they even have funny shadows here



hostel common area. I'm totally stealing this idea for the bahamas.



powdered toast man, the mascot of the breakfast at the vienna hostel "wombat"



seating at the free breakfast at the vienna hostel. Check the booths.





Joe strummer graffiti. thanks to whoever put that up. My hero.

vienna

actual cheese sandwich actually eaten by my actual wife. Some crazy idea she had to save money on toilet paper.



old tile church roof in vienna



my new favorite artist




This totally reminds me of Bomber and his backpiece. He had this massive demon leading these two hounds of hell coming out of, well, hell. I miss bomber.


Fountain in the same place, square in Vienna. Ruth and I went to an AMAZING mask exhibit there. They had masks from around the world, of any kind you can imagine. They literally had any kind I could think of, for any purpose, except the dreaded klan hood. They had everything else, from all over the globe. Very impressive.

vienna

dinner in vienna



ride/walk




vienna trainyard



reminds me of Vesna's cooking at the Vienna cafe on Mack in Grosse Pointe Park. If you've never eaten there, EAT THERE. I guarantee it will blow your mind.


Ruther and her schnitzel

lights burning in memoriam of the murdered


the execution room. this was the real device used to hang people. They stood on a block with wheels, then a guy put the noose on and tightened it and secured it, and then the block was kicked out from under.




propaganda b.s.



communist cartoons

Budapest terror museum

one of the many torture rooms in the terror museum



stalin, mr. happy friendly walk in the park. I'd like to learn more about what i'm saying here, but I did here that as horrible and insane the nazi campaigns were, the dictatorship of Stalin was even more murderous, and Mao even worse. I've heard numbers of 50 and 80 million murdered by them, respectively.



This carpeting is a map of the region, not quite actual size, but pretty big.




detail


This photo of a German soldier reminds me of my grandfather in World War I. I can't imagine the suffering that these soldiers endured, and the slaughter that they inflicted and suffered. The trenches between the Americans and the Germans were especially brutal, running for hundreds of miles, with soldiers from both sides endlessly ordered to take opposing trenches and then running out into machine gun fire, mowed down, and taking nothing. And then it was repeated through the whole war by both sides for a massive loss of life and very little change in the actual lines running north and south.

Mo budapest

victims of the nazis, arrowcross, and communist parties, who all used the building now known as the Terror Museum as their headquarters for interrogations and torture chambers. the building was expanded underground to a larger network of underground tunnels to make more and more cells for the prisoners.




Arrowcross/soviet symbols at the front door



some of the faces of the dead. i don't think this counts prisoners or those who were simply tortured.



anonymous in budapest



Nice touch: south facing balconies to maximize solar exposure, light and heat gain

There was a whole slew, or a festoon, or whatever, of these trees. they look like a maple crossed with a sycamore. Pretty sweet. I sure wish I knew more about trees. I just got a book about the trees of michigan if anyone wants to go on a tree watching expedition to check some out. And no, I'm not kidding. Get in touch.



this was kinda funny. We got here, and saw all the strange devices and marvels of the Hungarian engineering, and all these different things (they have different words for most everything too) but among all the marvels of the Hungarians, besides the ghoulash, are what I thought were toilets. I thought to myself "These toilets here are among the strangest i've ever seen." First of all, they're hard to reach, and there's no stool. I don't know if that meant it's out of order, or only meant for tall people. I figure that I'm tall, so it should be fair game. But as you try to clamber up there, these folks get to staring, and then I tried to fill the bowl by pushing the button, but the water comes out so slow that it never fills the bowl proper. And here I am, half in and out of this thing, with Ruth trying to give me a boost in there, and the wall hits your shoulder and you can't quite get in, but luckily the beer there is quite strong so I was flexible and it seemed to make Ruth feel quite strong but I can't totally thank the beer because i think that was part of the problem of why i had to go in there in the first place but as I'm clambering about trying to get situated properlike i put my foot on this button and the thing started spraying me all over something fierce, fit for a geezer. Boy did we feel silly when we realized that it wasnt'a toilet at all! Finally a feller came up and started yellin and hollerin and carryin on to beat the band, and amidst all his gumblety muck of a language (I told you how they have a different word for most anything), he finally indicated that it wasnt't a toilet at all. I asked him why he didn't just say so in the first place and why he just carried on with his funny talk. But by and by, he finally made it clear. He pushed the button and put his face up to it. So we finally realized that this feller meant that this was a Hungarian shower. I guess those people never did quite forgive us for our confusion, because they never did stop pointing and staring till we was all cleaned up and well off on our way.


Budahooka store. Only thing missing: buda





hungarian angels


some more a dem dam doags

Budapenmanship



Old school horse tie up.



budapest public transpo. Pretty sweet that even in this "backward" country, people are well dressed, there's cheap public transportation running every which way, and no vacant storefronts. Nice town. Wish we could stay longer.



un dog



exporting our culture

I heart pits.





this looks good.




or this




Decisions, decisions. Hmmmm... water please?



Beds are where you make 'em.

fancy sink- it's cool, this interesting "euro"d out type stuff is everywhere. In the men's room at an italian restaurant in munich. The place where Caroline and Aaron had the huge pizzas.


The chef there.

waiting for the train. Nice looking train station, eh?


this image was the inspiration for Francisco Goya's "Saturn devouring his children." I totally think Saturn was on some crazy drugs, and probably Goya, and I'm pretty sure Grimace is a sick, sick man.



Sister powers, activate!
For real, there isn't much that's quite as life affirming as seeing these two get together over all those miles and time. Total, pure happiness. Very cool to witness. And a some wrestling and laughing. A glorious spectactle to behold.




J and Caroline, Ruth and Jack's last night in Munch.



this building that was there or something