An early morning! Everyone responded to an early wakeup call – 6:30 am!!! We managed to eat breakfast, bring our luggage down, load the luggage and be on the road by 8:30 . . . almost a miracle! Lots of driving today – a fairly good highway through Poland to the Slovakian border, then not so good a road as we drove from the north border of Slovakia to the South. Peter Ede, our guide, shared a lot of history of this area with us as we traveled – Peter is incredibly knowledgeable about this area of the world and eager to share important information with us.
We stopped for a pinklepowser break in the morning, then drove on to a ski area where there are several restaurants and stopped for lunch. Some of us ate pizza, others had a big, really BIG lunches (just ask Ray)! Others had French fries and cokes because, they said . . . they couldn’t understand the menu. Personally, I think they were just ready for good old American(?) French fries and good old American Coke!
Back on the bus and we crossed the border into Hungary. The scenery today between Krakow and Budapest was like driving through Oregon. Lots of evergreen trees covering the hills with mountains resembling the coast range in the distance. It kind of made us homesick.
We arrived in Budapest and did a quick drive across the Danube River into Buda, but then returned to Pest where we are staying in the Novatel Centrale. This is a lovely, very classy hotel. Some of our rooms have balconies where we can look down on the street. All of the rooms are cool and comfortable and we’re happy to be here.
Dinner tonight was in the lovely dining room of the hotel and we were served Chicken Cordon Bleu with French fries, steamed vegetables, soup as a starter, and tiramisu for dessert. All in all, the best dinner we’ve had, I think!
We called Hallie Clark’s dad, Greg, and sang “Happy Birthday” to him. It was kind of interesting to watch the other hotel patrons as we sang. I think they were impressed.
The weather today was excellent, of course we were in the bus most of the day. We’re enjoying the sunshine and the warmth and hoping that it’s this way when we get home!
Everyone is doing well. I keep asking if anyone is homesick and no one seems to be suffering too much . . . actually, no one seems to be suffering at all. Our adult chaperones are priceless – they are enjoying the singers and the concerts and have truly been indispensable in so many areas. Wow – we’re having the time of our lives!!
More tomorrow!
Sandy Miller
(What do you say Oregonians - shall we tell them about the weather here in Oregon yesterday and today? -Jamie)
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