Budapest

Budapest and the Danube River - from
the "Buda" (west) side.

Today we visited Budapest, the largest city in Hungary. It was established over 1000 years ago, so there's plenty to see.  The country has been conquered several times, so there's a pretty diverse architecture and history to the place.  We didn't use the excellent parking facility reference in the previous post, but we did tour much of the "Pest side" (east of the Danube river) and some of the "Buda side" (west of the river).  After the balloon event is over we'll have a half day to kill before our flight leaves, so we'll almost certainly spend some additional time there.  Probably the most noteworthy of the sites we saw was St. Stephen's Basilica.  The building is "only" about 100 years old, but is nonetheless beautiful.  Stephen I was the founder of Hungary, ruling from about 997 - 1038.  But the real charm of the Basilica is that his mummified fist is on display there.  It's from about the wrist down, and you can still very much make out the fingers and such.  It was very interesting, but I still don't have any idea why they "kept" just the fist.  At any rate, over the last 1000 years the appendage has moved from country-to-country as various wars and such have taken place.  One interesting note:  The room in which the fist is on display is labeled "No Flash Photography", which you presume is for some sort of preservative reason.  However, when you get close to the display you see the sign that says "200 HUF to turn light on for 2 minutes".  In reality they just want you to pay to take photos.  And of course there's someone stationed there to enforce the rule.
   

Of course we had to eat something in Budapest, and that's where things got really fun.  You might remember that in 2006 we at tacos in Tokyo (click here).  Then in 2008 we made our own Mexican food in Austria (click here).  Today the tradition continued when we found Iguana - La Cantina de Budapest.  Located very near the US Embassy on the Pest side of the river, I think it's the closest thing to Albuquerque we're going to find for a couple weeks. The salsa was quite tasty (spicy!) and my combination plate (Carne Asada Burrito, Carne Asada Enchilada, Carne Asada Taco) was as good as any we've found in Michigan.  Erica had an excellent quesadilla with homemade chorizo (sausage), and Bruce was even able to find a hamburger that was to his liking. Plus there was free WiFi, so we could quickly touch base (via Internet-based text message) with those at home. I know, we haven't even eaten real Hungarian food yet, which we're very much looking forward to. But really, how many times do you have the opportunity to get tacos in Eastern Europe?
  

And here's a video of Paul and Erica trying out a really cool fountain in Budapest:

If the video doesn't play well, click where it says 720p above and change it to 360p.  That will switch from high-def to standard-def, but will help it load faster and play smoother on some computers.

It costs about $100 USD in gas to drive to make the 5-hour round-trip Debrecen to Budapest drive.  That's with a car getting about 23 MPG.  Gas near Budapest is approximately $6.20/gallon USD.

Tomorrow we'll start getting the balloon equipment ready.  We need to wire power inverters and mobile radios into the van, along with getting GPS and radio antennas mounted.  The balloon envelope will be removed from the basket and we'll re-arrange that equipment in the back of the van.  Several of those same tasks need to be performed on the lead-vehicle, which Larry will be arriving with tomorrow afternoon.  It won't be the most interesting day, especially for those not particularly keen on ballooning.  But I'll take some photos anyway.

If you want a great story, ask Owen or Brian Keown about the time they transported an entire gas-powered inflation fan to Europe in their checked baggage.

A practice flight on Friday morning is a definite possibility.

And of course everyone here is thinking about Richard Abruzzo and Carol Rymer-Davis, the two American gas balloon pilots that are currently missing, presumably off the east coast of Italy in the Adriatic Sea. More details are available by clicking here. Please keep them in your prayers.

Tourists

The view out my hotel room window.

After a full 8 hours of sleep and a some showers, today we're going to play tourists. No ballooning, but if you suffer from that ailment you definitely need to be following what's happening elsewhere in Europe.

We'll hop into our shiny Ford S-MAX and drive the 2½ hours back to Budapest.  The train would cost the US equivalent of $50 per person round-trip, so with five of us it will be much cheaper to drive.  The speed limit is 130kph on the highways, which works out to about 81mph.  However we're not interested in getting pulled over (with foreign licenses and non-standard "rental" cars).  It's an very rural drive, as once you leave Debrecen you don't pass through any cities the entire way.  And although there are some 2000'-3000' hills in the distance, the highway itself runs through land that's completely flat - Rantoul flat, for those in ballooning.  In Hungary you drive on the same side of the road and the same side of the vehicle as in the US, so no problems there.  You just have to get used to the different signs.  And our GPS navigators (Garmin Nuvi's) work awesome once the European map cards were installed.  They drove us right to the front door of the hotel.

And we've finally got the hang of the local currency.  Any time I travel internationally I like to come up with a quick way to figure out how expensive something is relative to US currency.  For example, Austria uses the Euro, so in 2008 we multiplied the prices we saw by 1.5 ( €2 = $3 USD).  I don't remember exactly what we did in Japan in 2006. We're not looking for precision, just something to figure out whether you're buying a $2 bottle of water or a $10 bottle of liquid diamonds.  Here the unit of currency is the Hungarian Forint (abbreviated HUF), and the rough conversion formula is to divide by 2, then move the decimal 2 spots left.  So for example, if something costs 300 HUF, that's $1.50 USD.  In general the exchange rate is much more favorable than it was in 2008, so hopefully no more $6 Big Macs and $7.50 gallons of gas.

So here's a very interesting story:  Right after we left Belgium yesterday the country's air traffic controllers walked out - a surprise strike.  All flight operations within the country were suspended - nothing coming or going.  The good news is that by 10:00pm it looked like the issue had been resolved and things should be getting back to normal.  I have no idea what caused the whole thing, and right now it looks like Larry's flights (the same ones we took, just two days later) should be fine.  It's possible other Americans coming over had their itineraries disrupted, but in the end it should all work out fine.

With the absence of Verizon 3G service in Europe I probably be able to update this while we're away from the hotel.  If we come across a free WiFi hotspot in Budapest I may be able to use my phone to post a photo and a little text, but another major update won't happen until we get back (probably no earlier than 2:00pm Michigan time).  However, in the meantime you should click here to watch this video from Budapest, as I can only hope to find something that cool to share.  See it all the way through, it doesn't get really good until about 90 seconds in.