!Yo Diggity!

So I haven’t owned a bicycle since I was about 10 years old. Boy did I love that little blue, banana seated bicycle with a pink basket but it’s time to upgrade. So last Saturday I bought a new bike…. and I love it! It’s a bright green Trek, 3500 series, sweet ride.

After the grand purchase Greg and I took off…. all over the city.

Our first stop was the castle… and some other building up there on the hill. I think it’s a museum of some sort. All I know is that the bathroom in the lobby cafe is nice. heehee

Then we went over to the next hill where they remains of some old stuff was…. you think maybe I need to go on an official tour so I can actually tell you what any other this is?! Yeah…..

AND THEN…..

… we found a friend. Yes, Budapest has spiders too. No, they do not speak English.

Right next to the girl in the white’s arm is the parliment. Would have been a lovely picture but it is still tourist season so getting some good picture space on the wall was a task of it’s own.

And we did ride into the night… here is Greg on Margrit hid (hid=bridge in Hungarian). You can see the parliment to the left, the castle hill to the right and the oldest of the bridges in Budapest - the chain bridge.

Budapest really is a great city. Lots and lots of stuff to see and do. Hope this entices you all to come visit… soon!

Yesterday, Tuesday, we made the second trip to Slovakia pick up the official work visa. I am now official!!! I can be here for at least a year legally. This time we drove up on a bright and sunny day - the weather was beautiful! The drive was an exciting one as you can see:

That is our new friend Dave in the back with Greg. They really hit it off. haha As I mentioned previously we met him at the Embassy there in Slovakia the first time we went up.
Not too eventful of a trip really… the town is a really nice little place so we did stop for coffee at a converted baptistry (I think). Every place here just seems so old and rustic. European style I guess. Brandi (Mike at work’s wife) drove us up there - thank goodness - driving a stick three hours - eek… I couldn’t have done it. What a saint!
We relaxed at the cafe for just a few minutes and then headed back to Budapest…. just a lovely, day.

I may never ‘have’ to go back to Kocise again… was fun while it lasted. Probably not an interesting enough town to visit for any reason other than getting your work visa.

Europeans live in a much more relaxed society I’d say. The terms ‘take-out’ and ‘to-go’ are non existent. For example… Greg and I stopped at a gas station on the way home from Croatia. It was getting late and we had been driving a long time so we wanted to make the stop short. We went into the little cafe area and asked if they had ‘to-go’ cups. “Certainly!” was the answer……

So the ‘to-go’ cup for HOT COFFEE was a small plastic bowl-type-thing. And it was filled to the brim with hot coffee - haha!! I am SO SURE!

I’m testing a new way to post photos…. here’s one of my best best gal pals, Christie, and my fellow blogger in Africa, Julie. Julie’s blog address to come…. can’t find it for the time being… using Greg’s retardo-o apple and I feel a bit disfunctional on it.

My dear, sweet friend Shilpa just became an aunt yesterday (8/25). Another SS into the world… Sahil Sheth. Since I don’t have any pictures of Sahil yet, here is SS #1: Shilpa Sheth. haha