July 17: I woke up at 1:49 am Hungarian time. It was so quiet after the plane trip. I took an ibuprophin and slept till 7 am... really refreshing. Jancsi left for work at 4 am...didn’t hear him Violetta and Nancy both emailed me. I am sure that Nancy was up early as the email arrived to me before breakfast.. Thanks.

Gyorgyi and I had a lovely breakfast of tomatoes, Hungarian pepper, chicken slices, apple juice, coffee, cherry cake, whole grain bun, chicken spread and some salami and plum jam. Sounds like a lot but I took a little from each. Gyorgyi has diabetes so must eat a low sugar diet so everything was geared to this but it was excellent.

I transferred my baggage to a smaller bag(Gyorgyi loaned me hers) so we could use the bus service better. Gyorgyi went to buy bus tickets because it was less expensive to buy ahead of time.

With a phone call to Jancsi we were able to find the power converter(that I left in their care 4 years ago) so I can safely charge my computer etc.

Jancsi was able to get my phone working but found that the phone number rang someone else. My sim card has expired. So I will need to buy a new one...not a big expense. (actually Tamas is doing that for me in Nagykanizsa)

Gyorgyi took me to the terminal via 3 different buses. The public transportation system in Budapest is awesome. No extra waiting. Each bus was 2-4 minute between. Fortunately, there was a violent shower only during the bus trip. We had a short walk to the bus terminal and we were early by 30 minutes..

A WC visit cost 120 ft (70 cents) but was well worth it. Maybe Toronto can learn from this... lots of people have to GO !!!!! and Go !!!

I found the bus headed to Zalakoros (near Tamas and Gyongyi) home (1-2 km).

The bus takes M7, the main highway. I have a window seat but no one beside me...very nice and it is air-conditioned. It left the terminal at 2 pm exactly. The trip was very fast, much better than the train which stops at every little town and has not air conditioning... they can air conditioning here "klima" (pron. klee ma). It is easier to say.

Tamas was waiting for me at the station in Zalakaros and we greeted each other very warmly. It has been 4 years between visits.

Gyongyi was waiting at home for us and we arrived in 5 minutes from Zalakaros. After several "palinkas" and some cold beer we had a lovely supper of a gulyas and lovely rye bread and corn. They cannot understand or try corn with butter on it. They use salt and pepper but never butter.

After supper we sat outside, it was warm and eventually we had a little shower. But a few beers helped us endure. We were under a cabana anyway.

After several attempts to get on the Internet using Tamas's new password, we succeeded. I wanted to send an email and do some blogging but I was so tired I fell asleep at 9 pm (here).