Blogs from Hungary, Europe - page 2

There has been perfect weather for this entire trip and we feel blessed. Today the forecast is for light rain until 11 a.m. which is the time we are meeting to do our daily explorations. It will be much cooler today but that is okay because I packed for much cooler temperatures than we have had so far. It has been downright hot most days but we’re not complaining at all about that. Right now I am sitting in the hotel restaurant having delicious coffee and looking out the window at the Fisherman’s Bastion - an incredible view early in the morning when the hordes have not yet arrived. So I sit back and enjoy and give Anne some time to sleep. I’ve been hard on her this week because I don’t sleep past 6 a.m. ... read more

Our ship Egil sailed through the night and arrived in Komarom, Hungary. This is as far as we can sail on the Danube because the water level is so very low. We were bussed into Budapest leaving at 8:30 this morning (about one hour drive). Arriving in Buda, we crossed the one of the many bridges spanning the Danube into Pest. The bus toured us around all the important area of Pest: Heroes Square, Parliament Buiildings, Iron Shoes monument, largest Jewish synagogue, Opera House, etc. First disembarkation was to walk over to Heroes Square. There are 14 statues - seven chieftains of the Magyar plus seven other important leaders. The tall column in the centre is Archangel Gabriel and is the Millennium Monument to commemorate the 1,000 years since conquest of the Carpathian area. We see ... read more

What a beautiful city! I flew into Budapest last night, following the directions given by the host of the home exchange apartment that we're staying in. Elly flew in from Athens earlier in the day, so we planned to meet at the apartment. The directions were very clear, and public transportation is well laid out. I took a bus, then the metro, then a streetcar. Got to the apartment and caught up with Elly, and then we caught a bus into the centre of town to walk around a little, and have dinner together. Mexican, which seemed kind of wrong, but in the long stretch of restaurants, there didn't to be any real Hungarian cuisine (though the typical dishes that I read about were all meat based anyway). There was Italian, Japanese, Spanish, American, Mexican options. ... read more

We had a hotel breakfast this morning. A small panic when the coffee machine was blocked (Arrgh!) but they had another one in reception, so disaster averted. We wanted to get away early because of the extreme heat again today (38C) and we did good, being on the road just after 8am. Distance today was only 48kms and our aim was to be finished before lunch (barring any mechanicals or punctures). From Kolocsa back to the river was 6kms on the road and then we were confronted by a long stretch of gravel back on the levee wall. It was about 12kms which is much slower going and the vibrations certainly make it tougher. By our morning break at 10am we had covered almost 30kms. The only shade we could find was in front of a ... read more

The last 4 days have been mainly spent at the stadium. On both Monday and Tuesday there was no morning session so we rested in our room. Monday we walked up to Erzsébet Square where we had a great lunch at Il Pasteo, an Italian restaurant on the edge of the square. Great food and service. It was very hot so we were glad to retreat back to the hotel after a short stroll. The evening session highlight was the Men's Discus where Matt Denny was competing. What a comp!! Matt threw a new Australian record but that was only good enough for 4th!! On Tuesday, we again rested before going back to the shopping area, venturing further along the Visci utca but the heat got the better of us. We stopped at the Cyrano restaurant ... read more