Vienna (hardly) and Bratislava

As I write this the sun is coming up over the little village of Durnstein in Germany.  Not sure that I will have a link to photos for you by the time I need to grab breakfast and run as they are uploading from my camera in the background.  And the ship’s cellular internet connection does not seem to like long heavy data transfers.

Yesterday I had a morning in Bratislava and then some walking around in Vienna.  Geri took a recovery day.  She made need another for at least part of today.  Luckily, we just have a couple of hours of free time in the village, which should be more than enough and which she could skip, then some motoring up river to connect with a bunch of our fellow passengers who are biking 50km to a monastery where we will meet them.  Supposed to be spectacular.  Then bus to a castle overlooking the ship to watch the sun go down.

Bratislava is very twee, heavy on the tourist stuff.  I wandered off on my own to find a stamp to send to an elderly relative and had a fine time in a beautiful old post office until an unpleasant security guard stopped me.

I also found a monument to, I think but have not yet translated the inscription, the Red Army soldiers who liberated the city.

Beer there is cheaper than pop and water so I could be persuaded to put up with some twee-ishness for a while.  I tested what our guide told us by having a real Budweiser, not the US beer but the real one.  True.

The only Vienna find this quick trip was a growshop.  Like make your own wine stores at home.  They sell you seeds or seedlings and then you own your marijuana plants but they grow them for you.

No push on re. the Vienna stop as Geri’s sister Lorrie and her partner Duke now live there so we will be back.  They came for a tour of the ship and drinks the night before last.  Very nice of the staff to agree to all that and we had a fine time.

Quick thoughts on the river cruise so far. Luxurious and the boat all good but the organized tour part of the package is starting to wear. Want a nap? Set your alarm because there is a briefing you need to make. Line up here, march there.  Too much structure to it. Some traditional fun fades too. So normally if going on my own to Bratislava I would have spent enough time with some Slovak language podcasts to be able to say hello, ask for help, understand how much money I was being asked to pay for lunch and enough to order the lunch. But I have been made lazy by the prospect of marching off across the city behind our flag - bearer with my receiver around my neck.

Also a more than usually isolating way to travel. Like renting apartments, it denies you interaction with hotel staff or better yet B&B owners for their interpretations or takes or explanations, or even the chance to sample local foods etc.

Final nail in the coffin:  we are used to spending roughly a week in any one place we visit. This constant movement not us I think. No 'feel' develops. As much as we are kidding ourselves that we become part of a city, a week or two gives us a chance to get a good sense of a neighbourhood if not a city ; chance to winkle out some unusual spots, often bars :-) , and get people to talk to you a little more openly.

I think Geri is headed to the same conclusions. But in any event we couldn't ever afford this again so a bit moot I suppose.  It is HORRENDOUSLY expensive.

Vienna Photos HERE and Bratislava HERE.

Budapest Postcard #1

So, Budapest.  

We had a great time.  Are having.  One day left on our own before we check-in on the river cruise ship and then one day here with the cruise ship folks.  But a great time from the start.

The sepecial services guy here at Franz Liszt was the best so far.  Hard on me as I had to keep up but he is the Niki Lauda of wheelchair-pushers.  And not only did he grab our luggage off the carousel but he barged right to the fron of the taxi line and got us a cab in seconds.  Wish I had his name and photo.

Taxi driver a bit distressed by the weight of our luggage but he managed to sort out his trunk.  Was hugely apologetic that he couldn’;t get us to the door of our hotel because the square it is on (and which our room looks out over) was being re-done.  I thought he was going to cry.

On arrival or not long after we connected with Geri’s sister Lorrie and her partner Duke.  Duke just started a job with the International Atomic Energy Agency and works out of UNO City in Vienna.  Lorrie retired a few years ago (but doesn’t look it I should add) and so is looking forward to getting out and about.

Photos of Lorrie and Duke in (mostly) Pest HERE.  And of the river cruise we took with them HERE.

Striking are the number of monuments to the victims of the Nazis and the martyrs of that period, like Raoul Wallenberg.  Sometimes it seems as though there’s a statue of somebody on one corner, a plaque to someone else on another and to walk from one to the other you step on or pass a couple of Stolpersteins (brass bricks that replace paving stones outside the homes of victims of the Nazis).

But, oddly, not much regarding the victims of Hungary’s homegrown fascists, The Arrow Party.  I think it fair to saythat it was far closer to the Nazi end of the fascist spectrum rather the Italian Fascisti or the Spanish Falange.  Which is to say closer to genocidial than simply murderous.  There’s a monument in Liberty/Freedom (translated different ways) Square to the victims of the German Nazis but it is papered over (almost) with protests that it doesn’t mention the victims of Arrow.

Photos of Freedom/Liberty Square HERE.

I’ve raved about our hotel (actually a brasserie with rooms as the elegant and attentive maître d’hotel keeps reminding me) elsewhere.  But just in case you missed it: see photos for the room we had.  E91 on weeknights.  Rooms without a balcony overlooking the square aare E69.  The food was not just very, very good (as I write this we have just finished two bowls of goulash and a shared plate of calf’s liver pate with caramelized onions soaked in a balsamic reduction for lunch) but very reasonably priced.  Accompanied by a glass of a really nice red and a half litre of a really nice white.  All for less than we paid a couple of days ago when we succumbed and had fish and chips, eight wings and two beers for lunch when desperate and in a touristy area.

Hotel photos HERE and food and drink photos HERE.

A not so nice but fun red was to be had in a much different but equally interesting context at Boroso, not far (50m) from our rooms.  A post-punk resiliently punk dive.  Lovely.  Only wish we had found it sooner.  Customers all 60-ish men rode hard and put away wet as Ken Barger would say. But the music the bartender playing could be described as 'what if the B-52s had been Hungarian and had a recording studio on the back of a scooter?'. Why did we only find this place on our second to last day when the last day is packed schedule - wise?

Photo of Boroso HERE.  Look for the one in which my wine is being served.

The Great synagogue impressive.  Even sad/ironic in the design.  One of the reasons I wanted to see it is because it is in many ways modelled on a Catholic church.  Reflecting the Jewish community’s integration.  Just before Arrow and the German Nazi’s packed they up and sent them off to the camps.

This synagogue was at the centre of the ghetto the Nazis created and when the Red Army liberated the city and the ghetto from starvation the synagogue became the only one anywhere to have a burial ground within it as 2800+ starvation victims were buried in mass graves there.  Most of the Jewish population of the city died in the camps.  Today there are only about 80,000 still resident.

Great Synagogue photos HERE.

There is also the quite moving Holcaust Memorial on the grounds.  A tree with thousands of silver leaves, each with a name of the Budapest Jewish community who died in the Holocaust.

Holocaust Memorial photos HERE.

Other than walking around and stopping in here and there, which we did a lot of, the only touristy thing we did aside from the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour (always a good way to get oriented we find) was a trip out to Memento Park.  A municipal park where statues from the Communist era are taken and displayed.   Memento Park a lot of fun. Collected monuments of and collectively to the sculptural expressions of class collaboration between the working class and a nascent national bourgeoisie.

Photos of it HERE.

Photos of the Metro you can use to get there, and some of its older, classic stations, HERE.

Again, it was odd to have no mention of the fascist period.  Almost as though the current rightward shift in Hungarian politics, including the rise of a fascist militia and an increase in the number of attacks on Roma and Jews (sound familiar?) is part of the context.

I sighted a Dink in Budapest!!!

Manhole covers here really quite pretty and ornate and well-engineered (hinged rather than pop-off) manhole covers here.  I know it seems goofy but they are evidence of an attention to design and civic aesthetics.  Most North American covers are big plain slugs.  Here, lovely things but also way more practical.  Evidence of care.

Get a sense of what I am geeking-out about HERE.

Otherwise, lots of walking and eating and drinking and much pleasure.

Not quite Vienna but then nowhere near as expensive either.

All the Budapest photo albums, including the one of photos taken randomly as we walked, in one place can be found HERE.  There you’ll also see some images of things I haven’t mentioned.  Things like political stickers and billboards, the Terror Museum and a few other things.

To come: an account of our guided tour of the Parliament building tomorrow morning, checking into/onto the cruise boat and a comparo of a Budapest hamam with an Istanbul hamam.

Then off up the Danube.

Budapest Hotel Gets a Rave

The Gerlóczy - Rooms de Lux is actually a cafe/brasserie with rooms above.  Not, strictly speaking, a hotel.  

It came to our attention, inevitably, via The Lonely Planet.  Top-rated in the budget hotel class.  Wonderful old restored place.  In great shape, all the systems work.  The photos will tell most of the tale.

Food and drink-wise a nice selection of Hungarian at very reasonable prices.  A tourist trap meal one night cost us marginally less for a lot less wine and for food of noticeably lesser quality.  And for fewer courses too I think.

Great location, in Pest in the Jewish Quarter.

Hard to find a bad word to say about it other than the lack of an in-room coffee maker (the cafe only opens at 0800).

Feast your peepers on a reasonably-priced delight HERE.

A Day in Marseille

I really like this city.  Especially the grittier bits.  The garment district and what is left of the old-Old Port area (most has been gentrified).  Haven't been able to get out to the banlieu yet, but next time.

I say 'gritty' but as with elsewhere in France the level of public services is quite high and the city is very clean and tidy.  Not Monaco of course.  :-)


We wandered the better part of the day after lucking into one of the express trains and so getting from station to station in about 30 minutes.  The Aix station about a 15-20 minute walk from our apartment.

The memorial for the two young women stabbed to death at the St. Charles rail station two days ago a solemn way to start our visit.  Photos of it HERE and HERE.

After wandering around we stopped for a couple of beers and a rest.  It reminded me of why I like the city so much.  Tunisian and Algerian Arabic (a contrast with the harsher Egyptian Arabic we're far more likely to run into at home) or French with an Arabic accent.  Great cheap food...great and often adventurously-placed graffiti...The other thing I like is the city-wide enthusiasm for serving beer so cold it has to be on the verge of becoming slush.

Photos HERE.

Photos of May Day 2015 HERE.

Tomorrow mostly about doing a few chores (laundry mostly) and saying goodbye, trying to eat as much of what we have in the fridge and on the counter.  Thursday at 1600 we head to the Comfort Inn near the airport so that early Friday we can catch our flight to the Munich Lufthansa biz class lounge and thence to Budapest.  We should be checking into our hotel about 1700.  Geri's sister and her husband recently moved to Vienna and they will be joining us for the weekend.

After that a couple of days on our own and then the Danube cruise.

Aix Postcard #4 (and the kindness of strangers)

Cassis was very pretty.  While still way, way more touristy than Aix (and I think more than Nice, though Geri disagrees).  We found a café right on the harbor for nibbles and beer.  Fabulous old place well-kept or restored.  See the photos of the bar and the brass beer taps.

See especially the photos of the pissoir.  A great tiled, spotlight wonderful spot outside the kitchen on the way to the toilet with swinging doors as in an American saloon.

We had two very long days there, taking the train to Marseille and changing for Cassis.  About 1.5 hours one day and a little over 2 another.

Lovely trains.  Annoying most built by Bombardier while the trains at home are uncomfortable noisey antiques in comparison, much as I love them.

Highlights of Cassis for us were a picnic on the beach, a beer in café overlooking the beach and using our camera. We also did a boat tour of the calanques, kinda like small fjords along the coast nearby.  Nice enough but our memories of Newfoundland and Labrador are still pretty fresh so there wasn’t any real wow factor there for us.

Speaking of which, Cassis did kinda make us think of tropical St. Pierre with a lot more tourism.  But underneath the cafes etc I am not certain it is much prettier.  Warmer, for sure though.  😊

Geri would highly recommend Cassis to anyone.  I’m not quite so enthused but on a sunny day…or week for that matter…I can see myself dividing my time between a few cafes, the beach and wandering the back streets (a very pleasant surprise).

Photos of Cassis and a few of Marseille and the trips to and from are HERE. 

The kindness of strangers. Geri in a bit of difficulty when we got to the stop for the bus to the Cassis rail station after our first day there. Another bus was at the stop and the driver I chatted with about the rail station bus schedule (45 minutes to wait) was on his break.  He watched me try to get a taxi. When either his departure time came up and he had no passengers or because he had enough time before his departure time (he wouldn't be specific) he urged us to get on his bus and took us straight to the station.  No charge he said because he couldn't charge for rides not on his route.  Nicer than nice.  Also kinda fun to be chauffeured around as the only passengers on a city bus.  😊

We try to check in at our bar, the PTT, at least every second day.  With about a week left here we are treated if not like regulars at least like regular tourists.  Didn’t take long for things to get back to the way they were we were last left here after a couple of weeks.  Last night we, after getting back from Cassis, paid our tab, drank up and made a move to leave when we were handed two drinks on the house and more nibbles in an effort to get us to stay.

I want to live here.

We are off to Budapest on Thursday.  Well, the Marseille airport Comfort Inn on Thursday.  Budapest early Friday morning via the Munich Lufthansa business class lounge.  😊

I am hoping to get in a day in Marseille if the weather, currently raining on and off, gets a bit better but if that doesn’t happen there will no news until Budapest.  Which I think is at UTC+7 (we’re at +6 now) so apologies for the increasingly disjointed Facebook and e-mail conversations.