Goodbye Blogger

I have decided to move on from Blogger as they are not iOS friendly. So long and thanks for memories. Please continue to flow me at www.ramblinggenxer.com.

It’s been too long...

I’ve been meaning to post but life happens. Started drafts for my Spain trip but with work I was too busy and it was terribly interesting. I will post of the information now even thought it’s months later but it’s also another test of blogger from the iPad. Last time I tried this, I couldn’t do long posts as the web editor would not scroll on the iPad so here I go again. NOTE: I turns out this is a common problem that Google appears to not want to fix based on orphaned forum posts including Google's on support forums so I will investigate a new platform.

January 6th

What an interesting way to start off my first day of work - no power! So much for charging my iPad over night. It’s a good thing I know where the camping lantern is in the house. Also glad I used the cellphone as an alarm instead of alarm clock. BTW, why doesn’t my alarm clock have a battery backup? At least the scheduled Lyft driver arrives on time and there is no traffic at this time in the morning.

For whatever reason, I can’t check in on my Delta so I go see a Delta rep and fortunately there are no issues. Why is there no TSA-Pre by the Delta checkin? It’s not a bad walk down to TSA-Pre but now I have to double back towards A1 for the Delta lounge and my flight is at A12 so it will be a hike to the gate. Complete first world problems. I grab a light breakfast and be documenting my day.

Now not to be too judgmental but as I’m walking to the gate

Maybe matching onesies at home but are onesies really good travel clothes?

This seems like a retrofitted 757. The in seat screens are big and it has live TV. The legroom in comfort plus is fine. I know you’ve been waiting for it.

I snack on peanuts and ginger ale. I decide to watch Crazy Rich Asians which despite being predictable is very funny. I'm trying not to sleep yet so time for The Predator. Those movies pretty much kill the entire flight. I watch the end of the Chargers/Ravens game to kill the last few minutes of the flight.

I land in A terminal and need to make my way to E. I have roughly an hour before boarding starts. As I get off the tram I check my Delta app and it’s asking me to check in but it won’t let me. I beeline to the gate and inquire. Basically I had two tickets from Seattle to Atlanta but one was supposed to be cancelled as I was upgraded to comfort plus. I’m assured my boarding pass is good. Despite getting a dinner on the flight, I’m starving so I had back to a Subway I passed earlier. I guess there is a reason I don't eat a lot of Subway.

Stupid DirecTV won’t let me stream the game. Why didn’t I just cancel it like I intended and gone with a streaming service? I contemplate signing up for the CBS trial but decide against it as UM is pulling away from IU. Hopefully the plane will have live TV like the last flight.

Why is it that the international flight has worse amenities than the domestic flight? The screens are smaller and they don’t have live TV.

Dinner comes and surprisingly I'm hungry even though I ate during the layover. The chicken actually has some flavor. Carrots are hard and crunchy. The green beans are over cooked.

I finish watching Wasted and try to get some sleeps. I get about an hourish but we run into turbulence and it wakes me up. I watch the end of Cloverfield paradox then Jurassic Fallen World. Too many movies and not enough sleep.

Breakfast comes. I’m not getting a lot of honey. The pecan muffin is good. I skip the piece of cheese. I try to catch a little more sleep but that doesn’t work.

Time to Go Home

5:30 am comes way too fast. We meet in the lobby a little after 6:00 am and head to the market. It's only a couple a blocks away.

Well the doors are open. Are those crickets I hear?

Most of the vendors are setting up. A few fruit and vegetables stands as well as some butchers are open. The second picture doesn't do it justice but the pork ribs here are really meaty. I bet on the think end it's over 3 inches thick.

 I think this is duck cracklings. Peppers stuffed with cabbage (kraut?).

Some fairly small fish.

We do find the paprika vendor stalls so we will eat breakfast and head back. Hopefully they will be open before we have to catch our cab at 8:30 am. It's a fairly typical European spread. The cheese sausage wrapped in bacon is really good.

We head back to the market and now some paprika vendors are open. The first few stalls only has factory packaged paprika. I find a stand that has some clear plastic and he let's me taste them. These have a flavor until the reddish powered you buy in the States. The stall next door has paprika too and it's cheaper. I try theirs. I think the hot is hotter than the first. I buy a bunch from her. The first guy is annoyed and saying things like you can't bring that unsealed paprika back with you. Funny, he was going to sell me some just a few minutes ago. I feel a little bad for him and I buy some smoked sweet paprika from him. I'm coming back with 1.7 kilos of paprika. I hope that's enough for everyone I plan to give it to. 

We get to the airport and check in at the kiosks. Our friends mention how it's cools the boarding pass has both flights on it. We look at ours and it doesn't. It only printed the Budapest to Amsterdam flight. Hmm. We will ask when we check in our bags. However, the KLM counter doesn't take bags until 2 hours before the flight. We have to kill about 25 minutes. We get up to the counter and let them know about our boarding pass. She checks our passports and asks for our reservation number. She gets it and says something to her colleague now I'm getting a little worried. She prints out new boarding passes and everything is all set. After clearing security, you have to walk through the duty free story. I can't believe my friend wants to sample this so early in the morning. I'm guessing it's only because it's free. It's not bad but I'm not a whisky person.

The flight to Amsterdam leaves a little late. I'm a bit worried since we only have 50 minutes in Amsterdam. This flight has a cake and water.

We land a bit early in Amsterdam in the C gates. According to our boarding pass our gate is E1 but we check the monitors and it says D1. That should be closer. We don't wait for our friends who are a little further back in the plane. We briskly walk to the gate. I text him the gate information. We get to passport control and the line is fairly big. Just then someone say if your flight is 2:30 or earlier come up. Ours is 2:30 so we get expedited. I text my buddy so he knows. We see him about dozen or so people behind us. So they have basically caught up. We clear passport control quickly and head to D1. It's the security check. We have a brief wait. It's the standard questions but the guy is friendly and processes us fast. Our plane is at D2 so we don't have far to go. Unbeknownst to me, they see us and follow us to D2. They are then told they need to go to security. Classic.

We board and settle in. It's about 10 after so the flight isn't schedule to take off for 20 minutes. The row in front of us in empty to I know there are other passengers who haven't boarded yet. Eventually we see them but they are on the opposite side and further back. We exchange some texts. These comfort plus seats seem roomy.

Versus regular economy - our friends seats.

It's a Boeing 767-300 and while the seats are fine. The rest of the plane is showing it's age. The bathrooms are really beat up and the doors and cabinets don't latch very well. I decide to watch Chef. Dinner is chicken with risotto. I don't normally get chicken but the vegetarian dish didn't sound good and the salad was chicken salad anyway.

It's reasonable flavorful for airplane food. I thought the cup was ice cream but it's chocolate truffle mousse with sea salt caramel. It's actually pretty good.

Afterwards I watch the Magnificent Seven. We get a snack. The cheese spread and chive crackers are ok but it's a lot of spread for the amount of cracker. I actually saved my crackers from earlier and give them to Aparna since I know she won't but a ton on a cracker like I would.

The chocolate marshmallow is uninteresting.

I'm getting antsy now as the Michigan game is less than 2 hours away. This plane doesn't have live TV either. I though Delta was supposed to upgrade these long haul planes with faster internet and live TV. Our last food comes around 2:30 and the tipoff is a little after 3:00. It's a turkey and cheese croissant with ice cream.

Aparna happens to notice the expiration date on the croissant is 2019! I guess it must be frozen.

I get on the T-Mobile provided Wi-Fi about 5 minutes before tipoff. I have to get updates via the ESPN app so I can't really tell what is happening other than blah missed shot, blah defensive rebound. So my friend on the ground is providing color and analysis. We are missing open looks, etc. We start out hot 12-4. About halfway through the first half I lose Wi-Fi as we descend below 10,000 feet. Ugh. On the ground, I switch to cellular and start streaming the game so I can see what is really happening. I don't get to watch a lot as we deplane. I want to be watching in immigration and customs either. By the time, I look at the score again it's halftime and we are down.

Our friends niece is picking us up. We arrive to their place about 4 minutes into the second half. We have a beer and watch. It's not looking pretty but Michigan finishes with a 30-11 run to make what was looking like a loss into a comfortable win. As we are driving home, we decide we should hit the grocery story first because once we get home we won't be going out again. We are finally home by 6:30. The goal is to stay up until 8. We shower and get comfortable. We toss the pizza we bought in the oven and have dinner. We manage to stay up until just past 8:00. Success! 

Goodbye AmaSerena

I sleep in as much as I can and we leave the room at 9:00 when we have to. I go the lounge for a quick breakfast and to wake up. The large bun is cheese and apricot served warm. It's an interesting combination.

10:00 am rolls around and I awake. We get in our cab and arrive at our hotel. I'm not expecting the rooms to be ready and they are not. We find out the market is closed today for Good Friday but it opens at 6:00 am tomorrow so we will get our paprika then. We drop our luggage and head out to sightsee. The "Shoes on the Danube" is a little over a mile from our hotel. The front desk tells us we can take the tram from the square a block away. We buy our tickets and hop on. I think we are supposed to validate these in a machine but no one who gets on does anything. We have to go down two bridges. We get off on the second stop which is before we need to. Oh well, a little more walking.

We eventually make it to the Parliament building but I will post pictures of that later as we are so close it's hard to get a good view of the building from here. We pass by another bride.

We head to the chain bridge so we can take funicular up the Buda Castle. There are lion sculptures on either side of the bridge. 

 Parliament building from the bridge.

There is a big line at the funicular but we decide to wait it out. It takes a little over 30 minutes but we finally find ourselves on top. It drops us by some colour guards.

 Aparna likes this crow with a ring. I'm sure there some story behind it.

By this time, I'm ready for lunch. We wander and try to get off the main streets to find a slightly less touristy place to eat. We pass a couple of places but nothing interesting like a sandwich shop. We see a crowded patio with umbrellas. That's usually a good sign.

Well so much for a less touristy place but we have never eat his food before so we try it.

We split a carbonara and a mushroom pizza. I really like the pasta but some may find it heavily seasoned and too al dente but it fine for me. The pizza is good but the crust is floppy. I think the plate below has trapped moisture and made the crust soft. It's cooked with a great color so that all I can think. Some places the crust holds up nicely. Even with 3 wines and service charge the bill is reasonable.

Matthias Church is just up the road so we head there. Ugh, it's Good Friday so the church is closed for tours. The tower is still open but the tour isn't until 4:00 pm and that's over an hour away. 

We decide to wander around up here and check out the views.

 Now you can see the whole Parliament building.

 Probably won't get an uncrowded picture like this in the summer time.

 Check out this sweet patio.

We decide not to do the tour we head back towards the funicular. There are some nice views from side as well.

As we head towards the funicular we hear the changing of the guard. We just catch the end of it.

We head down and go to our hotel. We pass and wine and coffee bar that is closed.

Who are they keeping out? Or what are they keeping in? We check in. After the ship, this room seems big. You can only get to the bed from the one side.

We take a quick nap then head out. There is a big shopping street a block away. Surprise! Another church. 

It's a nice street that has several sections that are pedestrian only. We see a KFC, so we pop in to see if the chicken looks like it did on the ship. It's hard to tell but I think it's normal KFC.

As we wander down, we find a spring market with live music.

My friend after passing several stalls breaks down and finally buys a potato cake. I think he's been craving one since Prague. It's huge and very garlicky. It's the way he likes it.

There are a lot food vendors here. It looks like a paella dish but it's roast pork, ham, and onions. Another potato cake vendor but these are deep fried. I can't convince my buddy to get another one.

 Salmon and pretzels.

I don't think I can bring back horse meat sausage.

We finally get a chimney cake. Sorry the picture isn't better. It's rolled in sugar and in this case cinnamon. It's what you expect. Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I can't imagine getting one filled with chocolate and ice cream. 

We decide to get off the main street and find a place to grab a drink. We find a British pub with a guy playing guitar. The place isn't terribly busy and we find a table in the back where it is quieter and we can talk. The beers all come in their glass with matching coasters.

The bartender/manager asks where we are from. We say Seattle. He says he a Seahawks fan. I'm sure he's just trying to be friendly. After a while, we notice this sign on the wall.

Oh, maybe he's not kidding. Apparently everyone else has left the bar but us. The guitar player gets us to move to the front so he can play for us. I need to snack more. Drinking on an empty stomach isn't good for me. We order some chips.

I'm not sure how the conversation picked up again but this bartender is going to get married soon. He's going to Hawaii and stopping for a Seahawk game on the way back. He's also been to a Seahawk/Colts game. Then the ultimate happens.

Apparently his fiancée did the artwork for the tattoo! That's a serious fan. I'm happily buzzed and more tired than hungry so I call it a night. Plus, I have to go to the market at 6:00 am.