Friday, March 19, 2010

Vacation, March 2010

I'm on vacation in you know where. Morocco!

Seen in Szentendre

I love this picture.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Annecy

I get my inspiration from books, magazines and other blogs. I see a place I like, I bookmark it. So when the time comes to take a trip, I look at all the places that I want to see, I try to string them together into one trip. I search the Internet to check out trains and bus routes, to airline sites, to see if I can fly there. Before you know it, I have an itinerary. I like Rail Europe (http://raileurope.com/) a lot. By plugging in 2 places, one can determine if it is at all possible to take the train, if not, then the route needs to be modified. Then I go on the major airlines and do the same thing. I read the little writeups in guidebooks on how to get from place to place. I can go to blogs to look for more information. It is a very involved process, it requires a lot of dedication, to plug and unplug, to construct and to deconstruct and come up with something that I'm happy with. Some places have more priority than others, these are the must see places and need to be included and every effort is made to incorporate them. I need always to capitalize on time more than money. It is expensive, so costs is not that much a consideration. Time is more important, it is more important to squeeze in as many places as possible. Unfortunately I still need to work and pay my bills. Maybe it is more fortunately that I still work, I'm building up my retirement account that is needed for the time when I cannot work. It forces me to prioritise, to work hard and a lot and to travel at the same time.
This trip to Annecy was a crazy trip, we'd already spent 10 days in Sicily, we flew back to Paris, headed down to Lyon and Provence and spent a total of 3 weeks abroad. It's fun for me but not my staff. They shudder each time I announce my travel plans. It's hard to replace me, I work so hard. I read books on vagabonding but I'm not inspired. I'll continue to do what I do for now.....

Hungarian goulash

How about some palinka? It's the alcoholic drink, so prevalent in Hungary and the Balkans. The Balkans? The Iron curtain? Wow, it's been 20 years since the fall of communism and I'm amazed at how regular life is here these days. I've been on some Budapest blogs and the pictures reminded me of the same places we visited during our 3 day visit. I do like Budapest, the people are much friendlier. I'm amazed at how easy it was to learn the public transportation system. I'd like to go back one day and see more of the interior.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Let's visit Lille again

I'm envious of the Europeans, a short hop anywhere and they are in a different country, a pretty one at that. For us, Americans, especially those of us, me included, who live on the West coast, it's very far even by a fast airplane. It's always an incredible treat when the time comes to take that long airplane ride over to the continent. I remember being so envious of the English when we were about to board the Eurostar train at St Pancras station in London. We saw a lot of English weekenders going to the continent and a lot of the continent people coming into London. An hour and half train ride and we arrived at Lille, a little city to the north of Paris, it's France already. Lille has a very pretty old quarter and we spent a very delightful afternoon wandering around, enjoying all the sweet treats in the shops, both gastronomically and visually. It is a sight for sore eyes.