Falcon Crest

I just got a few more pictures from Budapest. While I was out sightseeing with Tina and Matt, we met this creepy guy and his falcon. He said that for 2 euros, I could hold his bird.

Pervert.

"Little bird, are you admiring my tan?"

"Put on this glove, my little American, and trust me."

They say that falcons smell fear.

Finally, I have my moment.

I Met an Astronaut!

In Budapest, we had a big dinner for all of the meeting attendees. The keynote speaker was a real-live NASA astronaut! Shannon Lucid is a fascinating character. She's logged more hours in space than any non-Russian and the most of any woman. She spent 6 months aboard the space station MIR with two Russians named Yuri.

She was full of fun stories about her time in the space program. Like the time that one of the Yuris told her to go stick her face against the window to get some sunshine (she was vitamin D deficient). After 30 seconds she had sunburn as if she'd been out for hours. Fun!

Shannon exercising in space. Astronauts are required to work out 2 hours a day!

The Museum of Applied Sciences.

The attendees

Me with Shannon and Shannon's snazzy jacket.

The place looked really beautiful before we went in and messed it up.

The quintet was really good. The old guy in the front kept winking at me.

Budapest Day 3

Our meetings adjourned at noon and we had the rest of the day to ourselves. I spent the day sightseeing with my client, Tina, and her boyfriend, Matt. It was such a gorgeous day (this global warming thing may not be so bad after all!) that we decided to go up to the castle district to look around. We took public transport across to the “Buda” section of town. We paid about 1200 Flargons for a day pass that would get us on all the trams, buses, and undergrounds for the full day. We only ended up using it for one trip, but it was still fairly inexpensive compared to a cab.

The Buda side of town looked much better this time around; mainly because we bypassed a lot of the area I had covered on Thursday, and went straight up the mountain (hill?) to the nice section. It was all very quaint – cobblestone streets, the remains of the castle, churches, and other historical buildings. There is so much construction going on that it’s nearly impossible to walk even one block without encountering a major tear down project. It’s easy to believe that this was very recently a war-torn nation

There are lots of cute cafes along the river.

View from the castle district.

We made him do this. It was actually a little dangerous. Tee hee.

Matt and Tina

The view at dusk.

I just liked this building.

The best part is... the owner put a Club on the steering wheel.

Some cathedral.

These are the ruins of a church.

The Hungarians love their dogs.

The Four Seasons. We didn't stay there.

No need to bring your own blanket to these cafes!

The Castle

Budapest Day 1

I was in Budapest a couple of weeks ago for a series of client meetings. It was busy, busy, busy but I did have a couple of opportunities to walk around town and see some of the sights.

The Opera House

The National Gallery

They have whole shops devoted to chandeliers. I never knew where to buy a chandelier. Now I do.

How do you get to Carne Di Hall?
Practice, practice, practice.

Shopping with the locals.

The Chain Bridge

View of Buda and the Chain Bridge.

View of "Pest." That's Parliement behind me.

Parliament on the Blue Danube.