Subject:   [adventure!] Budapest is in Hungary, Zagreb is in Croatia

Date:   3/28/2004 7:58:32 AM

 

 

Well hello there,

 

I've made it to Budapest. Yesterday I met Zoli, a friend of my former

roommate Fritz, and he showed me around the town a little bit, then made me

drink something called Unicum, which is a Hungarian liquor that cures

hangovers, usually by killing the person who drinks it. Wonderful stuff.

Had a fantastic time with Zoli who, it turns out, is organizing the first

large-scale wind farm in Hungary. I think some of you can imagine how

excited I was about this![1]

 

Before coming to Budapest, I spent a couple of days in Croatia, which I

think might be a beautiful country. While I was there it was a rainy cold

country and the land was rough and muddy, but it was still beautiful. And I

have already told you a little about Ljubljana (Slovenia), which is also

beautiful. After Ljubljana I visited Bled, a beautiful lake in the North,

and then some beautiful caves in Postojna (thanks Derrick!) where I met some

really nice Slovenians at the bus stop and ended up staying in a girls'

residence hall in Koper.

 

I am attributing my lack of ... uh, good ... adjectives to the Unicum, but I

do have to admit that at this point in the journey the beautiful rainy

greyness is really slowing me down. For some reason, the long, hot,

delayed, smokey train ride from Croatia made me think about my student

loans, which has pulled my head out of Eastern Europe and pushed it

face-first into some kind of job involving a desk.

 

HOWEVER, just as I was starting to lose some of the travelling momentum that

I had, I talked to a French guy who said that there is a place in Turkey

called Olympos, where some kind of gas comes out of the ground on fire.

Like the fireswamp in the movie The Princess Bride! There might also be

rodents of unusual size!

 

So, perhaps the adventure will become more ridiculous after all!

 

Hope you are all enjoying your March, and happy daylight savings day to you

all.

jay

 

p.s., If any of the Turkish folks on this list can verify the existence of

fire breathing pastures, please let me know!

 

[1]very, very