things I thought were interesting at 3 a.m.

nospam@example.com (admin) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:11:56 -0500

Stupid insomnia. Finally got sick of laying in bed going crazy so got up and went for a walk down to the Chain Bridge, around Parliament, then back upstream to the bridge bordering on the island. Forgot how much I enjoy climbing on statues and other public edifices in the middle of the night and perching. The photos of the chain bridge were taken from on top of and beneath the supports. Actually had a lot of fun. Tired now, but still not quite ready to sleep. I might not sleep at all today. Some days it's like that.

[cincopa 10487026]

floating in a Danube dream

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:57:24 -0500

Wow. Lucked into a lovely boat tour of the Danube and its bridges, accompanied by one of the better buffets I've ever been treated to. Goodness gracious, but it's good to be me.

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After dark it got a bit difficult to take pictures what with the lack of light, the moving boat, and the rain. Not to mention six glasses of wine. Nothing daunted, I clicked away anyway. These remind me of some of my better acid trips back in the day.

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Best. Vacation. Ever.

adventures in grocery getting

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:05:43 -0500

Got hungry so started wandering. Stumbled into a grocery store by accident. Score!

The cheese, yogurt & meat aisles were amazing. Dairy and meat in general were super interesting. I'm a total milk junkie and apparently all the milk around here comes in antiseptic packs, which is kind of weird. I had some last night from the gas station and I didn't like it, but that often applies to gas station milk. The produce section was nice and had lots of selection for being as small as it was. Very impressive.

You can tell that wine is important, as there were two full aisles devoted to its sale, as well as another row to beer and soda stuffs. Also impressive was the canned fish selection, as well as the fresh meat deli. Kind of makes me wish I had a kitchen. As is, I managed to pull together a terrific meal on the fly consisting of bread, meat, cheese, and fruit.

Interesting side note on the fruit - they turned me back at the checkout and made me go back to the produce department to get my banana and nectarine weighed and labeled. Not speaking a lick of English or Hungarian between us made this communication particularly challenging, but I figured it out eventually and left the store with a deep feeling of satisfaction for having successfully navigated the Budapest grocery.

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And the food? All very yummy. Food is good.

bitching in Budapest

nospam@example.com (admin) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:03:06 -0500

Left home at 3:00 o'clock Saturday morning. Don't usually go to bed until 1:00 or 2:00 anyway so stayed up Friday night. Flew out around 6:30 from San Francisco. Got about an hour of sleep on the plane before I woke up to the distinct feeling of blood running down my thighs, and not for the last time. I think I broke records for soiling my undies on this stupid trip. I haven't bled on myself so much in, well, ever. One of the hardest periods I've ever had with very limited abilities to do anything about it. Embarrassing, humiliating, and aggravating all at once. Color me red and completely unthrilled to be a woman.

Time starts getting foggy about the time we hit JFK in New York for a five hour layover. Promptly got separated. He went to look at timetables and I bee-lined for the restroom. Got out and he was nowhere to be found. Our flight to JFK had been going to Istanbul, so I somehow got it in my head that that's where we were heading so off I went to Gate 7 to wait for him. About an hour later I gave up and went back to look for him near the restroom. Sure enough, he was right where I'd been looking for him in the first place. The sleep deprivation was really starting to kick in at this point.

Five hour layover at JFK then an impossibly long ride across the ocean. Got the middle row so was completely impossible to sleep. Completely. Not fucking kidding. I can't sleep sitting up. I have to curl up on my side. Period. Meanwhile, Mr. Happy slept soundly next to me for pretty much the entire trip. But I didn't want to kill him or anything. Smug, well rested sonofabitch; I can't remember the last time I've resented someone so much.

It's 11:00 AM Sunday morning when we arrive in Budapest. The taxi ride was uneventful and I was struck by how not very different things were here. Everywhere we go, American music is playing. The cars drive on the right side of the road, although there is a white line in the middle of the road instead of a yellow, making it impossible for me to tell which roads were one-ways and which had oncoming traffic. Of course, the oncoming traffic made that pretty clear pretty quickly. The roads are a bit on the narrow side, too. I'm just happy I'm not driving.

So, um, yeah. The last time I remember sleeping is Thursday night. I've bled through my keeper and panties five or six times and I'm so tired I can't see straight and I'm starting to hallucinate. By all means, let's go tour the fucking city. Asshole. Did I mention that I hated his well rested ass for a day or so there? Needless to say, Sunday was not a happy day. Saw some cool shit but really couldn't muster the enthusiasm or energy to care.

[cincopa 10486941]

Moving right along, I got some sleep Sunday night. Thank god. Lots of sleep. Luckily, the forced march through the city the day before had pretty much pushed all remaining blood out of my body and into my poor panties, so that issue more or less resolved itself. Nothing like getting your period over in 2 days flat. Men. I hate them all right now.

Where was I? Oh yes, Monday. Monday was good. Refreshed, energized, and relatively cramp free; I was ready to explore. Good fucking thing, too, cuz I had no choice. There are an awful lot of hills here. Steep ones at that. Lots of stairs. But worth it. At the top of these particular stairs was a park. The first thing I found was the Philosopher's garden. Ah yes, Monday was definitely a reset point. This made me very happy. There were statues for Abraham, Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tze, and some Egyptian looking character who from behind looked like a 1950's housewife complete with bouffant hairdo. Very strange. There were also spots for Ghandi, Saint Francis, and the Bhodi Dharma. There were signs explaining why their statues were gone, but I couldn't read them. Anyone here speak Hungarian to translate? All I can make out is that something happened in April of 2007 and that money is somehow involved (the forint is the local currency).

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Further up the hill were more statues, these ones in miniature. I've never seen so many statues in my life as I have here. I love it. They are everywhere. This diorama was particularly interesting as it seemed to tell some epic tale of love, longing, and separation; as well as some cataclysmic world changing event which caused a rift in the world and between the man and woman. I wish I knew the story, but I don't mind wondering, either. Food for the imagination, and a wonderful presentation.

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At the top of the hill above the park was the Citadel, a fortress and hotspot for the last days of World War II. The history is a bit confusing, but it seems like Russia and Germany were basically fighting for the territory. Russia eventually won and promptly put up statues of communist victory everywhere. When Hungary broke away from communism, instead of destroying the statues, they moved them all into a special park as a memorial to communist ambition. I hope to visit later in the week.

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It was the first time I'd ever been in a World War II museum. It was rough. I never cared much for history, but this was real life, lived by real people. The pictures made me cry. Especially the children. War is so senseless, so insane, and so close. We are not above it, nor far removed. We create war and destruction today because we don't know, we don't care, we don't understand the horror. We've never seen it. We are spoiled, us Americans. Spoiled, blind, and arrogant. Meanwhile,we blithely destroy entire civilizations to better our bottom line. Civilizations with people. People like us. People who die. People who have children. Children that die. And for what, and why?

[cincopa 10486946]

Moving right along, we wandered the ramparts and grounds of the fortress, taking pictures of the ever present statuary and fooling around on the anti aircraft guns on the grounds. Nothing like sitting in a rusty chunk of heavy metal to put you in the place of the desperate soldiers futilely trying to defend their home. Apparently, the Citadel was supposed to be an anti aircraft defense station, but it didn't really work out that way. The few guns they had were ineffective and they never managed to install more.

Back down the hill, we walked across one of the many bridges over the Danube and hopped a trolley to take us a bit downstream. That's one thing I really love about this place. The public transportation system rocks, and is well used. We bought a weekly pass, which gets us on any form of public transportation we want, including the subway, buses, and trolleys/trams Â? all of which run every ten minutes or so. Very nice. You can get anywhere on public transportation here, and quickly, too. I have yet to see an empty bus, train, or trolley. In fact, it's often standing room only.

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Oh, that brings me to one of the better parts of yesterday. Actually, all of yesterday was just freaking incredible. I loved yesterday, especially in comparison to the day before, which I shall forthwith refer to as Â?mad MondayÂ?, cuz I was. Oh yes, but one of the highlights of my day was being able to help a fellow traveler. He was on the bus and I was kind of staring at him because I thought he was really hot. He came up to the front asking which doors to use for what and where to pay. We got off the bus at the station and I showed him where to go and how to get a ticket. It feels good to help people. Especially cute ones.

Had a lovely lunch on a boat on the banks of the Danube. The food was wonderfully rich and just downright decadent. Food here is kind of a crapshoot, but when it's good, it's amazing. Even when it's something I don't like, it's still amazing, and luckily there's two of us so it's pretty much a guarantee that one of us will enjoy it. Like I discovered that I do not like Roquefort salad dressing, but he does. I have difficulties with certain strong cheeses, while I love others. Like I said, it's a crapshoot. But I like to experiment and try new things, which makes traveling a delightful experience. Like an army, I travel on my stomach. It's all about the food tourism, baby...

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I kept seeing this awesome castle looking thing built into the side of a mountain and we finally got to go inside. It turned out to be a church, built into a cave. Wow. I wish I'd gotten better pictures, but pictures alone just can't convey the peace and tranquility of that cool, dark place. Curves and hollows and lamps and saints all mixed together to make a truly unique setting to worship. It's hard not to feel loved by god when enveloped in the embrace of the solid, unmoving earth. Fucking fantastic.

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So, after an amazing day of historical, culinary, and religious stimuli; we were able to wind down and relax in a world famous Turkish bath. Dear god, but that was wonderful. I love to soak, and public baths are like a gift from heaven. These had less jets and cooler pools than the ones I visited in Taiwan, but the pools were bigger and they had several sauna rooms, which were intense. I found that I could tolerate the sauna better after immersing myself in one of the ice water pools first for a few minutes, but I still found it difficult to breathe deeply through my nose because the heat burned the living hell out of my nasal passages. So I settled for short, shallow breaths.

All in all, 'twas a wonderful day. Only problem was, it never really ended. Got back to the hotel last night. He went to bed after checking his email then I tried to upload some photos to FaceBook. The first small batch went well, but then it failed on me three times after that. Then I got into chat conversations with my mom and ex boyfriend and the next thing I know, it's five o'clock in the morning again. Fuck. Thank god he's in a meeting today and I can pretty much just fuck off on my own time. Let's hear it for leisure. I think I'll go back and see if the maid is done making up the room so I can get online and post this bad boy. With pictures. That should use up a couple more hours. I just wish the internet cable reached all the way to the bed. I could use a nap.

Oh shit. Skip that. I forgot that I had a final to do and classes to register for. Yikes. Fuck me running.

Health & Happiness - Travel

things I thought were interesting at 3 a.m.

floating in a Danube dream

adventures in grocery getting

bitching in Budapest