The blogger phone app sucks, btw

<p>&lt;p&gt;I had a lovely and eloquent post written, but I suppose i will be rewriting it now.&lt;/p&gt;<br>
&lt;p&gt;Yesterday morning I slept in on purpose to try and rejuvinate my knees, but im not sure how much that helped. I biked into town for the afternoon, walked around, took pictures, and shopped. I also had an amazing iced coffee with ice.cream and whipped cream in it. And chocolate. After all that, I went home to meet Isabella's sister, who was taking me dancing. She took me to a Delafoldi beginners class, which was especially awesome.because the class was accompanied by a man playing a traditional instrument and singing along with a voice that perfectly complemented the instrument. I will have to look up the name because I was told two names for it so I promptly forgot both. It was like a nykelharpa (which I also probably cant spell), except there was a crank on the side. The teacher was pretty awesome too: lots of energy and ability to appeal to all skill levels. No english though, of course! There were people of all skill levels and ages in the group, so it was a pretty varied group of people. I feel fortunate to have been able to.go; many thanks to Peter and his family for arranging it! </p>
<p>After dancing, I came home and watched.discovery channel's "how it works", or whatever its called, with the kids, Noemi and Florian. Twin sister and brother, almost 6 years old. Then they went to bed, and Peter and Isabella and I talked, and then Peter showed me some places to go and places to eat on a map for the coming days.

A century (in km)

Yesterday was rough! First thing, I went to the applied folk art museum in kecskemét. There are really some crazy things that people can make! Tons of time and tons of patience. There were all sorts of woodcrafts, embroidery, weaving, and more, separated by the regions they.come from and identified by the people who made them. After that, I left town and took the scenic tour to Szeged (no, not a euphemism for getting lost).

I saw some pretty amazing country scenes, some beautiful towns, some not so beautiful towns, lots of old people on bikes, and more. Does Hungary have a big trade in sunflower seeds? I saw a lot of fields of planted sunflowers. Also I saw cornfields with official looking signs in front of the corn. Genetic strains? I ate lunch/dinner in a small place between a bike road and the highway. It looked so charming that I had to stop. It wasnt the best hamburger ive ever had, but was maybe the best beer, ha. The people were really nice, but didnt speak english. I ended up biking 120 km yesterday (72 miles). When I got to Szeged, I dropped my bags off and went to bike polo. Yes, evidently I am a masochist. I played a couple of grandma style games on Sofia, due to tiredness and inability to play on that bike. It was a practice session; I guess they play for real on Saturday. We played in a Tesco (giant supermarket) parking lot, no boards, walls, etc. A nice guy has put together a bicycle that I can play on for Saturday, but I am worried about it! It is fixed gear, with spd pedals. I may end up killing myself, fingers crossed! When I got back to Peter's, I experienced the most amazing shower.

Picture explanations: saw this huge windmill restaurant, and then while resting by the road I saw the biggest catapiller I have ever seen, next to a smashed beercan. Right after that pic I heard a mouse getting attacked ( probably by another monster catapiller, so I left.very.quickly)

Wifi again!

Okay, sunday I played polo in Budapest, and not much else..we rode around the neighborhood looking for treasures in the trash piles, and watched the gypsies. On Monday, the dog, Petra was spayed. She was drugged and very pitiful all day. She was so sad looking :(

On Tuesday, I mailed off my dance shoes, hopefully they will arrive sometime...then I gave a fond farewell to Eva and Gabor. I then headed off to Kecskemét. The roads were really nice and there were even bike trails in places. I saw lots of farms. I rode 80 km (50 miles) to get there, and couldnt find a real hostel (only student living places) so I stayed at a panzio.  I fit all my bags, myself, and my bicycle into this tiny lift to get to the 5th floor. My room was huge, with private bath, and was very clean, for about $20. It was well worth it. Got a tv too, and the german station even had some programs in english. I ended up watching the cowboys vs. redskins, translated into hungarian of course!

Szentendre

Today I meandered on down to Szentendre. I took my sweet time, finally arriving at about 1:30. I took lots of pictures on the way. Fortunately there were a.lot of.other people biking there. Although there is a bike trail (part of.eurovelo 6), it got confusing or hairy.at times, and I could pull off the trail when confused and see where other people were going. When hairy, I was glad that I have a little experience mountain biking, cause I needed it! I saw a few people riding with very skinny road tires though, and even a fixed gear! The town was very pretty and the roads were indeed narrow and cobblestoned. The ride and weather were perfect! Evidently the town is quite big on tourism. A ton of shops, most with the exact same things for sale. Stopped by the kovacs blue dye shop, and had a late lunch at a cafe and had a very yummy iced coffee with whipped cream, and a very.yummy pasta dish. I enjoyed watching the people as I ate, and there was even a parade that went by.

There were tons of oldsters on tour busses that went there. It was pretty funny to see them freak out as they were late to get back on and had to jog to make it back. After lunch I did some more shopping, and finally headed back. There are a lot of cottages where people vacation, and an area midway between Budapest and Szentendre where there are a ton of little cafes and eating establishments, I guess that cater to the cottages and the bikers. Most of the trail was right along the Danube. On the way back, I stopped at this grocery that ended up being like a huge monster walmart. Totally overwhelming, but a great vocabulary lesson! Then I of course got a little lost on the way back (thanks gps), but quickly figured it out. Then I meandered home and ate some dinner!

Lazy day!

<p>I spent most of the day lazing around today. Slept in, plus some internet research. Also I watched Eva train Petra, the dog, to look for truffles. That was pretty cool! Finally I headed into the city to go to the Timar's dance rehearsal. It was definitely worth going! I saw a political rally going on on the Margit bridge, but didnt have too much time to.check it out. When I got to the rehearsal, I had to practically beg these.two girls to please let me in and show me where to go. They seemed quite reluctant until I mentioned Matyi Timar's name. When I went in, I met I guess mom, and two I guess kids that were going to lead rehearsal. Thats when all the english stopped. I really got.in touch with my following the lead skills. Where to go, what to do. Too bad I dont know Hungarian! I got some sort.of introduction from the.teacher/daughter lady. Someone is going to have to clear this all up for me, ha. Then I was thrown into umpteen dances and had an amazing time trying to figure out what was going on. All the dances were.familiar to me, but not the choreographies. Well, I take that back, there was some.sort of circle dance with theatrics before it, and a few small.things, but all and all was awesome. When I left, I got a little lost, as usual. I am unfamiliar with the Buda side, and was looking for my street! I finally found it, and took my bike on a crazy awesome photoshoot, though unfortunately only on my camera and not my phone. I cant adjust shutter speed on this thing...anyway, stopped at some burger place and ate dinner for about $2.50. Some british ( I think) guy said he liked my bike and gave me a sticker for a facebook page. Yay stickers! When I got home, Eva and Gabor told me there is a satellite that id going to hit the earth? Pretty scary. One in 3200 chance that it will hit a person; that seems pretty high to.me!

Critical m@ss!!

Yesterday I went to the national history musuem and splurged on an expensive and yummy dinner (~$20). Then I went to fono, a dance house. Today I went to the zoo and the castle in the city park, and then I went on critical mass!

Expensive day today!

Today I bought dance shoes, went to st. István cathedral, stuffed my.face, and went to a couchsurfing meeting. I slept in today, didnt get downtown until probably 1pm. Here are some pics! The cathedral was sooo gorgeous!

Also..

Spotted these guys at gödör: amazing! They were actually asleep! Also saw an old musician man asleep with his beer. A bouncer woke him up but he fell back asleep within a couple of minutes.

Ive been busy!

On saturday I was quite lazy in the morning; puttered around the house most of the day with gabor and eva. They are really awesome! I finally left the house and went to Gödör klub, where.they were having an all night tanchaz (hungarian dance house). Gödör was originally the start of a building that was never finished, so this club is the basement, in the middle of a square. It was really exciting to see live hungarian musicians playing the music I am so familiar with. Mezöségi is evidently quite popular, but they also had sessions of dances from somogyi, szék, vajda, kalotaszeg, rábaköz, szatmar, and more. They also had csango stuff and even a session of line dances from macedonia (was not impressed). All in all, it was pretty awesome! Yes, I cheated and looked at.the program from the evening; I cant remember all that stuff.

I went to sleep around five but I was playing bike polo with the hungarians by ten thirty the next morning. I love the way they play! Everyone is so polite, and their court is amazing as well. Full boards that are bouncy, with very little time spent recovering the ball. I played really well too, scoring the winning goals of three games. They have a good skill level too and I really liked the setup I was playing with (bike, mallet, etc), so now ive got some work to do when I get home. Their goals are really neat too. Gabor carries all this what looks like.pvc down to the courts on his bike in a large backpack, as well as a front rack that he welded himself. I am quite impressed with his abilities; both with welding and with bike polo playing ( and more). Eva insisted that I played on her bike the whole time I was there, so I got a lot of play in, and it felt great. Enough polo gushing...

After polo we went home and chatted for pretty much the rest of the day. We discussed all sorts of things about the us and hungary, especially regarding government, economic, and social issues. Quite informative...

Today I went into town and explored with a guy I met from couchsurfing, alejandro. We explored the Buda castle and walked all over the city taking pictures and seeing the culture. We also went to one of the big.markets here and got a delicious taste of the local food (see picture). I will be going back to eat more, for sure. I guess thats all ive got. It rained here, and I got soaked, but found out that my panniers are indeed waterproof, so.thats a good thing!

Here are more pictures from the museum,

As well as a view from where I am staying!

Ethnographic museum

<p>&lt;p&gt;I had a really nice post written out but had someu technical difficulties and lost it. I enjoyed my day yesterday trying to go on a tour of the city, which I did, and ended up having an awesome private tour from adam! Double decker bus, the works. Welk worth getting lost trying to find it! After that I went on a grand adventure trying to get to the grocery. After wandering around for A WHILE I found it magically underground and bought some food, then went to this crazy huge mall trying to find a phone charger, which I found and it works better than the one from at&amp;amp;t. Typical... Then I went with my host, Zoltan, to a lasagna party. There are so many people in couchsurfing from different places. Italy, france, romania, sweden, american, and they are all living here! Pretty impressive. Good stories, good lasagna, etc. Then I went home and couldnt sleep for the life of me. Wanted to be productive but didnt roll out until about 11, but I did enjoy some espresso in the shop downstairs. Very leisurely.  Then I went to the ethnographic.museum, where I tried to post to my blog but then got many errors and had to start all over. Fingers crossed. The museum.was cool, very cultural. Lots of costumes, artifacts, furniture, etc. And the architecture is amazing.

Then I wondered around parliament, also a gorgeous building. After that, biked aimlessly, took tourist pictures by the river. Ended up at the shoes and met Phillip and Kasha (sp?). She had just moved here from Poland, and he is from washington state and has been touring by bike for a while now. Its nice to be able to speak to americans after hearing hungarian all day and not understanding. I will miss it once I leave budapest. Then I switched houses, from zoltans to the bike.polo peoples house. They are named gabör and eva. Im sure there are some more letter accoutrements, but oh well. I followed eva home on my bike, then ended up going downtown later with gabor and another guy on their tallbikes, which attract a lot of attention around here. It was loads of fun, and even got a bit chilly, pretty nice. Sucks for texas, but I hear you guys got some rain. Its 52 here right now. Uhh tired, hope this post works!!!

Made it to Budapest!

Well, I made it after four airports and a big wait in Heathrow. Ended up sleeping for like 12 hours, but thats fine with me! Im waiting to meet a guy (Adam) I met last night at a farwell party of a friend of the guy I am staying with (Zoltan). Adam is a tour guide on a double decker blue bus, so I will hopefully be going on a tour today. Its really gorgeous here; everything is so European. Pretty surreal for me! The street signs have been a source of confusion I was not anticipating. Zoltan and I rode to the pub last night, and on the way back he gave me a little tour of Pest. It was so exhilerating riding at night, especially since I was a little chilly in jeans and a t shirt! The weather is so nice, but I hear it will start getting cold in a couple of weeks. Its very tempting to go shopping too, but I have no place to carry a bunch of extra stuff! Oh well...

Maiden loaded voyage

Rode about 15 miles around Austin on my last day in town testing out the ride and picking up some last minute supplies. Everything worked well and the ride was great; even the hills!