Today was my last full day in Budapest, and it wasn’t as busy as previous
days. Today we went to the not-so-exciting House of Terror, which is about
the Nazi and Russian occupation of Hungary. It’s in the old building for the
secret police, and ironically they were watching me when I took a photo inside,
and they wouldn’t leave until I deleted it.

After that we went back to the Synagogue which we visited on the first day,
and this time we took a tour. It was pretty amazing. Our English-speaking tour
guide’s father is somewhat famous, as he saved 200 Hungarian Jews from certain
death during the Holocaust. The Nazis killed 400,000 Hungarian Jews during
WWII.

The final stop for the day was Szentendre, another cute town north of the
city. It was nice, but not as nice as some of the other villages I’ve seen
here.

After the link you’ll find the last bunch of photos for my Europe trip!

Back at the Synagogue that I first visited on Day 14

Another Stanford hallway photo tribute

Inside is amazing. This is the second largest Synagogue in the world

This is a memorial for the Hungarian Jews that were killed in the Holocaust

The opera house

Now onto Szentendre

All of my pictures seem to be vertical today

Lots of churches here

Another one for my coffee table book about doors

Typical street

Hope you enjoyed viewing my Europe photos as much as I enjoyed
taking them!

Today Tibor and I took a 2.5 hour drive to Vienna, Austria. It was well worth
the trip. Vienna is a very beautiful city and (once again) a photographer’s
delight. We saw most of the major sites inside the Ringstrasse, and after that
we went over to Schönbrunn (the summer home of the Habsburg’s).

The shocker
of the day was when we stopped in Starbucks (yes, they have them in Vienna)
for a drink. A grande iced mocha, which normally costs $3.30 at home, cost €4.80
here — that’s six dollars!

I forgot to mention yesterday’s surprise: if you
think gas prices are bad in the US then you haven’t seen anything. A tank
of gas here in Hungary cost us $100!

Anyhow, pictures are after the link. Since you aren’t allowed to take photos
inside Schönbrunn, I only have exterior shots of that.

Votivkirche, complete with scaffolding and an advertisement

I love doors, in case you haven’t noticed

I don’t recall the name of this church

This one I do know — Stephansdom. Not the greatest time of day for this photo.

The inside of Stephansdom was just incredible

The view from the top was impressive as well

Back on the ground now — this is the opera

Can’t remember the name for this, but it was some kind of conservatory for
plants

On the other side is the Schmetterling Haus – butterfly house.

Lots of great sculptures can be found here

This is the Hofburg palace

Good stuff!

Can’t remember what this is

A tribute to my Stanford hallway photos

Parliament building

Parliament with the Rathaus (City Hall) in the background

There’s a film festival at the Rathaus

A theater

Okay, now let’s move over to Schönbrunn, which is outside the city center

Not the best light for this frontal shot of the palace

The lighting was better in the "backyard"

I have to get myself one of these

… and I most certainly need to hire their landscape architect

That’s all for Vienna!

Today Tibor and I went to the village of Eger, which is about an hour away
from Budapest. There’s lots of nice Baroque architcture plus an old castle
to check out. The castle is famous for keeping the Turks away for many years,
though they got inside eventually. Pictures after the link!

One of several nice churches in Eger

Close-up of the statue outside

Inside is pretty nice

I thought this was pretty funny

Another church (I think)

There’s an old mineret that was built during the Turkish occupation (the mosque
is gone)

The old castle

Nice views

This is the guy that kept the Turks out of the castle for so long

Another church

Inside was amazing

This isn’t snow, it’s salt from a hot spring near Eger

Yesterday we took a very long road trip to several spots in western Hungary.
First up was the Pannonhalma Monestary, which is on top of a hill with a great
view. After that we went to the quaint village of Veszprem. Next we drove to
Lake Balaton, which was a very popular destination on this hot day.
We checked out the village of Tihany and then took a swim in the 80 degree
waters of the Lake. After a long day of sweating, it felt great.

Pannonhalma Monestary

Basilica

Inside the basilica

Nice view

The library

Now we’re in Veszprem

Nice view from here too

This is Lake Balaton, as seen from Tihany

Approaching sunset

Paprika is Hungarian favorite

Okay, now here are a bunch of photos that I took today. Enjoy!

Okay, now here are a bunch of photos that I took today. Enjoy!

The Parliament building

Now we’re inside

The ceiling is amazing

Really amazing inside here

Here’s where the parliament actually meets

This is the synagogue in Budapest. It was closed when we arrived so we’ll have
to try again another day.

Here’s a view from the Citadel

Not the right time of day for this shot

This is Heroes’ Square

Vajdahunyad Castle

Church near the castle

After a long wait in the Rome Airport, I made it to Budapest last night. The
city is big, beautiful, and HOT. Right about now I could use a trip to the
Swiss Alps!

I’ve got two sets of photos from my first 24 hours here. This entry has the
night photos from last night.

Chain Bridge with the Buda Castle in the background

Now we’re up in the Castle area

Matthias Church

Nice view of Parliament building

Looking toward Chain Bridge

My friend Tibor says the President lives here

Here is the castle itself

The Chain Bridge and Parliament from another angle

My night photos end with a look at the National Theater and the Palace of Art

For what it’s worth, I didn’t use a tripod for any of these.

Today is the last day of our cruise… sigh. No more stuffing myself with
food several times a day!

We stopped for about half a day in Messina, Sicily,
and from there we took a tour to the beautiful city of Taormina. We had a
lot of free time which allowed for yours truly to have a limon granite, which
is a slushy lemon-flavored drink.

We dock back in Civitavecchia bright and early Thursday morning, and then
it’s off to the airport for a VERY long wait in the terminal for my flight
to Budapest. I’ll be in Hungary until the 26th, touring around the countryside
with a side trip to Vienna. I’ll keep posting pictures until the end of the
trip!

More pics below!

Looking at Mt. Etna from Taormina. It’s hard to see here, but there is smoke
coming out of the top of the mountain.

Here we are in Taormina, Sicily

Inside the Greek Theater in Taormina (view
larger image)

I’ve seen lots of nice doors on my trip

The narrowest street in Sicily

View of Messina from the ship

Sailing away

A seaside village in Italy

This is Stromboli Island, which has a very active volcano on it. Despite that
we stopped two different villages on the island.

After a lazy day at sea yesterday, today we stopped in Valletta, Malta –
not a place I’d ever expect to be, that’s for sure! Valletta has an impressive
harbor, and the whole city rises above it. The colors of the buildings are
almost identical, as everything is made of limestone. After a tour of Valletta
we headed to Malta’s old capital — Mdina. This was a pretty cool place, though
it felt more like North Africa than Europe.

After four hours in the blistering heat it was back to the ship for some pool
action. Following that (and a margarita) we sailed away, which was pretty neat.
I’ve got photos of our departure plus a lot more after the link.

Tomorrow is our last day of the cruise! We stop for half a day in Messina,
Sicily (we already went
past it) and then back to Rome on Thursday.

View of Valletta from our balcony. The whole city is situated on top of these
sheer rock walls

Valletta’s harbor is impressive

Inside of St. John’s Co-Cathedral

The buses in Malta are ancient

Now we’re in Mdina. This is the entrance to the old city

Mdina seems like something out of Star Wars or something

They have lots of cool doors in Mdina

Nice view of the valley from Mdina (I have a panorama as well)

Yet another cat photo

Forgot the name of this church in Mdina…

… but here’s the view inside it

Cool ceilings

Okay, now it’s time to sail out of the harbor

We have to get through that hole in the distance

Here’s a fort that we passed on the way out

Amazingly enough our 900+ foot ship fit through the harbor opening

And we’re out!

We pulled into the booming port city of Kusadasi, Turkey early this morning.
Still half asleep, we stumbled onto a bus for a full day tour of the ancient
city of Ephesus. Ephesus itself did not disappoint: it was pretty amazing.
The city was originally built by the Greeks in the 4th Century BC, with the
Romans a few centuries later. When the city’s natural harbor dried up in the
7th Century AD, Ephesus went with it. Despite being just 1/8th excavated, you
can still get a feel for what it must’ve been like when this town had 250,000
residents.

After walking around Ephesus in the blistering heat we headed to the museum,
which had numerous items found in the excavation of the city. Following that
we went to what’s left of the Basilica of St. John, which must’ve been quite
impressive when it was still standing.

We then had a pretty elaborate Turkish lunch at a train museum, with the obligatory
stop at a carpet store after that.

Not only was this my first trip to Turkey, but it was also the first time
that I’ve experienced the kind of shopping that is common in this part of the
world. The store owners are very determined to get you into their store, to
the point of hassling each and every person that goes by. My dad and I made
the mistake of going into a store selling "genuine fake watches" (I’m not joking)
and it was hard to get out of there. I can’t say that I enjoyed the Turkish
shopping experience.

More pics after the link!

Here we are in Ephesus

This is the old theater

Looks like dominoes

Symbol look familiar? Like what you’ll find on your doctor’s outfit? This was
outside what was once the hospital in Ephesus.

Looking down the Street of the Vestile Virgin

The sidewalks had beautiful mosaics on them. The main part of the street was
reserved for chariots and the like.

Ancient toilets. I kid you not! Ephesus had running water and a sewer system
– 2000 years ago!

Looking back up the street

This is the old library

Close up

This is the other theater in Ephesus. This one held like 35,000 people.

A more distant view of the theater, with the street to the harbor in the foreground

One of many cats in Ephesus. They were all pretty scrawny.

Now we’re onto the Ephesus museum.

This is a statue of Artemis, the goddess of fertility

There are lots of storks in this area. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before.

And now the Basilica of St. John

And here’s what is left of the basilica. John the Baptist himself is buried
under the marble thing at the center of the photo. Pretty neat.

A Turkish castle nearby

Right in the middle of the photo you can see a single column. This is all that’s
left of the Temple of Artemis (Diana), which was one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world.

|At lunch we watched some traditional Turkish dancing

They even have Starbucks in Kusadasi! This is actually the first one I’ve seen
on the whole trip.

The sun decends into the sea on our way out of Kusadasi.

Today was our much-anticipated stop in Santorini, Greece. Although hot and
crowded, it was well worth the trip — it’s a pretty amazing place. Like Dubrovnik,
Santorini is a photography paradise, with its white buildings and blue roofs.

Click the link for a huge collection of beautiful photos from today.

Approaching Santorini at dawn. The towns on the island sit on the rim of what
was once a volcano.

The main town, Fira, is accessible in three ways: on foot, on a cable car,
or on a donkey.

Here’s the top of the cable car line. We took this on the way down, and it’s
pretty scary.

The highlight of the day was taking a donkey up to the top of the hill. For
€3.50 you can take a ten minute ride that you’ll never forget.

Here’s my "donkey cam" view on the way up. I almost dropped my camera on the
way up while I was trying to take a picture. I caught it by the strap!

And here’s the trusty steed that got me to the top of the hill.

Now it’s time for some shots from Fira. As you can see, this is a photographer’s
dream come true. That’s our ship out in the water.

Now we’re in Oia, which is the place that’s always in the pictures of Santorini

Many of the buildings on the cliff are hotels… what a location!

Pretty amazing place…

One of several cats that we saw on the island. There were lots of lazy dogs
sleeping in the shade as well.

It’s like a living postcard in Oia

This building was destroyed in an earthquake (I believe in the 1950’s)

Fira at night

Today’s bonus shot: my dessert! That’s creme brulée times three: coffee, vanilla,
and chocolate. Yum!