Buda and Pest

May 20, Friday  Budapest

We had our best night’s sleep in a long time at the Buda Hilton, although John did get up at 5:30 to make coffee.  Too bad, it was Nescafe instant, but we enjoyed it, nevertheless.

This was the first official day of our Viking River Cruise package.  Hungary is part of the EU, but does not use the Euro officially, although both it and the dollar are accepted.  We decided that we needed some Forints (HUF), the Hungarian currency, for various items over the next few days.  

Rule #8:  Always carry a little local currency, even if for pay toilets and bus fare.

The exchange is about 180 HUF to the dollar.  This makes $55 US come out to 10,000 banknote (see photo)

There is nothing quite like sunrise through over a beautiful city to start your day out right.  Today was the day for that.  The Danube sparkled as we looked across the river to Pest, the flatter part of the city where most of the businesses are located. 

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast buffet at the hotel and loaded ourselves onto a bus for a city tour.  Our experiences on bus tours were variable, at best.  Today’s tour was to be one of the finest.  Our tour guide was a young lady who spoke grammatically flawless English.  She informed us that Hungarian is supposed to be the second most difficult of all languages to learn (after Chinese). It really doesn’t sound like anything we have ever learned before!

As we went from site to site, Kinga, our guide was able to give us interesting information without the phony jokes and meaningless statistics which are so often part of tour packages and she seemed to know everything about Budapest’s tumultuous past.

When Hungary was not being invaded by Huns, Tatars, Mongols, Turks, Hapsburgs, Germans and Communists, she had picked the wrong allies in a series of wars. We were saddened beyond words to learn that during a period of two months in 1944, all but 50,000 of Budapest’s 400,00 innocent Jews were sent to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis.  Yes, the churches and castles of the city are magnificent, but they cannot diminish the tragedy.

Rule #9:  Watch who you pick as allies.  It can come back to bite you.

The end of the tour was spent in the heights of Buda’s spectacular historic quarter, overlooking the city and the river.  We visited the president’s house, which had no guards posted today.  We resisted his temptation to knock on his door.  Surely, it would not be appreciated.

Attached photos

Hungarian 10,000 currency

John and Donna at Heroes Square

Buda from Pest

In transit

Thursday, May 19 Rome to Budapest

We spent the day in transit.  Our trip to Rome’s airport by taxi was nothing short of a wild ride at Disneyland.  The good news is that our driver didn’t run anyone down and we made it out of Rome will all our luggage and wallets intact.  The wallets were much lighter, due to Rome’s high prices, though. 

Since we couldn’t find a direct flight to Budapest that would work for us, we had to change planes in Frankfurt.  Our Lufthansa flight gave as a wonderful view of the snowcapped Alps, a first for both of us.  It was raining quite a bit in Frankfurt, but we made our connection on time. 

We landed in Budapest airport at about 7:00 pm and finally got a cab and took a long taxi ride to our hotel, the Hilton.  Fortunately, traffic here does not approach the frenetic level of activity of Rome!

Budapest is divided into two parts by the Danube, Pest, in the east and Buda, in the west.  We stayed in classy Buda in a location nicknamed the castle.  We were quite surprised at the view from our window on the 4^th floor of the hotel.  There was a magnificent view in Budapest at sundown.

The Buda Hilton is typical of so many luxury hotels nowadays.  It the rooms and views are quite nice, but they really hit you up at the little things, including internet, which is usually free at even cheap motels nowadays.

Rule #7:  The more you pay for your room, the more luxury hotels stick it to you for the other things that cheaper hotels give away.

Photo: view from our hotel room at sunset

Rome Day Last

Wed. May 18^th

31 years and 6000 miles away from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.

Roaming in Roma (day 3 ½)

Why can’t I sleep longer later than 3:40?

We island folks just aren’t adjusted to the big city rush, although we gave it our best try.  We are learning a few things and our hands speak Italian just as effectively as a native Roman.

Since this is our second visit to the Eternal City, we decided not to repeat anything we visited on our 2007 trip, such as the Coliseum, Vatican and Forum.  We sort of followed through on this.

We are now veterans of the Metro system, with an entire of one day of experience!  How fast we learned.  We started one half your later and avoided the rush hour and actually got seats!  We rode to the Circus Maximus station and glanced at the enormous setting for the ancient chariot races on our way to nearby Plantine Hill.  The Pope spoke at Circus Maximus a few weeks ago about the canonization of John Paul II.

The Palatine Hill, one of Rome’s legendary seven hills, is the home of the palaces of the emperors.  As a matter of fact, the word “palace” comes from the hill.  It is the only of the seven hills that we native Seattleites would call a hill.

The Roman roads are still in good shape 2000 years later (no potholes), but don’t try to do them in heels or on a skateboard.

We visited the home of Augustus and viewed many other domiciles of emperors, famous and infamous.  Nero was so detested that subsequent emperors tried to remove his name from his accomplishments. Not only were the homes and the museum amazing, the view was spectacular.  There is also a beautiful garden at the top of the hill and the wonderful fresh aroma of mint was in the air.

Ancient Rome was located 20-30 feet below the present level of the city.  2000 years of letting rubble pile up and not dusting has raised the city to its present level.

Rome Rule #5: Always take out the trash or you can see what might happen!

When you want to visit the ancient areas, you must go down into lower areas that have been dug out.  We did visit the Roman Forum again, as our rushed visit on the previous trip did not give us time to explore it sufficiently.  There were hundreds of tour groups from schools, cruise ships and bus tours that we encountered.  We were on our own.

Another of our goals was to visit the Jewish Ghetto.  Rome’s Jews were tolerated until the late Middle Ages until the Church decided that the presence of a few thousand Jews among a population of millions of Christians was totally intolerable.  The Jews were locked into a ghetto on the worst land in Rome, publicly humiliated on a regular, required to wear special clothing, forced to go to Mass each week and tightly restricted.  Still, they survived.  Finally, after many centuries of persecution, the Jews of Italy were given equal rights with the birth of the state of Italy in 1870.  Unfortunately, 73 years later, the remaining Jews were marched off to the concentration and death camps, courtesy of Mussolini, Hitler and company.

The area that once held the Jewish Ghetto today has been rebuilt and has a number of shops, a synagogue and other facilities.  It is heavily patrolled by police, due to past actions by Palestinian terrorists in the area.  This is so unfortunate, since Jews have been living in the area since the second century BCE.

Another walk across the Tiber and another ride on the Metro subway brought us back to our hotel.  Only 5 hours of walking today and neither of us have been run over or had our pockets picked, although Donna sensed an attempt on her on our way to dinner last night.

Dinner:  the biggest calzone (as big as a dinner plate) and the best brochette we have ever experienced!

Off to Hungary tomorrow with a change of planes in Frankfurt.

Rule #6:  Rome is not handicap accessible.  You might have an escalator or elevator with a short flight of stairs at the end!

Photos:  John in front of Palace of Augustus, view of Coliseum from Palatine Hill

Rome Day 2

Tuesday May 17

Today we ventured out of Rome on two forms of public transportation. We walked over to the terminal and got caught in the crowds to board the Metro (subway) and ride out of the city for about 30 minutes, standing and holding on. We realized that we should have waited to ride the Metro after morning rush hour as we were squeezed in the car with everyone traveling to work and we now sympathize with sardines in a can.  Rule #3 for today: wait until after rush hour to ride the public transportation in Rome. Next we transferred to the train for another 30 minute ride to the ancient city of Ostia Antica, about 20 kilos SW of Rome. This was not crowded so we both got seats. This was Rome’s ancient seaport and was discovered in the early 20^th century. It was covered with mud for over a thousand years and is so well preserved that it is considered the Pompeii of the area. It is an ongoing archeological project. It took us about 5 hours to walk through the ruins of this massive city and we probably only saw about a quarter of what has been uncovered thus far. Much of it still has not been excavated. We even got lost in the ruins and realized that this was one BIG ancient city!

We reversed our travels and rode back to Rome and spent another hour or more visiting the National Museum. We were tired but still in awe seeing so many famous ancient statues, frescoes and mosaics. It was spectacular to say the least. It was almost sensory overload today but our Italian has sure been improving as we moved through the areas that we visited.

We were tired so we rested for a few hours after our touring and went out to eat at about 7 pm. We walked around the neighborhood until we found a trattoria (sp) where we ate outside and both of us ordered a small traditional pizza. These are so different than what we are used to in the US. The crusts are as thin as a tortilla and the topping is basically just tomato sauce and seasonings. Not all goopy with extra toppings so we really enjoyed being able to taste just the basic Italian pizza. How wonderful. Rule #4: don’t order water in Rome as they charge as much for water as beer. It is bottled water but the tap water is excellent in Rome.

When we returned back to the hotel, we forced ourselves to stay awake as long as possible hoping to sleep but unfortunately we both were awake much of the night again. Our bodies still have had difficulty getting used to the time difference.

Photos: ancient amphnitheater, Donna among the ruins.

All Roads lead to Rome Day 1

Rome wasn’t built in a day, but we tried to see it all in three days.

Monday, May 16

John had trouble sleeping last night.  He woke up at 3:00 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  We are 9 hours ahead of Pacific time.

On your marks, get set, GO!

Hitting the #64 bus at 9:00 am at the incredibly busy terminal, we know how sardines feel.  Watching out for pickpockets is essential in Rome.  We don’t carry wallets, only money belts and in busy areas, John wears his backpack in front.  So far no losses.

With 2700 years of history, we had to make some decisions.  Our first destination was the Pantheon.  We got off only one stop too late and had no trouble finding the building. This dome of all domes has stood since the first century BCE and is still one of the largest unsupported domes in the world.  It was done without electrical or steam power, algebra or computers.  The only math was clunky Roman numerals.  It truly has stood the test of time.

My Rome rule #1: If you turn around you will see a huge church.

Corollary:  You may not have to turn around.

What a day of walking we had!  Through the western end of Rome, over the Tiber to the very edge of the Vatican, back across the Tiber again.  We worked our way through innumerable piazzas, any one of which would have been a great monument for any other city.

We ended up passing the obscenely gross monument that Mussolini put of to Italy’s King Victor Emannuel that overshadows the wonderful ruins of the Roman Forum.  Most people agree that the monument was really to Mussolini’s ego.

We finally spent some time at the ruins of Trajan’s Forum and marketplace, probably the world’s first shopping center.  Those early Roman’s really thought of everything!

We found another #64 bus and worked our way back to our hotel.  A man even graciously gave Donna a seat on the bus.  Only 5 hours of walking through Rome’s busy streets.

My Rome rule #2:  If you don’t watch where you are going, you will probably get run down by a car, bus, or motorcycle.

Corollary: #1:  Even if you do watch out, there is no guarantee that you won’t get run down.

Corollary #2:  Crosswalks, stop lights and other traffic controls are only optional.

We dined at a neighborhood restaurant.  Surprise… Italian food! Donna had a bowl of minestrone and John had some home made ravioli.  No salads or side dishes included.  It ran us about $30 in US funds.  Rome is expensive!

We ARE getting somewhat city-wise.

Photos:  Donna with St Peters in distance, Piazza Navarona

Blogging on board

May 10, 2011

Santa Cruz, Tenerife, Canary Islands.

Land at last.  We haven’t touched land since May 2!  Everyone onboard is excited to go ashore.

Santa Cruz is a lovely city nestled between the mountains and the sea on the northeast part of the island of Tenerife.  We are about 100 miles off the coast of Western Sahara, Africa.

We really enjoyed the city.  It is modern, sparkling clean and has interesting architecture.  It is not hard to get around in.  We walked for four hours in the beautiful weather, visiting the African Market and the pedestrian friendly downtown area.  It appears to be a prosperous area and nobody pushes you to buy things.  Our Spanish served us well, although many people speak English here.  There was very little in the way of tourist goods to shop for.

We hit the ATM machine and now have enough euros for several stops.   Donna needed a new battery for her watch and we bought some toothpaste, a Spanish brand we will soon find out about.  WE found an internet café and got a few pieces checked, but did not have time to read any yet.  May 11-12 aboard the Navigator of the Seas. 4371 nautical miles completed so far.

We have continued to buck powerful headwinds since leaving Florida, leaving the open decks unusable much of the time.

We completed our last two of nine lectures with overflow crowds and rounds of applause.  Thursday’s lecture, Our roman Legacy, received many wonderful comments.  We are relieved to complete our lecture series.  Only one day off in nine days is starting to seem like work, but we love it!

Thursday morning we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar at about 7:00 am.  Everyone was up to see the Rock, but darkness, fog and high winds made it pretty much invisible. 

We are now nine hours ahead of Pacific Time. 

We are looking forward to visiting Mallorca tomorrow.

May 15^th-Rome Italy

We had two more wonderful ports of call for our final two days at sea. We visited Palma de Mallorca and it was lovely on this island paradise. It reminded us of a miniature Barcelona. We walked for about four hours throughout the town and enjoyed the lovely city and wonderfully warm weather. They have a lovely La Rambla with lots of gorgeous flowers for sale. We also found a central marketplace and a supermarket so we purchased some wine and gin at super reasonable rates. The wine cost about 75 cents for a liter! It was very good too. This was probably our favorite of all of the ports that we stopped at as it was so charming. It was also nice to be able to use our Spanish one more time.

Our next port was Ajaccio Corsica. This is a French owned island and is also very lovely. Lots of tourists here and lots of things to see on our walk about town. We spent abut 3 and a half hours walking around this lovely city trying to understand the language spoken here. It is a combination of French and Italian and Corsican so very odd sounding. They have some lovely beaches and great shopping areas but the prices are very high here just like other French areas that we have visited such as Tahiti so the only thing we bought was a loaf of  very good French bread which we had for our lunch as we walked around the city. There was a car rally in town which was part of a larger European rally so it fun to watch the cars from all over Europe as they left the starting gate right near our ship. We got back in time to have a few hours sun bathing on ship as the weather was perfect.

Our first part of our adventures ended today as we disembarked in Civiavecchia Italy and shared a town car with another couple into Rome. We have had so many great comments on our lecturers that we feel we had a very successful two weeks as lecturers on this lovely ship. We are now at the Hotel Montreal in the heart of Rome and will be here for four days of exploring the area.

We leave you with areviderce Roma,

Donna and John

When in Rome

We are currently in Rome and enjoying the many sights. We got off the ship yesterday after 2 successful weeks of lecturing. We visited Canary Islands, Mallorca and Cosica before we got to Rome and all three of these islands are lovely.
Today we walked about 8 or 9 miles and we were roaming all over Rome and it is spectacular to see so many sights. We dont have WiFi in our hotel as it not working so we are at an internet cafe right now and will not be able to answer any questions until we get WiFi back.
We will keep  you posted as we continue this spectacular journey Thursday we fly to Budapest Hungary to board the river cruise to Bucharest Romania so that will be exciting.
Best to you from Italy,
Donna and John