Before I sign off tomorrow, I thought I’d share some stories today in this penultimate post. Unintended consequence Back in Budapest, on the day I visited the mineral bathhouse, I minimized my possessions for the subway trip up there from my apartment so as to minimize any potential losses when I stored my valuables in […]
Read More Missile Lane Knee UsBudapest is a city worth staying in for more than one week, and I now wish I had sacrificed some Bratislava time for Budapest, but maybe I’ll need to come back one day, hopefully with someone else! What an interesting and different place! I think this is also an indication to me that I need […]
Read More Thermal Baths“Ruin pubs” are a staple of the old Jewish quarter in Budapest, where I’m staying. This area of town, while quite central, remained largely deserted and dilapidated after the Communist takeover. Much of it is still dilapidated, but certainly no longer deserted! This is the prime party area of town (to my surprise), and this […]
Read More Ruin PubsI’m over halfway done with this trip! Wow, some periods have felt slow, while other times have passed quickly. Budapest has been exciting but tiring, given all the many interesting things to see. I’m also frankly having a tough time with the whole workation thing. Work doesn’t seem as desirable when you’re sitting in the […]
Read More Memento ParkOn Friday afternoon I visited the House of Terror Museum – it might sound like a haunted mansion, and maybe it is, because many people died there. But it’s primarily now a museum in the same building that Hungarian representatives of the Nazis and then the Soviets used for coordinating interrogation, torture, and murder. The […]
Read More House of TerrorHungary has had a controversial prime minister, Viktor Orbán, since 2010. His party is the far right Fidesz. From Wikipedia: “His tenure has seen Hungary government shift towards what he has called “illiberal democracy” — citing countries such as China, Russia, India, Singapore, and Turkey as models of governance — while simultaneously promoting Euroscepticism and […]
Read More Illiberal DemocracyThis excerpt from Rick Steves sums up well the feeling one gets in Budapest. It just doesn’t feel like any of the four Slavic places I’ve visited on this trip. But I will say that it is also the most touristy, I think even more than Prague! And I hear English and Spanish (why Spanish?) […]
Read More MagyarsI arrived in Budapest (Hungary is “Magyarország” in Hungarian, for the curious) on Wednesday. No more Poland, no more Slovakia. I’m still on the Danube, though. Colleen and I visited on a short day trip from Vienna with some friends back in 1998. I don’t remember much about Budapest from that trip, other than the […]
Read More Budapest, HungaryThanks for joining us over here at Major Meander! (no salutes necessary) If you’re arriving from our previous blog Mezera Rok that we updated during our gap year, I note that this new blog is operated by me (Scott) alone, and it is intended to provide you with updates from the road as I travel […]
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Major Meander 