We just finished up a really nice, relaxing (and sort of expensive) weekend. We started off partying like rock stars on Friday evening after work. I grilled two big pork steaks, rubbed and covered with barbeque sauce, a grilled leek, along with sauteed mushrooms and asparagus in garlic. We went through a couple of bottles of wine, and stayed up late listening to music and dancing.

We were a little slow getting up on Saturday. But get up, we had to do, because we had plans to go see Star Trek Beyond in northern Osaka in the morning. We were able to roll out of bed and get behind the wheel, and we got there with plenty of time remaining.

It was our first time to visit “Expo Park”, the site of the 1970 World Fair. There is some interesting artwork remaining from that time (including a weird sun statue that looms over everything) and also lots of monorail lines intersecting nearby. Since we had arrived a tiny bit early we walked around Expo City, which is a nearby large-scale shopping mall. We found ourselves killing time next to the “English Village” (where people can have the experience of speaking only English with native English speakers) and we sipped some drinks at the CNN Cafe, which is apparently a thing. I was expecting the cashier to speak English to me, but she instead used the standard Japanese greeting. I guess that we weren’t actually in the English Village at the time, so they were off the hook.

We saw the latest Star Trek movie in IMAX 3D, which can be a pretty intense experience. Kuniko felt a little queasy afterward because of all the quick camera movement in space, and it took a little while for her stomach to settle down. I liked the movie, especially the computer generated graphics involved with the space station world “The Yorktown” that was fantastically done.

On our way home we had to get off the highway to avoid some traffic due to an accident, and it worked out that we could pass by Costco. We ran inside and got some choice items (chicken, dates, bread) and then continued on home to rest up. We were pretty tired out from our rock star Friday night, so we had a quiet dinner of roast chicken (from Costco) and a really nice salad that Kuniko put together with a delicious Parmesan cheese dressing.

We were in bed before 9 pm on a Saturday.

The cool weather has been a big influence on our early bedtimes. We both slept great on Saturday and got almost eleven hours of sleep. Once again we got ourselves moving and headed east to visit one of my former students who had invited us to lunch.

On the way we stopped in Kobe and bought some goodies to give them, and then went on to Nishinomiya to meet. We had originally considered living in Nishinomiya ourselves. It is perfectly located between Osaka and Kobe, and the neighborhoods are nice and quiet, and slightly upscale. There aren’t a lot of places to eat and drink, but with Kobe and Osaka so nearby it is easy to get to fine dining.

We met Mr. and Mrs. Kato and their two-year-old daughter Anzu at the station, and together they walked us the short distance to their condominium apartment. It was just five or ten minutes from the station, which is just about the perfect distance balancing noise and comfortable walking. Anzu wasn’t sure what to make of us, and watched us suspiciously as we tried our hardest to get her to relax.

Two years ago we had the Kato’s over for dinner, and Anzu was still “in the oven” so to speak, and it turned out that this time that the Kato’s have another little one on the way – Anzu’s little brother will come in March of next year. It was great to see the family together, and everyone loosened up and relaxed after a while.

We were interested in checking out their place, because we had considered something like this a long time ago. They were on the tenth (and top) floor of their building, and so they had a really nice view from the balcony over the south side of Nishinomiya. It wasn’t far from the Hanshin train line, and I could hear the relaxing sound of a passing train now and then. The place was decorated beautifully with lots of mementos from Mr. Kato’s time working in Kenya, and there were also plenty of toys for Anzu to enjoy.

Lunch was made almost entirely by Mr. Kato, and he put together a really nice Spanish lunch. Paella, tortilla espanola, a carrot, onion and orange salad, and some pork with potatoes that really hit the mark for me. Three of us shared a bottle of Spanish red wine, and Mrs. Kato contributed a homemade cheesecake with apple jam for dessert. Wow!

We spent a few hours with them talking about what was going on with our lives. Many of our friends have children now, and it can sometimes be hard to find a point of overlap between them and us. Our lives are centered around good wine and food, travel, and work. Once kids enter the picture it can be hard for new parents to drink, travel and sometime to go back to work. Still, we had a nice time talking with them and thinking about how their life was going to change come March.

We left in the mid-afternoon and caught a rapid train from Nishinomiya west towards our home. As we were riding back the rock stars inside of us awakened, and we found ourselves craving a glass of sparkling wine. That was how it started, anyway.

Kuniko found a restaurant that had recently opened in Motomachi – a place focused on wine and Italian food, and so we found the place (one floor above an ear-cleaning establishment!) and grabbed some seats at the counter. We were sitting right in front of the kitchen, and it was a beautiful set up. A big pizza oven was placed in the back corner, and the gas oven and stovetop made up the center of the kitchen. The two guys working there were very friendly, and they had plenty of wines to choose from. I had a German Sekt, Kuniko had champagne, and also had a tiny plate of appetizers to go with it. The wine cellar was custom built with glass to peek in and see what they had – very cool.

We each had a glass of red wine after the sparkling. The staff opened up a bottle for me (an Italian red with gobs of red juicy fruit) and Kuniko had a more traditional medium-bodied red. Feeling pretty good, we asked for the check and hit the road. The price was a little higher than we’d expect for what we had, however, so I’m not sure when or if we’ll go back.

We stopped at Daimaru department store to buy some uncooked cookies (if that makes any sense) from Demel – the place that we visited in Vienna has a branch here in Kobe. We also stocked up on some premium cheeses that we figured we’d serve at next weekend’s party (or else we’d be happy to take care of them ourselves).

Finally, after the department store we found ourselves right near Chinatown, and I wanted to buy some frozen suigyoza – they have some really good stuff that comes in plastic bags straight from China. Since we were in Chinatown already it seemed like we should go ahead and get some Janjan and Tantan noodles, and also some shorompo. I had had shorompo from this place before – it wasn’t that great – but the noodles were excellent.

We fled Kobe having satisfied just about every one of our culinary desires, and made it home in time to throw together some stuff for this week’s lunches and breakfasts. It is going to be a strange schedule for Kuniko so we’ll need to be flexible about meals this week.

So, great weekend, great food, great friends – mission accomplished!

This past weekend was a three day holiday for us, and we did our best to make the most of it. We started off on Friday night, meeting in Osaka after work to have dinner with Chiemi at an Italian restaurant in Tenma that she recommended.

We arrived in Tenma a little early, so we decided to go catch a quick drink at a nearby bar while we waited. Tenma is a great area to hit old, traditional Japanese bars. It wasn’t hard to walk ten steps from the station and duck under a curtain into a busy standing bar filled with old Japanese guys drinking after work. The walls were covered with posters of beer girls – bikinis and bottles – and the walls and ceiling were darkened with grease from decades of fried foods. We ordered two beers and some gyoza, and soaked up the culture.

After meeting Chiemi at the station we moved to the restaurant, just about five minutes walk. The place was run by one guy, and he cooked, served the wine, and kept up conversation with us while we sat around eating and drinking. The food was good – especially given the location. The main recommended course was the panini sandwiches, and they were indeed quite tasty. One was made with a really nice Camembert cheese, olives and ham. We liked the food but it wasn’t groundbreaking, but it was a nice place to meet, sip wine, and catch up. We didn’t eat so much at the restaurant, however, and we ended up snacking on some Korean salad and other goodies when we got home.

Saturday we went into Osaka to attend a craft beer festival near Osaka castle with Yoshi and Mamiko. We got there early to have some lunch at a Mexican restaurant that I found, called El Zocalo Burrito. We found it easily enough in Yotsubashi, and I ordered a big carnitas burrito. It was surprisingly good and tasted the same as a burrito from a California Mexican restaurant. I was very impressed. At almost 1000 yen it is not an everyday meal, but it was the best Mexican I’ve ever had in Japan (except for our own Mexican dishes, of course!) Kuniko ordered a chicken and cheese quesadilla that was surprisingly made with a corn tortilla, and it was OK, but I think this place is all about burritos. I’m sure we’ll be back someday.

Next we walked across town to burn some calories before the main beer event. We walked for almost an hour, but we picked a bad day to do it. Although the weather forecast said rain, it was clear, hot and humid. By the time we got to the train station at Osaka castle we were pretty sweaty. Luckily cold beer was at hand.

The event was very similar to other craft beer events that we have attended in Osaka. We received a glass and ten tickets. The tickets could be exchanged for beer or for food, and there were plenty of stands so that the waiting time wasn’t long. We scouted out some space under the nearby trees, and Yoshi even had brought little mini-stools to sit on. We settled in and did some serious eating and drinking.

I really liked most of the beers I tried, with the exception of one pale ale that I had that was apparently sweetened. Everything else was quite good. With ten tickets you had to really think about the best way to use them. Ten beers is a lot of beer for one person, so balancing the beer with the food became important strategy. Yoshi and Mamiko were full of laughs as usual, and we really enjoyed spending time with them.

But wait, that’s not all! Mamiko had heard about a “night market” – with entertainment and world foods, so we started walking that way after we finished at the beer festival. On the way there we stumbled through a Chinese festival where a strange Chinese guy insisted on taking pictures together. The Chinese festival seemed like fun but the target was Chinese people – so we continued on to the night market.

There were lots of things going on at the market – it was lively and the music and entertainment was pretty unusual. We ate shorompo from a very disorganized food stand, and drank more beer. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the promised rain never came, so this turned out to be a good stop.

Finally, we wrapped things up and went our separate ways, but it turned out to be a busy and alcohol-soaked day.

We were pretty tired on Sunday, but Kuniko had to go to work. I spent the day lounging around the house and cooking dinner. I made a pork roast with vegetables, and also some big beans that my folks had bought from Rancho Gordo in Napa. Everything turned out great, and we had a big dinner with wine and cocktails – yum.

Finally on Monday we decided to abort our plans for a long walk to Akashi. so we instead went by train to do some shopping. We got enough supplies to keep us in cheese at least through the middle of the week, and then we went home to relax and lounge. I squeezed in an afternoon nap, and then we watched “Money Monster”, an interesting take on American capitalism.

Even though I had taken an afternoon nap I couldn’t resist going to bed really early in the evening. This weather has cooled down enough that I can sleep soundly again. Apparently I needed the sleep – I went to bed around 7 pm and slept soundly until the next day. All rested and ready for the week!

We did quite a bit of sleeping in on Saturday in an attempt to rest our weary feet. We had logged 30,000 steps the previous day! Our hotel room was decked out with a Nespresso machine, so it was nice to make our own coffee in the morning and watch people walking about from our window above the street. During the night I had woken up a few times due to loud thunder and heavy rain, and in the morning it was still raining a bit outside. Luckily we brought our portable umbrellas and we were ready.

We checked out of the hotel and hit the road, and by the time we left the hotel the rain had pretty much petered out. We took the metro to Prince Edward station near Mong Kok, and found the tiny restaurant “One Dim Sum”. There was already a line of people waiting to get in when we arrived, and we joined the queue. At 10 am they opened, and they seated almost everyone in front of us and then gave us a slip of paper and told us to come back in 30 minutes. No problem!

We did some exploration around the area, and got a feel for the old Hong Kong. One street was closed to vehicles and filled with stands selling fruits and junk, and another street was lined entirely with tropical fish stores. It was interesting to see walls covered plastic bags of water and fish, just hanging and exposed to the elements. Inside the aquariums were well maintained and there were some pretty dramatic colors and unusual fish there. If I was setting up an aquarium, this is where I would go.

We killed the half hour pretty easily, and we went back and got a table at One Dim Sum. The menu was extensive, and half the fun is choosing what to eat. We picked a large selection of different dim sum, and it was just as good as I was hoping. The shumai were plump and juicy, with a perfect balance of pork and shrimp, and we really liked the beef and coriander balls that glistened with oil and soy sauce.

We ordered quite a bit but didn’t overdo it – we had plans to go to another dim sum place soon enough. One Dim Sum was a great place to eat, worth the wait, and certainly worth the price – we paid 120 Hong Kong dollars (about $15 US) for everything.

Next we walked south through the Mong Kok district towards our next dim sum destination. On the way I stopped at “King of Coconut” for a freshly made coconut milk drink that was sweetened with condensed milk. The ice cold drink was just what we needed to keep our energy level high as the day was warming up and still humid from the overnight rainfall.

Our next dim sum place was all the way over in Central. Called “Dim Sum Square” it is a small corner restaurant that looks traditional but feels like an American diner inside. We joined a line outside but the wait was only a few minutes. Here we ordered lots more dim sum. They had my favorite dim sum – the salted egg yolk buns, and they were great – maybe my favorite of the trip. We also had some steamed fried rice with abalone, and crispy fried buns filled with barbequed pork. The place was busy and the staff looked a little harried, but we really enjoyed the atmosphere and the food.

With our dim sum cravings satisfied, we decided to go find a nice place to relax and enjoy the view. We ended up at a European style restaurant terrace, overlooking Hong Kong harbor sipping prosecco. The day was turning out to be very, very nice.

As we walked around Central, we kept noticing huge crowds of Asian women lounging around on patches of cardboard. They weren’t really doing anything – it seemed like they were waiting around for something. At first we thought they were attending some sort of conference, but there was no way to know for sure. There were so many – I’m not good at estimating crowd sizes, but it was definitely in the thousands. Later Kuniko did some research on the internet and it turned out that they were all mainly from the Philippines, and they worked as housekeepers and maids in Hong Kong for wealthy locals. Saturday was their day off, and they liked to meet up and get together and talk. It was really interesting to see just how many were there, and I felt like it might have been a subtle show of force – I wonder if they were unionized.

Believe it or not, we still felt like we had a little room in our stomach, so we decided to try to find some wonton noodles. We ended up in a pretty nice restaurant at the top of a shopping center, eating a very small meal of noodles and wontons. The wontons were juicy and perfectly formed into round balls, and the noodles were the small thin eggy noodles that I can’t seem to eat enough of. We struggled a little to figure out how to eat the dry noodles that Kuniko had ordered – the dish came with a small bowl of thick sauce and a small bowl of soup, but we weren’t sure on the procedure. Some more research is required, because I don’t think we got it quite right. They were tough to eat, but so good!

At this point we were pretty satisfied, and having nothing left to do on our list we figured we might take a train out to the airport early, do a little shopping, and maybe have another meal there. Before that, we walked one last time around the harbor to burn off (some of) the calories from all the food we had eaten. We noticed as we walked the harbor that there were a lot of barriers being placed and more police than usual. Signs indicated the directions to “viewing areas” and it seemed like something was up. I asked a policeman what was happening, and he told me that today was a national holiday (National Day in China) and that there was going to be a fireworks show over the harbor from 9 pm.

Wow, perfect! This timing worked out pretty well, and so we started to make a plan to watch the fireworks and then rush to the station and get to the airport in time for our flight. We still had some time to kill, so we found a nice restaurant with a bar that had a view, and had a couple of glasses of red wine with a big platter of mixed prosciutto. It was a nice way to while away an hour or so, and then we went out and got into position for the show.

The fireworks were nice – big, loud, and dramatic. I guess Chinese people know a thing or two about fireworks. The crowd was big, too, and we were lucky to find a good place to observe. About halfway through the show we left to get out in front of all the people who would probably jam up the sidewalks at the conclusion of the show. Everything worked out fine, and we hopped a train back to the airport and arrived with plenty of time to eat dinner.

Our last meal in Hong Kong was at a Taiwanese restaurant called Crystal Jade. Kuniko had wanted to eat there for a long time, and we were lucky enough to get a seat pretty quickly. We ordered the tantanmen (spicy noodle soup) and also a basket of shorompo. The shorompo was really good – I think we were close to ordering another basket, but in the end we showed a little restraint. The soup was on the sour side more than the spicy side, but still it was pretty good.

The rest of the trip was easy – we boarded our flight right on time, slept for the three hours back to Kansai airport, and then drove home from there (with a short detour to Costco).

Although the first day of the trip didn’t go as expected, we more than made up for it the second day. Kuniko wanted to treat me right for my birthday, and by the end of the trip I was more than satisfied. Hmm… when should we go back?

Now we’re taking a little travel break and instead concentrating on visiting with folks here in Japan. The next trip won’t be until December, so time to tuck away the passports and stay home for a while.

What a weekend! Our trip to Hong Kong was a good one, and I think we were completely satisfied with what we did and what we ate.

But it didn’t start out that way.

We drove to Kansai Airport early in the morning, and arrived with plenty of time to board our 3 ½ hour flight to Hong Kong. I dozed a little during the flight, but mainly I stayed awake anticipating all the yummy food we were going to eat. The weather forecast had said that it would be sunny on the first day of our visit, and partly cloudy with a chance of rain on the second day. We planned to do a little bit of sightseeing near the airport since the weather forecast was good, and then go into the city to start the dim sum marathon. Unfortunately, fate had other plans.

As we touched down at Hong Kong airport there was a thick fog everywhere. It looked like it had been raining recently, and it was pretty humid out. We were expecting the humidity, but everything else was a surprise – the weather on arrival was surprise #1. We took a train from the airport, and soon enough we were walking towards the ropeway to the giant Tian Tan Buddha near Ngong Ping. The first time we came to Hong Kong we had failed in our attempt to see the Buddha – the staff at the gondola said it would take too long to get up there and back and still catch our flight. This time we had all day, so we bought a ticket on the ropeway. There was quite a line to get in a gondola, however, and we had to wait about twenty minutes to finally get on board. The gondola ride itself was a little longer than 20 minutes, which is actually a long trip inside a little room suspended on a wire above the jungles and mountains.

Probably on a clear day the views are dramatic, but the higher we got the thicker the fog became. Soon we couldn’t see very far outside of our own gondola, and other gondolas would suddenly appear out of the mist going the opposite way – spooky! Of course we were worried that once we got to the Buddha we wouldn’t be able to even see it, but that’s life – we’d just have to wait and see what the situation was like on the mountain.

The scene at the top of the mountain was really touristy. I mean it – over the top tourism. Starbucks and Subway restaurants were there, and loads of tourists shopping at cheesy souvenir stores. We walked through tourist town on the way to the statue, but we did stop at a food stand run by an old lady who was frying shumai, corn, and other snacks on sticks. I approached to order some shumai, but when I tried to take a picture of her cooking she said “No photo”. That caught me by surprise – and I was ready to go buy some shumai somewhere else but Kuniko talked me down and then snuck a photo later on. The shumai was pretty good – a deeply fried, simple snack.

We reached the bottom of the steps, and at the top, instead of a giant Buddha the only thing we could see was a blank white space. We walked all the way up the steps, getting in some good exercise, but sure enough when we reached the top we could barely make out the outline of the huge Buddha statue through the mist and fog. Kuniko was a little disappointed – this was one of the big reasons she wanted to come back to Hong Kong – and since this was the second time we tried to see the Buddha it was a little more disappointing to be that close and still miss out. Missing out on the Buddha due to unexpected fog was surprise #2. Maybe we’ll have to try again (for the third time) someday in the future…

We went back down the mountain on the gondola, still enshrouded in fog, and were able to catch a train to Central to have a little lunch. Our first stop was to try wonton noodles at Mak’s noodles, but unfortunately they were closed for construction (surprise #3). Luckily, another restaurant that we wanted to try was just down the street. The restaurant was Yat Lok Restaurant, a Michelin starred restaurant popular for their roasted duck noodles. We ordered up a couple of bowls, and wow, delicious. Crispy roasted duck with plenty of meat and fat underneath, in a savory soup that balanced out the dark duck meat very well. Highly recommended!

From there we went into Tsim Sha Tsui to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Pravo, and it was a really nice place. We liked the disco dark lobby, and our room layout was really interesting, with a corner bedroom that had nice views of the neighborhood. Outside one window was a giant ESPRIT sign that changed designs by alternating colors of the LED lights – mesmerizing. The minibar was filled with freebies – beer, soda, and juice, and once we got the WiFi going we were all set. Nice place!

For dinner I selected one of the dim sum restaurants recommended online, and since it was a few blocks from our hotel it was a natural choice. We walked to Lei Garden, which is a small chain of popular restaurants in Hong Kong that is known for the consistent quality of dim sum. We found our way to the big building, and then went downstairs where the restaurant was supposedly located. There was construction everywhere, and just when I thought we’d be disappointed again, we spied some staff herding customers into their restaurant down a hallway. We walked in, and it was a really nice place. They had beautiful aquariums in the front of the restaurant and the décor of the place was quite nice. A traditional, upscale Chinese restaurant.

We started to look through the menus, and the staff were nice enough to give us an English menu to help with ordering. Hmm, I’ll just turn to the dim sum page, and… what a second… no dim sum?!?

“No Dim Sum!” the matronly manager practically bellowed. Turns out that they only serve dim sum during the morning hours. This is perfectly reasonable behavior – dim sum is really meant to be eaten in the morning or afternoon – but my internet source insisted this place was serving dim sum anytime. They were wrong.

Surprise #4. These little surprises were beginning to stack up and take their toll on our optimism.

Since we were sitting at their table we thought we should at least try some other food, so I ordered two dishes that sounded good, and they were. We had lotus root, onion and fried pork in a garlic sauce, and also a stir fry of chicken, mushrooms and Chinese sausage in a dark XO sauce. I really liked the fried pork, and the Chinese sausage was also unexpectedly good. We were really happy with the food there, but it wasn’t really what we came for, so we left soon after polishing off those dishes.

We were kind of realizing that if that place wasn’t serving dim sum then probably others on my list weren’t either. We were not far from the harbor light show that is held nightly at 8 pm, so we decided to walk down there and see what it was like. We found a pretty good spot on the waterfront, and waited a while. It was a free show, and I don’t know what we were expecting for free, but a few lasers, some canned background music and a couple of lit up buildings weren’t that thrilling. Ten minutes later the show ended, and we were a little surprised that that was it. (Surprise #5).

Sometimes when the world is working against you, maybe you should just go get a drink. I had read about a bar on the top of the Ritz Carlton called “The Ozone Bar”. It was situated on the 118^th floor of the building, with views of the whole city. It wasn’t so far, so we figured we’d just walk there, have a cocktail, and get a mental restart on the whole experience.

We walked along the harbor and then north towards Austin station. Around Austin there was a huge amount of construction – in fact, we were seeing construction all over Hong Kong during the trip. This construction seemed to be related to a building right next to the Ritz Carlton – it looked like it was going to be a big sports stadium. The sidewalks were all screwed up rendering my GPS navigation out of date and useless. We walked around the construction zone twice before we found the pathway to the Ritz Carlton, and then we walked up to the building but couldn’t find the entrance. We walked all the way around the building, we walked underneath through a parking garage, back out and across the street and then ended up where we started in the first place.

This was almost an hour after the light show, and I was ready to call it quits and head back to the hotel. Kuniko wasn’t going to let us give up that easily, and she rallied my morale and we made one more attempt to find the entrance. She found it at last, and we had to walk through an entirely different building to get to our destination. I think our problem was that we approached on foot, where most Ritz Carlton patrons show up in limousines or sports cars.

Once we got into the hotel, a nice staff member explained how to get up the elevators to the bar, and soon after we finally arrived. It was about 9:15 pm, so the night was still young and a cocktail sounded great.

At the bar reception counter they welcomed us and told us about a new policy they had – no shorts allowed after 9 pm.

Guess who was wearing shorts? Surprise #6!

Luckily, they had a pair of slacks for me to borrow, so they walked us through the restaurant to a men’s room, and I changed into the tiny pair of slacks and carried my shorts out of there in my hand. At this stage I am willing to do just about anything to get a cocktail into my hand. We ordered a couple of drinks, and soon after a space opened up with a view of the city, and then we could relax a little. My borrowed slacks were not able to close at the waist, so it was a little hard to enjoy the cocktail while I wondered whether my pants might slide off.

The view was great from up there, and although the bar atmosphere wasn’t really my style, it was nice to spend some time with Kuniko and just relax. Finally, something went right.

Lastly, we finished up at the bar, and we handed back the borrowed slacks and walked back to our hotel. It was much easier to find our way back since we had already spent an hour exploring the area around the Ritz, and it didn’t take long to get back to our neighborhood. We bought a couple of cold beers at the local 7-11, and then went back to our room to rest up. What a day – it was full of surprises, and although we were a little disappointed that it didn’t go like we planned we promised to have a better day the next day.

And it was no surprise that we did.

The first time I ever had dim sum (and not just a pot sticker – I’m talking about the whole experience), was in San Francisco more than twenty years ago. It’s strange but I have absolutely no memory of the food, which may be hard to believe for people who know me well. What I remember most is the atmosphere.

After graduating from university I moved back up north to continue working at wineries in Sonoma, but one day I was invited to go down into the big city to meet with some other old college friends who had moved away from Fresno. One lady who had lived in the same dormitory was living in San Francisco with her family, somewhere near Chinatown. I drove my dad’s old Corolla (or was it mine by then?) into the city, and the group of us ended up heading to her recommended restaurant to enjoy a dim sum lunch.

The atmosphere was pretty traditional – a big room filled with round tables covered with pink tablecloths, and there were two things that I still vividly remember even today. First, we were the only people who weren’t Chinese in the restaurant, and second, when we sat down the hostess walked over and placed forks next to our chopsticks. We were the only ones who got forks.

We ordered up and I guess it was a delicious meal, but I don’t remember much about it. In fact, since then, I think I probably had dim sum only one or two other times. There was a major gap between then and now. And now I can’t imagine life without dim sum.

I am always on the lookout for dim sum here in Japan. It is easier to get here than it is in California, but for the longest time even in Japan I never really sought it out. Then during a trip to Taiwan with Yoshi and Mamiko I was kind of reintroduced to steamed dumplings, and it all sort of clicked and I was completely hooked. In kind of a blazing epiphany I realized that I could get dim sum (or some version thereof) just about anywhere in Japan. We’re near Kobe’s Chinatown, the second largest Chinatown in Japan, and I just never really thought about it. Now I can’t get through a month without a heap of dumplings, shumai, or shorompo.

Interesting to imagine that I lived for about twenty years before ever trying dim sum, and then lived another twenty after that before I really understood how much I loved it. Food is like that, I think – the situation and the atmosphere plays a big role in whether you like something, or love it. You need to be out there trying new foods, trying variations on old foods, and enjoying them in different circumstances. It took three years of living in Japan before I tried sakuramochi (my favorite Japanese dessert), and I lived for nearly forty years before discovering my love for truffles.

One of the real perks of living in Japan is having easy access to so many other countries. We’re taking advantage of that this weekend, and flying off to Hong Kong where Kuniko is treating me to a dim sum trip for an early birthday present. Rather than spending a lot of time sightseeing we’re going to be focusing on dim sum in the mecca of dim sum eaters around the world. This may be our second time staying in Hong Kong but the trip this time is all about eating our fill of dim sum. To kiss the feet of the dim sum gods, as it were.

We fly out tomorrow morning, and we’ll be back on Sunday with full bellies and tired feet, hopefully ready to get back into the work routine. I’ll blog about the trip once we get back!

Lately Kuniko and I have been undergoing kind of a weird eating regimen. I don’t honestly recall exactly when we started it – maybe from the beginning of summer. During the week we eat a healthy, simple dinner. Usually we have just a raw cabbage salad, with maybe a few bites of kimchi. Kuniko will also have some natto, maybe some yogurt, and that’s it. We do this four days a week – Monday through Thursday. Then, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday we have more exotic (and higher calorie) foods. Grilling, sautes, salads, whatever we like.

This kind of menu really works well for our schedules. I usually get home a little earlier than Kuniko so I can jump on the exercise bike and ride for an hour or so, then come downstairs and chop cabbage for our dinner. It has been so hot and humid lately that a cold cabbage salad hits the spot every time.

Since we eat mainly just salad and greens during the week, when the weekend comes around we can really enjoy the richer foods and they taste more special. Once the season turns cooler we’ll get back into soups, nabe, and curries, and those leftovers will end up being my lunch for work during the week as well. I can’t wait to fire up the slow cooker again soon.

Last weekend was a good example of eating good foods. On Friday night we were invited over to the Yamaji’s suddenly to visit with some friends of Yuki’s. The lady was originally from Morocco and had met Yuki in San Francisco while he was studying there. Her boyfriend was originally from the Domincan Republic and together they were taking a year or so to travel around the world and see the sights. Yuki’s place was one stop on their tour, and the Yamaji’s were nice enough to serve a delicious dinner of okonomiyaki while we talked and shared stories outside in the cooling weather.

After a wild night of okonomiyaki (and tequila) we slept in on Saturday. It was tough getting going, but since the weather was really beautiful we decided to take a run to a burger shop in Nishinomiya. We went to Awaji-shima Burger, right near Nishinomiya station. I had been there on my own before, but this was Kuniko’s first time. The burgers were good, and the dark, kind of dirty environment only contributes to the greasy-spoon feeling. This time I noticed that they put some kind of sauce on their grilled onions, and we felt the sauce was too strong – it dominated the overall flavor of the burger. The rest of the burger was great, but next time, I’m asking them to hold the sauce, please.

For dinner on Saturday we marinated some shrimp in cajun spices, olive oil and tabasco, and then put them on skewers and grilled them outside on the barbeque. I also grilled some onions (to see if I could do it better than the Awaji-shima Burger place), and Kuniko peeled garlic cloves and wrapped them with some butter and salt inside aluminum foil and cooked them on the grill. After taking the garlic off the grill it was perfectly roasted and browned on the outside, and soft and mild on the inside. Kuniko also made an avocado, tomato and mozzarella basil salad to go with the rest of the food. We were still a little full from the burger restaurant, but dinner was excellent. We had plenty of leftovers to work with for the next few days.

Sunday Kuniko had to go in to work to help out a student, so I did a little shopping and relaxed the rest of the day in the cool living room. For dinner I made three sandwiches that we divided and ate with dill pickles. Sandwich number one, salami with garlic and herb ricotta cheese on all-grain bread. Sandwich number two, cajun shrimp (leftovers), cilantro, and smashed avocado on a soft French roll. Sandwich number three, grilled cheese sandwich with Colby cheese and grilled onions (leftovers, too). This last sandwich was a big hit – we can’t get enough grilled cheese sandwiches since watching “Chef”.

So on the weekend it is all about the food, and we are really enjoying it. We’ll have to watch our calories during the week, but so far it is totally worth it!

So with our return to Japan we finished up another great summer trip. This was our fifth trip to Europe and our first to Eastern Europe. Each time we go over to Europe we have a great time – the relaxed culture, comfortable summer weather, and the beautiful architecture make a winning combination for us.

Although we usually know what to expect when we visit Western Europe, there were more unknowns during this trip. Would refugees fleeing Syria affect our safety or travel schedule? Does public transportation work as smoothly as it does in the west? Would we feel the same carefree feeling that we usually feel during our other trips? As it turned out, none of these potential issues came up, and other than a few train delays everything went smoothly. I love the longer vacations we take, because so much can happen between the start of the trip and the end. We began in Croatia visiting national parks, drinking cocktails at the beach and enjoying the Adriatic Sea, and we ended the trip exploring dramatic Gothic cathedrals in the old city of Prague. There was enough diversity on this trip to make it one of our most memorable.

In Croatia we were able to explore several parts of the country, and we especially liked the friendliness and ease of communication while we were there. In this small country there is a surprisingly diverse land area, and the lack of urban sprawl made it much easier to enjoy the natural beauty. I really enjoyed the slow life feeling of the capital city of Zagreb and the contrast with the beach lifestyle of Zadar. If there was any downside to Croatia, it was that the food culture wasn’t quite developed yet. We ate mainly seafood in the west and meat in the north, but dishes tended towards simple and bold, rather than subtle. There is something to be said for simplicity, but I think there will be an evolution in the near future as chefs start to experiment and push boundaries of what Croatian cuisine really is. We didn’t spend any time on the Istrian peninsula, which is home to the best of Croatian wines, but if there is any kind of culinary revolution in Croatia I’d look for it to start there.

Our time in Slovenia was really just a blink of the eye, and it is nearly impossible to spot any main themes or trends from our time there. Having had a glimpse of the lifestyle there I felt like there was more to see and discover over time. Maybe we’ll pass through again in the future – you never know.

Although a portion of our time in Budapest was spent in the hospital and in recovery at the hotel, we really liked the town and the vibe it gave off. The city was full of young people with an open-minded and artistic culture. Coming from Japan where it is predominantly older people, you could really feel the difference on the streets. The city had some areas that felt dirty or dilapidated, but the beautiful architecture, the tree-lined Andrassy Ut, and the delicious food and wine made this city a highlight of the trip. We got a lot more out of Budapest than head bandages and hospitals.

In contrast, Vienna felt more like a clean and expensive city. During our stay there I felt like we were visiting a place that was well out of our price range. Vienna had history, art, culture and comfortable living. I imagined that the cost of living was quite high here, but what you got for that high cost of living was clean streets, beautiful parks and a safe city to live in. Most of the tourist areas had horse-drawn carriages constantly passing through, which seemed cruel to me, and at the very least left the smell of horse manure permanently associated with Vienna in my mind. While we were there our timing was such that we often saw the city while it was nearly empty – I imagine that a visit in another season would show us a completely different side of Vienna.

Finally, Prague was a great finishing city for our trip. Probably of all the cities we visited this time it had the most tourism, and we were exposed to it almost constantly because our hotel was right in the thick of things. Despite this we really loved the town (especially the older parts) and once we got away from the crowds the city was comfortable and attractive. Like most of the cities on this trip the food culture was focused on meat, and even though we had been eating meat daily for almost two weeks it was a pleasure to tuck into the roasts that were the basis of most meals in Czech. I liked the balance of food, wine, beer, history and architecture in the city – it was perfect wrap up for the trip.

So another trip in the books, and we turn our attention to future travel plans. Kuniko is taking me to Hong Kong for my birthday at the end of September this year. She knows how much I love dim sum, and we also want to finally meet the big Buddha that we missed the last time we were there.

This winter we’ll head to Australia to spend a quick Christmas with Steve and Brenda, and then stop in Laos and Thailand on the way back for some decompression and relaxation. We’ve never been to Laos and we’re eager to compare it with our experiences in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Where we go after that – we’ll just have to think about it for now. Dreaming up new destinations is half the fun!

We slept until about 7 am, had our last hotel breakfast, and then got to work packing up our suitcase for the final time. It looked like we’d be able to make the weight, so no worries. I was a little worried about getting the suitcase all the way across town to catch the bus to the airport, but as it turned out it handled the trip like a champ.

We waited patiently at the bus stop for the airport shuttle, and soon enough we were on our way. The driver handled the streets of Prague like a pro – darting in between trains and cars and generally driving the minibus like a sports car. At one point we went uphill for a while and then started passing tour bus after tour bus with huge crowds of people walking away from the road. There must have been a major sightseeing spot that we missed! I did a quick consultation of my map, and it turned out that everyone was going to see the St. Vitus Cathedral – the same one we saw the previous morning. I couldn’t believe the difference in crowds between the early time we arrived yesterday and the late morning today.

It was just a twenty minute drive to the airport. I was expecting Prague International Airport to be quite large. Every time we travel on the flight board I see flights to Prague, so I expected it to be a major hub, but actually the place was really tiny. We arrived too early to check in, so we killed time shopping and drinking our last Pilsner Urquells at the bar.

Once we got our gate we headed there, and the airport was the kind where the security is done at each gate, instead of out front before all the gates. On our flight to Istanbul was a big group of Indian guys. These guys must have been on the first airplane flight of their lives – they didn’t know any of the rules for going through security. Every mistake was made – their bags were full of liquids, their belts set off the metal detector, they had aerosol cans everywhere – it was like a comedy. The security staff just kept having them go through again and again – eventually we could get through as well.

It was just a two hour flight to Istanbul, and it was a piece of cake. We arrived at around 6 pm local time in Istanbul, and our flight out wasn’t until after 1 am that night, so we had a lot of time to kill. We did it the usual way, at the airport bar, but even I can’t kill six hours in a bar without ending up in a hospital. We also walked around the shops, sat in various locations to people watch (including an interesting group of Turkmenistanis flying back to Turkmenistan – beautiful traditional clothing), ate hamburgers at a strange restaurant called “Burger Lab”, played picture shiritori, and considered buying a bottle of Blood Orange Cointreau (we decided to wait and buy it in Japan).

The big event while we were waiting was to try to get our seats upgraded to business class. The magic number of miles to upgrade was 45,000. Kuniko had 50,000 miles, so she was set. I had 44,860 miles, and having just flown in on a flight from Prague I was sure that I could qualify. However, the Turkish Airlines staff working the lounge showed no mercy. According to their computer right now I was short 140 miles, so I was out of luck. The name of Turkish Airlines’ mileage program is called “Miles and Smiles”, but there were no smiles to be seen on any of the staff that evening. They yelled at customers to go away and check the flight board, the growled at old ladies to call a phone number and leave the desk alone, and they sternly told me that if I wanted to buy miles to make the upgrade I should call a number in Istanbul and make arrangements.

I didn’t want Kuniko to miss the chance to rest up on the way back, so she went ahead and upgraded to business class. I was happy that she’d be able to enjoy a more comfortable flight. I ended up riding in economy in a middle seat, but it didn’t really matter since at 1:35 am I was only thinking about sleeping. I slept through the first meal and barely remember accepting the second one. It was a smooth, uneventful flight back for me. Kuniko showed me the pictures later of her business class experience, and it looked great. I probably wouldn’t have been awake long enough to enjoy it myself, so things worked out perfectly.

We arrived around 6 pm on Saturday evening in Osaka, and from there it was the usual trip back home. We flew through immigration and customs, and then caught a bus just in time to take us back to Sannomiya in Kobe. On the bus we had to sit across the aisle from each other on the ride back, but we were both so happy – even just being apart on the plane I had really missed my wife. We grinned at each other the whole ride to Kobe – it felt like we had undertaken a big challenge to travel Eastern Europe and we had passed with flying colors. Kind of like it was just us against the world – and we had won.

Our home was not a pile of ash and rubble, although our toilet was a little stinky from not being used for two weeks in the summer furnace of Japan. It took some chemicals and a lot of flushing to get things back in order. We unpacked our stuff while sipping sparkling wine – another travel tradition of ours. Kuniko had cleaned our house from top to bottom before we left, so we could go to sleep in our own bed for the first time in a couple of weeks. Thanks to the air conditioner, we could sleep well. What a trip!

We treated ourselves to a sleep-in this morning, and then went downstairs to have the hotel breakfast again. Plenty of Activa yogurt and cheap coffee had us back in our rooms near the toilet for a while before we headed back out to the city.

It was a bit later in the day when we walked over the bridge and straight up the hill to see the St. Vitus Cathedral. This time we took the direct route, and it saved a lot of time climbing up the hill in the old city. On the way we took a picture of the man with the golden penis, and then we arrived at the ticket window to buy tickets to enter the cathedral. Our timing was great – there was just a five minute wait in line to get the tickets. The line to enter the cathedral was much longer, however, thanks to the tour buses that had arrived first thing. Still, after fifteen minutes or so we could get in.

The stained glass inside the cathedral was really impressive. Each one was done in a different style, and most used the tiniest pieces of stained glass – in a fine, detailed pattern that was impressive for its complexity. Kuniko wanted especially to see one of the windows that was done by the local artist Mucha. Famous for the unique art deco paintings of beautiful women, Mucha’s take on stained glass and holy scenes did not disappoint. The interior of the cathedral was totally worth the visit – I’m glad that we made the effort to come back and actually go inside.

Afterwards we walked around the old square in town, looking for gourmet shops or specialty stores to buy souvenirs for our neighbors. They have selective tastes, and so it took awhile to find the perfect gifts to share with them when we got back.

On the square itself we were attracted to the scent of roasting meat – there were some food stands set up with big pieces of pork on rotisseries. You could order a portion with a couple of beers, and stand next to bar tables right out in front and eat. We ordered a big cut of ham and enjoyed the first two beers of the day. It was getting hot out, and we were right in the sun, so it was refreshing. The meat was excellent – they know their meats here in Czech. Unfortunately we only had plastic utensils to cut it up and eat it, so some plastic forks lost their tines during the meal.

We spent some time alongside the river – this time sitting on a bench under the trees and enjoying the view of the other side. We had cold beers from a local convenience store and some chips that we had bought previously, and spent almost an hour just relaxing and chit-chatting about our trip. It was nice to rest our feet, too!

Since we had seen the stained glass by Mucha we thought it might be interesting to go look at the Mucha museum across town. It was a bit of a walk, but we were able to find it easily enough. Kuniko was mildly interested in the artist, but one look at the prices in the shop and we lost our interest pretty quickly. Things were wildly overpriced – even by Japanese standards. Time to go!

In the late afternoon we sipped beers outside of an Italian restaurant to kill a little time and get some rest, and then we finally walked across the bridge to have our last dinner in Prague. The bridge itself was at its tourism peak, with vendors clogging the walkways and people everywhere stopping to take pictures. Eventually we got across, and made a reservation at our restaurant because they didn’t open officially until six.

Kuniko was feeling a little tired, so we sat under a tree in a nearby square. We bought some water from a nearby cafe, and just hydrated and relaxed for a while. There was a park just a few minutes walk away, so we spent some time there walking with the wild peacocks that were apparently residents. Fruit fell continuously from the trees in the park, and sitting in the shade watching the peacocks turned out to be a good way to kill the remaining time before our restaurant opened.

The restaurant, Hergetova Cihelna, was recommended by some website that I found a while back, and the best part of it was the location. We sat on a riverside terrace enjoying a view of the Charles Bridge and the historic quarter. The weather was perfect, the location was perfect, everything was great. I would have proposed marriage if we weren’t already married.

As for the food – it was good, not mind-blowing. Kuniko had duck, and I had vegetarian almond and cheese raviolis. The server recommended some wines for us – we had Czech sparkling wine, and then we had some red and whites by the glass. All the wines were excellent – I couldn’t help thinking that maybe TESCO needs a new wine buyer.

During our dinner the couple behind me (that I couldn’t see) talked in English about their anniversary. The guy seemed a little bit weird and the woman was worried about the status of her pregnancy. I kept Kuniko up to date with their conversation using Japanese, but was a little surprised when Kuniko said that the lady looked like maybe she was Japanese. Later they talked about going to Tokyo, so I’m afraid what I thought was my super sneaky language trick was actually not sneaky at all. Uh-oh!

After dinner we walked back across the bridge taking pictures of the sunset over the western side of Prague, and then we continued on to find a wine bar in the other side of town. I think we just didn’t want to end our trip quite yet. The wine bar was really nice – the kind of place where I would probably be a regular customer if it was close to our house. The staff were wine experts (especially about Czech wines) and we ate a big plate with four kinds of cheese (no butter) and tried several wines recommended by the staff. Everything was delicious, but I thought that the white Czech wines overall had higher quality than the reds. Our waiter said that thanks to climate change more and more parts of the Czech Republic were becoming suitable for wine growing, so it may be a region to watch in the future.

Finally, totally exhausted from a busy day (and busy trip) we made the long walk back to our hotel for our last night in Europe. We pretty much collapsed into bed – it was a slow day, but according to our pedometer we walked over 30,000 steps. Goodnight!

We slept comfortably in our twin beds, and then rolled right out of bed at 6 am and we were out the door at 6:30, ready to check out Prague sans tourists.

The Charles Bridge (locally called Karluv most) was right next to our hotel and a natural starting point. At that time there were no vendors on the bridge and hardly any people. It was a cool morning with clear blue skies, and the sun was rising behind us, lighting up the city on the far side of the Danube quite nicely. The bridge was interesting because every few paces there is another statue ornamenting the walkway, and each one is dramatically gothic. I started to take pictures of everything, but I had to keep in mind that we still had plenty of time to look around.

After crossing the long bridge over the river we walked through the old town on the other side. The streets were empty of people and only the streetcars were moving through town. Shops were closed and we kind of followed our noses up the hill, aiming to reach the castle and cathedral at the top. We climbed the hill following the cobblestone roads, and we were rewarded with better and better views as we went. Finally at the top we reached a gigantic square, and we could see the spires of the cathedral beyond a big building to our right. Unfortunately the building was locked down behind a big gate, and there were several soldiers guarding the area. How do we get to the church?

I used my GPS to find a small pathway the led down the far side of the big building, but when we got there we discovered another gate, this one also guarded by a soldier who just looked at us blankly. There was a map nearby, but after a quick check we couldn’t find any hints. In the end we just approached the guard, who stepped aside and asked that we open our bags for a security check. Once we finished the security check we could proceed easily to the cathedral.

Later I read that the security measures were a recent addition and were heavily criticized by the tourist companies in the area. At the very least the soldier there with the guns and blank looks probably intimidated enough people to turn around and try to find another entrance. Kind of a weird system.

But anyway, we were in, and we walked through several building complexes, passing soldiers on patrol who ignored our presence. At that time of morning the cathedral wasn’t open yet, so we admired and photographed the outside and promised each other we’d be back later to see the interior. Once past the cathedral we could walk down the hill on the other side, which turned out to be another way to get back without the hassle of going through the old town.

While exploring the back area we discovered a bronze statue of a naked man in a square. The square was completely empty and the bronze man was shiny in only one particular area. A biologically important area, actually. We laughed at the sight and went on.

We got back to our hotel fairly quickly, and it turned out that the trip took a lot less time than we expected. We had a chance to enjoy our hotel breakfast buffet, and it was a pretty good one, actually. Eggs, bacon, sausages, cheeses and meats, plenty of fruit (some yellow rind melon that was very sweet) and a big bowl of yogurts (we had a lot of those) as well as bread and cereal. The coffee was free but it tasted like free coffee, but it did the trick for us. The service staff looked uncomfortable taking our drink orders, and I think the strange grimace our waiter gave us was supposed to be a smile. The other hotel guests were a mixed group of different races and countries. We saw a Chinese guy staying with someone I thought was his daughter, but Kuniko said that she was his wife. She looked like she was eleven years old – that was a shocker.

For the rest of the morning we explored other parts of the city to get a feel for the areas that were outside of the tourist zones. Without our suitcase, things went a lot smoother. While walking around the weather really started to improve. We checked out the bus stops for our future ride to the airport, and then went to a recommended traditional beer house called U Fleku. I liked the atmosphere immediately – all black wood and dark rooms. We sat down in the big beer hall, but at that time there were just a few customers besides ourselves. The tables were all long and connected, so in busy times you’d be bumping elbows with strangers as you tipped back your house beers. A guy was playing the accordion as we ordered two beers (they only served one kind) and also we split a plate of goulash (because we were on kind of a goulash survey mission).

While we waited for the food and drinks to arrive, a server walked up with a big smile on his face and a tray filled with tiny glasses filled with liquid. He said, “Would you like a traditional Czech apertif?” and we said yes, of course, because it sounded like he was giving them away. The way he asked and his body language combined with the sheer amount of the drinks on the tray made it seem like this was part of the procedure and tradition of the restaurant.

And as you might have guessed of course they are not free and they show up on your bill at the end of the meal. I was a little peeved that we fell for it, and they were indeed very traditional (and strong!) but they didn’t make me feel anything but slightly cheated. I watched the server do the same thing to subsequent customers and his success rate was quite high.

The beers they served us were delicious, however, and the goulash also was better than average, so we were happy about that. About halfway through our beers another (kind of creepy) waiter came over and tried to push us to order refills, and that was my limit for being treated like tourist cattle. We left soon after.

Hoping for a better beer drinking experience we walked a few blocks to a place called U Pinkasu, which has the distinction of being the first brewpub to serve pilsner beer in Czech. We ordered our beers from a miserable looking waiter who at least wasn’t pushy. We also ordered a big vegetable salad, because we were needing some veggies now and then to break up the focus on meat dishes in Eastern Europe.

On our way back to our hotel we did a little shopping at the local TESCO market. We were able to find some interesting souvenirs, and I bought a bottle of Czech wine to see what it was like. Not having any kind of idea about Czech wines, I ended up choosing by price, and I bought the most expensive Czech wine in TESCO, and it was still only about $10. Most local wines were under $5.

Unfortunately later when we opened up the bottle for a tasting in our room, we discovered why it was so cheap. We ended up pouring it down the drain – full of barnyard and fingernail polish aromas – nasty! Based on this we were ready to write off all Czech wines, but later we had a chance to change our opinions.

In the afternoon we crossed another bridge over the Danube and descended to some islands that functioned as parks in the middle of the Danube river. We sat on the grass on the river bank and enjoyed watching life go slowly by at a river’s pace. There were paddleboats on the water, some row boats, and occasionally a big river barge. It was a different feeling from the Danube in Budapest, but still relaxing and stress-free. These kinds of relaxing breaks in the otherwise sightseeing-heavy schedule were a nice way to remind ourselves that we were here on vacation.

Earlier, while walking through the tourist quarter we noticed a batch of tables with white tablecloths that looked like sort of an upscale hotel cafe. We thought it would be a nice way to spend some time in the afternoon, sipping wine, eating cheese, and watching the huge crowds of tourists walking by. So later that day we made our way to the U Prince Hotel and grabbed a table. The location was great, but the service was sure slow. Also, their menu was exactly the same as the room service menu back at our hotel, with just the name of the hotel changed – so it was probably the same company. We ordered some Prosecco at first, and some white wine later, but I’m not sure that the white was from Czech. The coup de grace was the cheese platter that arrived. It had five kinds of cheeses – one of which looked a little bit like butter. Kuniko took a big chunk and put it in her mouth, and sure enough… it was butter. It was a strange place to put the butter – we had bread, and then the butter was garnished, decorated and sliced just like the cheeses. We couldn’t stop laughing about it the rest of the trip.

While we sat and enjoyed the scenery eating our wine and butter, a small group of Hare Krishnas paraded through chanting, and it reminded me of the ones we saw so long ago in Zagreb. Was that the same trip? We had seen and experienced so much since then. It was kind of cool that we started the trip with them and they were here too at the end of the journey as well. Hare Krishna!

Before dinner we did a little more shopping at TESCO, buying some souvenirs that we missed the first time as well as some water (to stay hydrated) and other goodies. The people in line in front of us were paying with some kind of official coupons. We saw lots of other customers doing the same thing – some kind of social welfare?

Dinner that night was at a local’s place called Olympia. I had researched the place online and it turned out to be just what we were looking for. The place was owned by Pilsner Urquell, and so they were (naturally) serving only their beer. We sat in the corner and ordered some small appetizers to go with the beer, since we were still a little full with cheese and butter. The food that came was in fact quite large. We had pickled sausages (served in a little glass canning jar) with a salad’s worth of veggies and greens as a garnish and several big slices of dark bread. The other dish was the big hit of the night – marinated Camembert cheese. The cheese was saturated with the garlic and paprika flavor from the marinade, and it also came with the onions, lettuce, peppers, and dark bread. We vowed to try to make a similar dish at our place when we came back to Japan. The portion size at Olympia was huge – and these were just the small appetizers. We really liked the place – highly recommended.

On the way back to the hotel we could take in some beautiful night time views of the city. It was a really laid back and pleasant experience today. Tomorrow is our last full day in Prague (and in Europe) so we’ll have to make it count.

We were able to get lots of sleep – almost twelve hours! I think we knew we’d need to charge our batteries going into exploration mode in a new city. We were both tired, but not like exhaustion tired – more like you feel after a satisfying period of exercise.

My doctor-mandated waiting period was up this morning, so I took off the bandage and had Kuniko check things out. She said it looked like it was healing well, and there was no redness or bleeding, so I went into the shower and washed my hair for the first time in five days. Wow – that felt good. I was careful around the wounded area, but over the next few days I was able to wash my hair normally and retire my goofy head bandage.

Once again we ran out the clock on the checkout time of our hotel room, packing up the suitcase which was now significantly heavier thanks to all the souvenirs that we bought yesterday. Kuniko declared that it was still under 23 kg, which is the magic number for international flights. We rolled the big suitcase out the door and we were on our way back to the Vienna train station.

Today was more lively – no more national holidays and there was foot traffic all over town. We caught the subway and then changed to a regular train to get to the main Vienna train station. We had a little time before our train left, so we put our suitcase in a locker and then walked outside the station to check out the Belvedere Palace. I had heard that it was an impressive place to see while waiting for trains, and indeed it was. There were several art exhibits by Ai Weiwei integrated into the palace grounds which made for some interesting pictures. It was totally worth the short walk from the station.

We headed back to the station and stopped at a little bakery to have some juice, a veggie sandwich, and thanks to my non-existent German skills we ended up buying a pretzel that we didn’t plan on buying. As it turned out the pretzel was damn good – later we ate it and it was stuffed with butter and chives. I would never have picked a pretzel stuffed with butter and chives but fate intervened and I doubt I’ll be able to eat a regular pretzel again.

After buying a couple of snacks for the train ride (just in case it was longer than we expected) we went up onto the platform and awaited our ride out of town. There was quite a variety of trains that were already there. One unusual train had regular passenger traincars interspersed with traincars that held actual automobiles. I guess it is possible to transport your car by train, which seemed like a logistical nightmare but probably is not a big deal if they have specialized loading facilities.

We were in first class for this leg of our journey, and our assigned seats were two very comfortable ones facing each other next to the window. We each had an empty seat next to us, and those stayed empty for the first half of the trip. Plenty of room to stretch out and watch the scenery float by. After a little while the train made an emergency stop (oh no!) and since we were sitting in the car right next to the restaurant car we could hear what sounded like every plate and glass in their storage room fall and shatter on the floor. I was glad I wasn’t cleaning that mess up! Luckily it was a very short stop, and we got back underway rather quickly.

After about an hour of riding the train, a big family came through carrying a lot of luggage. One of the family members walked by carrying an electric room fan, and she was speaking in American English so I cracked a quick joke. It turns out they were American, but they also spoke another language and they were with their mother who seemed to be Eastern European. They had first class tickets but they had put all their luggage on the other end of the train, so they had to figure out how to get it all back. They seemed really stressed about everything. I picked up from their English conversation that they were sightseeing around Europe and visiting their roots in the old country. They were really impressed with train travel, and so I guessed it was their first time to Europe. Their mom was nice, and she wiped down everybody’s table (including ours!) for cleanliness. Kuniko and I kept to ourselves mainly, and spoke in Japanese for privacy, and they did the same in whatever language they were speaking.

In the end our train arrived in Prague about 10 minutes later than expected, which wasn’t so bad. We got out and changed our money inside the station, and then considered how we were going to get to our hotel. In the end we decided to go ahead and walk it. It looked like about a 20 minute walk by our map, so we again subjected our suitcase wheels to some punishment.

Right after we left we discovered what Prague locals probably take for granted – the entire city is paved in cobblestones. Even the sidewalks are small tiled stones. Our suitcase wheels were roaring as we walked through town, and sometimes a big cobblestone would jam a wheel causing a short stop while I had to shake the suitcase loose. I think we picked the wrong city to drag a suitcase through.

As we approached our hotel we passed through streets that were narrower and narrower, and they were pretty full of tourists. Kuniko had booked a hotel right next to one of the big tourist draws – the Charles Bridge. The good news was that we’d be able to sightsee much easier, but the bad news was that there were hordes of tourists jamming the narrow streets. Pulling a suitcase through the crowds and over cobblestones was a little stressful.

At last we found our hotel, and upon entering the lobby there was a giant muscular porter who took our suitcase for us. He lifted it effortlessly and I was never so happy to say goodbye to a suitcase. Whew! The check-in went smoothly, with our hostess “Petra” handling the front desk. Her hands were pretty shaky (alcoholic? Disease?) and she told us that our booking service had specified twin beds and that was all that they had available for us. She asked us if that was OK, and I asked her what would happen if we said no. The porter grinned, Petra grinned, and I guess I got my answer. Twin beds will be fine, thanks.

The porter took us to our room (and carried the suitcase, thanks!) and showed us the entry and low-tech security system. There was a separate door for guests that should be locked at all times, then there was a steel gate (that we had to lock and unlock as we came and went) and then another door (that said “do not lock”, but was always locked when we tried to open it) and then finally our room door. So that is four doors between us and our room, and we had three keys (one key opened the last two doors). It was like a gameshow puzzle to get to our room, and if either of us needed a toilet urgently it would be a high stakes game, indeed.

We unpacked a little and got the Wi-Fi going, but they had a really weird system here too. You had to log onto a page full of advertisements each time you wanted to use the internet (and it would log you off automatically after five minutes or so). They were getting lots of money from having their guests hit the advertising pages every five minutes – a little money on the side for somebody.

There were other little quirks with the hotel that we came to know (and love?) over the next few days. The inner hallway was shared with one of the bakeries nearby, so every time we walked to and from our room we were able to smell the rich aroma of cinnamon and sugar. We caught two of the bakers coming to work one morning hauling dough in stainless steel trays – one apparently thought it was too heavy so she was kicking the steel tray full of dough uncovered across the cement towards the bakery. We decided not to buy anything at that place.

Since it was the afternoon we thought we’d go outside and look around a little. The crowds of tourists were still there, and we figured we should wait and see the big sights the next day when we could get up early and miss the hordes. The first thing we decided to do was go get a cold beer at a pub. We walked around the backstreets avoiding most of the crowds and found a little bar with outdoor seating. We ordered up and drank our first beers in the Czech Republic. Mainly this trip we’d been drinking wine, so it was a nice change. We stuck with beer for the most part in Prague, with a few notable exceptions that I’ll get to later.

After some extensive research we found a place to have a somewhat traditional Czech dinner. We settled on Potrefena Husa near our hotel. They had Saproramen beer which was excellent. I ordered the pork knuckle, Kuniko had the roast duck leg, and we got down to business. The knuckle was really, really good. So much meat and cracklin’ skin on the outside – yum. Kuniko’s duck was also excellent – all the meat was roasted to perfection. Even with Kuniko’s help we could barely finish the pork knuckle.

Since we had filled up on dinner we chose to walk around a little and try to burn a couple of the calories. During our walk we stopped in to shop at a tiny convenience store near our hotel. The cashier was an Asian guy that may have been on drugs. He asked us to hand him one of the candy bars and then he promptly opened it up and ate it. Very friendly, though, and I think he was just bored. We also walked through the old town square, a place that we would become very familiar with later on. Around the square we scouted some restaurants that we could possibly visit in the future, and also bought a big container of juice for the hotel room to keep ourselves hydrated. On our way back to the hotel we saw that they converted the lower half of our hotel lobby into a nightclub, and there were actually people lining up to get in. Our hotel was full of surprises.

That was it for our first (half) day in Prague. Our plan for the next day was to get up early before the crowds and have a look for ourselves the next day without so much interference.

Since it was our last full day in Vienna we thought we’d go do something a little more ambitious, so we took a day trip out to see Schonbrunn palace. It is a large palace outside of central Vienna, modeled after the Versailles palace in Paris. It is a big tourist draw, so we got up pretty early. These early rises are the key to sightseeing success, but by then we were having trouble rolling out of bed at 6 am.

We took a short walk to the nearest train station, and then caught a regular train out of town to get to the castle. Buying tickets on the trains in Vienna was a little strange – you bought them from a machine, but there was no ticket gate anywhere, and I never saw anyone checking tickets. How do they keep people honest, I wonder?

Once we arrived at the palace we went to get in line for tickets. The ticket hall was a huge building, with pylons to manage big crowds of people. When we arrived there were only five people in line, so no sweat. Later when we left we saw maybe five hundred people in line. Once we had tickets we walked to the entry gate, which was a turnstile with a barcode scanner. It only turned if the time on your ticket was the same or later than the time above the turnstile. It was a good way to control crowds and meter a lot people into a relatively narrow space, so I was impressed. We had to wait only five minutes or so before our time came up, so during our wait we could watch the system in action. People who had bought tickets after us marched up and couldn’t understand why they couldn’t get in. The look of exasperation on the staff manning the entrance told the story – the system wasn’t so obvious to a lot of people and even this early in the day the staff looked pissed off explaining the same thing over and over.

The Palace of Versailles is a very dramatic and luxurious building, and it was one of the highlights of our last trip to Paris. Even though this palace in Vienna was based on the one in Versailles, it couldn’t really compare. It was plenty beautiful, and I really enjoyed walking through and trying to imagine the function of each room, but it didn’t leave me breathless. Kuniko kind of felt the same way, I think. We moved through pretty quickly, and we were aided by the “no photos” rule, so it was easy to step around people and keep our pace.

Much more interesting were the grounds behind the castle. We spent time walking through the pathways between trees, discovering fountains, statues and obelisks in unexpected places. A nice older lady volunteer told us about some sights worth visiting, so we had some insider information to help us out, too. There weren’t so many people around, so it was a nice leisurely stroll.

Standing far behind the palace, on the crest of a rising hill, was a building that looked like sort of a gate. It was built to dramatically show the extent of the gardens to people within the palace, and it housed a restaurant. We were thinking some sparkling wine with a view of the grounds sounded like just the thing, so we started walking uphill. It was a lot steeper (and farther) than it looked, however, and in the sun we really started to get hot. My head bandage was getting a little sweaty, too – that can’t be good.

Fortunately once we arrived and went inside we found it well worth the effort. We found a table on the back terrace, passing a buffet of sweets and live classical music being played. This place was high class all the way. We ordered our Prosecco, added a plate of cheese to the tally and some water (because we were paying careful attention to hydration). The cheese was a real hit – there were some great selections in there, and we had another glass of sparkling to make sure the balance was right.

The crowd here was on the rich side – you could tell they were enjoying being conspicuously spendy. In a somewhat strange contrast, just beyond the tables was a hand water pump, and now and then joggers who had entered the gardens for exercise would stop and pump vigorously and then drink straight out of the pump in a somewhat sloppy manner. We are sipping our sparkling wine and they are guzzling water like thirsty horses – I love it!

We walked back down past the Neptune fountain and were able to find the garden labyrinth. The hedge maze was actually three different mazes of varying height and difficulty. We turned into the first one we saw and figured we’d get through it in just a few minutes. Not so fast – it was more difficult than it looked. We walked through feeling a little like we were in a movie or on Survivor. Lots of wrong turns, and lots of dead ends. The goal was an elevated platform in the middle of the maze, and we could see people climb the steps and beat the maze now and then but it was surprisingly tough for us to figure out. At one point a young girl zoomed past us and I jokingly asked her for help, but she just smirked at me and moved on. Later we finally found the platform at the end, and we could look down on everyone else and feel suitably superior. I saw the young girl still looking, and she looked up and we locked eyes. Ha, ha – we beat you!

The labyrinth was a highlight, but it was warming up and we figured it was time to get going. On our way out buses were unloading hordes of tourists and the line for tickets was outrageous. The train platform was crammed with people coming in, and it felt good to catch a train out of there having missed most of the madness.

Back in central Vienna things were awfully quiet. We walked the streets looking for a grocery store or drug store that was open, but we had absolutely no luck. Finally by chance we found an open minimarket (Spar), but it was so packed with people we decided to move on. In the end we resorted to asking our hotel clerk about places that were open, and she informed us that it was a national holiday and almost everything was closed. I was looking for antiseptic cream for my head wound, so she described a drug store that was “always open” uptown. We set out at once to find it.

It was quite a walk to get there, and when we found the correct drug store the place was dark and the door was locked. There was a guy waiting by the intercom, and I figured he was trying to get into an apartment above the drug store. I was a little disappointed because we walked a long way on tired feet to get some medical goods, and came up empty. Just to double check we went into a completely different hotel nearby, pretended to be their guests, and asked for a drug store. The lady said that she thought the drug store was indeed open, and then she called it right in front of me and confirmed with the staff that they were open. What the hell? We went back out there, and then we realized that the store was closed and locked, but you could tell an employee inside what you wanted through the window and intercom, and he’d sell it to you through a little drawer built into the wall. I presented my Google Translate app to show him I wanted antiseptic cream, and he came right back with two options. I couldn’t understand what he said, so I picked the one on the right and gave him five euros for his troubles. Easy!

Worried that the national holiday might mean that the souvenir shop that we had planned on visiting for our shopping might closed, we took a train to give our feet a rest and found that it was indeed open and doing brisk trade in the touristy part of town. We went nuts buying stuff for all our students and coworkers, and we might have overbought a little because we were very relieved that it was open.

Our last stop for the night was back at the only minimarket that we could find that was open. Inside it felt slightly like a riot – a sense of desperation in the air. Disaster? Food rationing? No, just a national holiday in Vienna. We chose a variety of light foods – some cheese, a few slices of sausage, some veggie salads, and a bottle of Wachau wine and some cold beers. It took a long time to get through the check out line, but we brought back our haul to the hotel, and had a casual dinner in our hotel room while we packed and rested our feet. It was nice to reset our tastebuds after all the heavy foods we’ve eaten during dinners this trip!

We were leaving the next day on a fairly early train to Prague, so we wanted to get some extra sleep and rest before our next travel day. Hopefully the train ride would be less eventful than the last one!

We came in so late the previous night that we figured it would be OK to sleep in a little bit. Our hotel was a bit different from the previous hotels, kind of decorated in an artsy avant garde style. It boasted four stars but based on the size and the layout it seemed like a reach to call it a four-star hotel. However, when we travel we don’t need much, and they had comfortable beds, a toilet that flushed, and we were all set.

By the time we were up and moving around the sun was out and it was a much hotter day. We tried to walk in the shade to avoid most of the heat, but this was as warm as Zadar was back on the sunny Adriatic coast. As we walked through central Vienna the city felt much quieter and conservative than Budapest. It felt more upscale and classy somehow. The architecture in central Vienna was no disappointment – classical structures and church towers were liberally spread throughout the city. You always could see something on the horizon that made you want to explore more. This was going to be a big job.

Our first stop was my request, a visit to the Austrian National Library to see the State room. Our timing happened to be perfect – we arrived just ten minutes before it opened and we could get in before crowds of people made taking pictures more difficult. The books in that particular room were beautifully maintained and surrounded by elegantly painted ceilings, classical statues, and rich warm wood shelving. That room alone was worth the visit to Vienna for me.

Feeling a little hungry we stopped at an outdoor cafe nearby called “The Guest Room” and ordered up an omelet and some eggs Benedict, fruit juices, and some coffees afterward. Sitting outside leisurely eating and drinking – that’s what we are always looking forward to. Our German skills are pretty weak, but the waitress spoke great English and once again I was considering myself lucky to be born an English speaker. The food was good too – I love eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast we did some other sightseeing – the Opera House (one of many, actually), and St. Stephen’s cathedral in the central touristy area. I liked the roofline of the cathedral, again decorated in patterned tiles, and even though one tower was under construction it made for an imposing landmark in the center of town.

Conveniently located near the cathedral was a Maner shop, selling one of the souvenirs that is apparently the big seller in Vienna. The wafers, crème and chocolate looked pretty good, so we decided to do our trip souvenir shopping here later on.

Down the street Kuniko requested that stop at Demel for a slice of chocolate cake. This shop had a branch in the Kansai area in Japan, and I had told Kuniko previously that we shouldn’t go there until we try the home bakery in Vienna. The cake was really, really good. Intense chocolate creaminess on the outside, and rich warm (and almost unsweetened) chocolate cake inside. We each had a glass of champagne with it, and it was a good match.

To burn off chocolate cake calories we spent the afternoon walking around town seeing more landmarks – the Votive cathedral downtown, and the city hall (which they call the “Rathaus”, which is a pretty cool nickname). Near the downtown area they had a street festival going on, as kind of a prelude to a movie screening later on that evening. Big events going on in Vienna in the summer. Other than the festival and the tourists, however, the city was really quiet. Some blocks had almost no people at all – like a ghost town. Lots of natives were probably out of town for their summer holidays, and I’d bet that the city is completely different during the other seasons.

On the way back to our hotel we tried our best to find a supermarket open to sell us bottled water, but everything was closed. We didn’t know it at the time, but it was a holiday weekend, and that day and the next were national holidays. The tourist shops were making a killing by selling water at double the regular price! We did manage to find a cafe to sell us water (and a beer afterwards). Our table was on the outside edge of their outdoor terrace with nobody around us. We enjoyed the smoke-free environment (Europeans sure do like to smoke!) for a while, until two motorbikers sat down next to us and lit up. Check, please!

Back at the hotel we took a little break to rest our feet, and I took a short nap. For some reason Kuniko started to have some kind of allergic reaction – sneezing ten times in a row, and getting a skin rash. We weren’t sure why, but we decided to go sit outside at a park to see if a change of environment would help. There was a nice little park just down the street from our hotel, and we sat on a bench near a food truck grilling burgers and selling beer. What a smell – I wanted a burger badly, but I convinced myself that it would be better to stick with Austrian food for the next couple of days.

Kuniko’s nose was still running, and she was using some tissue to try to keep it under control. As we sat on the park bench surrounded by kids being watched by their mothers and fathers, Kuniko would look around surreptitiously and then stick the white tissue up her nose. I warned her not to look so suspicious doing it – she looked like someone sneaking cocaine in a public park. Luckily nobody called the police.

For our dinner on the first night in Vienna we found a traditional underground wine cellar/restaurant called Esterhazy Keller. It had some historic events in its past, but we were more interested in their wine and food. It was certainly dramatic to enter, walk slightly downstairs, and take turn after turn through an old cellar. It was well lit and sanitary, which was a good sign for the food we were about to eat.

We started with wine – and you could choose from a couple different house whites and a couple house reds. We chose at random and were very pleased with the results. So cheap, too! The food was excellent. Kuniko ordered a “fitness” salad that had big pieces of salty chicken and strips of mango mixed in with the lettuce and vegetables. I think the fitness came from not eating red meat, but that didn’t last long. I ordered some homemade viennese sausages, and we had goulash (crazy about the goulash – this one was one of the best examples). We also had boiled beef with apple/horseradish and tartar sauces to use for dipping the meat. The boiled beef was better than it sounds, and with glass after glass of cheap delicious wine I fear our happy exclamations were ringing through the cellars.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for some lemon and vanilla gelato to go, and then sat down to watch the lighting of the Vienna National Library as the sun set behind us. There were lots of people walking around the square and it was nice to just sit on a bench and have some slow time. Once the lights finally came on they were a little less dramatic than I had expected, but it was still a nice time.

From there we decided to head on back and get some sleep at the hotel. Thanks to all the wine we slept pretty well that night.

Our plan for the last day in Budapest was to get up at 5 am, and walk across the bridge to the other side of the Danube and take pictures of the majestic Buda castle just as the sunrise was lighting it up.

But we were tired.

My alarm went off at 5 am, but I made a quick physical evaluation of my body and decided to sleep in another hour. I was still pretty tired at 6 am, but how often in my life do I wake up in Budapest, really? Up and at ‘em!

Kuniko and I walked across the Chain Bridge, and once we got moving we were feeling really good. There were hardly any tourists at all. In the evening the places we passed were crammed with tourists, so it was nice to walk by unimpeded today. Although we had planned to be here an hour earlier, the sun was still in a great position and our pictures turned out pretty well.

We walked up the long slope to the castle, since it was too early for the funicular to be running. Since nobody was around it was a nice leisurely walk, and we drank bottled water as we went (because I learned my lesson). Up at Buda castle there was a lot of trash laying around – remnants from the huge crowds the night before. Apparently we were there before the cleaning staff showed up. We had a nice view of the sun rising over the Pest side of the city, and we walked around the grounds checking out the fountains and statues that were placed here and there.

After getting our fill of the castle we followed my GPS map down another side of the hill and to the base of the mountain that had the Citadel sitting on top. The Citadel was an old military base, and it had been converted into a monument because of the great position overlooking the city. We walked up and up through the forest on the mountainside, choosing trails that we thought might lead us to the top.

Halfway up we stumbled on a monument that we had seen from afar and had wanted to visit. It was kind of a half circle of Roman columns, arching in a way to draw your eye to a central statue of a priest, holding a cross outstretched (with almost a defiance) towards the rising sun. Because of our timing the priest seemed to be real – facing off against the sun just like every other morning.

The pathways up the mountain were pretty steep, and by the time we reached the top we were sweating and gasping. What a way to wake up! As we approached the Citadel some cleaning staff were working around the area. One guy looked at my head bandage and asked me what kind of trouble I got into last night. I just smiled, pointed to Kuniko and said “She won.”

At the edge of the Citadel was another monument being lit up by the sunrise. There were two warrior statues, flanking a tall pillar of stone with a massive metal sculpture of a woman offering a feather to the sun at the top. It was a bold piece of artwork, and something that reminded me of something you’d find in a video game like Dark Souls. There were just a few people there at that time, so I got some lonely pictures and also we could enjoy some quiet time up there (to catch our breath!).

From there we walked back down the hill, having a much easier time of it. We discovered that under the Roman columns and cross bearing priest monument there was a water spring, and it ran slowly down the hillside on green moss into a cistern at the base of the mountain. It looked pretty refreshing, and reminded me of the water back at Plitvice Lakes, which seemed like so long ago.

It was an easy walk back across the bridge to our hotel, and we settled into our room to milk the comforts of a nice bed, a clean toilet, and a functional air conditioner for as long as we could. Once we checked out of the hotel we’d be on our own until we got to our next hotel in Vienna, and that might take a while.

At check out we were presented with the hotel doctor’s bill in addition to our regular hotel charges, and we added that paperwork to the growing stack of documents that would need to be dealt with when we returned to Japan. We left our suitcase with the bellhop, and then went back into the city for some last sightseeing before we took the train out of town.

Climbing mountains first thing in the morning does wonders for your appetite! We found a little bistro situated right on the square in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica, and so we ordered a couple glasses of local wines (that were very good – Sauvignon Blanc and a Gruner Veltliner). I was burned out on meat so I just had a caesar salad with shrimp, and Kuniko had a really tasty paprika chicken dish with noodles and cream that tasted a lot like macaroni and cheese. Hungarian comfort food!

We still had more time before our train left, so we also decided to take a cruise on the Danube. It was easy to find a ship that did an hour or so loop on the river, and so we bought tickets and that just about killed off the remainder of our Hungarian Forints. Cruises are nice – slow paced, relaxing, and they offered some really nice opportunities for photos of the city. The cruise came with a drink on the house, and so we sipped cheap champagne served by the very young staff. We didn’t really pay attention to the headphone audio description, and instead just let the breeze flow by silently. The cruise was a very nice way to wrap up our time in Budapest.

We gathered our poor squeaky suitcase, and subjected it to a trial by fire – an almost 3 km walk from our hotel to the Budapest train station. The roads and sidewalks conspired to make it a more difficult affair, but strangely our suitcase wheels grew quieter under the stress, and maybe our problem was that we weren’t moving them enough. Once we arrived at the old and quite beautiful train station Kuniko ran across the street to do a little shopping, and I did some suitcase babysitting in front of the station and watched the people coming and going.

While I sat next to the main sidewalk a chubby Middle Eastern guy came up to me and asked me if I spoke Serbian, which is a hell of a conversation start. I told him that I only spoke English, and so he proceeded to grunt through a conversation in keywords while I did my best to keep my end going. He wanted to know where I was from (Canada), how work was in Canada (slow), what happened to my head (baseball accident), and where I was going next (Venice). I was feeding him bad info because for all I knew this was a forward agent for ISIS or something. Unfortunately I couldn’t just say goodbye because Kuniko was shopping and this was the meeting point. He got bored after a while and took off, and just in time since Kuniko showed up shortly thereafter and she didn’t know I was a Canadian going to Venice suffering from a freak baseball mishap.

Inside the train station we were happy to discover that our train was already in position, and after just a few minutes we could pre-board and get our seats. We were the first people in the car, so we could put our suitcase in a rack right across from our seats and it made it easy to keep an eye on it during the trip.

It’s nice to travel by train in Europe. Things slide by at a pleasant pace, and you can sleep or relax and not worry too much about anything but what you’ll eat for dinner when you arrive. At least, that was what our previous experiences had been like.

About an hour into our journey, the train suddenly slid to an emergency stop. We weren’t at a station – we were out in the middle of nowhere next to an unidentified river. We waited patiently for a restart of the train, but there was no movement and no announcement.

After about a half hour of waiting there was an announcement that said that there was some technical trouble, and we could expect to start again in 90 minutes. Two hours later there was another announcement saying they had no idea when we’d be restarting.

With each passing hour people were getting antsy. The expected travel time was only two and a half hours, but we had been on the train for more than four hours and still not even sure when we’d get moving again. People bought lots of alcohol from the restaurant car, and Kuniko and I decided that we’d skip the alcohol for this situation and wait and see. We overheard passengers panicking because they were missing flights at airports, missing hotel reservations, and generally ticked off at the inconvenience. Smokers stuck on the non-smoking train decided to ignore the law and smoke in between the cars, which meant that every time the doors opened we could smell the smoke – yuck.

Faced with the real possibility of spending the night where we were sitting, Kuniko and I broke out the snacks and turned to entertainment, playing a version of shiritori that had us drawing pictures instead of saying words. It was fun, and as always I was impressed with Kuniko’s drawing skills.

A Chinese couple near us were eating so much of their food that I wondered if they thought they should eat it before hungry passengers started shaking them down for their snacks. They were hoping to go to Salzburg that night, but I doubted that they’d make it. Their original arrival time would have been 10 pm but their best case scenario now would be around 3 am.

Suddenly, a train locomotive passed us on one side, and then about an hour later, our train restarted. Some people gave a little cheer, and we were off. No explanations were forthcoming, and the total delay ended up being four hours. We pulled into Vienna station around midnight, and we grabbed the nearest taxi and had him take us to our hotel. Luckily the staff still had our room for us, and we could check in and go right bed. What a trip!

Later I read on the news that on that day in Switzerland a crazy guy with a knife attacked some people on a Swiss train, and since we were on the same line it may have been part of the reason for the delay. People may still be a little jumpy with the terrorist attacks in Europe lately. I don’t know for sure whether that was the reason, but I have no other ideas.

After sleeping most of the previous afternoon and all through the night, I woke up completely refreshed. I was hungry, thirsty, and everything seemed to be back to normal – other than a giant white bandage on my head.

The agreement we made yesterday with the hospital was that the hotel doctor would come back to our hotel today at some point to clean the wound and change the bandage. We called her and arranged a visit at 11 am, so we had some time to kill before that. I had been sleeping all night, sitting in a hospital waiting room all day yesterday, and I wanted to move my legs and look around. I put on the hotel shower cap, took a shower, and then we headed out for a walk around the hotel to test the waters.

It was my first chance to look around at the city. Our hotel was located right on the Danube river, with gorgeous views of the Buda castle and other Buda landmarks directly across from us. Along the river there was a two lane road running, and next to that was a streetcar railway. It made for some dramatic views. We walked slowly around the hotel in the brisk morning weather, and I took lots of pictures as we went. As a test run it went really well, so we decided to walk a little farther. We continued on to see St. Stephen’s Basilica, one of the big landmarks on the Pest side of the river. At that time in the morning it was closed, but the square around it was beautifully designed and we took in the view a little bit and promised to come back and see more later.

Budapest had an interesting vibe. It felt young and a little wild. More artistic and lively than what we had seen so far, but also historic and old. It was also the biggest city we had visited so far on this trip, and that meant homeless people now and then, and sometimes some big city smells (like trash bins and piss in the alleys). Despite being a big city it felt pretty safe, and we never felt like someone might hassle us or beg for money aggressively. A couple of people held out their hands looking for handouts, but they pretty much ignored the people walking by. We felt very comfortable walking around Budapest.

I still felt really good and my legs were itching for more exercise, so we continued even further along the Andrassy Ut, a historic street lined with trees, opera houses, embassies, and other historic buildings. We walked slowly along, and I really appreciated the fresh air. We had to be mindful of our doctor’s appointment back at the hotel, so we kind of hurried, but we had to be careful to not push my body too hard, so we kind of went slowly. It was a weird pace, really.

Along the way we had a chance to walk by the American embassy. The security there was pretty heavy duty. They had built high steel barricades enclosing a whole city block, with a car security area with big metal blocks rising out of the ground. It was by far the heaviest security of any embassy we saw this trip. 

At the end of Andrassy Ut we came to Heroes Square, which was a big open space with some grand monuments that reminded us a lot of St. Mark’s Square in the Vatican. By now the sun was getting high in the sky and the weather was warming up. Just past the square was Vajdahunyad Castle, situated in a nice green park next to a lake. There was plenty to see here, but we limited ourselves to a brief visit, and then walked back to the hotel to see the doctor again.

We made it back to the hotel with an hour to spare, and so I was well rested by the time she showed up. She looked at the wound and liked what she saw, and then showed us how to change the bandage since Kuniko would be responsible for doing it for the next few days. Her English was interesting – she said, “I will remain these bandages for you”. When I heard her say, “I will remain…” I was startled because we didn’t want to have a doctor hanging out in our hotel room, but what she meant to say was, “I will leave these bandages for you.” Anyway, Kuniko and I both chuckled because we had the same thought when she said it. Thankfully the doctor left after the bandage change and we were on our own again.

We decided to go out for lunch, but unfortunately our first choice restaurant was closed for summer holiday (they called it “summer pause”), so we went to the second choice place. This was a little cafe called Frici Papa Kifozdeje. Simple menu, simple traditional food, and very cheap. The staff were all local guys, and they greeted regular customers with handshakes and slaps on the back, and they were patient with us tourists. The food was good – simple, and filling but nothing out of this world. Kuniko had a goulash, and the meat was spiced with something exotic. My first thought was it tasted like bad breath, but in a good way. Hard to describe, but it really tasted like no other dish I’ve had. The noodles that she had as a side were interesting too – not long or slender but more like rough gnocci. Their rough shape made it really easy to absorb the delicious sauces with each bite. I had simple grilled pork with some french fries that were strangely addictive. That combined with a Hungarian lemonade and I was good to go.

After lunch we went to check out the Parliament building which is a dramatic building built right on the bank of the Danube river. Beyond was an island in the river that we briefly considered visiting, but in the end we thought we should still not push ourselves and instead did some shopping at a supermarket called Spar (pronounced, “Shpa”) on the way back to our hotel. We found some delicious-looking foie gras pate and a pomegranate flavored yogurt drink that really hit the spot – it was the best yogurt I’ve ever had.

Our hotel room was still not cleaned when we came back, and with all the bloody towels everywhere it looked like a murder scene. We asked for cleaning service, and then went down to the hotel bar to sit outside and people watch while we waited for the cleaning.

Later in the afternoon we were feeling a little ambitious, so we walked across the famous Chain Bridge and up the hill to see the Matyas Temple and Fisherman’s Bastion. This temple overlooks the northwest Buda side of the river, and from our hotel it looked quite dramatic. Unfortunately when we got up there it was surrounded by hordes of tourists. Right next to the temple (and I mean it – right next to it) was a Starbucks built into the base of a Hilton Hotel. You couldn’t even take a picture of the temple without getting some part of Starbucks or Hilton in there. I was wondering how that arrangement came to be. Still, the view from up there back across to the Pest side of the city was quite nice, and we enjoyed it for a while before heading back to our hotel.

Finally, in the evening we walked back to St. Stephen’s Basilica to take some more pictures and look around inside. There were a lot of people there, but the interior was quiet as there was a service going on at the time. I really liked the interior, even though it was a bit on the gaudy side. Once you see the Vatican every cathedral is kind of on a sliding scale downwards, but this was better than I expected.

We ate dinner just down the street from the Basilica at a place called Arumu Bistro. Our first choice restaurant for dinner was on summer break (again!) but this turned out to be a pretty good alternative. We sat outside on their terrace and had an appetizer of fried goat cheese crusted with almonds on a green salad. Our main courses turned out to be on the heavy side. Kuniko had a monster plate with four big pieces of foie gras on mashed potatoes with pears and a Tokaji wine sauce. I went with grilled duck breast on porcini mushroom risotto. Kuniko really wanted to have foie gras in Hungary and I think the four big pieces were enough and then some. After dinner I had a glass of Oremus Tokaji Azu, which was on my list of wines to try in Hungary. It was an excellent example of dessert wine – Kuniko and I shared the glass and really enjoyed the experience.

We usually don’t eat very much meat, but at most of the restaurants we visited this trip they served mainly meat as a main dish. I think it was slowing us down a little bit, so we tried to make up for it by walking a little bit more than usual. After dinner we walked around the riverside taking pictures of the scenery at night, and it was cool enough that we even stopped at H&M to buy some warmer clothes for the rest of the trip – we were only heading north from here.

Back at the hotel I checked our iPhone pedometer, and it said we walked over 40,000 steps during the day. It was a new record for me, and hard to believe that I had spent the previous day just getting medical care. Tomorrow would be our last day in Budapest, and there was still Buda castle to conquer, so more exercise was ahead of us. Time for bed!