The Muse

I liked taking pictures of Mom. Sometimes she'd make faces for me.

Sometimes she was full.

Sometimes she worshiped idol gods. In Prague if you rub this dog...

And then this person...

Our guide told us you will get pregnant whilst in Prague. Large guffaw from this girl when he said that.

She was a good sport and didn't seem to mind my camera always in her face.

53 Days

She's cute.

The More Things Change The More They Stay The Same

Being back in Rome is great. I went to my old neighborhood and saw they had build a new bridge. Not sure how I feel about it. Having a bridge is nice, but it doesn't look very Roman, does it?

There is also a new Burger King, a bubbler fountain in the center (didn't get a photo), new trains on the metro. The line that I used to consider the ghetto line has trains that have AC and teles that show sushi advertisements! And even car sharing.

Just as I was starting to think Rome was taking a turn for the better, as I was headed home, Rome showed her true colors.

See those numbers under the "RIT" column I've tried to circle? Those are minutes late. "CAN", as you can imagine, means canceled. I got on the train that was supposed to be the 6:02 at 7:45ish. What's even better is when we pulled into the station the announcement said, "This train is 25 minutes late." Ummm...This is not the 7:32 train.

Then I got to thinking, "This is exactly why Americans will never do public transport." I don't even know what Americans would do in this situation. Break stuff? We don't typically riot. Just stand there like a bunch of Italians? Also not likely? Freak out? Yes. But how? Make someone come get them?

Something else that hasn't changed? Gelato...

And that's Hilary and me...Not sure if we've changed or stayed the same...

Conversations with Vittoria

V "There is this really nice girl in my class, but this boy was being mean to her, so she hit him in the crouch."
Me "That's usually pronounced crotch."
V "Um, no, I mean she hit him in the nuts."

Conversations with Vittoria

I love soccer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That's the trick of it. You snooze, you lose.

Scotland

 See that blue sky? That didn't last long. It's Scotland! Of course it didn't! This is the Dunfermline Abbey. (Dunfermline is the town outside Edinburgh where Rhona lives.) It was quite nice. It is where King Robert the Bruce is buried and whose foundation goes back to 1072, was built by King David I of Scotland in honor of his mother the saintly Queen Margaret.

This is part of the Pittencreiff Park. Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline and gifted the park. Dunfermline has lots of things named Carnegie (Hall, Road, College) because he was born here and donated a lot when he earned all of his money.

 Here we are in the park. That's Rhona's second son Curtis.

Also took a trip to St. Andrews. It was not warm! This is the  cathedral. When it was build it was Scotland's largest cathedral. It was built in the 12th century.

You can see a raindrop on my lens. :(

This is so you know how cold it was. That's her baby under there.

And you can't talk about St. Andrews without talking about golf...

Vienna

Vienna was great. We went to see where the Habsburgs spent their summers. No wonder Marie Antoinette was a bit out of touch.

That's Gloriette. It was supposed to be built after the palace above and be five times the size!

 Then we ate the original Sacher Torte. This was only on my mind because of my good buddy Chris. At the hotel they say it is a 26 step process.

 Next, we went to Hofburg and the Sisi Museum. We saw the Austrian Imperial Napkin fold. The guide said only two people in the world know how to fold a napkin like this. I'm skeptical. I don't have anything I'm putting off, though, that makes me need to find this right now. Next time I have to write a paper I'll learn...I did find this, though.

UPDATE: Found it.

Finally we went to the Vienna Opera House...Never did get tickets. We could have watched the performance outside, but it was raining. I still blame Mom for that.

European Women Don't Shave

That's right, pfriends, that's a woman.

And that is her beard. It reminded me of the time Molli and I were in the ladies' room at Filene's and saw that nonsense.

Medicinal Pools

The Gellert Pools in Budapest were pretty amazing. They are natural hot springs might have healing affect on ailments such as arthritis and joint pain. Not only that, but it was really pretty.
Mom wanted it to cure her hearing and sense of smell. There were several pools, all varying temperatures. This one is 35C.

This one is 38C.

This one is 19C. After you get in the one that is 38C you can cool off by jumping up and down in the cold water. (That's me jumping!) Even Mom did it in case that was the water that had the healing touch she didn't want to miss out. :/

Don't worry. It's not all fun and games. Right now I'm pouting because we didn't get tickets to the opera and I'm not sure we'll get to enjoy the music scene. :(

Cool Roofs

In Budapest we went to Matthais Church. It had a cool roof but no right hand. It did, however, have a cool roof. Wiki says it is to look like a speckled dragon. I didn't get that, but I thought it was neat.

And was a very pretty building in general.

Oh, hey! Look! There's Mom!

In

And these are the stained class windows that you can't see very well behind her.

Today we moved and saw St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom)).

Look at that! This is the double-headed eagle symbolizes the Habsburg dynasty.

Wish you were here! Have tons more pfotos.  Hope to post more soon. xoxo

Budapest

Today it was rainy and cold. Mom said it was supposed to be in the 70s and 80s the whole time we were here so I blame her.

We soldiered on, though. First we went to St. Stephen's Basilica.

What's creepy about this place is they have his mummified right hand for you to enjoy.

Then we went to the Dohany St Synagogue. Over 3,000 people are buried at the synagogue alone.

This is a weeping willow and upside down menorah. The leaves have names inscribed on them.

Then we went to the opera house.

All the while drinking tea and eating cakes along the way.

One pfunny story...When I got off the plane and went to the ATM I put in an extra 0, so instead of 20,000 whatever the money here is called, I got 200,000. So I got $1,000 instead of $100. Oops.