Redeeming Bucharest Just as our first day in Budapest was not a fair means of judging the city, neither was our first in Bucharest arriving exhausted from a noisy, cold, smoky train only to be greeted by intransigent taxis plying their rip-off tactics. Romania, like China, seems to be a place where the only way to thoroughly enjoy it is to have at least a fundamental understanding of the culture and the way things work. Being a polite tourist doesn’t work, you’ll get treated like garbage and get overcharged, walking away wondering what you did wrong. Better equipped fr [View Full Entry]

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Argh! This is being written on the train from Bucharest to Sofia since last night in Bucharest was a recovery day from the marathon train ride between Budapest and Bucharest. Last night we slept a full night’s sleep from 11PM to 8AM plus a two hour nap for Manny from 4PM to 6PM. Hotel Intercontinental & the Teatrul The hotel from which reporters watched the massacre of students in 1989 on University Square below, this is a classic ambassador hotel in a third world or developing country. Manny is tempted to go on a diatribe on the operation of this place, [View Full Entry]

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If the Hungarians are like the Germans then the Romanians are definitely like the French. We’ve been on the Ister EuroNight 371 now for about 3 hours since departure from Budapest and as much as the Hungarians respected non-smoking policies, our Romanian neighbors do not. As anything German vs. French, there are benefits and what we will call “dis-benefits”. The benefits are we can actually understand the Romanian language quite well while the Hungarians, as our Lonely Planet guidebook says, are “incomprehensible” in their native tongue. The dis-benefit is tha [View Full Entry]

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Plan for the Day We finally slept a full night last night and it was difficult to get up at 7:30AM - good sign! Today we plan on visiting the Parliament and Hungary's Crown Jewels. We also plan on going to one of the Baths in the city since a visit to Budapest would not be complete without it. Parliament and the Crown Jewels It's not good to be an American if you want to see the crown jewels! Since May 1 visiting Parliament is free for EU Citizens which means the only other predominant tourist groups - Americans and Japanese [View Full Entry]

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A Sunday is no way to discover a city and today we spent the lion's share of our time visiting the lower Pest 's lion-fronted landmarks. We started the morning bright and early at 4:30AM, leaving the digs at the Hilton at about 6AM and visiting into the North of the Castle area, not to visit as we later did in the day, but to hit up the Mammut Shopping Center for some vittles. With considerable challenge finding acceptable dining establishments we decided to take matters into our own hands. This included some pate, cheese, bread, water, Hungarian rose wine, pears, [View Full Entry]

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Twilight Zone We arrived this morning in Budapest with no delay at 8AM but with a serious case of jet lag that finally defeated us into a 1.5 hour nap at 3PM. We each had about two hour’s sleep on the airplane which was of course uncomfortable as usual, Delta offering no turnaround surprises to a legacy of bad experiences, but we got there in one piece and they were cheap, so . . . On the flight from Columbus we somehow got stuck with row 13 on the CRJ which means we were front and center on the lavatory and [View Full Entry]

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Right before getting on the flight bound for JFK. We sat at the back of the bus in lucky row 13, right next to the lucky lavatories. [View Full Entry]

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The Westcott House Silly Ingrid, her GPS first led us to a house that had us scratching our head and that we believe may have been an imitation. The ugliest little thing that looked like a China-made knock-off of Wright's work. The house is recently restored in Springfield, Ohio's mansion district, as is the story with too many of Wright Prairie style houses. There are a number of other Frank Lloyd Wright homes in Ohio, but most are Usonians and the Westcott is the only one that serves as a dedicated museum. The restoration was well-done considering it does not have [View Full Entry]

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Cheesecake Factory Another business trip where Manny works hard and Jennifer relaxes. Thanks to Cheesecake Factory, we stayed at our first Four Seasons Hotel at their corporate rate in Westlake Village, and we are definitely fans now. The first day and night, Manny spent time at TCF's headquarters and at three of their stores in the LA area reviewing operations, best practices, and asking dumb questions. I'm not a fan of TCF culinarily or operationally, but just like understanding more about a terroir's geography and history helps you appreciate a wine more, this did the same for [View Full Entry]

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The Setup Jennifer had never been to NYC and since Axel and Laurie were getting married the first weekend of January, we decided this was a great opportunity to experience the city on all cylinders. For this one, we didn't go for what was truly the best, but for the classic spots. Unfortunately a few places, like the 21 Club, were closed during our visit, but most of the worthwhile places were not. Making Miles on New Year's Eve We arrived early at LaGuardia on the 31st and didnt waste any time, checked into the Hampton Inn in Chelsea and started [View Full Entry]

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