Papichulo en Budapest

Today Meg and I received a short email from her Dad who is in Budapest working at the new Four Seasons Hotel that is opening there. It is one of his coveted "sojourns" abroad, prior to a sojourn closer to home when he goes to work in Whistler for a few weeks this summer at the new resort there. So much for retirement! Unfortunately, neither Meg and I will have time to go and see him. Budapest is one place that I have always wanted to go after hearing Peter Nyers' parents speak so highly of it so many times. Bradshaw and I tried to go in October of 1995, following World Rowing Championships in Tampere, Finlamd. But unlickily, and quite comically, we got booted from a train at four in the morning on the Latvian border with Estonia by armed guards. It was raining buckets, we were in the middle of no where (corn fields, I think) and it was pitch black. All I remember was a dude with a machine gun saying "no visa, go back" while other dudes with machine guns looked on and an American fellow said "Sorry dudes, like, this happened to me last week, man." So much for the opening of eastern europe!