2008 Dan in Budapest (Third Time There)

Long Walk
Budapest was dark and dreary for my first few days there in January, 2008. The buildings are mostly colorless dark grey anyway, but if you add in the fog, the dirty snow (they may use cinders or sand to fight it) and general gloominess, it’s not very pretty. Contrast this with the spectacular beauty in the spring and summer, when the flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, the trees are green, and everything’s clear. Of course I’m making the best of it; I always do.

The first time I had a moment to myself was late Friday afternoon. I took a very long walk – this, after a 12-mile run on Margaret Island, a long walk between offices and a long walk from the office back to the hotel. Today’s latest walk, however, was to a place I hadn’t been before: Andrassy Ut. It’s the main drag through Pest and is a couple miles long. There is a lot of upscale shopping, an opera house, several squares, the house of terror and other sights. I didn’t stop much – I just observed, and moved forward until I finally reached Varosloget, home of Heroes Square and Vajdahunyard Castle, amongst other attractions. I’ll bet nobody even looks “Vajdahunyard” up to make sure I spelled it correctly.

It was just beginning to get dark, and the Square and Castle were being lit up – spectacularly so. I wish my pictures could do them justice. I also saw bunches of ice skaters at the Secession Pavilion. After all this excitement, I took the metro back to the river area.

Danube Bend
With some apprehension about possible rain and snow, I signed on for an all-day tour of the Danube Bend area – several villages north of Budapest where the Danube changes from flowing east to south. The weather turned out just fine with hazy sun, although it was still cold. There were only 15 of us tourists in the van: Aussies, Spaniards, Greeks, Brazilians, and me, the only American.

Our first stop was at a cathedral – the largest, and center of the Catholic Church in Hungary – in the village of Esztergom. From the rear side of the cathedral we had a panoramic view of the Danube. We could see how the river changes course, turning to the south. At this point Slovakia was just on the opposite side. Lunch was in a wine cellar underneath the cathedral.

The second stop was Visigrad, an eleventh century fortress 900 meters above the Danube. The fort itself was in ruins, but here the views were even more spectacular than those of Esztergom. There was much more snow and cold at this elevation, but we somehow survived.

Our final stop was the village of Szentendre, which is almost all the way back to Budapest. The village appears semi-medieval, and quite colorful in contrast with the muted colors of Budapest. I learned that it was settled by Greeks, and this explains some of the differences. We had some time there, so I explored quite a bit.

Exploring On Foot
When I’m in a new place, I usually explore a great deal by running, often returning to interesting areas later to explore more fully. I was clued into the good place to run in Budapest (Margaret Island) right from the start, and I’ve hardly run anywhere else. It’s great for running, and the other areas pale by comparison. But on low-traffic Sunday I decided to explore more, and I managed to see some areas that were new to me. The most important of these is Obudai Island. It’s north of Margaret Island, and tougher to get to. Much of it was deserted, and there was ice on the paths and even the roads. I turned back but then found a second bridge onto the island and found a small village at that part. I hadn’t heard of this island until the previous day, but I think it will be more important to Budapest in the future as it will be developed much more. 70% will be left as a park however.

Later on that Sunday I did more exploring by walking. I walked mostly to places I’d been to before; but even so it was good to see the changing of the guard at the presidential palace once again.

Other than a lot more running and walking, that was pretty much it for this trip. My walks back from the office often took me through the central market, which is always interesting. I also walked into some extremely old churches - also always interesting. One other thing: the wishing tree. At least that's what I call it. Lori told me about a tree on Margaret Island where if you place your hands on it and make a wish, it'll come true. There are lots of trees on that huge island, but I did find one that sort of matched her description (it's near a convent), so I put my hands on it. We'll see if it all comes true.

2008 Florida - Marco Island

We arrived to Beth and Ed’s place late in the evening, as planned. It was about 12:30am by the time we got there and dropped Mom off. Luckily, the flights had gone well, and there’d been no snafus with the luggage or car rental. After staying the night at the fancy-looking, but not-really-so-wonderful Best Western Admiral’s Inn, we met Beth, Ed and Mom at IHOP, and then said goodbye. It was off to Marco Island.

The 3-hour drive down there wasn’t too bad. The check into our condo was extremely confusing – we received 5 keys and at least 10 pages of instructions. And that was just with the rental agency - we still had to register with “the building” for a parking permit (and another $20 fee). One more complaint, and then I’m done. It’s about a half-mile walk to the beach. Actually, that’s a lie. It’s a one-foot walk to the beach. It’s just a half-mile walk to the water. Ok – enough complaining.

I did want to get those toes in the sand right away, so we managed to make the long trek. It really ain’t that bad; it’s actually kind of fun. But.. What to do for New Year’s Eve? How ‘bout a take-home-and-bake pizza from Winn Dixie? Debbie wasn’t thrilled, but we managed. Some people had fireworks on the beach, but I couldn’t make it till midnight. Maybe that had something to do with staying up till 1am the night before. It did enable me to get a good night’s sleep and to get up and do a long run the next day.

Besides the long walk to the ocean, there’s an estuary – an inlet – that’s much closer. It turns out to be miles long, and impossible to completely circumnavigate. Dave and I did discover that you can wade across the thing. And speaking of the beach, I ran the length of it today – all 5+ miles of it. All the time I was getting battered by the extreme wind. There is a myriad of shells on the island, but of course I would up carrying some, including a large conch during part of my run. That’s not all I carried: a pair of flip-flop sandals for Debbie, a Frisbee, a boogie board, and a large, heavy coconut. I had stashed the boogie board and Frisbee, but I did carry the coconut for 2 miles. I thought Dave would consider it a challenge to crack it open, but we never managed to do so.

On another walk, Dave and I observed a fascinating sight: dolphins were on the hunt. We spotted several of them circling what must have been a school of fish. At a couple points in time, the fish went bonkers and were flying up out of the ocean. That must have been their best attempt at escape from being eaten.

Those tremendous winds had brought a big change in the weather. Whereas it had been well into the 80s when we arrived New Year’s Eve, it rained some on New Year’s Day, and turned much colder (40s and 50s) along with the wind, on the 2nd. It was even colder that night – a near record 30F.

Since it wasn’t exactly beach weather, we went to Everglades Gardens in Bonita Springs, a sort-of nature center/garden/zoo. We saw plenty of gators and American crocks, along with Florida Panthers and all kinds of birds and snakes. Did you know that the endangered Florida Panther is the largest cat that purrs? They are trying to breed them with pumas - necessary because the gene pool is too depleted with only 50 animals remaining. Only concern: the pumas are much more agressive. Debbie and Carol got to shop till they dropped at Best of Everything – a costume jewelry store.

The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was a highlight. There was a 2.25 mile boardwalk through swampy wetlands, including a bald cypress forest. There is abundant wildlife there; we saw plenty of interesting birds.

The Edison/Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers was also interesting. There is a lot to see and experience there, and the gardens are nice, but IMHO, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village are much better.

We hung around the beach for the last day, but it never got warm enough (after that first day) to really enjoy it. We did do a lot of walking, and enjoyed watching the birds, especially the pelicans. And did I mention the shells? More than you can imagine. More in one square foot than *all* of Shell Island (off PCB). There are areas where there are mounds of nothing but shells, a couple feet high, several feet wide, and several hundreds of yards long. Hard to believe.

Too bad Dave, and especially Debbie were under the weather for this trip. And too bad the weather wasn't warmer and sunnier. We still had a few interesting experiences.