About Budapest-

At temperatures well below 0° Celsius, the Danube River had huge chunks of ice sliding along on it, crashing magnificently against the bridge pilings. This trip to Hungary involved a number of firsts: I watched ‘The Sandlot’ for the first time, John ate his very first green salad, and I finally tried smoking cigarettes first-hand (as opposed to the more common second-hand method I’ve been employing for years in Croatian coffee shops, Seattle concert venues, and ballerina-populated fire escapes and alleyways). Over the space of about 3.5 days spent in the actual city, we benefited from multiple rounds of delicious goulash, Hungarian beer, and pretty darned good coffee-to-go (the ‘to go’ concept hasn’t really caught on yet in Rijeka).
The House of Terror museum- located at the former headquarters the Nazi party and later the Soviet-influenced communist party- was informative and sobering; and various parliamentary and religious structures were beautiful and impressive. All nine of us also enjoyed an enlightening few hours at the Gellert Turkish bathhouse. (No, I’m sorry, I can’t elaborate further- though you can learn more here. Any violation of team norms was unintentional…) In sum, it was fun to explore such a huge and historically rich city, even though it was crazy cold.

Currently listening to: Nada Surf- Let Go