liszt

our hostel room looks over the liszt music academy. the weather is warm enough that we have been leaving the windows open, and from mid-morning until night there are all sorts of talents and skills being practiced. yesterday afternoon we heard a melange of piano, violin, flute, and a female operatic voice. tonight, some more piano and string instruments. a nice and unexpected perk of this place.

pest. buda.

things we have learned so far: malev, the hungarian airline, has a logo that makes it look like a metal rock band. when taking the metro, look on the wall directly next to the train, instead of on the platform, to find which station you have just approached. despite many warnings about the hazards of biking on the streets of budapest, compared to boston it actually looks fairly tame and manageable. the meatloaf is not to be trusted - ask nate. buda is to the west of the danube, it is the more bourgeois residential side. pest is to the east of the danube, it is the city side with lots of shops and restaurants, downtown offices, etc. both sides have places for lap dances. magaret island is in the middle, accessible from one of the bridges. it is comparable to the boston common or central park. you can find plenty of people who speak english. i can't pronounce hungarian yet, hence the preceeding lesson is very useful. this is a relatively safe-seeming and lovely, if crumbling, city.

today and tomorrow we continue to explore. then we head to west of the country to a smalland supposedly nice town, where we can supposedly rent bikes. the plan is to poke around the countryside one day, and take a train ride into vienna another.

on the road again...

nate and I are now on the plane which will soon leave the gate and head to Amsterdam and from there, to budapest! so far, the security folk helped Nate find his missing paint scraper in the depths of his bag, and we ate pizza for dinner. Vacation is always fun and full of surprises.