We came here two days earlier for us to get over the jet lag so when we do join the ship on Monday we will at least be awake for most of the day. When we first arrived here we thought, in one of our more 'awake' moments that we may do some serious sightseeing.
Breakfast this morning for us, in the hotel, was a two hour affair during which we discussed what to do today. Some of the suggestions were quite extensive and impressive. After breakfast we went back to the room to clean up and use the WC. Suddenly I hit the wall and had to lie down, that was at 9:00 in the morning, oddly enough, two hours past our normal 'bed time' at home.
Shortly after Fellette and Moe staggered in and laid down. Five hours later I woke up, as Fellette. Oddly enough this was about the time we wake up at home! (This jet lag is a killer for us.)
We got cleaned up and went for a walk, ending up in a grocery store where we picked up a few consumables.
The streets here are far from appealing, litter and cigarette butts are everywhere, as are abandoned beverage containers, both plastic and glass.
Alcohol prices are very cheap here, for us; a gin and tonic is $1.75, a cider $1.00, a good bottle of wine is $7.00. Now I have no idea of the wages here, but they must be very low, so that $1.00 beer can still be expensive to a native.
Apparently Hungarians have the third highest rate of alcoholism in the world, and I figure that they will all eventually die from lung cancer as everyone seems to smoke.
To me, there appears to be a great many Hungarian women, all fashionably dressed, in groups of other suitably attired women, all smoking! They are mostly quite attractive who have not yet acquired that stereotype image of squat, husky, of peasant-looking appearance. The young men appear to be more casually dressed, more rough in appearance and tying to project the image of 'I am Macho and women like my scruffy appearance'. Tell me Doug, do you have opinions or not?
Dinner tonight, our last in the hotel, consisted of pizza for the girls and a Gyro for Doug. I walked across the street and picked it up and took it to the room. That, and a little Hungarian wine, bought earlier, was our big night out in Budapest.
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I am doing the blog with an iPad and there is the likelyhood of many more errors in the blog. Even more than usual, if you can believe that!
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Did you know, or remember, that Hungary sided with Germany in WWII? They were also very rough on Jews. The Hugarians ran into tough times when the Russians swept west and occupied the country, treating Hungarians as their enemy after a very tough battle for Budapest. They remained under the heel of the Russians for another 45 or so years. The Russians only began leaving Hungary in about 1990.
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In the Airport.
Our driver and van A nine-passenger Mercedes.
We had a light dinner in the Corinthia Hotel, a five-star hotel in downtown Budapest
Moe and Fellette in the lobby.
Previously the Royal Hotel, built in the late 1800's.
A bit Grand, and very empty.
We had a two bedroom suite in an annex, very nice, and peaceful in the garden.
Weather was very nice.
A Hungarian called Rubic invented the cube.
Lobby display.
Hungarian Post box.
Grand old buildings.
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