Day 4 ... Lake Balaton Siófok and Keszthely

Getting up early has not been easy, so when we eventually got up on Thursday we headed over to the car park to fetch the car and drove down to Lake Balaton.

The lake is the largest in Europe and stretches over 80km's in length.   We stopped at the first part of the lake in Siófok, it was quite different, people walking down the streets to the lake with nothing but their bathing suits on, and they came in all different sizes, shapes, ages it didn't matter.  If there was a 60 year old, very round and dangling breasts and she wore a bikini so what!

Day 3 ... picking up the car and out and about ...

I booked a car for a few days so we could do a bit of travelling around, so today we had to go and fetch the car.  A short walk to the Metro and this time on the Metro 3 Blue line - 450 HUF each to get to Gyongyosi Utka and the Car Rental place.

It was a short walk from our destination and when we got there we were so hot, after all the formalities of filling in the forms, the guy told us that he had upgraded us by two classes at no extra cost, so instead of a little car that we wanted we ended up getting a Big Kia station wagon.  So glad I have a hubby that nothing is a challenge for him.

We noticed where we got off the train there was a shopping mall, so first stop on the list was the shopping mall, and lunch.  Em got McDonald's, the first time this holiday and D and I had a schwarma or shish kebab, which was very nice, and cheap our meal for 2 schwarmas and 2 drinks was the equivalent of €7.00.

After lunch we got a couple of groceries and headed back to the parking garage near the apartment, and D got us there without any problems, what a super star.  We decided to get a sat nav which I don't think we will really need, but rather safe than sorry (especially as D doesn't like to ask directions).  He has already started swearing at the woman giving directions on the Garman.

After we got home it was very hot, so we chilled for a few hours and at about 6 o'clock I suggested we take a walk down to St. Stephens Basilica - a beautiful building, I haven't read too much about it yet, Em was dying for an ice-cream so we went to this little ice-cream shop where they make the ice-cream on the cone in the shape of a Rose, too beautiful.  I will have to add all my photos at a later stage.

We then walked down to the Danube to the Chain bridge, watched the Sun City over Buda.  We then walked through all the shopping streets in Pest and had dinner at a little Italian Restaurant.  From there we walked back to the apartment, and almost got lost but all was saved when I asked directions twice!!! (Note twice honey, because you didn't believe the first guy).


 

Day 2 Budapest ... Metro, Aqua world, Heroes Square, Spinoza Café

We got going at about 10 this morning, Emily wanted to do the Aqua park which is miles outside of Budapest.  I had read that we could get a free shuttle from Hero's square, I just remembered Trinity's words to me "Nothings for Free".  Anyway we found the Metro 1 (orange Route) which would take us to Hero's Square, however nothing is in English and I forgot the map at home, so instead of getting off at our stop, we ended up going all the way to the end of the line, where we should have got off 2 stops earlier.

So we got off and deliberated about walking or going back, we first tried to go back, but the metro workers who I must say are quite militant told us we had to buy another ticket.

Firstly there are NO family or child tickets on any public transport, so we had paid 350 HUF each one way and to go back 2 stops we had to pay another 300 HUF each.  We finally arrived at Hero's square only to be told by the guys from the hop on hop off bus, that the next shuttle to Aqua world was in 2 and 1/2 hours, and if we wanted we could do the bus trip and come back in time for the shuttle else we could get bus number 230.

Not knowing where the bus was we just decided to hop in a taxi and 5000 HUF later we arrived at our destination.   We had purchased entrance tickets for Aqua world from the Hop on hop off guys for 9000 HUF. 

The Aqua world was everything you can imagine, kids world with 17 pools and tons of rides, I settled outside by the outdoor pool in the shade and was quite happy.

Em was in her element and so was Dad.  We eventually left and found the bus nr. 230 to Heroes square 450 HUF each later and we were back at Heroes Square to take the Metro back into town.  Whoever said that Budapest was cheap are wrong!

By the time we got off the metro, we were all fairly hungry - after walking up and down roads looking for somewhere to eat, we were about to settle on Hummus a place not to far from where we are staying, but D poked his nose in to some restaurant and called me over.  They had food, I was happy, feet tired and very hot. 

The name of the restaurant was Spinoza Café and what a nice little restaurant, at the front door an elderly gentleman was playing the Piano, spilling out tunes from "Over the Rainbow" to "Moon River" and many more.   There were loads of tourists and I was amazed at how patrons younger than ourselves were loving the Piano, maybe it is making a come back.

We had a delightful meal, tipped the pianist and eventually made our way home.

Night 1 in Budapest

We ventured out at about 6:30 pm last night to try and find somewhere to eat, we ended up walking through what I can only say is the fashion high street of Budapest, Balaton Utka.  It seems that everything starts livening up in the evening when it starts cooling down, there were loads of markets on the main road, and then down Balaton Utka, past food markets and buskers and onto the Danube, where we could see the sun set over Castle Hill, a beautiful view of the Castle and of the famous chain bridge over the Danube.

From there we ventured back up and ended up doing a really touristy thing and having dinner at TGIF.  It was a nice walk back in the cool air and back to our lovely apartment in the Jewish Quarter behind the Synagogue.

Day 1 in Budapest

I haven't ventured out today, we arrived last night, Kata's boyfriend picked us up from the airport and drove us to the apartment in Sip Uta, the apartment is beautiful. 

After they left we went round the corner to Tesco's to get a few essentials, and then headed out to find some dinner, we found a restaurant opposite the Synagogue, which had decent enough food. 

Today I woke up with a red eye looks like Pink eye again and i can't put my contact lenses in, the sun is so bright that if I wear my spectacles I will be blinded, hopefully it will have cleared by tomorrow.  I have been dousing with eye drops in the mean time.

So have not seen much of Budapest as yet, but what I have seen reminds me of San Francisco near the Pier.  Same Tram system and even coming out of the airport reminded me of it, weird.  Well hopefully tomorrow I can fill this with more adventures, in the meantime I will leave you with a picture of the tempreture chart for the next two weeks.

 

Sunset over the Atlantic in Ireland - July 2013

The West of Ireland

So far July has been the nicest month of they year, the best summer we have experienced in the 12 years we have been here, so we took advantage and did a bit of sight seeing - Em was down in Tralee for a week, so after we picked her up we went to Doolin and took a boat trip over to Inish Óirr and past the cliffs of Moher, it was awesome - we saw a dolphin and loads of puffins, here are some photos, when I get some time I will write more.

Today's Quote

“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.” 
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

For my dear old School friend Megan, little did we know your pain - MHDSRIP

Shinedown - I'll Follow You (HQ) with lyrics

Pink Eye

Well blow me over, for the first time in my life I have had "Pink Eye" or "Viral Conjunctivitis" as it is commonly known.  Wow, I have suffered from other forms of conjunctivitis before but not this one.   I woke up Monday morning with a Migraine and slept if off, when I woke my right eye was RED and watery, by Tuesday I could barely open it and the pain was excruciating.

I worked from home this week as the pain was just too much and apparently this is very contagious - eventually on Thursday morning the red had turned to pink and by today 5 days later, it was almost clear!  I decided to do a bit of research and this is what I found:

A very informative analysis which you can read here - http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/conjunctivitis.htm

Robbie Williams | 'Come Undone' | Take The Crown Stadium Tour 2013 - Dublin

Robbie ...

It was 10 years ago that my friend Gwen was over and we saw Robbie Williams at Phoenix Park, this time it was a bit more civilized with seating in what I can only say were among the best seats in the Stadium.

As with the concert 10 years ago, Robbie mad a spectacular entrance, the rain did nothing to dampen the spirit of the spectators and it was virtually a full house, 55000 - he was hoisted up out of the face on the wall as high as the top of the Aviva Stadium and then zip-lined down to the stage with fire billowing out of the top of the Stadium.

I was worried he would only play his new hits, but not so the wonderful old hit were there too ... Me and my monkey and Angels, which the whole stadium sang along to.

What an awesome Show!!!  Thank you Robbie and Olly.  I will see you again hopefully not in another 10 years time.

Have a read here about the show: http://www.robbiewilliams.com/news-blogs/first-night-take-a-look-at-robbies-dublin-show

Britta's Bay - Summer in Ireland 2013

I just wanted to add some photos I took at Brittas Bay on Sunday, we had a week-end of Beach and it was awesome!  I never knew the sky could be so Blue ... Audrey phoned on Saturday evening and made the suggestion, at one stage while waiting in the 2 km tail back we almost gave up going, but luckily we pursued - Audrey brought a BBQ and we had burgers and sausages and I had the bottle of Frozen Margarita that really went down a treat.

I have never in all my life seen so many people on a beach, but we have all been starved of a summer for so many years that we all made the most of it, while it lasts - Long live summer ....

The BIG 10th Birthday Party and Sleepover ...

I don't seem to have time to Blog anymore so I am going to upload the photos for now!