I LOVE Hungarian customer service!

Just got back from the gym. Had a great work out. But it was almost a flop. Why, you ask? Glad you asked. I'll tell you.

So I am minding my own business, running like Forrest Gump on a treadmill, feeling like a rock star because I am not dead yet. And the trainer who works there comes up and taps me on the shoulder. I don't know what she said (it was in Hungarian), but she was clearly upset with me. I got off the treadmill, and stood there with my mouth wide open, wondering what I could have done. Was she jealous of my rock star status? Did my shoes not match my shorts? Then she points at the floor and says more menacing things. Oh.

As it turns out, I had mud on my shoes when I came in, and now there was a pile of it on the floor. GAH. Sorry, sorry, I mutter. I will clean it up. I didn't know. Then she YELLS - not speaks loudly, not motions, not calls out - she YELLS across the gym to the manager - a Venice Beach muscle head who wore a shirt one day proclaming the enormity of his manly parts - more about that later - so she YELLS and the whole place gets quiet. No music. No weights clanging, no treadmills whirring. I kid you not. I am really not exaggerating. Everyone stopped. It was like in the movies when the cashier yells "Price check on register 3!" for some poor kid buying a pregnancy test or something. Or in a saloon when the bad guy slams open the doors.

So, I am assuming she called him over because he and his man parts speak English. He looked at the mess, and I thought for a minute he might strangle me. I jumped in with, "It's no problem. I will clean it up myself. I am so sorry." He says, "Yes, it IS a problem. Look at that. You can't do that."

"No, no, no," I tell him, "It's not a problem. I will clean it up."
"It is a problem because you cannot wear shoes from the forest in here. You have to wear brand new shoes." (keep in mind that English is his 2nd language.)
"But I'll take care of it. I will clean it."
"No, the girl will clean it. You cannot wear those shoes."
"OK. I will make sure they are clean next time."

And I saunter off to the bathroom to clean my shoes - people still gawking. Of course, there are no paper towels in the bathroom (and no shower curtains either - eeew) so I have to come BACK out and get paper towels and go back to clean them. I let them run under the water and get mud all over the sink. I contemplated just leaving it there, but decided I should clean it up in the end. So I did, and I went back out to finish my work out. But seriously, why would you yell at a customer? Oh yeah, because we're in Hungary, and the customer is never, ever right.

Of course, I would like to say something mean, but I don't have the mean streak or the guts. So I just let it go. Besides, I am too blessed to be stressed! :) The sun is out today. It's beautiful and warm (well, warmER), and I live in Europe! :) And.....it gave me something to write about on my blog. So, see? There's the silver lining!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, kids!

The Fabulous Life

So.
First of all, I know, I know. It's been too long. And I owe you an entry on Moscow. And now I owe you another on Egypt. But I thought I'd write down some random thoughts first. I thought I'd tell you a little more about my Fabulous European Life (AKA normal crap).

Well, let's start with it's been freezing here for about 2 weeks. I am not kidding. Below zero. Frozen solid. The sun was out once. It does make for some really pretty pictures out by the school, but actually living in it is not so pretty. We were supposed to have an ice storm today. It didn't exactly storm, but it rained ice. I've never seen such. You know how the Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow? I guess this is why. This is a kind I've never seen before. So, there's this coat of ice all over the ground - on the roads, on the sidewalks, on the roof of your house, etc. And I take Sasha out for a walk, and she starts slip sliding around. Have you ever seen a dog running on tile or linoleum? Their back legs sort of slide out from under them, and it's HILARIOUS! So I am doubled over with laughter, and I take a step...and slip myself! Serves me right! I think I heard Sasha start laughing too.

I had my second Hungarian class tonight. It's across the river on the Pest side, so I get bundled up in my Cuddle Duds, long johns, sweatshirt, and ski jacket (and wool socks and snow boots - ok, maybe I overdid it). And I am really warm. And very happy about it. So warm, in fact, that I am sweating. Even though it's raining outside, and I have to walk home in it. It's funny how quick you learn that your mom was right when she told you to wear a hat and scarf. But I'm pretty proud of myself because this is one more thing that I know how to do in Budapest - get around in the cold without dying. It might help that it has warmed UP to 0 degrees.

More stuff I know how to do....I went to the gas station and bought windshield wiper fluid and put it in my car. All by myself. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you can't read the label, and you have to sort of guess, it really is an accomplishment. I also went to the pharmacy and bought cold medicine. I finally ran out of Nyquil, so I got the local equivalent. It's like Theraflu, and it knocks you out. I love it! AND I know how to mail a letter. I know, I know, trivial, right? But YOU try to decide which window to go to when there's 5 different signs in Hungarian and people have to stand in line to pay their bills and mail stuff and get stuff certified.

Something I evidently DON'T know how to do is scrape the ice off my windshield. The other day I was running late, and of COURSE the whole windshield was covered in ice and snow, and the door was frozen shut. I finally got in and turned it on and was going to let it start warming up (I don't have a garage any more) while I scraped the ice. I got back out, and the car starts ROLLING DOWN THE HILL. OMG! So I jump back in - I still have a cold, mind you, nose running, eyes watering, miserable cold - and I hit the clutch instead of the brake. And the car rolled down the hill till it hit a pole. Well, at least it was done rolling. And it didn't hit another car. :) This was after I had discovered a random dent - someone hit my car - the day before. That poor car. It's a trooper, though. It gets me around!

On top of all this cold, Russia has cut off the natural gas supply to Eastern Europe. They are mad at the Ukraine for something - there are many different stories - and most of Eastern Europe gets about 90% of their gas from Russia. So.....there are all these talks, and they said it would be ok, and then they said no, it's not ok. And the bottom line is, we have about 5 weeks left of natural gas to heat and cook with. I bought an electric heater just in case. But I'm one of the lucky ones. Many families don't have that luxury. They've shut down a lot of the big manufacturing plants, and a lot of businesses have switched to oil and some businesses and schools have just closed for a few days. Not mine, of course. :(

Sasha has gotten it in her head - or in her biological clock - that we need to get up in the middle of the night - every night - and go for a walk. And taking her out is a freakin PROCESS. I have to put on jeans, sweatshirt, ski jacket, snow boots, wrap my whole face and head in a scarf, etc. and trudge down the stairs - oh sorry, TIPTOE down the stairs, so as not to wake my neighbor. When I first got back from Egypt, she had been at the doggie hotel, and had gotten really sick. She had to go out like every 2 hours. I don't know how any of you people have babies. I just need to sleep through the night! She's better now, but she still wants to go out all the time. I am trying to wean her off of it. :) I am trying to trick her into sleeping all night.

Juliet tells me that there are big chunks of ice in the Danube, and I really want to go down there and take pictures, but it's so hard to get myself out of the warm house and into the cold. I really should, though.

Next weekend it looks like I'll be going to Vienna with the basketball team. They need a chaperone. I need a free trip. It's a match made in heaven. :)

We are coming up on the end of first semester, and I feel like I am in the swing of things at school. I can't believe the year is half way over, though! It seems like time just FLEW by!

We have another week off in Feb, and a week in April - that's when Julie and Andy are coming for my birthday - YAY! School's not out till June 12, and then I'm going to Spain for a couple of weeks and then home to GA and FL and out to ID to see everyone.

Well, I hope this post finds you fabulous and happy, and I promise to do Egypt and Moscow soon! :)

Dublin, Ireland

December 20-22, 2008

So the islands were nice, but Dublin is my new favorite city. I don't know if this will change after I go to Cairo, but I can't imagine it. I don't feel like I had enough time there to actually see the city, but I did have enough time to learn that the Irish have nearly got the South beat on hospitality. And maybe I just like them because they speak English, and I haven't heard that in a while. Or maybe I like them because everyone was so helpful. Or maybe it's because I met a group of friends who sort of took me in so that I wasn't out by myself. Or maybe I just like their accent.

What I don't like so much is the Dublin airport. It's not horrible, it's just that after you check in you have to walk like 7 miles to get to your gate. OK, maybe it's not 7, but it's at least 6. When I went through passport control, the guy was very nice but very specific about what I was doing there and how long I was going to be there and what did I do for a living and on and on. Since I was at passport control, I got worried - like why is he asking me all these questions? But someone told me later that he was just being nice. Hmm... interesting.


Here's the other thing about flying - I was on Ryan Air - one of the discount airlines that goes around Europe - and they have the emergency instructions on the back of the seat in front of you. And can you see in this picture that you're not supposed to wear heels if you have to make an emergency exit? That makes sense, right? Don't want to puncture the raft thing. But then it also looks like you should take off your glasses - ok, I get that - and you should take out your dentures?????? What is that? Is that REALLY what that means? What else COULD it mean? I just think this is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!


I decided to skip the thrill of figuring out how to get to my hotel using public and took a taxi. I know, it's the easy way out, but, hey, I was on vacation. It was already dark when I got there at 5pm. UGH. I miss Florida. But I decided to go on a walking tour anyway. I went all around the Temple Bar area and across to the north side of the river to O'Connell Street and past the Customs House and the famine memorial. These are a group of statues done in 1997 to remember the Irish famine in the mid 1800s. During this time more than a million people died, and more than a million and half left Ireland. On the way back I found a Christmas market - nowhere near as coool as the one here in Budapest, mind you. I wandered around O'Connell Street a while longer and was amazed by the throngs of people that were out - presumably Christmas shopping. It looked like NYC.


Later on I went to the pub down the street from my hotel and met my new best friend, Baby Guinness. It's not really Guinness, but it's REALLY delicious! The next day I took the big red bus tour around the city. It was cold and rainy and miserable - everything that Dublin is supposed to be - and I loved it. All the Christmas lights were up, and the city looked like a painting. I shopped and went to Trinity College and Christ Church Cathedral. You have to pay to go in the cathedrals, but they give you a nice little tour guide, so I learned a lot. You can see the north wall that leans by 18 inches since the collapse of the roof and south wall in 1562; you can see the "foxy friars" in the tile work on the floor. These are beggars in the form of foxes pretending to be pilgrims. You can see their hats and sticks and shoulder bags in the outline. I went to Hard Rock and got my obligatory shot glass. My collection is growing by leaps and bounds! :)

Then back to Buda with just enough time to do laundry (it takes 2 days, remember?) and pack for Egypt. I am leaving in a few minutes actually. Weather.com says it will be warmer there. We'll see. I am looking forward to seeing Alison and bringing in the New Year! Talk soon!

Tenerife, Canary Islands

December 15-20, 2008

Hi kids!
So I just got back from Tenerife, one of seven islands in the Canary Islands. The islands were named by the Romans who discovered packs of dogs (canus) - not birds - running around when they got there. Officially it's part of Spain, so they speak Spanish there - YAY! They're off the west coast of Africa, so it SHOULD be warm there, right? Well, it was...on the first day and on the last day - when I was in the airport. GAH.

But it was a nice trip. I stayed in a sleepy little beach town and bummed around with the pensioners. Read 4 books while I was there, saw a show, slept on the beach, hiked a volcano, and toured the island.

The island is very cool in that there are four different vegetation zones, and it's almost like there's a line drawn between them. It's very clear when you move from one to another. There's one that's desert and lava. All rocks and no vegetation. Another is tropical with banana plants, potatoes, and other crops. One more is what we think of as mountainous - with pine trees, etc. The last is the one closest to the top of the volcano. It's freezing cold up there. When we went up, it was 19 degrees (C) below zero with the wind chill. I thought my ears were going to fall off. They have a cable car thing that takes you to the very top of the volcano and you can hike around. There are amazing views, and it's worth braving the cold.

I stayed on the southeast part of the island - rented an apartment about a block from the beach. It's a pretty touristy area, but it was nice to be able to walk from beach to beach along the boardwalk. I spent about 3 hours walking one day just to see what was there. As you walk by, the vendors come out, of course, and call to you - don't you want to go see the dolphins, don't you want to buy some souvenirs? Come take a break and eat at my restaurant. One guy says, hey, you want to get a tattoo? Now, is that really something that people decide as they're walking down the beach? Someone suggests it and it hits you, oh yeah, I need to get a tattoo? Seriously. Come on.

On the northeast part there's a town called Candelaria that is famous for its black madonna - she's carved out of a black wood and dressed in fine silks. The sand there is also black - in fact, there's only one beach on the island with white sand, and that's like a curiosity that people go and see.

I really enjoyed my trip here - mostly because I speak Spanish and I felt so much more comfortable here than in Budapest. I never really realized how much anxiety there is associated with doing ANYTHING in Budapest. For me, anyway, just because I never know if I'm going to be able to communicate what I need. I usually get lucky and get someone who speaks at least a little English. So I am going to start language classes as soon as we get back in school in January. I really need to. No more excuses, right?

Christmas in Budapest

Well, 'tis the season! And here in Budapest, the season is long. And beautiful. It starts on Dec 5, which is Saint Mikulás's Day. His American name, of course, is Saint Nicholas, and his name day has been celebrated here in Europe for generations. Supposedly, he was a 4th century bishop who, upon hearing of a poor man who couldn't afford a dowry for his 3 daughters, secretly tossed bags of gold through an open window into their home so that the girls wouldn't be sold into slavery. The gold landed in shoes that had been left by the fire to dry. This led to the modern day custom of children hanging up socks or putting out shoes to await gifts from Saint Mikulás. (In Mexico, they have a similar tradition, but it involves the 3 wise men on Jan 6.) So the tradition is fo children to put shoes or boots on the window sill on Dec 5 to be filled by the saint in the middle of the night. He comes with a book of all the children's names and their good and bad deeds throughout the year. He has 2 helpers: an angel who gives out goodies, and a devil with a long red tongue who leaves a golden twig or switch as a warning to the bad children.

Around town, the lights are up, streets are decorated, and Christmas markets are in full swing! At the markets you can buy funnel cakes, hot wine, typical "fair" food, traditional crafts, meet St. Mikulás, and see shows every day. There is also an advent calendar at the biggest market, and every night they open one of the windows on the calendar to count down till Christmas. Here are some of my favorite pictures...

These "funnel cakes" are the BEST I've ever had. They had them at the Sziget Festival and the wine festival, too. They originally come from Transylvania, and they're a doughy concoction cooked over open coals and then dipped in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, walnuts, or whatever else you like. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.................

This is near the shopping street. The lights are simply gorgeous!

This is a glass pistol filled with wine. It's called a "one shot" drink. Get it? HAHAHA!! People here are serious about wine. And beer. And palinka. And unicum. And vodka. Did I mention that you can get a beer in a pub as early as 7 am???????????? Wow. Not that I drink beer - STILL. But, you know, it's just funny!

This is a picture of some of the lights and decorations at the big Christmas market. People come from all over Europe to our market. Ours and one in Germany are supposed to be the best in the world.

Manger scene with figures hand made from wool. And they're probably each about 2 feet tall.

This is an ice skating rink on the Pest side. You can skate right in front of that old castle. It's like a fairy tale.

This is the hot wine that they sell at the market. Well, it's the containers that the wine comes in. They are traditional clay pots.

This is part of Hero's Square. It has statues of all the most important people in Hungarian history. There's another part just like this one on the right, and an obelisque in the middle of the whole square.

A doll vendor at the market.

A pottery vendor. Pottery is very popular here - but Poland is actually the most famous place for it. Don't worry, we're planning a trip soon!

A basket vendor at the market.

November 20-23, Moscow

I owe you an entry on Moscow! I have been SLACKING! But I will get it done soon!

Belgrade, Serbia

November 8-9, 2008

On Friday we asked each other, "What are we going to do this weekend?" Hmm.... "Why don't we go to Belgrade?" OK! And we did. It was a short 4 hour drive to the capital of Serbia. We were leaving the European Union, so getting out of Hungary was no problem. Getting back in, on the other hand, well, that took a little bit longer.

Belgrade (which means "White Castle") is situated around the intersection of the Sava and the Danube - the same Danube that runs through Budapest (and a lot of other places). It's not as pretty as Vienna - in fact, I think it's the polar opposite of Vienna. It was bombed by NATO less than a decade ago, and you can still see the ruins around town. Serbia is a part of the former Yugoslavia - in fact, it was only in 1991 or so that it broke up. It's the home of the infamous Slobodan Milosevic and ethnic cleansing.

We drove Juliet's car, and getting to town was no problem. Getting AROUND town, however, proved to be a little more difficult. See, the map we had was using the Roman alphabet, but the street signs - and everything else in Serbia - uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

We drove around for a while, using all the educated guesses we could make, trying to remember what we knew about Greek letters, trying to match the number of letters or the number of words, or at least the first letter of a word, but to no avail. We gave up and stopped and asked for directions. The guy was very nice and even drew us a map. It made it SO much easier! We went to the hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed out for town.

First stop, the shopping street - Knez Mihailova - a pedestrian only street with all the good stores. No Starbucks, though. We were actually happy that it didn't have one because we would have been mad if they had one and we didn't! We also visited Republic Square and took the requisite tourist photos.

Next up, the Kalemegdan fortress. It's a former citadel on top of a hill overlooking both rivers. Now it's a nice park and tourist place. There are monuments, a collection of tanks from various wars, and a huge monument called the Victor - in honor of the first Allied victory after WWI.

A colleague of ours is from Belgrade, so we called him and asked him where we should go for dinner, and he recommended a street with lots of sidewalk cafes and small, smoky bars. We stopped in one that had a no smoking sign and a stack of ashtrays right next to it. HA. Afterwards we had dinner at an AMAZING Italian restaurant next door. We were going to go out that night, but we went back to the hotel to get ready and to take a "short nap." Well, that short nap turned into sleeping all night. But that's ok, because the next day we had enough energy to go sightseeing again.

So Sunday we had a faulous breakfast at the hotel - the hotel looked like something out of Star Trek, by the way - and went out to the Tesla Museum, the Orthodox Church, and a little cafe for lunch. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian inventor and engineer. He worked in Budapest for a while, but is most famous for his work with Thomas Edison in America. He discovered the alternating current - or made use of it for AC electrical systems - and is considered the father of physics. The museum, to be honest, does not really reflect how important this guy is. It is just a small house on a corner. It was still pretty interesting though.

Then we went to the Temple of St. Sava - the biggest Orthodox Church in the world. It was different because there are no pews, and it was being renovated, so there was construction material all around. Their rituals for prayer seem very intricate, and I wonder how long it takes them to learn them when they're young.

In the smaller church next door and in another church across from the cafe where we ate, we got to see 3 weddings and 2 baptisms. It was interesting that it was on a Sunday, and that they seemed to be happening back to back. Bride and Groom would enter the front doors, there was chanting, singing, praying, and then they would go out the side doors, and the next couple would come in the front.

The cafe we ate at was right across the street from the church and it was called "?". It used to be called something like the Church Bar, but the priests got mad about that, so the owner changed the name to "?" to say that de didn't know what all the fuss was about. It is supposed to be super authentic Serbian food. The fare included young bull's sex glands, kidneys, bowels...oh, and burgers. We had tomato and cucumber salad, french fries, and grilled chicken. I know, I know, I should venture out more. I should. I really should. But not with THOSE choices! :)