Landed in Caslav, Czech Republic

Charlie and I have stopped for the evening in a little town called Caslav in Czech Republic. This town is the ancestral home of my wife's family. I wanted to take some pictures for her and the family. I've been looking for people who have eyes like hers, they are very distinctive (and beautiful, IMO). It would be great to meet some distant relatives but I think chances are slim. We have met no one yet that speaks any English, I have some pre-translated phrases ready but I don't understand a thing they may say in response. So, we have a bit of a communication issue here. Oh well, it's a nice little town and we are enjoying our visit.

Me and Ron

You never know who you will run into on the streets of Budapest!

Scenes from Budapest

Here are a few pictures from around the Budapest area. They are in no particular order and I don't have much to write about them yet. Some of them were taken at night and the quality is not too good but I found them interesting. I just wanted to get a few pictures posted!

They don't make things easy in Budapest

Charlie and I were exploring the beauty of Budapest this morning. We were roaming around in the heat of the day. I was drinking lot of water trying to stay hydrated. As eventually will happen, a new mission formed in my mind. The mission was biological in nature. I began a rather fast-paced high-step to locate the nearest WC. In the distance I spotted the familiar blue plastic box which signifies relief.
As I got closer I saw that relief was a bit more distanced than it appeared. Time was closing in on me and I had to act quickly. When I got back to shore I decided to snap a picture and tell my story, even if it is a bit "delicate" in nature.

New anchorage: Budapest

Charlie and I have landed at a new location. We are landlubbers now and exploring the beautiful city of Budapest, Hungary. It is quite a interesting big city. We are riding around on the trams and subways trying to get the lay of the land and figure out what we want to see. I'm still wifi challenged but I think I will solve that soon. I'm sitting in a Starbuks now. I'll send pictures when I can.

Sea Organ

On the tip of the old town peninsula of Zadar we ran into an interesting phenomenon. There is a stone boardwalk around the shore with the usual concrete beaches. At one point we ran into a nice set of wide marble steps going down to the water. There were many people sitting on and standing around the steps. There was a mysterious sound in the air. It was harmonic, yet random, kind of a ethereal-sounding organ music.
We had somehow stumbled upon a sea organ. I did not even know such things existed, but they do. As the waves come in from the sea they cause the sea organ to produce musical sounds. It was created by the architect Nikola Bašić in 2005. According to the Internet there are similar devices located in San Fransisco, California and in Blackpool, UK. I have no proof of that yet, I am only passing along what I have found in my research. However, we anticipate rapid verification of the Blackpool High Tide Organ from our friend Christine in the UK. If any of our San Francisco friends can verify the California Wave Organ we will be happy to pass that information along as well.
Anyway, it was a neat thing to find and I thought I would share a taste of it with you!

We lost Don!

We sent Don off this morning on the Ferry to Ancona, Italy. He will catch a train there and meet up with his family in Rome. We will not see each other again until we get back to Jacksonville. Charlie and I are switching to a land adventure now and decided Koinonia would not be the best transportation for this leg of the journey. We got ourselves a little road ship for the next couple of weeks.
Where will we go? What will we see? Who will we meet? What wacky adventures will we have?
Stay tuned for the next phase!