Eurojournal - 10 August 2006

We toured Budapest in the daytime. Last time we were here we were severely jetlagged and it was night. So it was nice to see the city now. What a gorgeous city. I think this is one of my favorites. The buildings are pristine and the people are generally nice here. We found a little enclave with cafes and trees. The kids and I stopped and looked at this crazy bull sculpture. I had no idea what the story was with it. It reminded me of the random pigs in Seattle. Every now and again while walking through the city we came across a lifesized pig in different painted colors. It was an art exhibit. In Budapest it was the same. The first bull we came across was red with locks on it, the second was painted green like a watermelon and had a slice taken out of it. That was at the entrance of the chain bridge. Then we saw two while on the bus.

We crossed he chain bridge over to Buda. The Danube divides the city into Pest and Buda. The Buda side is on a hill and beautiful. Pest is also nice but more of the busy part of the city. We didn’t have enough time to explore Buda so hopefully we can in December. We ot around fine without getting lost. I felt so much more comfortable this time around. While I don’t really know Hungarian, the sounds and letters are familiar. I recognize a few words here and there and know some basic survival words.

It was time to meet our ride to the airport to go to Brussels. I was excited (and a bit nervous) about this as they speak French there. The flight was easy and our ride was there for us as we came out of the airport. It was a radically different place than where we have been. Far more rich, far more organized, far more upscale, far less friendly. Our taxi driver was dressed in a suit and drove a brand new Volvo. Brussels (actually Charleroi- about 50km south of Brussels) reminded me of Washington DC. We made it to the motel I booked. That was creepy. The woman at the front desk was rude. But hey I was happy that we could communicate in French and we were leaving at 7am for Paris the next morning.