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

Remember the older posts are at the bottom, even if you haven't seen 'em. Check the archives too...

fancy german hand dryers




how germany looks to jack




hofbrau haus mural. And yes, they serve pork.



This is what happens when you drink.



Just don't call them "an Oohmpa loompah band," Caroline!

Caroline, you are bad. This is what happens when Ruth and Caroline eat together in the Hofbrau house. And this is after Caroline had just one wee Radler (that's beer mixed with lemonade, check it.)






This is the table we were sitting at.




This is how far I got into carving JL +RL before I was stopped by the geSTOPpo. No, for real though. They really did stop me from carving in the table. Seriously.



New meaning to the term "greenhouse." Get it? GREEN house? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. I just thought of that myself, and no, you can't use it.



For some reason this made me think of The Phyllis.

munich during oktoberfest

us



Ruth and Jack in their natural habitat



typical metro scene in Munich during Ocktoberfest







German heaven

they kick it nude over here in the park.





Stop looking so close at that picture up there and try to pay attention. this is a photo of a fountain decorated entirely out of shells. Kind of puts mine in Florida to shame.



detail of a fish head on that same fountain





jack and michael- he shared his traveling knowledge with us. Thanks, Michael, and thanks Michele for making the introduction.



Michael, me, and Ruth as she looks nuts in the Egyptian exhibit in Munich

surfers in munchie land

The latest:
this is pretty sweet. These guys do this all day, or rather people come through here to do this all day, it seems. It's illegal, and there's a strong current, and people die here after hitting their heads on the rocks and drowning every year, but it still goes on and it's still sweet. the story is that american GIs started this after wwII while occupying, and no one has cracked down since.

accordion dude kickin it on da strasse

The latest:

Wow, thanks!/Anyone have access to blueprint software?

That was kickass. Really cool of you all to subscribe to the blog. That makes something that was pretty fun already way more fun all of a sudden. We're not quite ready to put up pics and text yet (we uploaded them from the camera yesterday, I think there were almost 5000 we have to go through. Don't worry, we'll pare that down to like, 10 to put up. Or something.), it'll be a few days yet, we have to get over to Kalamazoo before we get on this blog business, but I just wanted to get on here and say thanky to those new people signing up, and another shout out and a thanks to those who were already subscribed, you know who you are. Don't change babe. You're beautiful. What a great crowd. Good night Cleveland!

I can't frickin' WAIT to get some plans up here of what we'll build, we should have the drawings done and submitted for permits before the end of the year. IF anyone has any blueprint drawing software, hook a brotha up, because I'm going to do the engineering and that stuff myself, and bump the architect out of the mix, and try to get a Bahamian architect to stamp it, which is necessary. These types o research are slow and tedious, but we can assure you, the ship is creepin' along. We're working on the plans as well as the finances at the moment, trying to parlay the remainder of our equity in our house into actual cash to get started in the spring. If we come up light, no matter,we'll clear the lot,get utilities and put up a temporary hovel,like 20x20 cottage till the rest is squared away.

I was talking to this cat who was offering us a steel building that we would use for the second story half price, it was 30x40 with a 12' ceiling, but we missed the boat on that one, they wanted the deposit within a few days from when he notified me. I figured better to keep researching than to jump in to early. They're supposed to be pretty nice though, roomy, clearspan buildings that are relatively easy to assemble, cheap, galvalum steel that has a 40 year rust guarantee and built to withstand 160 mph (category 5 hurricane) winds.

Oh, one more thing: we got the deed/titlework to the lot in the mail yesterday!!!! About forty pages of original deed documents, all with stamps, showing the real history of the lot and all of the people that owned it going back, including death certificates from when it passed from one to another, etc. Crazy stuff. Time to get that vault I've had my eye on, I guess.

Okay, had to say muh thanks and share the good news. Keep on rockin'.
Jack

We am back. Am very glad see you all we are. must dogs pickup. blog post much later photo also yes. things do yes must myself. dogs. dogs. yes, dogs, yes.


DOGS. YES.