Everything has gone good so far. Although I had to get up at 0530. That sucked. I had a layover delay for 5 hours in DFW. I can't think of a better place than 'D' terminal to be stuck. Walked around, had cousins bbq, rode the sky train, read a maxim, did some homework. Saw my first ever white family traveling with a nanny, yeah she was colored. And the mom was really young looked mid twenties like us. The nanny got lunch, played with the kids, disciplined them. If you're not going to parent your children, then be an aunt or an uncle where you can have all the fun and give them back when you are done. I fucking hate white people. When we finally get on the plane and start to backup after being delayed for 1 hour in the plane, as we are doing that the plane starts bumping like trying to reverse with the parking brake on. Go back to terminal get that fixed. Turned out to be hydraulic problem. So I napped through the entire waiting period but when we actually take off I was awake and that's when Anton Weismann decided to talk to me and we proceeded to talk for the next ten hours. I'll explain him in another blog. While in Zurich, thats where are flight from Dallas and to Budapest connected, we had another delay, this time only 5 minutes. With all the delays we missed our flight on malev, which is the Hungarian airline, we were put on the Swiss airline, and it was actually a pink airplane, with hot stewardesses. On a 1 hour flight we got drink, meal and dessert, pretty damn sweet if you ask me. We finally got to Budapest, an older airport that has been remolded, went through customs, which was easy, I thought they were going to ask questions but they just scanned it and stamped it, my passport that is. The drive to the airport was fairly uneventful. You know how soccer player's uniforms are covered in sponsorships, that's kind of how the city is, everything is covered in advertisements. The hotel is pretty nice, 7 floors, and 3 are dedicated to conference rooms. They have a gym and sauna, solarium, juice bar. Okay stuff, kind of old equipment. Saturday night we had drinks in the lobby, bit burger beer, went to dinner had some gausser beer and some goulash. Took some pictures of things. Passed out about 830 in the night, I had been up for like 30 hours. Got up at 4, watched a few episodes of the office, did some homework. They have an mtv like channel here called viva, pretty good; they show pop video from the US, UK, and Germany. No djs and no idiotic tween shows. Had some breakfast, very westernized except for the cereal, that was very much a muessel, grains, seeds, those kinds of things. Sunday we set up shop and I finished all of my programming homework for the day. Sunday night had some more bit burger beer and had some hotel goulash, everyone said I have to have Hungarian goulash; well I've had some that was similar to chile Colorado and some that was similar to caldo de res. There are only so many ways to make a beef stew if you ask me. Still good don't get me wrong. Monday we moved shop and set it back up, we had some pre conference duties. Lunch is provided and it's a mix of foods. Turkey schnitzel, French fries, different kinds of breads, different kinds of cheeses to more eastern foods. Lots of salted meats, beef, pork, and wild game. Everything is super salty, but it's not so salty that it makes your thirsty if that makes sense. I guess because things here are not processed for longevity with preservatives. So even though it's not healthy it's not bad for you, if you'll allow me to say that. Some of the other things were beef tongue, poultry paste in pasta, Indonesian backed noodles. I drank tap water because the WHO said it was okay, but they don't really offer tap water for consumption here. If you want something to drink it comes in a glass bottle, coke, coke light, fanta, and sprite, made with sugar and not carbonated, so like above, not healthy but not bad for you. They are also big into mineral water and sparkling water as well as ginger ale. Sunday night I had dinner in the hotel restaurant, had another bowl of goulash and I sat across from a very particular women. I women who I had had an encounter with earlier in the day. She had a service dog with her, but she was neither blind nor deaf, I'm not going to extrapolate what could have been wrong with her, but she seemed very lonely so I'm wondering if it's possible it's her only companion so she just put the sweater on the dog, I'll probably get some ill karma my way for that, but that's what I thought. I bring her up because she was complaining that her food did not have any pork cracklings on it. She ordered a dish that was supposed to come with pork cracklings but it didn't have any(according to her). Now when you say pork cracklings to me, I think chicharron or pork rinds and I associate those with Mexicans and or poor people, again more karma my way. Well, the waiter here, and they are all super service men, they have a napkin on their wrist at all times, if you do anything improper they will correct you, he attempts to point out that the cracklings are in fact there on her plate. The waiter only speaks German and Hungarian and this woman is speaking only English. "Listen she says, don't you remember when your grandmother made pork cracklings for you, and they were so warm and tasty, yadda yadda yadda" the waiter has no idea what is going on and goes and gets the head waiter. I knew it was him because his name tag said so. He too points out the pork cracklings are in fact on the dish already. She continues to talk but she mumbles out of existence like Milton from office space. They bring her out an entire dish and put them on the food, what they brought out looked more like bacon bits than anything else, so I'm sure she was still disappointed. That's my story for that. Today is Tuesday 230 in the afternoon 530 in the morning Arizona time for all of you. Conference is in full effect, I was able to throw down some troubleshooting skills, proud of myself for that. Monday night I went to the gym and got my work out on. My team is made up of old people and we are still fighting jet lag a little bit, but they didn't want to go out after their lobby beer. I had a lowen-weisse, very tasty. So I thought to myself there are two million people here, little old ladies walk around I should be okay. So I went for a walk. Went down the Danube River. You know the song blue Danube, the river is more brown now than anything, but still nice. Took some pictures of buildings and other things. Went to gyro shop and ordered something like a jackass American. I wasn't exactly sure what I ordered, but I totally butchered the pronunciation, it was in Hungarian or German, I had to say it a few times each time changing the emphasis on a different syllable. But I got through it. I ordered some kind of hamburger, one of the most greasy salty things I have ever had, but again, I wasn't super thirsty afterwards nor was there a super heavy feeling in my stomach either, not healthy but not bad for you. When I went to get something to drink, I pointed at the water and tried to pronounce it, water, aqua, agua, tried them all. Then they told me the price, (and how most Mexicans look at you in el Paso when they don't know what you are saying, I was like a dear in headlights when they were telling me the cost) so I motioned for them to write it out, the one guy was like ugh, stupid American, at least in his eyes that's what he said. Then as I was fumbling around for the 220 forints, I handed them 250 and they got mad because I missed the 20 dollar coin in my hand, but there was another guy behind counter, younger much cooler, he motioned for me to put my hand out and he gave me back the 50 and took the 20, then said that was it with his hands. What a nice guy. Note to self: I need to throw down some serious Rosetta stone skills when I get back home. So now it's our coffee break time, so I'll continue writing at a later time. Tuesday night was our ice breaker dinner, there wasn't much ice breaking going on most people here know one another already so I just hung out with the Germans and the Americans. The food was pretty good, I had the Hungarian equivalent of hash browns and they had chicken pancakes, those were really good. Wine and beer were also good. Called it a night pretty early. Wednesday was our cultural tour, we went to the parliament house and to the palace, and we went to the hills of Buda and the town of pest. Budapest is actually two cites, with their names combined. After that we were taken to what looked like an old winery. And were treated to an outstanding dinner, first was some creamy chicken vegetable soup and wine, next were dinner and wine, followed by dessert and coffee. We had musicians the whole night and yes they played the Hungarian dance it was awesome and we had dancers, and more wine. So far it's Thursday and we haven't done much today our coffee break had some really good pastries. Part of my lunch included pork knuckles and they were really good. Hopefully I can get some shopping done tonight, I have over 20 grand in my pocket right now but most stores close at dusk, which sucks. But that's about it for now, either ill get back to work; I'll do some homework or ill go watch football. Football is always on here. I went out to dinner as it turns out that night, got on the city tram, which I didn't pay for and walked around until we found a restaurant. We went to club mode or mode bar, something like that. I had some kind of pasta in truffle sauce, I would describe it as delightful if I spoke like that, but I don't, it was pretty good. Next we went back to the hotel and I watched some more office and passed out. Friday morning was wrap up day and we stopped working at 1200. For our Friday lunch they served alcohol. We finished packing all the servers and whatnot around 1500, just in time for the out briefing. They gave us a group picture told us we did well and not to enjoy how easy going this conference went and that Croatia should be much more hectic. Whatever we had a three hour break between the briefing and dinner so I got back on the tram and walked like a son of a bitch to the market. Its very similar to the Juarez market, supermarket in the middle and stores surrounding that. Bought lots of gifts and saw quite a few of the other guys there. Walked back to the hotel got changed and got on a bus to take us to dinner. We were having dinner on a river boat on the Danube. More buffet and the alcohol was flowing, they didn't allow you to have an empty glass. Several of the nations brought liquor from their nations. I was warned not to attempt an "around the world", which means going to each country doing a shot and then moving on to the next country, especially since my I had to get up for my flight the next day before 4am. I had about 5 drinks, just enough for happy time. Went home watched some tv and packed by bags. Got up and went to the airport the next day. The airport wasn't even open yet, note to all of you, if you ever get the chance to fly international carriers, do it. Because the service is much better. Stewardesses are hotter, nicer, more service oriented. And pretty much no matter the length of the flight, you will get food and drink. It might be a little bit more expensive but I think its worth it. Because of my pat down three times in Frankfurt I will also be doing a narrative on the TSAs of the world, so I wont describe that process. The flight home was okay. I watched three movies, surfs up, the guardian, and oceans thirteen. Awhile back I ordered a sleep mask and I bought a green one. I tried to buy the most masculine one, but it was hard, most of the options were pink, or rind stones, or leopard print on the website. I really needed it though, because the assbags sitting to the left and the right of me kept their window shades up, theres nothing to see at 37000 feet and since I was traveling west I had about 22 hours of sunshine, so a light blocking mask was wonderful. The food was okay, some beef thing, and a vegetable pizza. Got to dfw and chilled in the admirals club for awhile, got on my plane for Tucson and lucked out I had the whole row to myself, legs up sleep mask on, zzzzzzzzzzs. Woke up just as we were landing. Got my luggage said my goodbyes and went to my cousins for some food and to give my cousins their presents. Stayed up until about 10, which was about 31 hours after I started my journey then slept for 12 hours. So all and all not a bad trip, since this is by far the longest blog of all time, I don't feel like rereading it for continuity, so sorry if I got onto tangents early. But we are closely approaching 2500 words, so thanks for reading. In the following weeks, youll see Budapest in pictures, anton wiesmann, tsas of the world, 3rd house guest, and southern Arizona racquetball championship 07. Ill be home in 2 weeks again.
I bought a pair of air jordans and now I have a 2' vertical, way to go me
jacob
