Day 5, July 25th. Budapest, Hungary

I SLEPT TIL 7:30!!!!! Hooray!!!!!! The bad part about that, we had to leave for Budapest at 7:45, lol. Yikes. Oh well, for the most part, I was ready to roll. But in the hurry to get my things together, came the 1st tragedy of the journey. The big, BRAND NEW, Sony SLR camera that I bought a couple of months ago, slipped between the arms of 2 chairs, fell a VERY short distance and inevitably, cracked the LCD display. I didn't figure it out until I was trying to take pictures out the window while riding to Budapest, and I have to be honest, several curse words were exclaimed. The camera itself still works great, but I can't review pictures, can't use the option of the fold out screen to take pictures over my head, can't tell how many pictures I've taken OR how many I can still take and can't change any of the setting on the camera unless I look at the info that shows up in the view finder. Thank goodness it has a view finder and thank goodness I had a film SLR camera for years, I am still capable of shooting pictures with out the instant gratification of seeing the shot for 2 seconds after, it just means, I have to take MORE. LOL. I'm still pretty upset about it, but I don't really think there is much I can do about it here in Hungary, so all I can do is make the best of it. Frick.

Nick was kind enough to take me past the Hungarioring on the way to BP to exchange my F1 ticket voucher for the actual ticket. I'm so glad I did too, Sunday this place will be a nightmare for this kind of thing. And as I type this blog, I'm not even sure how easy it would have been to exchange my ticket if I hadn't had Nick to drive me right to it. What a blessing! Everything just keeps falling into place. It was SO exciting to see the track and all the fans going to see qualifying today, I feel like this is my 1st F1 race ever!!! It's indescribable the exact feelings I have, but tomorrow is going to me magnificent! This actually almost made up for the camera thing, until I thought about it again and realized it's going to be difficult tomorrow to know if I got good shots, uggg.

We got into Budapest a little bit early, so Nick showed me around a tiny bit and gave me a little bit of a Hungarian History lesson. We then went to the airport to pick up some people for Nick's English camp and added 2 people from Syracuse, NY to the history lesson. We went down to the Danube River and looked at the 2nd largest Parliament building in Europe, 1st largest is in London. But after walking around for a short while, I was dropped off at the Baniki Hostel downtown Budapest. Nick and I parted ways here and he headed back to pick up another round of Americans at the airport and onward back to Egar.

Thank you to Nick and Rosemary (and Nate and Balaze) for their hospitality!!! I had a wonderful time and I'm starting to think I'm kinda crazy for doing the rest of this trip alone, but there is no turning back now! lol I hope your English Camp goes well. Please tell everyone that I met, that I they all made my trip to Egar memorable, esp the Australians,

So, I found out I made a bad decision on hostels. The advertisement said, sheet & towels were included in price and free WiFi. Not exactly.... sheets yes, no towels, good thing I brought my own. Free WiFi.... at McDonald's, 3 blocks away. Oh well, what can ya do? The McDonald's I mentioned, it is so ridiculous!!! It has to be the most dynamic McD's in the world. It's 3 levels, chandeliers, intricate molding detail (I think it was once part of the train station) and they stopped me from taking pictures. Oh I'll get one, you can count on it!

After some him'n and hawing about what to do, I decided to go visit the Castle on the Buda side of the Danube river, did you know that Budapest is really broken up into Buda on one side and Pest on the other. I had to take the Metro and a Bus, but it was worth every moment! I got some great shots of the city and the famous bridge at dusk and in the dark. Then I made my way back, there sure are a lot of F1 fans here, lol, it's awesome. By 10 pm I was ready for dinner, Lamb medallions w/ a buttery pesto sauce, mushrooms and mashed potatoes! Yummy! Gin is served as a shot, so I had that and a glass of Cherry Iced tea, different but good. Made it to bed around 12:30.... so excited about the F1 race tomorrow!

Day 4, July 24th. Egar, Hungary

Happy 21st Birthday to my Nephew Nick!
Again, up at 4 AM, hmmm, it's not like 4 AM is any relative time to when I'd be waking up at home, it would be like 8 PM there. Oh well, it is what it is. So I met up with Rosemary and the Australians, along with some other friends of Nick's to go out to the camp site where the English camp will take place next week. It was a beautiful place, and I was told that it was formerly a Communist youth camp. It seemed to be a very peaceful place and I'm sure it will be wonderful for Nick and his group. They all seem like very nice people.

After that, it was a day for Rosemary to complete some things that needed to be done for the camp. So I just hung out with her,went to McDonald's for lunch and then visited with the Australians! When Nick's was day at the Church, we all decided an hour or so at the local pool would be fantastic!!! It's another scorching hot day and it was so nice to cool off. I was exhausted by the time we were done, but I was forcing myself to stay awake as long as possible, this not sleeping at night was for the owls, haha. I did take a small 10 min nap before Nick, Rosemary and I went out again downtown for dinner. It was a beautiful night and Nick and I loved the opportunity to get some more photos. Funny thing about that is we decided on a restaurant and had a cute little table. There was live music near by and some kind of "Civil War" like rifle demonstration, I guess is the best I can think of for a description. I decided it was time to get a picture or two of the Monkey in Egar, so I started positioning and posing and snapped a couple. The large table next to us was commenting about it and laughing about it, so I had Nick ask if I could take their picture with Monkey. They discussed for a few moments and they finally said yes... come to find out, it was the Mayor of Egar!!!! We all got a good laugh out of that!!

I think I mentioned before that Egar is a really big wine area, so again, we took to getting a taste of the local fair. I chose a cool Riesling this time, but I wasn't as impressed with it as I was the previous nights with the other White and Red wines. It tasted like a Chardonnay and I was quite surprised on my 1st sip. I was still about to fall asleep at the table, but the fresh air was doing a nice job of keeping me alive, so a light dinner was in order. I had fruit soup, never heard of fruit soup, but it was really good. It was cold and had a ton of blackberries in it. We also indulged in some creape desserts too along with an Americana coffee, which was horrible. But I guess you take the good with the bad!

Day 3, Thursday July 23rd. Egar, Hungary

I began the day by waking up at 4 AM.... wide awake, hello jet lag. Today was Mountain Bike ride day, wow, I haven't been on a bike for a while! And it showed. We started out with the typical air in tires stuff, then, crossing a busy street, we had to jump a median, too bad my brain didn't get the memo. I hit the darn thing head on, CRASH!! Nice bruised palm, scrapped up knee, leg and took the cross bar in the Right thigh, nice work! I only dripped a little blood, but I've officially left a little bit of myself in Hungary! LOL After picking up the bike and avoiding traffic, we got on the train to our trail head, 25 km away (or something like that). I should have just turned back when I fell, oops. So the attempt to ride this bike w/ jet lag, adrenalin/shock from crash, 90 some degree temps and being out of shape was a complete failure. I ended up over heating, nearly vomiting and we turned back. I felt really bad for the guys (Nick and his friend Andy). We ended up hanging out at a lake so I could cool my feet in the water and sit in the shade. The plan now was to put me back on the train, although, the train didn't pick up for another 2 1/2 hours. So Nick called Rosemary and she was sooo nice to come and pick me up. While we waited, we ate Hungarian Hamburgers, interesting is the word I'm going to use. We also watched some silly girl drive her car right into the restaurant door, lol. The guys started over on the trail when I was picked up and Rosemary stopped along the road back to show me a Village. They are VERY small little communities here that outline the cities. They are a special dynamic and most who live in villages never leave them.
The rest of the day was spent trying to keep cool, poor little Nate was just miserable, of course so were the rest of us. I got to see the local mall, 3 blocks away from Nick & Rosemary's house and it was air conditioned!! It also had ice cream, that always makes everything better. Later that evening, Nick, Rosemary, "The Australians" as they are called, Kim and Andy, and I went to a nice Moroccan restaurant! I was lovely. We all shared a bottle of local Cabernet Souvangon, which I had to say was great! For dinner I had Lamb stew w/ noodles, cucumber salad w/ sour cream, it was amazing!! Afterwords, we had complementary Hookah. I'd never tried it before, so since it's vacation, what the heck! Not bad, definitely interesting as well.

Day 1 and 2 run together. Egar, Hungary

I left Denver at 4pm and after a plane change in DC, I left the US at 8pm MDT. The flight from Denver to DC was great, but I made the mistake of falling asleep. I even attempted to watch the in-flight movie, Monsters vs Aliens, but just as I always do on a plane, I snoozed right through it. However, DC to Frankfurt was a different story, I was supposed to sleep on this flight, it was an overnighter, but for the most part, that didn't happen. I chatted with an Army guy that sat next to me; he's staying in Germany for four weeks to do some training. But once the in-flight movies started, that discussion was over and I watched "The Secrets of a Shopoholic" or something like that. Upon trying to sleep, the Army guy, being very tall, was elbowing me and kneeing me and it was all sorts of horrible. I think at one point, he was almost sleeping on my shoulder, he was cute, but I didn't need to be his pillow. And did I mention United Airlines doesn't give free alcohol on international flights anymore, I was looking forward to that the most, haha This flight was only 7 hours long, but felt longer then the 15 hour one to Sidney, maybe because of the 1st flight also, I don't know. My work out came trying to get onto the flight from Frankfurt to Budapest... I had 1 hour to echange my ticket for a boarding pass that they didn't give me in Denver, get through customs, get through security again and get to the complete opposite side of the terminal to catch the next flight. While exchanging the ticket (waiting 15 mins for 2 people to help a huge line), the lady at the counter told me, "you are literally going to have to run to catch this plane". Oh just great! Then of course, I got into the worst line in customs, "come on!", sped through security and then, yes, RAN down stairs, through tunnels, back up stairs, through long corridors and I got to the gate, practically the very last gate, just in time to get in line. I was pretty sure I was going to die! Hot, humid and not to mention, I don't run!! Luckily the plane was ice cold and I passed out the moment my head hit the cold leather of the Lufthansa plane. Once in Hungary it was super hot and sticky, but I only waited about 20 mins for my cousins wife to pull up to the airport, find me and head on out. She had already driven 1 1/2 hours, so we went to a toy store to let my little cousin Nate stretch his little legs and to cool off, the big stores have the A/C!
Now off to their town, Egar. It was super cool that I saw a truck, hauling gear to the F1 track, for my favorite driver, Kimi Raikkonin. I was so awe struck, I forgot to get a picture... even though my camera was in my lap, how often does that happen! I did get a picture of the sign to the track while we drove by, it's going to be amazing. Riding along through Hungary, it strikes me as odd or funny that my mind is in a continuous state of looking at something new and trying to compare it to somewhere else. Why is it so difficult for me to just absorb the new and let it be magnificent all on it's own. Lesson #1 apparently, it's time to see and learn new things, not compare the old. The history here is amazing and sad, but I like to learn and I think tomorrow will be some fun to walk around and take some pictures. I met up with my cousin Nick around 8:30pm and we got my accommodations situated at a friends flat, Judith. Lovely little place and she is super sweet. We then went for an evening stroll into Downtown and got some pictures of the city at night. Some wonderful cafe's light up in the night with white lights, like Christmas. We then sat and had a really great glass of wine from Egar and just chatter. I got back to the flat around 11:45... time to attempt some sleep, it's only 3:45 in the afternoon at home, so we'll see.

July 21st, 2009, the day I've waited for all year, perhaps my whole life.

The excitement has built up for so long, now I think it's finally melting into peace. I'm very anxious for this journey to begin, as I sit here with my backpack full (it crept up to 29 lbs, and 14 lbs for the day pack) and watching the time tick by.

I slept quiet well last night, considering I went to bed at 2 and woke feeling fully rested at 8. I thought I'd sleep in to kill some time, apparently not! Oh well. Tonight I sleep on a plane, whoo hoo, and I'll wake up in the EU. Frankfurt, Germany is the 1st stop, approximately 3 am our time. Then off to Budapest, Hungary!

I still can't believe that I'm going to be at an F1 race again too, even pinching myself isn't working... this really is so amazing.

Not much more to blabber about today! Goodbye to America... as Arnold said "I'll be back"!

Counting down

So as it has come down to the last 2 weeks before the trip, my plans are starting to change! I hope I can keep up on being able to go with the flow and just let things happen! Looks like I've decided not to stay in Salzburg, Austria, I canceled my hostel there and book one in Munich, 1/2 mile from Hard Rock Cafe!!!! This is getting so exciting and I can't wait for all the chatter about it to stop and the real thing to begin. It has been a long time in the making and it's really not going to hit me, until I'm on the plain.... yikes. At this moment in 14 days, I will be getting off the train and hanging out with my cousins in Egar, Hungary!!!! YEAH!

Keep checking back! I may not post a lot in the coming weeks, but I'll be updating daily (hopefully) starting on the 21st!