Summer Break: Return to Budapest!

And then we arrived in Budapest, our first return since we spent three-plus months there in late 2019. We'd intended to spend a sabbatical year in Budapest but a short-term job offer (accepted) in Frankfurt cut our time short. We packed so much into our short time there in 2019; it was a gorgeous autumn season and have such fond memories and it was wonderful to go back.  Strangely, so much felt the same, most of our old haunts were still open and there was no huge physical changes, at least in the historic center where we lived and spent much of our time on this trip. The biggest change were the prices; Budapest was quite a good value in 2019, but not as much today, but still cheaper than western Europe. 

We were able to get into our the apartment building where we lived and discovered that our charming pad with a great view of Klauzel park had been split into three Airbnb units; unfortunate but not that surprising. Our favorite cafe, Kisuzem, just 50 meters from our apartment, was still there, absolutely unchanged inside, including two employees who were there in 2019;  we ate there three times.  And we were lucky to discover that the final performance of the season at the nearby Liszt Academy was taking place while we were there and we snagged a few of the last tickets. We attended so many events in that gorgeous historic hall and it was wonderful to be inside one more time. 

Most of my photos are of buildings in the center where there's such a diversity of design, much of it renovated and gorgeous, but there are still many structures that likely look the same (or worse) as they did back in the Soviet era.  

Happy to be in Pest, with Buda beyond the Danube

Gorgeous Parliament 

Ronald Reagan in the foreground and M'Lady walking toward the Parliament Bldg. 

World Cup viewing 

A rather basic building with a very cool..whatever this is called

Contrast

So many plazas in Budapest 

In the gorgeous Liszt Academy concert hall 

Popping into our former apartment building, 16 Klauzel Terrace

Kisuzem was the same inside and out

Kisuzem food: local, hearty and tasty

I love the rhythmic clapping of the Hungarian audience. A bit hard to hear, unfortunately. 

Summer Break: Thessaloniki, a City in Northen Greece

And then off we went to Greece.  And while it is in fact on the other side of Europe from Amsterdam, the flight time was under two hours; easy, even on a budget airline that was very insistent we pay extra dinero to put our backpack (less than 10kg) in the overhead bin, something which is contrary to my aviation morals. So I put it under the seat, as required.  

We chose to visit Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country, not because it's on a bucket list, but more because the flight connections from Amsterdam and onward to Budapest were easy with good fares. But to be fair, I'd heard positive things about the city, with many asserting that it's the food capital of the country (I'd go for that reason alone), not to mention that it's the home of an above average number of ruins from earlier civilizations that can be seen without the crowds one would find in Athens. 

We were there for four days/nights and found plenty to keep us busy.  The food is indeed tasty (although to be fair, we rarely ate more than Greek salad and grilled meats...a favorite of my travel partner). There was indeed plenty of history to see, the streets were lively with locals enjoying the cafe culture on sunny days that had not yet gotten too hot, yet.   And indeed, tourists seemed to be few, which made us feel like we were seeing daily life in Greece a bit more authentically.   

Yippee for Thessaloniki! 

The Aegean Sea in the distance. The old city was designed
in a very European style after it was destroyed in an earthquake
in the early 1900s. 

Centuries old Greek Orthodox churches were everywhere

Local gal keeping an eye on things

The Aegean Sea, looking south

Just chatting over an excavated block of Greek ruins

Oh, an old amphitheater

The 1026 church seen from our apartment window

I believe this was the first of many many Greek salads. 

Gyros on night one

Some great architecture in the city 

Lots of folks out enjoying the cafes on a sunny day

This bass player doing two things at once 

Here's the entire band (video at the bottom)

Oh, another salad and more meat

The street band seen above. They were great.

Summer Break: Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam!

We knew our European voyage would begin with nine days in France on the front end, and about five days in Budapest on the back end; but what we didn't know was what would come in the middle seven days; we wanted to leave some time to wander where whimsy sent us. We tossed around seeing more of France, perhaps heading to the Bordeaux region in the SW, and then possibly dipping a bit father south into Basque territory, perhaps even crossing into Spain because why not?  But then M'Lady threw a curve ball and said she wanted to go north, to Amsterdam, a place she's never been but always wanted to go. And while we're at it, she also wanted to go to Greece, which was both curve ball at high speed. But it was, after all, her bday trip and I felt I had the skills to make these trans European destinations dream come true. 

And I did. 

First up, Amsterdam, via the Eurostar train from Paris. 

Bikes bikes bikes!  Any tale of Amsterdam usually includes something about 
the bike culture. Why not, it's flat and they have "reasonable" weather much of the year. 

A delivery bike. 

A very modern home on a canal. 

Bikes parking on a boat

Skinniest home in the city 

Quite a unique site

A large housing area near our hotel designed in the Amsterdam School style, 1910-1930

Four doors in one entryway! 

Perfect Dutch lunch: herring sandwich (the one with pickles and onions), 
eel sandwich, and fried cod (I think). All tasty. 

Don West looking up at us in the Palladium!  
Crazy story...we saw him at a music festival in Malaysia last September. 
We liked what we heard (having never heard of him before) so much that he went on our Spotify play list. 
And turns out he was in Amsterdam when we were. Of course we had to go! 

That's Don West! 

The bikes just keep coming off the ferry, and this is well after rush hour

And getting off another ferry

More Amsterdam School design 

Regular Amsterdam design