map on how to get to Heros Square from the yarn shop, we got our first Pepsi Light and it had ICE! Three beautiful cubes. We hated to not linger long enough for them to completely melt.

I took a picture of the pop AND of the computer screen that was used for the sidewalk cafe. It was an old Compac big monitor. However, the keyboard was one of those "indestructable" flat keyboards.

We saw the Millennium Monument. It is amazing how much land is used with the monuments to history. Granted they have a LOT of history. Since it was Monday, the museums were closed so we walked through the park.

We had lunch at Robinsons. The restaurant is on a small lake in the park. We both had the children's meal of grilled chicken (we could have had fried) and smiling potatos. French fry type potatoes with a happy face cut into them. They were similar to the potatos I had the first night. Sort of deep fried mash potatoes.

After that we had to take a bath! This time we went to the Szechenyi Gyogyfurdo es Uszoda baths in the park. We went past the zoo and the circus to get there! Still confusing as all get out to get in and get a towel but well worth it! This time we EACH got a changing cabin. However when the woman let us in she did not remind us that we had to remember our cabin number. We were given a token we had to keep on our person the whole time but it does not have the number of the cabin on it! In fact there is no relation to the cabin whatsoever! In the future, I think we will just get the lockers. We control the key to them so you do not have to find an attendent each time you want in.

I had brought a towel -- or so I thought. Fortunately, I discovered BEFORE going into the baths that the towel is the size of a SHAMWOW! but not as absortant. So I rented a towel. That was how I discovered I had NO idea what my cabin number was! I had to have the attendant open 3 cabins before I found mine! 482 if you are interested! I may never forget the number now!

The BATHS. We actually opted for the Swimming pools. It was WAY too hot for the thermal baths. This is the baths with the whirly thing in one of the pools. When it is going, you are moving so quickly, you just have to lift your feet up and "go with the flow" It doesn't run all the time so we were very lucky it was going when we first got there and then again before we left.

They were right about all shapes and sizes being there. I can't believe I have walked around in my swimming suit TWICE in public! The suit I have I bought over 5 years ago and this is the first time I have gone in the water.

There was the cutest little girl in th whirly water. She had her little water wings on and her mother was with her. She had the curliest, deep copper hair I have ever seen. She was having the time of her life whirling around in the water.

We managed the metro all day but decided we would take a taxi to dinner with Carmen since we were not sure where it was and Rick Steves (the god of travel!) mentioned it was a bit out of the way and there was nothing else around there but worth it. So of course, we get in a car wreck with the taxi!!!!

Some assholes decided our driver had cut them off so first they went up beside us and shouted some words that I suspect were not very nice and then they swerved right in front of us and jammed on their brakes! Our driver almost breaked in time but there was not much room. We told him we would write a statement that it was the other car's fault even though it was a rearending.

Fortunately, he called another taxi for us and we were able to make it to dinner in time with Carmen.

We had originally planned on going to Spoon (turns out also owned by the people who own Robinsons where we had lunch). However, the hotel had made the reservation for only 2 instead of 3. When they called the restaurant back, we could not get a view table. Rick has said the only reason to eat there is for the bathrooms and the view. We figured we would wait.

So we went to the New York Cafe instead. It is beautiful inside. However, when you first enter the restaurant there is a sign that says no cameras. Unfortunately, we were seated right by the hosts table so it was not possible to take very many pictures. Of course, I had to try! I turned my flash off, set the camera on the table and tried taking pictures of the ceiling above us.

The entire restaurant is as ornate as many of the palaces/churches we have visited. Murals on the ceilings, sculpture everywhere and ornate gold fixtures. Carrie had a cheeseburger (a much better choice than mine!) of course, it was about $18. I had a fried goat cheese salad with berry ragout. We have been trying to figure out what ragout means but I think it is "sauce". So my salad had a sweet/tart dressing of currents and cherries (I think!). Carmen ordered a "snack" of mozzarella cheese, tomatos and basil and one long skinny bread stick. Fortunately, they had brought a big bread dish. The bread dishes have been large at most of the restaurants who have served them. And great bread.

I tried the real unicum --yuk. This one I can really see why it is called a digestive -- it tasted like 'tussin! We had a sampler plate dessert -- Apple Pie, Dobo's layer cake and another one. They were all pretty good. The Dobo's had spun sugar on top of it. It is always so pretty. Of course, I have pictures...

We managed the tram and then metro to get home -- felt safer then a taxi!

We found a small shop on the way home that actually had 2 ltr bottles of Coke light. It was only 500 ft (2.50) while Carrie paid 830 ($4+) for a POINT .02 ltr. bottle at dinner. .02 ltrs of pop is about 3 sips or one good thurst quenching gulp. I have to admit I have been tempted to go into a Burger King (they are everywhere) to see if they have larger drinks...

Not sure what we will do tomorrow. It is 10:00 so I will close -- at least until 6 am when I wake up! I hope you are all doing well!

Monday Morning

Well, I guess it is no surprise that in short order I would be back to my early morning rising! I woke about 5 this morning. Read my book for about an hour -- I am so glad I loaded 3 books on my phone via MobiPockets! One other advantage of waking up so early is there is no one else on the computers in the lobby. Of course, one of the computers had 3 empty beer cans sitting by it!

Since Carrie and I are sharing a room, when one of us is awake, we can't just flip on the light or the tv! While our phones are worthless for talking or texting, it has been great to have the address book, games and for me, books!

I have almost finished the scarf/wrap I started on the plane. I hope to have it done -- and hope it will look okay to wear to the Opera on Thursday night. I am sure it will be sooooo wonderful no one will notice I am wearing brown heavy walking shoes with my outfit! Of course, I could try wearing my old birkenstock sandles with black socks instead! I bought the sandles for my trip across the US in 2001 and have been wearing them ever since! They were great for wearing on the plane.

Wednesday we are going to meet up with the women I met on Ravelry.com (a crocheting/knitting social network) I just have to make sure I have found the right California Cafe! One of the yarn shops I was told about by the Red Heart company is on the way so I am hoping to stop by there and see what type of yarns they have here in Hungary. I have heard it not great but I am still curious.

Believe it or not we have not been shopping yet! This is the longest we have gone without doing much shopping. When we left the Palace on Saturday there were some stalls out side of it selling tourist stuff. Carrie is looking for an embroidered runner for a friend of hers. The ones at these stands looked machine made and something you could pick up anywhere so we did not buy any.

We did buy post cards at the National Gallery so as soon as we figure out where a post office is, some of you will be getting postcards!

Today we are planning to go to the Terror House and Heros Square. Carmen has school commitments all day today so we are planning to meet up for dinner. If we can get reservations, we are hoping to go to Spoons or Spooners which is on a boat on the Danube and is supposed to have great views of Buda. Since there are many monuments on top of the hill of Buda, I suspect they will all be lit up at night.

Speaking of reservations, perhaps I should go talk with the Conceirge while there are not a lot of people checking in or out. The front desk seems to always be very busy when we are down here!

My First Bath...

My first bath -- in public! We went to the Gellert Baths at the Gellert Hotel today. We were all feeling tired. Not that hanging out in hot water makes you any LESS sleepy but it did feel good.

Rick Steves was right, it was VERY confusing getting started. we had to go down several flights of stairs and a long hall before we got to the locker room. We rented a "cabin" more like a closet then a cabin! We each had to take turns changing our clothes but we did manage. Several different pools 2 outside one warm, the other cool for swimming. The book called it a wave pool but we never saw any waves. We went to one of the pools inside as well. It has a skylight that opened over the top of the pool.

Leaving the baths, we took some pictures of the upstairs entry way of the baths. I have noticed, there are a lot of skylights or glass ceilings in the buildings here.

After the baths, we went to Soul Cafe & Restaurant for lunch. It was another recommendation in Rick's book. We sat outside, it was a perfect day and location for eating on the sidewalk. The weather was not too hot, the road was not busy at all. I had another cheese salad. This was a mozzarella cheese wrapped in bacon and then fried. The salad was lots of tomatoes, lacy lettuce? and radicio (sp).

We then went to St. Stephens Church and went inside this time. We only have about 15 minutes on the opservation deck before it closed. We got there by a series of 2 elevators and steps. The view was great. We then went into the church. Of course I took pictures however, I will be surprised if many of them turn out. You really need SLR camera with a tripod!

We could have paid extra to see the right hand of St. Stephen "the holy right hand" but we did not...

As we were leaving the church, we took some pictures of the front of the church and stopped at a very authentic Hungarian coffee shop -- The California Coffee Company! They had cold beverages and that was really all we cared about -- that and not having to walk further then we needed to! We did grab a sandwich before we left to eat in our room.

We walked home and saw that the computers were free so we had to take advantage.

Tonight may be like last night. Last night we found South Park on one of the German channels! It was the one about head lice -- It had a totally different feel to it being in German.

Last night after we got off the computers, we ate dinner in the Bistro/Bar here in the hotel. It had basically the same menu as room service. I had a Smoked Cheese salad. I am not sure what the cheese was, if was fried and had the consistency of ricotta. I also had a glass of Hungarian wine -- St. Andrea Aldas Egri Bikaver, 2006 -- a red wine. It was very good and smooth.

I, of course, put a couple of leafs of oily lettuce down my top. So I did my first "load" of laundry in the bathroom sink. The Rick Steves laundry cord worked pretty well between the towel rack and the shower head. Hopefully, they will be dry when we go upstairs.

Well, people are looking for a computer...

Saturday Night

On our way back from the metro, Andrassay utca (street) was closed off for some sort of festival. At the beginning it looked like it must be for a biking event a little further down, it looked more like a health fair further down story times, still further theaters! So I have not yet found out what it was all about but it was fun.

The interesting thing is there was no food for sale! Very few booths with items for sale -- Obviously NOT an American street fair! I took some video of the story times and acting. Hopefully they will turn out. I may have to see if I can upload them on Carmen's computer.

We about to go into the Bistro/Bar at our hotel -- not up to walking again tonight. We say 2 of the 3 computers available so we had to take advantage of that!

We were thinking of trying to go to Vienna tomorrow but I do not have my act together enough to figure that out! I am feeling better now that I have taken the metro once.

Carmen is also feeling a bit tired -- she has to meet with her friends after she spends the day sightseeing with us!

Tomorrow we are thinking of trying the Hop on Hop Off tour. It goes to the Synagogue, House of Terror, the Fisherman's Bastion, etc. So we think that may be a good way to move from one to the other. We gave Carmen money for it so she can Hop on with she gets up and join us without having to get to our side of the city first.

I will post pictures as soon as I can. I have shown great restraint I have taken less than 400 pictures in the 2 days of being here!

2nd Post from Budapest

Haven't figure out how to upload pictures yet. Funny thing it seems they have disabled the USB ports on these free computers --imagine that!


Felt like I was on Amazing Race today! We rode the Funicular up to the Castle District.

The Funicular brings you to the side of the Royal Palace. There was a big crowd around something in the square. When we got closer it was one of the souvenir makers that you put a penny in and it pops out a flattened coin with a picture on it!

To get into the Royal Palace, you have to go through the gardens which have beautiful views of the Pest side of the city as well as manicured gardens and statues. To enter the gardens, you go down some steps. As you can see we were alone -- NOT!

At the top of the stairs is a statue of a mythical bird the Turul. You can see it better from below and/or across from the Pest side of the city.

The first statue in the gardens was of children playing in water. The groomed gardens are also beautiful. The flowers were still in the bloom.

The next big statue was of is of a guy on a horse. The great thing is the view from here, you can see Parliment, St. Stephens and several of the bridges along with the tip of Margit Island. Here are the stairs that people probably had to take to get up here before the funicular was built!

Hit our first museum -- followed Rick Steves walking tour through it.

We exited the palace and went to the back of the palace. This large murual? Sculpture is of one of the Kings. The woman on the right was his girlfriend. She did not know he was a King. When she found out and knew they would never be able to be together, she committed suicide -- cherry, huh!

Bought some postcards so as soon as we figure out how to buy stamps we will be mailing them away! We also rode the subway (metro) home with the help of Carmen directing us and giving us a book of tickets.

First Post from Budapest

Our Room: When we first arrived, the TWIN beds were right next to each other. This is the first trip Carrie and I have taken together where we shared a room. I knew that was TOO close! So I moved the beds to be as far apart as possible.

First dinner in Hungary. We ate at the Ballet Slipper. Carrie and I had been awake for over 24 hours and spent most of the time squeezed into coach airplane seats or waiting in the New York Airport. The expected 5.5 hours was great, Brian met us as the airport and we had a nice visit. However, then our flight was delayed for 3+ additional hours! Needless to say, we did not look our best at dinner -- no wonder they put us up in the loft in the corner! I had my first Goulash! It was the best of the dishes the three of us had. There was also live music playing downstairs. Here is a brief snippett of the music. Of course, they sang a slower song as we were leaving. During dinner, it was mostly jazz music.

After midnight here, doing great. this was our first day. We had our first experience at the breakfast buffet -- big tip -- don't come a 9 am!

We had a great lunch at Menza (I had the goat cheese salad!) Diet Coke is Coca Cola Light.

We then walked through Liszt Ference Square and along Andrassy Street.

We stopped at the Muvesz Coffeehouse. We then had dessert (Zacher) Chocolate and marmolade torte or layered cake. I tried a liquor they have here something like Unicum Next. It is a... cherry flavored liquor it was listed under the digestive section -- my tummy did feel better :)

Oh yeah and we saw some famous sights and bought tickets for the Opera

Bye Bye Baby

I haven't written since April because in May, my sweet Baby passed away. I felt like my next entry should be about her but I could not bring myself to write.

I guess it was the death of one of my co-workers real son, that made feel like it was time. While Baby was not human, she was my baby. She lived to be almost 21. For a majority of those years, it was just the two of us.

When I got Baby, I also got her brother, Buddy. Of course, those were not their first names. I got the brother and sister from my friend, Ann. Baby had been named Vincent because her face looked a lot like the "Beast" in the TV show Beauty and the Beast. (obviously, attorneys -- my friend and her husband -- do not know much about anatomy since Baby was a girl). Since Baby was named Vincent, I named Buddy, Catherine after the "human" in the show. Needless to say we had the sexes reversed. Thus, the renaming of Baby and Buddy.

Buddy died when he was about 3. When I had left for work, I could not find Buddy. When I came home, I was even more worried. My neighbor found him in her yard. Not sure if it was rat poisoning or a car that got him. I was supposed to go to a fundraiser for Norm Rice but was too sad. Baby and I sat on the couch and mourned Buddy.

I used to sleep with my door closed with the cats on the other side of the door. Although I am not sure that was always a good idea, with two cats, they would chase each other all over the house (over my head). One morning I got up and the planter that had been on the stair bannister was in the middle of the stairs where they had knocked it over.

That night, Baby cried at my bedroom door until I opened the door. That was just about the last time I ever closed any doors in my house. The final time I closed my door was when I left for the weekend, not knowing Baby was under my bed...

Yep, I got home to a very hungry, angry cat and of course, some mess to clean up -- all my fault!

She would wake me up in the morning, keep me company each morning and stop me from playing Zuma until late in the night. She was usually pretty good about letting me work at the computer until she would hear those marbles hitting each other (no matter how low I had the volume!) she would start meowing. Those of you who heard her meow, you know it is NOT to be ignored.

I still miss her and think of her each day. I still sometimes try to get up real quiet so I can do some cleaning on the first floor before she hears me and starts calling for me to come upstairs and feed her and hold her. My blood pressure is up a bit, I wonder if it is because I do know have my sweet Baby to cuddle with each day.

The decision to finally put her to sleep was the hardest decision I have had to make in a very long time. I am very grateful to my sister, Judy, she drove me to the vet so I could hold Baby in my arms. I just could not put her in her travel box. She hated it and it felt too much like putting her in a coffin.

I hope you get to eat all the tuna you want and play with lots of toys.

I love and miss you, Baby.

Post for April

I can't believe I have not posted anything this month! I have actually started several times but was interrupted (sometimes by me!)

For our Guild Meeting (Crochet Guild Seattle) this month, I decided I really wanted to have finished a project to take with me. I had created the base of this purse and even done the lace flap during the class that Jean taught us. All I had to do was finish sewing one side and make the strap (the great create a cluster as you go style so you do not have to guess how long it should be!) I finished it and was able to fit my small wallet, car key (not whole key chain) and one tube of lipstick!

This month I also made my Mariner Scarf. I bought the yarn at Stitch and Pitch last year (August 27th this year) from Hilltop Yarn East. The yarn is sock yarn but nobody ever sees my socks so I figured a scarf I can wear on those cold April, May and hopefully, October nights! I went through my 365 Days of Crochet Patterns Perpectual calendar in search of a patterns. My first rule -- lacy, second easy pattern I could do on the plane to and from WLA conference in Spokane and during the conference sessions. I came up with MANY that fit this criteria so then I added "baseball terms" to the criteria so this pattern is Diamonds, March 21 (also my sister's birthday!)

Neat link

I was looking for Office 2007 information on the Pierce County Public Library website and under their Lifelong learning section I found a neat Knit and Crochet link:
http://www.learntoknit.com/home.html