European Vacation 2005

Budapest & Family

Only 10 more days of my vacation left. At least that's how I thought of it just before leaving Budapest for Transylvania. I know I'm pretty lucky - very few people can travel for 7 weeks out of the year. So somehow having just 10 days to go seems like I have precious little vacation ahead.

I just left my father and distant cousin at Budapest's Nyugati train station. They saw me to my first class car, and wished me safe journey through Romania. But first class is a relative term. In this case it means sharing a small room with six people instead of eight.

My time in Hungary was understandably different than the rest of my trip. My cousin Adam is here; he and his girlfriend spent most of the week with my father and I. We did very little sightseeing, except for a quick trip to Vienna, since my father and I saw most of historic Budapest last year. No, we just ate and hung out mostly. I only went out dancing one night - I think I needed this week to recover from my more than a month straight of clubbing.




ONE CRAZY DAY WITH MY COUSIN
Adam is a distant cousin. His father Paulie was my grandmother's cousin. Unfortunately both my grandmother and Paulie died over this last year. My cousin is a great guy; he is just 23, and took over his father's security business since his death.

A few days ago my father had a trip to the suburbs planned, where he would meet a childhood friend. I asked Adam if he would take me to Statue Park, where all the remaining Soviet Statues rest since the Hungarians became free of Moscow's influence. He agreed but had some business in the morning, so he picked me up early - 8:30am.

My father had been asking me to take some photographs of the Hotel Gelert, where we were staying, but I had been procrastinating. I knew I had to do it in the morning if I expected them to look good. And the following morning we were all scheduled to go to Vienna, so it was now or never. I got up at 7:30; quickly shot about 20 photos; grabbed a couple eggs at the buffet, and met Adam out front.

The following photos are not the ones I took that day - still need to be sorted out from my big camera.

My Bedroom

My Bathroom

My View


Dad's View

The details about Adam's morning business were not made entirely clear to me the evening beforehand, and they only became slightly moreso as he explained in the morning. Like the majority of hungarians in their native country, his command of the english language is limited. But it had improved substantially from last year. What I did get is that we were picking up his best friend, Zoltan.

It was still before 10am, so the three of us traded just a few words on the way to a mall outside the city center. It seemed we were early, but for what I still didn't know; so Zoltan and I each grabbed a half-liter of hungarian beer. After all, it was noon somewhere. Then the two of them tried to explain what was going on.

It seems Zoltan and his brother work for a "firm" which loans money. And one of their borrowers was 4 months late returning the principal and interest. He had been delaying and delaying, and now he was supposed to bring 400,000 forint ($25,000) to the mall and give it to Zoltan. After hearing this, I started to picture Zoltan as some loan shark enforcer. Who collects loans at the mall, anyway?

After we got our second round, the "mark", showed up. Zoltan jumped up and headed out. When he came back to the table he was pissed. The guy gave him only 200,000 ($10,000). After further discussion, things seemed a little more legitimate. Maybe he wasn't an enforcer after all.

SOVIET STATUES
After the money had been collected, we finished our beer and headed to Statue Park. Zoltan and I grabbed a couple more beers on the way. The park was a little disappointing. There was just one statue of Lenin and no Stalin. We walked around; I took a few pictures, and we blew.

MARGARET ISLAND
Budapest is really two cities: On one side of the River Danube is Buda, and on the other is Pest. And in the vicinity, the river cuts a swath of land called Margaret Island. After Statue Park, Adam suggested we go there, since I had never been. When we go there, it was stuffed with people. Mostly families and couples enjoying the sun. This is where people went to escape the overbearing summer heat in Budapest.

We grabbed a bit more beer and rented one of those 4-seat pedal cars. Adam would steer, since he was the sober one, and we pedaled around the island. At some point somebody thought I should drive. We should have warned the entire island - I was a hazard. By late afternoon we were tired; we exited the island.

That night Adam planned to make my father & I dinner at his apartment, so Zoltan and I accompanied him to the grocery store, where we made quite a scene. Zoltan even got a phone number - I helped of course.


DINNER AT ADAM'S
After our day, I needed a nap. I caught a few Zs in my room before Adam picked my dad and I up. When we got there Adam threw on the chicken. We called it an evening around 11, so we could get up early for Vienna. We were scheduled to grab the 6am train, which required me to be up by 4:30. Ugh.

NO SLEEP YET THOUGH
Budapest is particularly beautiful at night. I wanted to shoot the city, but of course I didn't get to it until my last night. After Adam dropped us off at the Gellert, I packed my bags. I would be checking out in the morning - no reason to have 2 hotel rooms. Then I grabbed my camera and tripod and zipped out of the hotel.

BAD TIMING
The Gelert is right on the Danube, and some of the most beautiful night shots can be taken from the walkways on either side. So I started down the river. I set up and tore down my gear every time I was inspired to do so. And the shots looked great.

As I walked down some of the more beautiful landmarks were coming into sight - damn these were going to be good. Then, without warning, the lights that lit the outside of all the historic buildings went off. I looked at my watch - exactly 1am. I was too late.

NOT ENOUGH SLEEP
I made my way back to my hotel. But I couldn't sleep. It was just way too hot, and we don't have air conditioning. I watched about an hour of CNN and finally fell asleep.

OFF TO VIENNA
The first thing my dad told me when I got to Budapest was that he wanted to take a quick trip to Vienna with Adam, his girlfriend and me. After just 2 hours of sleep and 4 hours on a train, we arrived. We only had one day to see the highlights, so we started immediately.

Vienna is a gorgeous city. The historic center has an impressive number of old buildings dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We tried to see them all. I tried to shoot them all, but as luck would have it, some wet weather moved in to break the hotspell right in the middle of the day. I got a few shots in, but I missed the best stuff altogether.

After searching relentlessly, we found a decent restaurant, and had a pretty good Austrian dinner, complete with Wiener Schnitzel. And with that we were ready for bed. Our train left Vienna at 10:03am exactly, and we were back in Budapest by 1pm.


DAMN I'M HUNGRY
That brings us back to this train to Romania. Normally I try to eat before boarding a train. You never know if there will be a dining car or if it will be open. But the trains to and from Vienna had the greatest food; somehow I forgot to eat before getting on this one, expecting a great dinner to be waiting onboard.

The train left Budapest at 4pm. We are due in Cluj-Napoca, somewhere in Transylvania, around midnight. I ate breakfast at 11am, but now its 7pm - I'm pretty well ready to eat. I'm hoping the train will make an extended stop somewhere. Then I can hop off and grab something. Of course that is the best way to get stuck somewhere with no clothes.

Oh - and don't worry. I may not have a reservation for a hotel yet, but that should work itself out too. I love travel. :)

posted by Adam Stern @ 9:49 AM