Budapest and home again.

After spending a few days in Maramures, I headed back to Budapest. I decided to come back to that city with a full day to spare before my flight back to Boston. I wanted to spend more time exploring the city.

Budapest is very clean and I got the feeling that crime is not a problem at all... maybe petty crime like pickpockets, but nothing serious. At night, Budapest is lit up very beautifully and the typical architecture of Central Europe stands out.

I spent the whole day walking around, eating to my heart's content and taking as many pictures as I could. Here are some of them, mostly evening/night shots.

After the day in Budapest, I headed over to Ferihegy Airport again for my return flight to Boston. Finnair again proved to be a good choice as the trans-atlantic segment was mostly empty and I had my own row to enjoy the flight and sleep as much as I desired.

A few days in Maramures

For those of you who have not heard of Maramures yet, it is a very beautiful and pritine area in northern Romania. It is one of the few places where many local traditions have been kept through the years, including the harsh years of the communist dictatorship.

This area is very mountainous and a little hard to get to, which explains why some of the traditions have survived.

Maramures has a lot of wooden churches. The local people are known for their woodworking skills. A lot of the old traditional homes have giant wooden gates at the entraces to their yards. There is also a museum which during communist times was used as a prison by the authorities and where a lot of the old democratic government met its end.

Maramures also has what is know as "The Merry Cemetery", where the local villagers are burried and on the headstone (cross) is writtens a short 4 line poem about their lives. It is invariably made to be funny, no matter what they did in their lifetime, and the crosses are painted in lively colors.

Cluj, Romania - Aug 25, 2007

My cousin's wedding....

So I attended another Romanian wedding. What can I say? It was a very good party. I think the best part (for me) was having most of the family in one place again. It made it easier to catch up with everyone.

The ceremony itself was very simple and fairly quick. The reception followed at a restaurant across the street, and the party lasted well into the night.

I also had the chance to meet my youngest cousin who just turned 3 months old!

Budapest

I arrived in Budapest and was greeted by my cousin Ovi. It was nice that he came from Romania to collect me since he speaks Hungarian fluently, while I only know a couple of words.

We spent the next day sightseeing in Budapest, the Chain Bridge, the Fishermen's Bastion, the Gellert Hill Citadel and ofcourse, a number of different pubs and cafe's along the Danube.

Leaving Boston - Finnair - Boston -> Stockholm -> Helsinki

It was a nice surprise to fly with Finnair, and to discover that this seasonal service to Boston operates with very low passenger loads.

After boarding the plane, I noticed that the flight was less than one third full. After having flown so much this summer within the United States, and having packed flights, it was nice to be able to stretch out on my own row of seats.


The food was ok for this flight... the only thing that was a bit different than other European carriers was that alcoholic beverages were not complimentary.


We landed briefly in Stockholm to unload some passangers and then went on to Helsinki, a very nice and modern airport, clean and not too crowded.