Travel

I Hate Travel Lists – So Here Is Mine

Part One

Mexico City, September 2019

I follow travel blogs and podcasts enough to know there is little originality in lists. 

For decades, I have wanted to visit Mexico City. Though I traveled several times to the Yucatan and along the west coast of Mexico, I never made it to the “big city.” I’ve had connecting flights at MEX, enough to realize its air quality ranked somewhere beneath LA in the best of times, or Beijing about any time. I had a week free this month, so I invited a friend to join me in a few day’s exploration.  

So, though I generally eschew travel lists, here are the things I loved, and a couple I disliked, about Mexico City. 

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By Pat, ago

Love Road Trips

August 2019

Love road trips. Even rural areas of Iowa look good when driving free and easy down America’s “super highways.” I recognize a lot of cities and towns; family roots appear around many corners and corn fields. My favorite finds were:

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By Pat, ago

Bulgarian Cousins to Transylvanian Szeklers

8 June 2019

“We Szekelys have a right to be proud, for in our veins flows the blood of many brave races who fought as the lion fights, for lordship. Here, in the whirlpool of European races…What devil or what witch was ever so great as Attila, whose blood is in these veins?…Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? Is it strange that when Arpad and his legions swept through the Hungarian fatherland he found us here when he reached the frontier…And when the Hungarian flood swept eastward, the Szekelys were claimed as kindred by the victorious Magyars, and to us for centuries was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkey-land….” – Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula

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By Pat, ago

Castles and Cities of Danube Bend

7 June 2019

I really have no desire to leave lovely Budapest. A cafe and beer along the Danube beckons. But, for someone who loves fortresses and medieval castles, a trip to Visegrád is a must. Just 25 miles north of Budapest, at the very center of the Danube Bend, lies King Matthias’ Royal Palace. An ambassador of the Pope was visiting the King and wrote “From Visegrad, from an earthly paradise.” Well, I’m not so sure. (more…)

By Pat, ago

Exploring Pest in 2019

5 June 2019

In the next 2 miles, I will pass six World Heritage Sites as we motor across the Chain Bridge to the banks of Pest and down Andrássy út which links Buda with the Városliget or City Park. Andrássy is a broad and elegant boulevard which dates to 1872 and lined with spectacular Neo-Renaissance architecture and ornate facades. Not only is the Chain Bridge a UNESCO site, but so are the banks of the Danube, and Andrássy út is the only street I am aware of that is recognized as a World Heritage Site. (more…)

By Pat, ago

Budapest – July 1995

I return to Budapest.

The last I visited Budapest was in the summer of 1995. It was a time of change as the Soviet Army had left the country just four years earlier. I arrived by ferry via the Danube from Vienna. My lodgings were in a friend’s “little communist efficiency apartment” surrounded by brutally ugly Soviet architecture and streets filled with Russian Ladas. But even then, I noted the many fast food places from Burger King to Dunkin’ Donuts to Pizza Hut. I diaried my experiences and, out of curiosity, I am interested to learn how Budapest, and this traveler, have changed. (more…)

By Pat, ago