The gaping mouths of budapest...

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I have not written because i have been on a train

forever

and in greece
seeing things i saw before but with the fam
seeing them with Peter made me appreciate small travelling groups

highlights:
i vomited in a bag with a small hole in it
on the back of the bus on the way to
Delphi

while eating dinner in the crowded
streets of touristy
Plaka
in Athens
a table of Austrian men
sang a beautiful toasting song in three part harmony
i looked over at them and they toasted emphatically
one of them struck up a conversation with us
we talked about colorado mountains
and austrian mountains
and when we mentioned peter's bag was in Newark
the leering austrian
said
"Well, you will go back there to get your bag and leave your girlfriend here and we will look at her."
and that was the end of that

back to meteora
we tromped through the woods
on a well cobbled path
while fighter jets roared overhead

and then the train rides started
we took a train from
kalambaka
to
thessaloniki
and jostled and were jostled in line
to try and get tickets to
istanbul
but there was a week long strike going on
so we quickly changed course to
Bucharest

Istanbul, one day we will get there...

So, we hoped on the Midnight express
had a cabin to ourselves
half a loaf of bread
a jar of peanut butter
some vache qui rit cheese
and sunflower seeds
that was all we ate for the
19 hour train ride
no dining car

bulgaria countryside was gorgeous
with occaisional explosions of trashpiles
fields of sunflowers
and sunflowers
and sunflowers
are they a crop rotater?
such happy ones at that

at the boarders
at some discombobulated hour
the passport agents would bang on the door
and shine flashlights in our
sleepy
squinty
faces

we didn't venture out of the train station
in Bucharest
and got on another night train to
Budapest

and 14 hours later here we are
in Peter's old haunts

a woman approached us at the train station
an apartment nearby for
15 euro
per person
with a bathroom and a kitchen
currently the other room
is full of a middle aged german couple and their bikes

and that's where we're staying
lovely 100 year old building with a courtyard
and wrought iron fillagree everywhere

now we're talking about moving to
Budapest

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