Return to Budapest

It's great living in East Slovakia, especially now that the weather is warming, the birds are singing, and the old ladies are peeling off a couple layers of babushkas. Sometimes, however, you just have to get out and go somewhere big, somewhere where you can get Indian food with meat in it and not be stared at for having red hair. From where I am, the cheapest and the closest place to go is Budapest, so last weekend me and the Vi headed south for some urban fun.

I've already been to Budapest a couple of times, and written about it here, but this time I took more pictures of water and less of food.

Why water? Because last week, due to the melting snows in the mountains, the Danube flooded and severely dampened large parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. I took these pictures of the Budapest waterfront, if you look close you can see the street signs for the road that used to run next to the river, and now runs in the river:





It's election season in Hungary, I think the Socialists vs. the non-Socialists, and there are huge poorly-airbrushed posters all over town for the different candidates. Would you rather vote for this guy:



or Dr. Szabo Zoltan?



Although looks can be deceiving, I would guess that if you don't vote for Dr. Zoltan he will personally come to your house and break your kid's fingers.

We stayed in a very nice hostel with a balcony. If you stood on the balcony and took pictures they would look like this:





It was also the first legitimately warm and sunny day of the year in Central Europe, so we went up to the castle in Buda and put our feet on the grass. It was very refreshing. These are feet:



By the castle they sell tons of touristy frippery. I was at first drawn to the Queen, Rolling Stones and Britney Spears Russian nesting dolls that were available:



But after a quick look around I found the much more enticing Bill Clinton, Saddam Hussein, Bin Laden and "Matrix" ones, which probably have more long-term collectability:



Later we ended up in a nice restaurant, looking for a cold beverage:



We ordered, and when the drinks hadn't arrived twenty minutes later I became curious, and went to see what was what. It ended up that our waiter was busy out front putting pieces of fruit on someone's windshield. That's Hungarian service for you:



And most importantly, Liza is coming to town:



So that's Budapest in a nutshell, or as Hungarians say, in a dióhéjban.

Tomorrow is the start of Easter break at school, which lasts a week and a half. I'll be headed by car to the beaches of Croatia, through Bosnia and Serbia. The CIA seems to recommend the trip, as long as I don't spend too much time wandering around in orchards. If I run into any unexploded ordnance, landmines, or localized political violence I will do my best to get a picture of it, and if I don't make it back than my regular readers can split my CD collection (I'm looking at you, Grandmas!). Happy Bunny Day!