h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At the very least it will make your happy..

*brings a tray of mojitos for the audience then nicks some of Michele's while she's not looking*

Glad to hear that everything was handled so *logically* at the swimming pool.

Those blue shower caps sounded downright disturbing!

Tuesday, August 10 was our last day before departing from Budapest, so a final blowout dinner was scheduled.

We met at 7:30 p.m. in the hotel lobby, to board the bus for a place that our tour guide said translated as "Catacombs of wine" . If left untranslated, the Hungarian name was Budafoki Borkatakombak.
Either way, it was predicted that the staff there would try to get us to drink as much wine as possible.

We were prepared for what was to come: There would be a lot of singing and dancing. There would be a gypsy orchestra, which would consist of lead violin, second violin, cymbals, string bass, and optional flute (there wasn't any flute this time). We would get photographed in gypsy costumes if we wanted to, and our pictures would be put on the label of a souvenir bottle of wine.

In fact, this was a pretty acurate prediction. If they couldn't get us to drink more wine, they compensated by putting wine in most of the food. We started with duck soup (Minus the Marx Brothers), then waited what seemed an interminable time for an entree consisting of roast duck, mashed potatoes, barley, red cabbage, and a few greens. Evidently they had found a duck big enough to serve 60 people, and wanted to serve it to us. Dessert was sponge cake topped with chocolate syrup and whipped cream. If you guessed that the cake was soaked in wine, you are right.

Then came the entertainment. The gypsy dancers and musicians were
lively. I noticed that the manager of the place was also one of the musicians: he played lead violin. Occasionally, members of our group were drafted (or temporarily kidnapped, as these were gypsies) and brought to the stage to participate in dancing or baton twirling or whatever.

A girl in traditional Hungarian folk costumes posed with each of us. Later, the picture of this posing was placed on the label of a bottle of red wine, which we were able to buy for 12 Euros or 2,500 forints
at the end of the show. I bought the bottle with my picture on it, so I could show it to the folks back home.

We arrived back at the hotel somewhat drunk but mostly happy.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

We could sleep late the following morning, as we did not need to get on the bus to the Budapest Airport until 11:00 a.m. I spent my time jotting down some of the things I would miss about Budapest. Since it took me so long to figure out which direction was which, I didn't feel I got to know Budapest as well as I knew the other two cities.
Still, much of what I did see was really nice, except for the pickpockets and the closed bridges.

--I will miss the shopping arcades under each of the major intersections. You can buy drinks, fruit, mags & newspapers. and other necessities there, or just sit in a bar or cafe if the weather outside was too hot or cold for one of the outdoor places.

--English and French are about equally successful if you wanted to communicate with the locals, especially the ones who were selling things you wanted to buy. Since I can manage with both languages, this was rather helpful.

--The Mercure Metropol Hotel. This was the best hotel of the three that we stayed in. The bedspreads, rugs, and sinks were gorgeous, and the rooms were quite a bit bigger. You didn't mind spending time in your room, unlike the rooms at the two other hotels. Some of the staff members were nice, and others didn't mind gouging you for an extra 1,000 forints (or, in the case of a "free" telephone call to an 800 number in the USA, 5,000, which equals US $25.00). We all got taken at least once, but most of us had extra forints that we couldn't spend in the US, nor easily convert anywhere.

--The view along the Duna (Danube) River night or day. The views from the Liberty Bridge (the one that was blocked by the traffic accident) and the Elisabet Bridge (the one I used for a detour) were especially lovely. You can see *most* of the grand buildings from either bridge.

We arrived at the Budapest Airport about noon, having had to go back to the hotel for a missing chorus member, who called our tour guide to say she was taking a taxi to the airport and would meet us there. Whatever.

Our connecting flight to Frankfort left late, but got to the Frankfort airport on time. Our flight from Frankfort to Boston left on time, and got to Logan Airport 50 minutes early. In spite of arriving early, the 7-hour flight seemed like 12 hours. We had 2 lunches, a dinner, and three rounds of drinks. We had TV screens and headphones, so we could see the news, the Flyrobis lessonb, and "Shrek 2".

When we got to Logan, we went through Customs and baggage claims. I took the MBTA to Forest Hills, where a fellow chorus member picked me up and gave me a lift home.

Wow, what a trip! Wouldn't you love to do it all over again, at a more leisurely pace, so you'd have time to see and do things that you missed this time?

Glad to hear you're back safe and sound though!

*gives Paulie a standing , knocking over Michele's in the process*

Welcome home, Paulie! Have a mojito..

I don't want to take your last mojito, Batty.

Yeah, it was a really nice vacation, with very little pressure. I never had to worry about cooking, or dishwashing. The tour guides weren't giving any quizzes about the places we had just visited, so
it was possible to tune out much of what they had to say. We also had the option of skipping many of the sightseeing jaunts. though I only skipped a couple of them. I was curious about a lot of these places.
At the end of the tour, our tour guide said that she had grown fond of us, because we seemed interested in everything, and because we liked to walk a lot. Some of the groups she had had didn/t care about the sights, and preferred to ride everywhere.