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Budapest

BUDAPEST - OCTOBER 1 - 13, 2006

SUNDAY, 10/1/06: 6:46PM: Can't BELIEVE how rushed I was, starting after breakfast, taking things off the list, having lunch after going to the gym, finally talking to Shelley about Miss America's childhood molestation, finally getting Arnold off my back by telling him his New Yorks are inside my door and Bob has my keys. Got everything into the two bags at 29#, got into traveling clothes, pretty ragged (I'm not even taking a tie), and sit and type this as the clock outside registers 6:50PM, waiting for the car to come downstairs at 7PM, hoping there'll be no trouble getting to the airport despite Arnold's warning that this is the Jewish holiday and it'll be jammed near the airport. But it seems like three hours should be enough, providing the car isn't LATE, as it was last time coming from Ken's because of the traffic for the tunnel. Took a Valium this morning and this afternoon with lunch, have pills for the plane, as well as an empty water bottle that I hope they don't hassle me about. Also taking my AlphaSmart as carry-on because SOMEONE told me that it would be OK, though I intend to ask at the airport before checking in my luggage. Nervous, but not too, relieved and at the same time anxious because I have no one to travel with---thus if anything goes wrong I only have MYSELF to blame and MYSELF to rely on to get OUT of it! Just typing nonsense now at 6:52 so I'll stop and maybe even go downstairs to wait for the car outside. Go DOWN at 6:55! 66° out. Stand for a minute and car shows up with an elegant gray-haired driver at 6:59 and we BREEZE through highways, pace Spartacus, to airport at 7:24! He has no change for my $61 ($15) and just takes $40! Automatic check-in with my Delta card to 7:33, getting seat A8 on the subsequent flight. Says to carry ON computers. Bag's gone at 7:41 and I'm down to check eateries and settle for pizza---which they don't have! Get a chicken panini and a glass of Merlot and am up-to-date for the first time at 7:52, arriving in Budapest at 2:30PM, ANOTHER day gone! [Typing now after I finish typing the awful dream of Tuesday morning] Done eating at 8:31PM, finishing my 9/18 New Yorker and throwing it into the trash. To gate D6 at 8:53 for sudoku. I get tired and bored, and on line at 9:36. Puzzle a bore, and it's hot at 10:14. Seat great just before wing, no one in seat between me and slender girl who seems not to talk at all, but guy (who turns into a slight girl) behind keeps bumping the back of my seat. Take an Ambien and Valium at 10:30, despite the long wait for a ground unit to start one engine for the air conditioning, at least giving the hope that the whole flight won't be as hot as the wait in the seat. Then up for an 11-minute wait for two women to use the john before I can pee. We finally move back at 10:51, having heard that the flight is only 6 hours rather than the scheduled 7 hours, so we still won't be late enough to jeopardize my connecting flight. Off at 11:09PM, smoothly and easily, turning to view the red-topped Empire State Building clearly off to our right, surrounded by the bright lights of Brooklyn in the foreground and New Jersey in the background, with no real distinctive lights from Wall Street or Staten Island, and then we turn left so only a faint line of a distant New Jersey shore is visible, and I put on the eye mask and hope that the Ambien taken now over an hour ago will still take effect. Smooth flight up to 10,000 feet by 11:39. And then I see the dinner cart being brought down the aisle, and I might even have dozed off before being wakened by the steward reaching over to put down my window shade, but then nothing until I wake at 3:09AM.

MONDAY, 10/2/06: For a moment I don't know where I am, but then realize with delight that I've actually slept for about three and a half hours! Raise the windowshade to bright golden clouds already well into the dawn, and when the TV stops its program to show our progress, we're just about to hit the coast of Ireland, and I feel pretty good about how it all turned out, though possibly the endless boring wait to take off contributed to my next morning's dream. It's total daylight at 7:30AM. They have a movie playing, so I can't tell where we are. Wake person on aisle at 3:47 and shit a bit and write this, switching watch to 9:55AM. Land in about 70 minutes. Ask for water and hot towels are passed and cabin lights are on low at 10AM. Then a breakfast box arrives of orange juice, cream cheese in a tube for squeezing onto a small halved bagel, strawberry yogurt, and apple juice when I don't want coffee or tea. Irish then Scotch farms below under heavy clouds, bright sky and LOTS of vapor trails at 10:40. Landing around 11:18! Feel GOOD! Budapest gate announced as D6. Good clean landing in Amsterdam, not seeing much of anything but outskirts, at 11:16. Dock at 11:28, off at 11:45, to gate D6F at 11:54, plane leaving at 12:25! Board bus at 12:13 and to plane 12:17. 1:40 flight with turbulence announced, but there's very little on the way. They apologize for lateness in taking off. We back out at 12:34, off at 12:44. Cloudy all below. Tapped woman reading New York Times Magazine and find it's the same puzzle I picked up from the International Herald Tribune before boarding KLM in NYC, and she starts talking about how hard it is to do, but then naps in her green neck-ring for most of the flight to Budapest, where she's staying a week with a friend who's there on business. I finish the Times puzzle before landing, have a lunch of a meat sandwich rather than cheese, tonic water, and apple juice, feeling not dehydrated because of liquids drunk and Vicks up my nose. Good cut-up apple pieces for dessert, which she leaves in pocket in front of her. Start down at 1:55, sky clearing some. Roll 1 of film had #1-9 of NYC. #10 outskirts of Budapest at 2:12. Land at 2:15, sky clearing more, and onto bus at 2:22, double-tagged (whatever THAT meant!). To passports at 2:28, luggage 2:31, my green bag's tag ripped off when I get it at 2:35. To Grand Circle bus with lots of old people, mainly women, at 3PM. I move across aisle and chat with an engineer returning to Texas as we wait for more to join us on bus. 78° in Budapest and I roll up sleeves on my brown shirt, which I've managed to mark with a long stripe of ink. To Hotel Mercure Budapest Korona, said to be in the middle of town, and get key to room 707 at 3:30 because I carried both bags onto bus, since my checked bag now had no identification on it, with walk announced for 4PM. Up to unpack, look out window, pee, wash my hands and face, and down at 4:03 to find Vlad already talking to about 10, group growing to about 20 as we walk out door, others from the Prague pre-extension having arrived earlier. Get 5000F from ATM, not thinking that I'll be getting maybe a $2 charge for only $25 in forints, but that's that. He points out some directions down various streets and vanishes at 4:25. #11 at 4:42 of fountain dedicated to Viscount Rothmere, and #12 of park-building facade with blue balloon at 4:47. Sit wearily in park watching people go by, essentially cruising, though there's not much to cruise: lots of couples and old folks, screaming baby kicking a blue ball and throwing things into the fountain despite the best efforts of his harried father to prevent it. I sit, sorry I don't have a Ken or Fred with me to show me where to walk and what to see, but walk to National Museum right near hotel, glad it's open to 6 on Sunday, but go in to have a kindly workman point out that it's MONDAY. As Ken would say in embarrassment, "Never mind." #13 Mercure Hotel, my room, and two church crosses as I make a triangle with park, then go down toward Chain Bridge, passing lots of busy buildings, one of which may be the covered market, and at 5:24 take #14 of boats on Danube, #15 bridge and memorial angel above. #16 facades and roofs on main street at 5:37. Walk and walk to 6, behind hotel down mall-street, then quiet side streets, zeroing in on Mercure bridge between two hotel sections. Tired. To welcome drink at 6:28, crossing a real MESS because we have to go down to 3, cross the bridge, and then the left elevator doesn't go DOWN to 1 to our meeting room, but other elevator that DOES go won't come down while other is there, so finally someone sends it up to 8 and other one comes, I take the tallest champagne-filled glass into crowded room, Vlad and Roman talk in an amateur way, and we're done at 6:46, being told breakfast is 6:30-10, and we have a meeting here tomorrow at 8:30 after breakfast. I'd asked about Restaurant Tokai in hotel, but the special is what THEY serve, not from the menu, and they recommend the place across the street, Magyar Etterem [which turns out to mean Restaurant] Es Sorozo, and I cross to find a couple who in met in Prague from our group sitting at a table for four, and I ask to join them and start with a delicious peach-honey aperitif called Barack, and have a great meal, sharing with them, of my mushroom soup and her asparagus soup, his blinis with two fillings, meat and mushroom, herbed butter for the doughy bread and then two buns that they share with me, and my foie gras stuffed pork is good, his chicken paprika less good, and her something-or-other OK. My bill is separate and comes to 3650F, leaving his recommended 10% tip of 350F, leaving me with 1000F, glad I got the 5000, since he announces he takes ONLY forints or euros, no credit cards at all! I give him 500F for all their food I've eaten in return for their taking little of mine, and I leave all the cold French fries on the plate, though I enjoyed her roasted potatoes that looked like Vienna sausages. Stagger across the street and get to bed at 8:45, piling stuff around room to put away in the morning. Find that a wake-up call costs 50 cents, so I decide not to have one, clear that I'll be waking up at least to pee.

TUESDAY, 10/3/06: Wake at 1:30 to pee, and think I don't go back to sleep but the next time I look at the bright TV clock it's 4:05, so clearly I slept more. Pee and type HORRIBLE dream, and then go right in to catch up with this to 7:22AM, ready for breakfast with stripily cloudy sky outside window. Fuss and put everything away for the next few days and leave for breakfast at 7:47AM, in my slippers. Can't find a breakfast seat, and finally take my juice and cold cuts to a place that the waiter sets with cutlery and napkins, but when I go to get eggs and bacon and more juice and fruit, my place is gone and two people are sitting there! Finally the Fusters call me over and introduce me to Joan, who turns out to be named Joan Millman! I finish, finding my milk for hot chocolate, tasting the pitcher of lemon juice, and getting some seltzer to quench my thirst. Joan's a travel writer for Brookline, Boston, and she takes my card as an indexer. Finish at 8:25 and FUSS again to meeting room at 8:32. 77 people in group, in two buses, I get yellow. He tells us NOT to carry passport and plane tickets, put them in safe. And extra credit cards in safe. 10% restaurant tip, for taxi round to higher 100s, guides $2 for half-day and $3 for full day. Pink cap on water means no gas. We leave for dinner at 7:15 tonight. Tomorrow 9AM we go shopping for our day's "tour," leave at 4:30 for "music tour" and have dinner afterwards in new hall. Thursday luggage out at 8:30M, when tour to Holloko leaves, and then goes directly to ship at 3:15PM. Meeting out at 9:15, after paying 180F for postcard stamps to US. Hungarians are descended from Uyghurs! Started in 896AD, millennium in 1896, many towers are 96 meters high in memoriam. Take to #19 in Heroes' Square and video lots. #23 doorway to Modern Art Museum, lots of nice nudes in sunlight to 10:21AM. CRIMINAL for 10-minute stop. Photos of Arpad and two horsemen. #24 gold pediment. #25 Opera House, Liszt on right bottom at 10:42 on main street. 10:57 leave for Church of St. Istvan and shopping for 45 minutes. Change $20 for 4200F and at 11:15 up tower for 400F, ELEVATOR halfway, and could have been all the way if I'd noticed it across the hall from the ticket-seller. #27 and 28 of panorama at 11:26. Down at 11:31, to Schatzkammer, not really worth 300F: replica of St. Stephen's crown, which I see later in cathedral! Take other photos to #31 in church, and back to bus first at 11:43. Video and took elevator ALL the way down. Everyone else shopped. Very elaborate buildings everywhere. Pest built late 1800s-early 1900s. Wide streets. Buda older, Obuda oldest. Bus goes at 11:53. Buda was the brother of Attila the Hun. We must be back to the bus at 1:15. I think we go way above Fisherman's Bastion, but when I leave St. Matyas's Church, I see that we're actually on that level, which I don't bother to see, since I've been there and have photos from that vantage of the Parliament Building across the Danube. Start walking up at 12:05. #32 St. Matyas's Church at 12:22, guide taking more time to describe the shops and their merchandise than anything else, so I decide not to tip her, since she gets her cut from every place she talks about. Church built in 1242 when they moved the capital from Esztergom. #33 Chinese wedding limo at 12:30. 450F for Matyas Church entry at 12:34. #34 Matyas side altar 12:36: left to right, St. Istvan, St. Imre, St. Gellert. #35 main altar, no-good flash at 12:40. Museum with monstrances after meeting the girl I chatted with on the plane! First Hungarian Bible from 1626. #36 St. Stephen's crown at 12:51, made, they just proved, in one swoop 373-453, so impressed I buy the Crown book for 1000F, expensive for $5, but worth it, at 1:03. #37 Tarnok Cafe 1:07, old. Bus not there at 1:14, but it comes and is full and leaves at 1:17, only lateness from one woman from the blue bus coming on our yellow bus when hers left without her. Back to hotel 1:33, past newer and older parts of the castle on the hill, later seeing the white block of the Hilton defacing the hill next to the Church. I lie and rest to 2:08, debating not doing anything more but castigating myself for BEING here and not wanting to SEE more to take advantage of the short time I'm here. Then maid knocks and comes in and I tell her I'll be out in 15 minutes, so there's a sign right there. Take a tiny shit, leave at 2:15. Around corner to Irish Pub and downstairs to sexy black-shirted waiter who knows sufficient English, and order a Kilkenny half-liter of good beer that I see to my chagrin is 950F, and order a Calzone Classico, thinking it might be small at 1150F, but it's HUGE, rather good with cheese and ham and a good black crust in places, and eat just over half of it, looking at sexy guys doing nothing but drinking and talking at the bar, and the bill comes to 2340F, which is PRECISELY what I have in a 2000 note, a 200 note, a 100 coin, a 20 coin, and two 10 coins I picked up from various changes and admissions (buy three postcards for the cheapest 70F apiece I saw, with others going up to 350F!), and laugh about it as I pile it on the table and finish with a $1 American tip that he says is the best tip he could get, and I'd love to see more of him. Eat to 3:12 and across to Museum of Hungarian History, free except for special exhibit, which I don't need to see anyway, and the main stairway impresses with enormous frescoes on sides and ceiling up two enormous flights to exhibition floor with titanic dome, with a concert hall to one side with another enormous ceiling, being set up for what looks like a rock concert tonight. I must get a free ticket, check my bag downstairs because they allow no photos, and look around the lapidarium to see dozens of slabs and lintels and gravestones from 50AD-250AD, and then down another flight of stairs to a vast empty basement with lights that go on as I pass each wall, dozens of tombstones found in vineyards, or given by the son of Frederic Barbarossa, and one Mithraic tablet OBVIOUSLY showing forced fellatio with the crouched body holding the head of the person kneeling before his crotch, and another called "The Rapture of Ganymede," surely a different way of describing it. Long time reading where they all came from, most in poor shape, but some decent bodies before they were defaced, and an ENORMOUS very complete mosaic filling the center of the floor from 250AD. That takes till 4:03, then upstairs for ancient and Middle Ages and semi-modern history of Hungary with English under-panels and loads of stuff, including videos and immense ORNATE choir stalls put in intact from two to 10 seats in a row. At 5PM I thought I was finished, but there was a whole half-floor left, which I went through more quickly as times came up to the 18th and 19th Centuries, and down to pick up bag at 5:30, and back to room exhausted at 5:38. Roll 2: #1 Hungarian History Museum from my room, with plane in upper right I hope coming out. Strip naked: it was WARM in museum, I kept flapping my shirt to dry the perspiration, glad it wasn't June or July but OCTOBER with 76° heat. Decide to shower, good shampoo and water control and towel, feeling better at 6:05. Rest to dry off to 6:20, fearing to fall asleep, and at 6:40 remember to take half-milligram of melatonin which, when I find the sheet the next morning, was precisely when I should have taken it. Type to 6:55 and dress to 7:05, carrying jacket and wearing old brown shirt, the hell with wearing TWO new shirts in one day! Pee and leave at 7:10. Old fart couple (as which of them are not?) on last at 7:16 and leave. To Ladik Csardas Folklorecentrum at 7:44, in woods, interesting bus ride in dark along Buda side of Danube, mainly fronted by darkish Marguerite Island, named for the daughter of a king who promised her to God if he won a battle. (Why didn't he promise to give himself to God, as the guide wittily remarked, later telling the joke of the American learning Spanish by "speaking English very slowly" and getting waiter, asking, slowly, for a cup of coffee, please, and being asked slowly, would you like sugar, and slow response, and Where are you from? LA. Where are YOU from? New York. Then why are we speaking Spanish?) Enormous barnlike place, loudly miked violins and cimbalon and nimble-fingered clarinetist and three pairs of dancers with a main pair somewhat better, loud music, NO beer, only awful red wine that's better the more it's drunk, and bread, then terrible sour coleslaw, a plate of tomato-drenched meat, lots of fat mixed in when it isn't tough, and small red gnocchi they called it, rather more like tough barley. I took more bread to sop up the tomato sauce, the only edible part of it, and the women at the table talk INCESSANTLY, particularly the one I met at breakfast this morning from Albuquerque whose much older husband she met at Los Alamos when they worked in Physical Chemistry for ERDA and other acronyms, and he doesn't travel anymore because he doesn't like the plane GETTING there, and she talks and talks and another guy from the trip joins us who talks about beer. Finally back to bus at 9:52 after I stagger to the back to pee, to hotel at 10:29, nodding off on bus, and bed at 10:37.

WEDNESDAY, 10/4/06: Pee at 5:23 and type dream to 5:27, back to bed to try to start Actualism, but it really doesn't go, feeling sorry for myself that there seems to be NO ONE in the group to bond with. Can't sleep, pee again at 6:20, and decide to get up at 6:28 and dress for breakfast. Find the melatonin sheet in my dop kit. To breakfast at 6:37 and it's in a much smaller area than earlier, sit at an empty table for 4 and the woman from Albuquerque sits catercorner from me and guards my food when I get cold cuts and fruit and apricot yogurt and more apple juice when I finished my eggs and bacon and first cup of hot chocolate and first glass of apple juice, and then later get a bowl of corn flakes and a ripe banana (which she says she hates because of the sugar and her early diabetes), and chat and eat lots to make up for last night, and take pills, and back up at 7:25 to type all this to 8:07, ready to brush teeth, which felt furry last night. Then fear I might be missing 8AM bus and go down to give in passport, sign up for Blue Train tour, change $20 for 4000F, buy three stamps for 480F, and come up at 8:29 to write cards to Sherryl, Mildred, and Charles. Finish, thankfully, by 8:40, ready to wash face, get umbrella for cloudy skies and forecast of rain, and maybe shit a bit. Rush to get everything together and leave about 8:55AM. At 8:58 the yellow is STILL on the side, but Vlad explains that we're higher than the other, which can go through a tunnel at the end of the street, while we have to go all the way around, ending up crossing in front of the hotel to go past the museum. Look out to see that it's the Irish Cat Pub I ate lunch at yesterday. Leave at 9:02, so we're all on time. 16° and windy, looking like rain, so I take an umbrella and raincoat. #2 Four Seasons Hotel, "Best in Europe in 2005," $500-$8000/night. #3 National Academy at 9:20AM. #4 castle, lion, and Chain Bridge at 9:21. #5 Parliament 9:26. #6 Parliament straight on at 9:28. #7 Roman spa ruins from 60AD at 9:38. He gives out paprika paste, which we're supposed to refrigerate, but not open, so we won't be stopped by customs. Place-name is Esztergom. To Caprice diamond shop at 9:57. Look at "museum" and see movie and onto bus at 10:41, with most others already aboard, and leave at 10:48. Bus leaves Szentendre at 1PM---where did I get the idea it was 1:15!? Off bus 11AM. #8 paprika and church at 11:12. #9 main square 11:21 in rare bit of sunlight. #10 church 11:37. #13 from river-walk 11:46. #15 at top of hill at 12:05. Walk ALL over town, tired, buy nut-coated Magnum for 450F, keeping wrapper, and pee-price is 100F, so I offer 1000F bill and 70F in coins and she takes the coins with a slight moue. On bus 12:05, starting, with difficulty, the doublecrostic. Leave 1:05. To Hotel, nodding off a bit, at 1:42. Taxi to Boscolo Hotel with driver who went down MANY side streets and charged 1800F, giving me 200F back without comment. #17 New York Cafe interior 2:11. #18 whole floor. 5720F for "one course" lunch, cheaper than most other choices, Vlad having said he and a friend had two coffees and a cake for $25 a month ago. Totally ornate place with all kinds of elegant to bummy clientele, all looking around and most speaking English. The menu says mixed grill, which comes with beef, chicken, a lamb chop, and another steak with a nice swash of dark sauce and a cold and warm green salad, mixed with colorful rice, with peppers mixed in. A good bread plate demands butter, and when she brings three pats from Italy I can't resist taking one, as I took the card that came with the bill. Had no food by 2:24 except for a rather small glass of Merlot (well, large glass but only about 20% full), and a glass of sparkling water poured from the bottle. Then came the food, which was a lot, and I ejaculated, "Oh my goodness" when the ice-cream cup came: chunk pineapple, plum slices, a dough cigarette, a waffle wedge, a mandarin orange slice, shaved almonds, a piece of strawberry, whipped cream, and, oh, yes, vanilla ice cream that turned vaguely chocolate by the bottom, at least three scoops, bolstered with a mango slice and hunks of white chocolate. Amaretto coffee was also a multilayered dark below and light above with crunchy things mixed in which tasted best all mixed together, with a nutted chocolate cookie on the side. Total overkill! And raisins. Absolutely stuffed at 3:30, check still not taken, but then the tall guy murmured by my side, explaining he had to run my card through a second time for the 570F tip, impressed that I didn't need the adding machine to come up with 6290F for the bill, so adding the 1800 and 1000 for taxi, it's 8090F, or very close to $40 for a "light" lunch. Take #20 and #21 of the exterior of the hotel, coincidentally the one with the tall white central tower, which sadly I couldn't fit into the picture, that I'd admired before. Get 4260F for another $20 bill, and find a taxi stand right there, this time with the front door OPEN so I knew where to sit, as I didn't the first time around (maybe that's why he charged me double). Ride all the main streets back to the hotel and get charged 900F, so I give him a 100F tip, out at 3:38 and back to hotel at 3:48, and up to room and pee and get rid of stuff, answering door to maid to tell her everything's OK, and start typing at 3:55 and finish now at 4:20, considering I might be actually happy, having spent an adventurous day mostly by myself, only occasionally annoyed by the incessant chatter of some of the women on the tour. Put my evening pills in the box and prepare to change back to my brown long-sleeved shirt: though it was cool today, mainly 18°, I never had to put my jacket on, but will still take it tonight since it might be colder. Now caught up, but have to dress and rush downstairs for the 4:30 bus to the "musical soiree." Down at 4:28, bus full, and I sit next to gabby from Albuquerque. To new Fine Arts complex on the river at 4:48 and sit at the left end of the first row for the two singers who sing very traditional songs very loudly, followed by champagne and questions, and then more songs, interspersed with Chopin piano solos. At the final Rossini "Chat Duet" the plump one of the two comes down to fondle my head while the thin one fondles the pianist['s head]. Take #22 of the singers at 6:11 and then Roman leads us to the Ludwig Museum at 6:19, where I take #23 of Claes Oldenburg's "Lingerie Counter" at 6:22, and look at many many Warhols and Wesselmans and Lichtensteins and unknown Hungarians through three floors, taking a video of the brilliant lights from the neighboring building and the lights lining the Danube to 6:45, when we go (no, at 7:15) across the IBM audience for the large theater for our dinner of decent soup, OK chicken and vegetables, and I actually pay another 400F for a terrible second glass of red wine. Decent palancinta for dessert, which I don't finish, still stuffed from lunch. Interesting dinner companions: the ugly woman and deaf husband across the way monopolizing part of the conversation, the mother and daughter quiet to my right, and the Haitian Foundation founder and his wife (who give me a brochure about it) across from me and Joan Millman, who almost talks more about me than she does about her. No one at our table has coffee, and Roman directs us to the bus, getting on at 8:09, videoing the lights on the building, unconvincingly said to reflect water-waves on the ship of the building. Yeah. Into room at 8:30, undress, take a big smelly shit from all the rich food today, note that the luggage has to be out by 8:30 and our trip leaves in two busses for Holloko at 8:30, then going directly to ship. I type this 8:40-8:50, tired, but stuffed, so I may try sudoku or the Times puzzle before bed with a full melatonin, which I took late today at 7:45, to help me sleep I'd hope at least NINE hours, which, if I get to bed at 10, will get me up at 7, plenty of time to pack and have breakfast. Finish puzzle at 9:14 and almost nod off doing it, so decide to sleep---amazing: finished one AlphaSmart file in only THREE days! Bed at 9:20PM.

THURSDAY, 10/5/06: 4:30AM: Transcribe dream. Also see a momentary display of mympths, as if lining windows vertically and horizontally on a rapidly passing train. Looked at TV clock vaguely just past midnight, again sometime past 2AM, and now it registers 4:36, still hopefully a few hours of sleep left, though it's already 7 hours since I quickly fell asleep after nodding over the last of the Times puzzle. Wake at 7:02 with incredible dream, type it, shit, wash my face, and decide to pack and leave room before breakfast, typing this at 7:10AM. Lock green bag at 7:30 and put it out and leave for breakfast at 7:34. Long wait for elevator, check out at 7:43 with no charges, and wait for elevator again to 1 for breakfast, mistaking a Polish businessman for the guy I had dinner with last night, "Did your wife eat earlier or later?" and he looks at me strangely and I say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were someone in my group," but we have a pleasant conversation as he watches over my bag as I get my stuff for breakfast. Lots and lots to eat, he leaves, and I go down to spend 480F for two postcards and two stamps for cards for Piri (which I have to mail to myself because I didn't take down her address), and I HOPE it was either she or Mildred or Shelley who specifically asked for a card from Budapest, or I've goofed. Mail them in the box outside after writing them 8:17-8:25. Board bus 8:30 in permanently reclined seat ALONE, Joan Millman also alone in her seat across from me. My black bag fits above, except for my camera, which I keep in my lap, and Vlad counts and counts---someone missing at 8:38? Then we go. In 1987 Holloko was established as a World Heritage Site, 500 people. Arrive 10:07 at 50F toilets, which I avoid. Spend 1840F and 1345F for FOUR bottles of liquor: Tokai, Peach brandy, Pear brandy, and Plum brandy, which almost two liters I hope will give me no trouble on returning to the US. Video and #24 of singers and dancers at 10:28 in tacky gathering space outside a tiny souvenir shop. #25 group circle at 10:39. #26 Holloko souvenir shop and blankets on wooden benches at 10:48. Holloko MEANS raven, on map that I take at #27. #29 street, flowers, and church down road at 11:04. People have trouble walking on cobblestone streets. #31 Post Museum cost 100F, took video, at 11:18. #32 Var (unless that's the WORD for castle) ruin from road-end at 11:27, framed as well as I could, not taking photos of the many large fires burning for some reason today. #34 loom at 11:32, no one paying the 150F noted for entry. #35 village houses and surrounding hills at 11:37. BAH! Lunch is in the NEW part of the village, so I couldn't get my vote to eat in the most colorful, flower-filled eating place available in the picturesque old town, nothing like the Swiss cleanliness and boredom of the houses in the new, paved-road, part of town. We go by bus, the first 8 getting off at a house at the top of a hill, we next 9 getting off lower down in a closed dining room with barely room for the servers to serve. Before that, I went down all the side roads, looked over the valley below and the hill above (people who tried to walk up to the castle, despite the reported hour's walk, said they found that the path just ENDED partway up the hill). I was tired enough to sit in local bar on the porch outside, listening to McCune bragging that the Coke and beer cost only 400F, and I was husbanding each coin, but bought a glass of beer for what I hoped would be 100F but was 150F, but he GAVE me a 100F coin for 50F in change, so I owe him a quarter. Then he makes my life miserable by telling me he thinks they also have a 5F [which our handout agrees with] and a 2F piece. Leave bar at noon, bus hot at 12:05, 4 bottles fit into extra bag. End with five coins: 100, 50, 20, 10, 1. Bus goes at 12:12. Pee FREE in the house, going first in the wrong direction and coming to a locked door in what she said was the next house, peeing copiously at 12:23 before lunch. #36 lunch-home group, since everyone was taking the same photo, but Joan later agreed with me that the chicken wasn't that great, though I had a leg AND a thigh, the sauce was pretty good, the spaetzle just OK---and DID we have something to start with, like---oh, what she said was "green pea" soup, but it was RED and just OK with vegetables and potatoes and beef pieces. Good palancinta for dessert, and Joan got Lois's schnapps away from her (Lois sounds JUST like Julia Child), and the other male single, Paul (?), agrees with me, talking of a daughter, while someone said he was still mourning the death of his wife a year ago. Bob on the other side monopolizes the conversation, and the two local women, one a dancer, say almost nothing at all, not even offering a second glass of white wine. Bus finally comes after we stand on corner for a while at 1:44. Emergency pee stop (two men and Joan get off) off highway 2:39-2:45, saying we should really rush to get to ship. To ship 3:18, second to desk, and sexy pocked Istvan says I have a long way to walk to room 300, and as I suspected it was just off the central staircase, good for little walking but bad for traffic and conversation outside my door, happy I have earplugs for evening. Into room at 3:22 and unpack by 3:40, using all the four drawers but only one set of hangers in the closets. Room seems big, with lots of welcoming signs, including invitation to the Captain's Table at 7:30 tonight, and puzzle contests starting tomorrow. Out at 3:52 to explore ship, #37 off front to Marguerite Island at 4PM, silly to have to insert door-card upside down to open. Roll 3: #1 Fisherman's Bastion 4:18 into sun, from sundeck, where I have to wrestle sundeck chair into somewhat upright position, guy in one of only four straight-back chairs here rightly observing that all the chairs on the foredeck are straight. Cast off at 5PM, turn around, and start sailing east, the city rapidly disappearing into forested land. Have a gin and tonic in the bar for $4.50, then looked at menu and found my favorite Kir Royale is only $3.50, and he goes back to make it even darker when I ask him to. At 5:45 we're all served glasses of champagne and the Captain gives a long rambling talk, berating Joan for laughing while he was being serious on matters of ships' safety, and then the staff is introduced in a nicely choreographed nonstop parade around the nicely filled lounge with 77 people taking the places of the 140 capacity, a real luxury. Snacks passed, good brie, a meat patty, some pastry, and talk to 6PM. Tomorrow: we get printouts daily of schedule, at 4AM we cross to Croatia, which has 4.4 million people, to Vukovar. This is Grand Circle's third season here, Slavonia a region of Croatia of which Vukovar is the capital, and we go to Osijek. 7-9 breakfast, 8:30 to dock, 9:30 tour, take dollars, we're told, but next morning told NOT, though I change a $20 for a $5 and 15 ones. Then 6:45 preview of the next day, then dinner, then music from locals on board, we stay in Vukovar overnight, can walk around town after dinner, too. To dinner at 7:01 to Captain's table, nice couple across, Vlad cheery and talkative to my left, Joan to my right, the Hotel Manager next to her, with Roman natty in his blue suit and tie, really very handsome, at end, and another couple across the way next to the Captain, who didn't say very much except to say we WON'T be seeing much of the mouth of the Danube at the Black Sea, which was my purpose for the trip. Lots of talk of travel and food during dinner, great menu, two wines poured as much as we wanted, and when I said the green beans wrapped in bacon were great I was instantly served with three MORE of them, and constantly asked if I wanted more wine, so Joan didn't have to give me hers. Full, tired, and I go outside after to circle empty lounge, looking at clouded moon, full tomorrow, surprised at all the WOODS, rather than villages, along river, and at one point race across the ship (NOT boat!) to see two ends of a bridge being built across the river seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Lots of hall noise and voices, and bed at 9:03 after a big shit. Bed comfortable, again taking sheet off duvet, curtains not keeping out morning light, but I'll undoubtedly be up early, getting to bed at 9:03, convenient pull-cord on desk lamp in middle of window-wall, and switch on fluorescent lamp above bed itself. Don't know what's right next door (not a cabin), but it keeps being banged and knocked through the day and night.

FRIDAY, 10/6/06: Pee at 1:45, and transcribe dream at 5:10. Try to go to sleep with Actualism to 6:28, so I may have dozed off a bit, since I surely wasn't awake over an hour, so I think I'm finally caught up with sleep, and didn't bother to take a melatonin yesterday at all. Another chocolate-y shit with lots of wiping of ass and toilet needed afterward, and feel vaguely sexy, but when I try to jerk off nothing happens, so I just stop at 6:57, no kick. Look out window before dawn at 6:30 as our passing raises FLOCKS of ducks and birds along the edge of the river, and I go to breakfast 7:20-8:10 to pass up the line at the omelet station, take a seat at a forward-moving window to see more birds and rather large numbers of single people standing, sitting, and fishing at the edge of the river. One large splash of fish last night and one this morning, so I guess the birds are eating SOMETHING from the waters. Again mostly forests passing, with some downed trees from former floods, and we start passing the outskirts of a town as I start eating, and the waiter says it's Vukovar, where we dock early at 7:40 instead of the announced 8:30. Go out to look over woods on the far side of the river, and out my window is a docking barge across which we have to walk to get to shore. Daughter joins me before breakfast after Lois and her friend sit at the end of my 6-person table, and I have lots of cold cuts, salami and beef and ham and cheese very good, watermelon with tiny edible seeds, grapes with seeds inedible, green melon whose name I can't recall now, cantaloupe, cupcakes, roll and butter, and I ask for and get hot chocolate, and Istvan smilingly serves the daughter and later-joining mother all the coffee they want, while daughter, Susie Mead-type, keeps saying she has to keep exercising and not eating so much, and talks of life, hers and mine, so we seem to be a couple better than me and Joan. Excuse myself from breakfast at 8:10, going outside to find it chilly, but sun comes out brightly and we hope it won't rain and it probably WILL be quite warm today, so I think I'll take off my undershirt to be cooler. Do so, AGAIN having to wipe myself copiously from shit, put blanket on chair to sit comfortably, and at 9:14 announcement comes for busses ready NOW for boarding. I do quiz (poorly): WAS Switzerland not conquered by Germany in WWII? WAS UK not early in Common Market, DOES Spain not have a king? [No, GREECE does not have a king, the only one I got wrong the first day, but about 6-7 have perfect 10s] and put on shoes and get out with sunglasses and cameras and bag now at 9:17AM. Board yellow bus in COOL sunny clear day at 9:23. Vukovar LEVELED 1992-1993. Leave 9:30 exactly. 90% destroyed, says excellent guide Selma, to whom I give $3 at end. #2 destroyed castle-museum 9:38 (stupid flash). 11,000 killed, 36,000 wounded in Croatia. War finished in 1998, NATO stopped Bosnia bombing Croatia. #3 new and old at 9:45. Milosevic wanted Greater Serbia, attacked Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, to take all former Yugoslavia as Serbia. To school 10:20 (get government supporter). #4 school dance (and video) 10:35. #6 log splitting 10:55. On bus 11:03, embarrassing and embarrassed. Totally OFF such things. Off at 11:14. Ojisek has baby boom. Off bus 11:44. #7 Ojisek watchtower center 11:46. #8 fortress 11:56. #9 Drava River and group at 12:02. #10 walls and water tower 12:07. #11 St. Anthony's altar 12:16. #12 spring crucifix 12:26. #13 Vlad serving ajvar 12:41. FANTASTIC Croation sights in guidebooks, FEW of which we see, later told that 45% of their income comes from tourism. Back to bus 1PM, bored. #14 bullet-pocked building 12:02PM. No PUZZLES in bag to pass time. Stop 1:38. GREAT lunch of soup, meatloaf with mostly beef but also pork and vegetables and egg, yellow whipped potatoes, wax beans, very fresh coleslaw, and great poppy-seed roll-cake for dessert with four liquids: slivovitz, wine, Ojisek beer (which isn't very good), and great (but too sweet) elderflower, which I praise and she INSISTS on giving me a 1.5-liter bottle that Lois wants to taste, and I slip $5 under some coasters that someone else left, making ME feel better about accepting this gift. She shows wedding album, brother killed, orchard on hill opposite, view over river, 4 boys, great house that husband helped build, second floor not yet started, good English speaker. Paul talks about his wife, too. Bus starts 3:28. Aljmas village, pronounced I-mas. Back to boat 4:06, sit in lounge with elderflower to 6:07, forgot that Joan DID come by and take a glass with her to room, and mother talks VERY intimately to me to end. Finish Times puzzle 1. Talk of next day to 7:04, pee, argue about quiz, where I won't give answer, saying first I have all, then saying I'm not sure about two, hoping they'll tell me, and she retracts threat to throw me into the river. Dinner to 8:32 with loud table and little talk, not that great food, good service, and can't take eyes off Istvan's wonderful hipless profile. They remind me of musical evening, at 8:50 a five-person combo good in Croatian, awful in English, two cute, neat boots, over at 9:31, eyes closing again, puzzle 2 to 10:33, cheating, and bed at 10:34.

SATURDAY, 10/7/06: 12:03AM pee with dream, 2:08 pee with dream, 3:34 pee with dream, up at 7:55, shower to 8:23, only second of trip, breakfast 8:30-9:02 with nice Lois and her friend, stand outside looking at forested river with LOTS of birds, some fishermen. Diane, the daughter, asks me for dentist and doctor in Brooklyn, Fire drill 9:15-9:25, where I chat with Claire, who talks of a "single man" on this trip, and I say, "I'm not looking for a woman, but for a man," and she says she accepts we're all God's children and I'm curious how far the news will spread. Get quiz and only wonder if Patna is on the Ganges, which I picked to make TWO a-answers balance out. GREAT background talk on Croatia versus Serbia, implying Croatia did MORE awful things to Serbia BEFORE, and both Roman and Vlad give excellent talks, but they say each of us has to decide on my "Rashomon" question of which we'll believe, having gotten the HOT EMOTIONAL Croatian side first, and tonight the Serbian side. Type this to 11:41AM, ignoring call to Bloody Mary Happy Hour---before LUNCH? And certainly not free, as my "offered" Grand Marnier last night was not free, sadly. Finish this at 11:42 and go to lounge to see what's going on. And somehow "got" Kawasaki was suburb of Nagoya, but I'll find out. Oh for Google! And someone mentioned four couples cooperating for first prize on last cruise. The next morning I find that Kawasaki is near Tokyo, and St. Louis (Missouri) is on the Mississippi River, so I've only gotten 17 answers right, and Ed Fuster and a couple still have 20, and I'm down at 15, with MANY more wrong today: I said Lancia NOT German, parking meters NOT in Germany, Tupolov NOT from Concorde plans, Opel DID make bicycles, Ford made 16 million cars, Chunnel NOT 4th try, Panama Canal NOT US, Boeing 747-400 NOT 300, WAS Harley Davidson---I could just as well have them ALL wrong. #17 Serbian Danube coast 11:48. Bloody Mary for $2.50, stealing someone's front chair and remaining peanuts to 12:28. Lunch 12:30-1:45, again too much food, see Room 400, nice balcony, but SMALLER because of it. Got 10% off wine of the day from $18, drank half, saved half for next lunch. Petrovaradin Fortress is across the river from Novi Sad, #18 photo from my room 1:58. Cheat on old Times puzzle to finish it to 2:23. Brush teeth completely at last. 2:32 gather on bank: Novi Sad = New Garden. 3:15 video of Orthodox marriage and singing to 3:46, some gorgeous faces in crowd, and #19 Novi Sad at 4:04. Went down side street to video SECOND marriage on this Saturday afternoon, deserted streets off to side, but the old couple (he's 87 and she's 85!) (the Davies) hired an English-speaking taxi driver for $7 for a half-hour and gave him $20 because he did such a good job, and they said the city was enormous, and they also went to the fortress by car. #21 back toward bank of river at 4:15, slightly bored with city, looking into McDonald's but seeing no toilet, finally use a Bankomat to get 10,000D for I don't know how much: Vlad said it was about 65D for $1, so I got a service charge for $18 to pay 500D for an exhibit on Karl Alexander's young photos, crown, cape, and blood-stained death shirt from 1934, just barely worth the 85 cents or so I paid for the exhibit, woman kindly giving me two scant English summary pages in the brochure for the small exhibit: sword, tiara, incense burners, medals, coins, currency, paintings, busts. Exhibit went from 4:35-4:52, and then I was attracted to the park and took #22 and #23 of swans gliding gracefully by at 4:59 after spending 10D to pee. #24 River Concerto (not ours, which is obviously leaving first) and River Rhapsody at 5:18, sorry the sunlight wasn't on them as it was earlier, and #25 "The Family" with flash to hope to highlight the cocks of father and son at 5:20. Back to room at 5:26, that awful smell still lingering, but I really don't think it's mine, since it really doesn't smell like me. 5:58-6:39 four wonderful couples: elderly, dignified, sincerely smiling, went through aristocratic quadrilles, and then six peasant women came to dance flirtatiously with three madcap men with fancy footwork, too close to my front-row seat to get much good video, and it just wasn't that GOOD to take much of, though the strident-voiced blond was funny (though she needed subtitles), unbuttoning her vest and covering herself up again, and I wondered if she didn't take for granted that the dowdy Ellen (or whoever Lois's friend is) and I weren't husband and wife. Pleasant smiling business, echoed much later during the Liar's Contest by seeing them through the windows onboard the River Concerto as we were leaving. Then after the dance Roman talks about tomorrow in Belgrade, with the interesting fact that in Europe the Dutch averaged tallest, with Serbians second, and he praised the beauty of the women while professing not to be interested at all in how the men looked, though he described in detail the long "item" on a nude male statue that the prudes insisted couldn't be exhibited in the middle of town, so it was relegated to the top of a column at the Kalmegdan Castle on the confluence of the Sava (where we dock) and the Danube. Back to height, the tallest in the world are the Nigerians. Belgrade is the only European capital that was bombed THREE times in the last century. He talks to 6:55 when it's time for dinner, the Davies and I being three, good talk, good food, I avoid a pasta course but taste it anyway, and have good red wine free instead of my white saved for lunch today. Dinner to 8:35, then Liars go from 9 (when I finish a sudoku with five other people I hardly know, explaining kir to a woman), and they CHANGED my correct definition of quidnunc as gossiper (NOT a very good definition) to a wrong answer, and two tied for first, being given a fifth word that we didn't get AT ALL. Game ends at 10:01, I'm tired, and to bed at 10:15, counting days and nights left.

SUNDAY, 10/8/06: Pee at 2:30 and type dream, and pee at 6:08 and type dream, and laze a bit, orange light from our dock coming right in my window, and up at 7:02 to wash and dress to 7:26, tired and bored, and out to breakfast at a corner seat at a table for 8, where the other four barely acknowledge me, but I forgot to wear nametag and Istvan is back to serve me hot chocolate, the doll. Breakfast 7:25-8:01, find the quiz results and get the new one, which I'm sure to do poorly in, and take notes and finish this at 8:33AM, ready for day, deciding NOT to give page of my notes to the Davies no matter HOW much they want it: it's MY record! Joan says her housekeeper took her drink, so she wants another taste of the elderflower, so I'll have to bring it to the lounge publically again, and probably have to LEAVE it with the bar, not possibly being able to carry it, though I'd like to. Now to pack raincoat though it seems dry and warm enough out, and get ready for tour at 9AM of Belgrade, back to boat for lunch. King Alexander I assassinated in 1934. To bus 8:50 to read Belgrade Times of 10/5, predicting "partly cloudy" for Sunday, cool but mostly clear skies. "Luka Beograd" is "Port of Belgrade." Bus goes at 9:02. In May of 2006 the eight million people of Montenegro LEFT Serbia. #27 Belgrade Square 9:12. Oblenovich Palace is now City Hall. #28 1907 Parliament building at 9:14. #29 1999 bombing. #31 Tito, guide, and group at 9:40 at his former garden, where he loved to read and spend his spare time. When I describe an old tomb in the middle of a city, the guide says it must have been Sofia, but the tomb is now destroyed. #32 Tito's tomb in his garden house 9:55. #33 tomb and fountain. "Light and work" on photo of younger Tito. #34 WAS rainbow in fountain and RED sumac first sign of autumnal color at 10:02. #35 soldier in garden. #36 one of DOZENS of gift-costumes at 10:09 in gallery of gifts. #37 Lake Titicaca Bolivian witch doctor! Roll 4: #1 Hindu gods 10:20. #2 another Tito, while waiting for line for john, but I decide to pee on tree to leave a bit of myself on the GROUNDS of this memorial plot. Bus leaves 10:30. Pass the crest of the hill where the profiteers from the war have built their own palaces, some even KNOWN to be criminals but they can buy their way free of the courts, and some villas are just enormous, 6 stories with penthouses overlooking the whole city, what RATS they are, to profit from people dying and being bombed in war. #3 Karageorge (Black George because of his dark complexion AND name) and St. Sava Cathedral, unfinished inside because they're doing the whole interior in mosaics for permanence. Leave bus 11:03, 45 minutes to return. #4 Odrenovich, old ruler, backed by National Museum, closed for restoration 11:07. #5 Belgrade street 11:10. #6 Diesel ad 11:13. #7 Ganoo.free.fr site for phallic painting in shop. #8 Moscow Hotel with ceramic facade 11:39. Can't find "naked boy" poster I'd seen from bus before. Museum appears to be open on side? Onto bus 11:48. Bus goes at 12. Off bus 12:06 at entrance to Kalemegdan Fort. Buy 50 billion (highest denomination ever) bill and postcards for 200 dinars. Bill, per Vlad, was a third of a month's pay when it was used. #9 inner Kalemegdan 12:16. #10 Military Museum exhibits 12:24. #11 Danube to right around vacant island, Sava to left, where our ship is docked 12:32. #15 factories in FAR distance 12:39. #16 "far end just to have been there" at 12:45, racing to catch up with everyone. Tell Vlad of my "200D worth $3 for only two things," and he stops by woman, I thought to explain, but he merely gets a bill and hands it solemnly to me, and then I say I REALLY feel cheap, but accept it and thank him and increase my respect for him as an experienced guide. To bus 12:55, HOT! They tell of 3PM walk to town. Lunch 1:16 to 2:10, red pepper filled with meat, vegetables, salad, rest of my white wine. Feel SO tired that I lie down at 2:20, debating whether to take their walking tour at 3PM, why not just stay and read or do sudoku or puzzles and relax? But I'm just here this LAST time, will NOT benefit by staying and thinking low thoughts of myself, feel somewhat relaxed by putting down bed and lying out flat, and at 2:45 there's an announcement of the walk "and shopping," and I think I SHOULD ask them where they're taking us, but just decide to GO! To lobby at 2:55 and Roman leads 11 of us up the stairs at 3:05-3:17, talking about the French Embassy, then LEAVES us at the foot of the pedestrian street! The side door of the museum WAS open, but the sign says it CLOSED at 2PM on Sunday, now 3:28PM. Ethnographic Museum has hours posted (it, too, was open when we passed it this morning): Sunday 9-2PM! #17 Deco buildings 3:36. Decide to follow sign we saw at top of hill for the zoo, which Roman said was just past the entrance to Kalemegdan, and walk into park for my reward: a fantastically sexy naked bronze that glows in the sun #18 at 3:40. Zoo entry is 250D for adult and 200D for Decha, which I thought before was Senior, but THEY say it's CHILDREN, but I insist so much they accept my 200D and give me a ticket. As Ken would say: "Cheap, cheap." Birds start off very well, budgies by the dozens, colorful conures, huge eagles and hawks, lots of parrot-like birds, and a wonderful female-chasing guinea fowl of some sort, with peacocks roaming free, but with much abbreviated tails when I saw them erect later on. There's a plan of the zoo on the ticket, but I just wander at random, sometimes more entranced by the wonderful faces and bodies of some of the Belgrade men, and see bears and lynxes and leopards from above, sleeping ocelots and other cats, terrible tiny cages smelling of ammonia housing zebras and buffalo and enormous stud bulls with dangling orange testicles that barely fit nose to tail in their tiny dirty cages, some cows lying in their own excrement, really horrible conditions. Some monkeys outside but most inside, including a corpulent orang splayed between tree and wall, and a feisty little fellow who threw excrement at viewers at his window and then chewed viciously at his own forearm for whatever reason he had. Hillsides of donkeys and goats and a huge enclosure of wallabies, some goats roaming free outside. Dens of wolves and foxes and ferrets and an inquisitive coati and another large muskrat type that even climbed the wire fence clumsily to stick his pointed nose through the wire to beg for food, as some of the dogs seemed to do without appearing to beg too much because they obviously knew they wouldn't get much. "Pirane" signs led to aquaria of piranhas, but also many smaller fish, and some larger fish and lizards, all of which were for sale, surprisingly, since it would seem most of them would quickly die after being bought. An elephant balanced on the edge of his concrete wall to stretch to the limit his trunk for salty treats proffered by kids. Giraffes outside, a tiny room loaded with guinea pigs, a smelly room with torpid snakes except for one that climbed to the very top corner to try to tongue its way out. An enormous hippo wallowed, climbed out, then splashed back in to make a sensation, though I more looked at the gorgeous back of a sexy guy. A huge pool for swans and egrets was at one bottom, another line of small mammals lined the boulevard, where streetcars rattled past just beyond the fence, and tired vendors sold their Chipsys. Kids screamed in strollers, some were afraid of the bears, the camels got lots of laughs for their lopsided humps, and the eland look so sad with their large expressive eyes. Surprising numbers of huge raptors at the tops of enormous cages. Many empty tiny cages that I can't imagine what they must have once held, happy that not too many enormous creatures were penned too tightly: the tigers seemed to have adequate room, though some of the canine-family went through their desperate stereotyped pacing back and forth. Lots more that I've forgotten, having taken no notes just to enjoy being there, and decide before 5 that I have to leave to get back to the 5:30 talk, find my way back to the statue and entrance, along the base of park lined with tramlines, find the street going down to the French Embassy, then the stairs under the 5% sign, quickly back to the ship, exhausted at 5:10 to room, glad that I can give my leftover dinars to Vlad as part of his tip. Wash face, change shirt and shoes and out to Serbia discussion at 5:25, sun setting behind the four girls. I'm SORE from walk. They mostly blame the slowness and infighting of their own government, which seems fair, though they weren't pleased with my question of what THEY would have said had we come to them FIRST. NO one supported them, they said, primarily. Not terribly intelligent answers, not really balanced against emotionalism of the Croats. Others compliment me on my questions, and someone asks the best final one about their hopes for their own futures, which mostly included amassing the $10,000 needed to guarantee they can live abroad, but it's surely brain-drain time for Serbia unless the country can make progress fast and stop their politicking. Kosovo will seem to remain a thorn in everyone's side, since they also have natural gas and gold and silver. They talk to 6:32, getting nice applause, some staying to continue to chat, and I sit and do sudoku until they give the preview of tomorrow. [7:50AM rock sculpture on side of mountain, go to lounge or sundeck from 7AM, 10:45 locks with cevapcici, 12:30 lunch, 3PM galley tour, 5PM Inner Circle party, 6:15 port talk, 6:30 dinner, then crew show, clock AHEAD 1 hour tonight.] That goes to 7:03. Dinner 7:05-8:23 and get front seat for gypsies talk by Vlad and Roman. 500AD gypsies left India, and again about 1050AD, because linguists discovered language roots. Gypsies enslaved in Romania till 1955, 15 million of them. A half-million gypsies died in Holocaust. Black Cat, White Cat recommended as a good movie on gypsies. Change watch to 10:38! Bed 10:50.

MONDAY, 10/9/06: 4:29AM: Finish typing a dream and feel us moving slowly, and pull the curtain aside to see us very slowly passing another river-ship with a man sitting on the side, smoking, with public areas alit and all the bedroom windows dark, in a slow pageant almost as grand as my O'Neill production. Hope I remember I put this into File 3. But after I pee and put out the light and pull the curtain aside we're back in mid-river at cruising speed---maybe a border passport check? Now 4:33AM. Two dreams and write in file three. Wake at 7:23! Quick breakfast of oatmeal and blackcurrant juice and hot chocolate and up to front seat in lounge for #19 7:52 first look at mountains: left are Carpathian Mountains, highest the 8500-foot Moldavian Man Mountain; right are Balkan Mountains, so since Balkan MEANS Mountain, these are the Mountain Mountains. #20 train tunnel into Balkan Mountain 8:15. Danube is 300 feet deep here. In 1960s Iron Gates planned by Romania and Yugoslavia, finished in 1974. #22 narrows at 8:24. #23 fall colors 8:25. All villages flooded were rebuilt at STATE expense; 14,000 people in Romania, 5,000 in Yugoslavia had to be moved. #24 Church made from signal house in 1989 showing which one-way boat went next at 8:35. #25 King Decebal, "Dragan made it." The Danube was the northern border of Roman Empire. Dacians in north 60-100AD would raid Romans. Trajan attacked Dacia for gold and silver in 101AD. Rome won in 106AD, Decebal BURIED his treasure of 85 tons of gold and 300 tons of silver UNDER the river. Decebal killed himself so as not to be displayed as a prisoner and shamed. I snatch video of Roman plaque moved to high-water level at the site of first bridge across Danube. SUN comes out at 8:45, very foggy before. Catfish are caught in the river. Farming, shipyard in Oshava that is owned by Dutch. #26 shipyards and 40,000-inhabitant town of Oshava at 9:13. #27 foggy 9:16. Give out homepage address to woman who asks for it directly. Water raised for 70 miles upstream of Gates, opened in 1972, 12 turbines (six for each country) produce 10-12 billion kilowatts, 50% of Serbia's needs, 25% of Romania's power. Two locks, 30-35 meters (100 feet in all). We go through on right, on Serbian side, and lock is 1023 feet long and 112 feet wide. We go at a speed of 15 miles/hour; 230 million tons of shipping on Danube in 2002. I go upstairs with jacket at 9:40. #28 back lock coming visible at 9:49. #29 front lock 9:57. #30 back wall now dry 9:59. #31 structure moved from left to right at 10:02. #32 Back lock 10:05. #33 Front gate lowering 10:15. #34 dam at 10:24. #35 front gate opening 10:46. #36 dam at 10:52. #37 two barges and dam at 10:58. Bloody Mary half-price at 11 with two cevapcici and bread. Roll 5: #1 dam and Balkans (left) and Carpathians (right) 11:05. Sit and look and decide to type at 11:40. Wash face and type 11:45-12:30, about half done. Copy answers from last quiz: F F T (I said False, Tupolov was NOT done from Concorde plans) F T F T (I said US did NOT do Panama Canal; I thought it was mainly France, which seems silly now I know the answer), F T, so I got 7 of 9, moving up from 15th place to 10th place, though they don't go alphabetically by names, as I'd thought, but by room number, so I'm still not that high. Lunch to 1:34, again getting good window seat at vacant table and letting whomever fill in, this time the couple who went to school in Pittsburgh together, lost sight of each other for 45 years, and met recently and one's in Washington and the other's in Maryland and they have no idea what the next step is. Order the cheeseburger because nothing else sounded interesting and the burger was awful (dry, no fat at all) but the fries were good, and I had some soup and fusilli and a ham sandwich that was pretty good, and the chocolate cake and ice cream and whipped cream and slivered almonds for dessert, so no wonder I felt full as I left at 1:34 to go to lounge to look at boring scenery, sit to 1:40, and looked for answers and finally found them by searching for Panama. Took #2 Ctrebach suka cock at 2:20 and noticed we'd stopped, and up on deck in short-sleeved shirt again to see us in another lock, this one said lowers us only 30 feet, Iron Gate II, reached before the estimated 3PM, with a lock that rises in the back to cut off the river and one that opens like a gate in front to let us out, but the mystery is that we can't see the dam that blocks the REST of the river: the stream on the right continues "upstream" at the same lower level as the Danube below the dam. Lots of head-scratching and no answers. Watch that to 2:40, down to type some more, check that the yellow-bus kitchen tour is at 3:20, and finally catch up to date at 3:02PM, still tired, have to take another shower sometime, and think to start sorting things out for packing, but that's not until Wednesday night, so forget it! Take two cookies offered with tongs in the entryway, not very good. Bartender calls me Bob and I don't order anything. Bob Fuston, Retired Minister of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, gives me his card to send him my website address: thought goes through my mind that I should tell him that I'm gay and see what his reaction is. Maybe cause SOME frisson on this trip! Counting days: 5 including less than half today and not all of Friday, only four more nights to fall asleep abroad, only four more mornings to wake up not in my own bed, only 12 more meals to eat before eating at home. Sigh! Out to lobby 3:21 and sit on side bench until second chef comes out at 3:30, and takes us back until 3:48, nothing really new: English spoken in kitchen, everyone works 13 days but crew has 70 days off and chefs have 110 days off. Most foods on for whole trip, but they can top up fresh vegetables if needed. Heavy-industry equipment, bread baked every day, soups made from scratch, equipment for mixing and shredding and chopping. Leftovers recycled if possible, given to crew, or if wet thrown overboard, though this is the last year this will be possible. One ship discharged garbage in Gate, which is strictly forbidden, and was fined a lot. He's from Germany, other staff from all over map. Finish this at 3:52, ready to shit and shower and next event is the Inner Circle party at 5PM. Bush tells us we can raise the heads of our beds like hospital beds: five clicks, then all the way up and down to level! Only TWO sets of clean underwear left: Monday-Wednesday, Wednesday-Friday. Shit and sudoku to 4:16. Shower to 4:31, using soap rather than that slimy Lux liquid. Do some sudoku, then dress in my khakis and black sweater for the first time and go to the Inner Circle party for about 20, prize going to the woman with the most past tours with 13---I'm sure I have more. Get a glass of champagne, and the waiters are trying to sell other drinks, two passes of hors d'oeuvres and no more, then snacks, setting sun in eyes, and talk with people until Joan demands elderflower, and I serve SIX people with it while Roman gives the talk about tomorrow, where 65 of us will be taking tour! Pee, give fruit away, and type this to 6:40PM before going to dinner. Choose a seat in the midst of five women and talk about my travels until 7:43, when I say I want to get my camera for the crew show. Can't wait for Istvan. Sit in the front row and the Jewess-who-isn't sits next to me and tells me how sorry she feels for some woman who tried to attach herself to her from the beginning, and she continues to ignore her, calling her lonely and saying she feels so sorry for her, but she seems to be doing VERY much the same thing to ME! The show, sadly, is awful, and none of the cute guys appear, or if they do they're so ugly in the cancan number that it hardly matters. I get what I thought was whipped cream in my hair until I tasted it and it was shaving cream! Bad taste in my mouth all night. Back to try to recharge my battery, down to 30%, but the plug doesn't fit. Try to turn on the AlphaSmart, but it doesn't turn on. Replace three batteries and it works. Piss-poor batteries, which I guess I got in Germany for $1. Back to room to wipe smelly ass though I just had a shower, and finish this at 9:49PM, sad to think that breakfast starts at 6:30AM tomorrow and we have to be on the tour bus at 8:30. Counting, counting: four days left, eleven meals, busy day tomorrow, let's hope the time just passes. Put the Erapo wall-control down to chill and it might actually produce cooler air from the window vent, so I turn the dial up to 18, since 15 on "heat" didn't cool the room at all. Bed DOES click up. Bed at 9:58PM. Wake at 11:15 or so and look outside to dark woods beside the river here.

TUESDAY, 10/10/06: Pee at 1:56, ignoring dream fragment. Pee at 3:44AM and record dream and change the thermostat to heating, because cooling, even at 19°, makes the room too chilly. Finish this at 3:47AM, still tired enough to fall back to sleep. Record dream 5:31AM. Up and type dream at 7:02AM. We're docking at Rousse as I type dream to 7:15 and dress for breakfast. These dreams are becoming an almost PATHOLOGICAL component of my travels: bring it up with Sharon! Leave for breakfast 7:32AM. Back from the lightest breakfast ever: oatmeal and apple juice at 7:48AM with a small sandwich wrapped in my napkin that I put in my plastic photo-roll bag in case I get hungry before lunch. Get a copy of the last quiz and find from the chart that the ship is 110 meters long. At 7:53 come here to find which day we had the fire drill, and find it was 10/7. Just read that my trip insurance INCLUDES any additional payment if my roommate cancels, so THEY should pay extra $414! Ship inspection is in NETHERLANDS, so I guess ship's flag is that! [But it's Swiss.] Final quiz impossible: 1) Long: 110 meters, 2) SOS Ship? [no, it IS Souls, as I put], 3) Nationalities of crew 9? [10!], 4) Capital disembark Bucharest, 5) fire drill 10/7, 6) crewmembers 65 [34, the exact number on crew list posted!], 7) reception names Svetlana [and later add Sasa (Sasha) and Veronika, but they also have two others and main guy, Aldo, or whoever], 8) shoe size 10, 9) flag Netherlands [Swiss], 10) kitchen chef, EXECUTIVE chef is Volker Raguse, but is he the KITCHEN chef? I put Sous Chef Martin Kopecky [they list Raguse and give me credit for it though I crossed it off], 11) miles sailed---no sail, no miles [880 miles], 12) deck for #213 [no #213], 13) maitre d's age [32], 14) passenger cabins 70, 15) movies 2, 16) showcases 5 [8, where are others?], 17) T-shirt pressed $1.75. [List gives me 13 right, being very generous: I end with 46 right, back to #10, and the Ayers win decisively with 53, next highest 51]. Leave 8:37 to bus, keeping quiz for quidnuncs, and later DO ask the Captain for his shoe size, find Veronika's name when Svetlana says she can't answer but nods toward board, and ignore list of crew members which would have given me maybe two [certainly number of crew, maybe even number of nationalities---no, it would HAVE to be all nationalities, since it's all the crew!]. But even a perfect score wouldn't have brought me into striking range with the Ayers. Joan Millman was one below me---HA! Bus goes 8:47. #3 Ruse apartments 8:59. "John Atanasov invented the electronic digital computer in 1943 at some Bulgarian university." [EB doesn't list Ata/Atta/Athanasov and credits the 1946 ENIAC as being the first electronic digital computer.] #4 1866 bridge "Kolo Fichitov" and horse 9:38. On January 1, 2007, Romania and Bulgaria will join the European Union---do they increase number of stars on the flag? [No.] #5 bus and sugar beets on truck 10:03. #6 and 7 Veliko Tornovo 10:17. 10:34 to Arbanassi Palace for 20 minutes. #8 from palace, helipad 10:40, built by local "Mafia" kingpin who erected his own chapel on the grounds for his body, slain as he had undoubtedly had many others slain. What lousy people in all the world! #10 front of palace 10:55 when I go to end of hall, into private dining room, unlock door to last balcony, and have it to myself until another inquisitive woman tourist finds the stairway down from the other balcony. Fantastic views from incredible location. Get tea and small cakes free, as Renny, guide on bus, passes out free rose oil in a wooden flask, and Martenitsas, as woman passed out free postcard and MORE rose oil at the souvenir shop later. Leave palace 11:07. #11 Church of Archangels Gabriel and Michael, built 1666 when Moslems forbade any church to be higher than mosque, so they sank inner chamber down so they could erect a dome inside legally. No photos inside, and Vlad goes to trouble to get candles because, at first, they said the electricity was out, but said participants entered with lit candles and stood throughout sung service, but now we can't light candles because they just spent much money cleaning (not restoring, just "refreshing") frescos, and we go in, bowing through low entryways, sit in side pews as I did at marriage in Belgrade, and get nice lecture and then a "barbershop" quartet of what they call cantors sings for us resonantly in the domed chamber, and people give money and we leave 11:42. Bus goes at 11:57 to shop, #12 backyards and chickens at 12:06, #13 showplace opposite 12:07. #14 lace of Arbanassi 12:12. I'm bored with shopping, not that entranced by the old village. Taste sunflower candy and brandy and onto bus 12:21, high from brandy taste. Bus goes 12:26 as I do sudoku to keep from chatting with incessantly talking Joan Millman across from me. To Spider Restaurant just down street for strong Kaminitza beer, red wine, salad topped by good Bulgarian cow cheese, like a soft feta cheese, and veal stew and good cake, all of which we're given printed recipes for. Joan keeps talking to me about women, so finally I whisper to her, "I'm for men," and she says that's perfectly OK with her, but she talks less to me afterwards, giving me her glass at lunch so I can have both red and white wine and beer. To bus 1:47. Given red and white martenitsa, from Mart (March), a gift on March 1 to family members. Pass under bridge with people looking in at us as I type now at 8:36AM. Take to #20 of Veliko Tornova vistas, talking to Bulgarian woman who returned from Sofia to visit her birthplace. Videos to 2:17, battery level dangerously low. FLAG is on Royal Palace near castle and church on top. All stop to buy everything even when Vlad says this is NOT a shopping stop at the gate to the castle. Off bus at 2:24 and I quote Vlad as saying "3:40 bus leaves," though I KNOW he said we had an hour and I THOUGHT it might have been 3:30. #21 Four Horsemen Monument 2:33 from below shopping street. I walk up street, passing up tourists, and turn uphill to get better view, climbing up road until it turns into a path, which climbs higher onto a trail, but then comes out onto a higher road, which I pursue even higher until I pass small garden-hut-type buildings on the crest overlooking a grand view, a dog blind in one eye, a man I say hello to who responds with "Dobre Den," which I then use, and up a higher rocky path, trying to take one photo including Palace Arbanassi on left and castle church on right, will find out when I get slides. Check time, panting and sweating from climb, but LOVING it, pass three people having a picnic, see factories below on one side, a photo of main street from above to #23 atop Tsarevetz Mountain, not QUITE to two transmission towers at top, and videos to 2:34 before that. #24 shopping street on way up at 2:50. #25 woman on flowered porch, #26 rooms for rent 2:56 on road up. #27 Arbanassi Palace 3:03. #28 at 3:08, #29 3:15 on way up. #30 and 31 from top 3:18. Rush down, not wanting to be last at 3:40, and take #32 street at 3:34, passing Vlad who doesn't see me though he's looking for me, Renny says, and bus leaves at 3:40, he SAYING he said to be back at 3:30 and that "retroactively, last person back buys beer for everyone, and you can't get away with elderberry---elderFLOWER I insist---elderflower drink." Vlad: "Do you know the difference between a passenger and a hitchhiker? Five minutes!" So they DID wait for me. #33 monastery on cliffs 3:50 that I missed on the way up. Back to Ruse 5PM. #34 Pantheon, but I'm not sure of it from moving bus, at 5:09. To boat 5:10 and we sail at 5:30, having to take longer, deeper arm of river because shorter arm is too shallow for ship. #35 Ruse farewell 5:35. #36 "Friendship Bridge" between Romania and Bulgaria 5:46, chatting sweetly with Diane (the same name as the daughter of the woman from California, whose husband is ALSO a police detective) and we both take #37 of bridge end at 5:48, cold. Inside 5:58 for tipping guidelines at 6:21: $10-12/day for staff, or CHARGE it. Program Director tipping and evaluation sheets tomorrow. "If you don't rate us excellent, don't rate us at all." 7-day cruise for tipping purposes. Roman talks tomorrow about their tips. Talk to 6:30 after Captain's receiving line at 6PM: Captain, Hotel Director, Roman (with New Orleans-streets tie), and Vlad, getting one champagne (and finishing another from another table as I leave) and one salmon canape. Tomorrow 9-9:30 talk about canal, 9:30 lounge for disembarkation talk, 12 lunch, 1 to Constanta, 1:30 city tour for 3 hours, 6:45 port talk, 7 dinner, followed by quartet. This goes to 7PM and dinner, which has birthday light-dimming for Joan, duck appetizer and main course with good sauce, then dark for bringing on two sparklered baked Alaskas for which the chocolate and cherry sauce is passed very late. Finish dinner 9:04, stuffed. Brush teeth while watching CNN on TV, fall into The Terminal, with an ugly old Tom Hanks, which ends about 10:20 and starts again to 10:52, when I figure I've seen enough and get to bed at 10:55PM.

WEDNESDAY, 10/11/06: 2:07AM pee and type dream. Wake at 5:40 and pee. Wake 6:50 with dream and up at 7:05 to wash face and dress and type dream 7:12. Roll 6: #1 Kilometer 60 sign and concrete at 7:14AM. #2 7:23 ANOTHER closed back lock for which I dress and go outside when I look outside and see we're clearly in another unannounced lock. #3 7:27 forward lock, east to sunrise. Captain: we go up from river to canal 3 meters, then down 10 meters from canal to Black Sea. #4 7:33 front lock opening. Signal: man whistles loudly! #5 7:38 we start down canal around sunrise. #6 7:40 leaving lock behind. Down to transcribe correct answers which fortuitously was at end of what I'd typed before, and then breakfast looking at passing scene 7:50-8:07. Then to room to type 8:08-9:03AM, hearing announcement about commentary on canal starting about now, so stop typing and go upstairs with jacket and camera at 9:04AM. Canal was finished in 1984 after 8 years' work, 2 years late, the pet project of Ceausescu. #7 mosaic of canal---a horse-cart passes in front of it ten seconds later! Empty trains pass on the left, one seeming to stop to let us pass it so the three or four passengers could watch us, then it steamed past again. In 2003 canal became self-sustaining, hindered by Yugoslav wars, and much now goes by trains, though ships are much cheaper. At Chernovo the Danube goes directly north, and the canal goes straight east for 40 miles to the Black Sea, and it's 20-25 feet deep most places, so enormous ships can use it. 9:30 announcement for briefing in lounge. #8 canal-crossing bridge 9:28. 9:16: Roman: at places we have only 25 inches below bottom of our ship. "Forget three four-letter words (good, fair, poor) and use the long word (excellent); our jobs depend on it; if NOT excellent, say WHY." Program Directors get $4-6 per day, take YELLOW dotted envelope, which can include leftover foreign currency, but they can't take credit cards, only CASH. Departure list on 4; bus to airport, check flight number: if different, tell them. 7AM luggage out. 8:15 leave ship. "It's never too EARLY for a drink, it may be too late." We train to Bucharest by noon, and then 17 leave for Transylvania post-trip. We're the first group to use the brand-new Novotel. JSJ3535@aol.com is the woman who took my "homepage" and I said I'd send (Jeanne Jacobson) her my journal, which wouldn't be what she'd expect. Take elderflower to lunch. List says my flight KL1390 leaves Amsterdam at 2:25, which I check out. Eddy and Tutherley, each singles, go on my flight, and it turns out to be Julia Child and her friend who'll take a limo from the airport to Eddy's place in Connecticut. For us, luggage out at 11:45, bus goes at noon. Back to cabin, STILL not made up, at 10:10. Start repacking to 10:40, when I stash stuff away in drawers and closets and go on deck to photo the LAST set of locks. #9 10:42 last lock raising behind. #10 10:45 Constanta shipyards ahead. #11 10:47 Captain feeding dogs as we lower ten meters to Black Sea level. #12 last gate opening 10:59. 11:02 start forward. #13 birds flying 11:04. Video port and birds to 11:08, sadly missing the tiny bright blue-backed bird that flew past in the lock, but finally catching a dinner-plate-size jellyfish in the water. Down to lounge for ship to make a HUGE circle north around the port area, largely unused, ROCKING in the swells from the small gap in the "jacks" anti-erosion jetties, through which can be seen numbers of ships paling with distance. #14 Constanta panorama 11:30. I sit in front of lounge and take pictures and move to avoid the bright sun. One ship is called Montauk, another is from Majuro. #15 shipyards 11:42. I'm actually hungry for the first time in ages. To room at 11:55 to find it FINALLY made up, take elderflower to lunch, where I invite Esther and Lois, the two women on my flight, and Diane and her mother, and Joan comes over with a glass, as do a few others, and less than a quarter is left when all are finished, all saying they like it but none of them having a second glass except me. Lunch 11:59-12:52, type to 1:16, when they announce departure. On bus 1:24, FORGETTING data sheets, still unread, sitting WAY in back, almost last on! Bus goes 1:29. #16 Karim I sank 1:36. #17 blue North Korean ship impounded for helping terrorists, with grain elevator as the concrete bastion-type building in background, built by some famous architect, at 1:35. #18 casino 1:36. #19 Natural History Museum facade 1:40. Into museum 1:43. #20 Fortuna and Pontus 150AD and #21 Pontus closeup, sexy bod. #22 Constanta three different-type buildings 2:02. #23 model on the seaside construction with mosaic 2:11, bay offering protection from winds. To #25 mosaics and videos to 2:13. #26 ruins below mosaics 2:15. #27 House of Four Lions and minaret 2:17. #28 returning and amphorae 2:18, with anchors above. Great FREE brochures in museum. #29 Mosque dome 2:30, probably inadequate flash. No shoes off. Onto bus 2:36. #31 Constantine and his mother St. Helena on St. Anthony's Church 2:48. Video of Black Sea 2:56. #32 Minai Emincu poet 3:08. Sunny and windy! Back on bus 3:10 to Mamaia. To mall 3:54-4:50. #33 Constanta main shopping street 4:03. To #36 Constanta coast 4:16. #37 farthest coast 4:26. Back to bus-stand 4:40, watching people. Roll 7: #1 street, Confectii Dama, Feng Shui, Prestij Yesport 4:42. #2 ON bus of street and bookstall 4:46. Leave 4:50. #3 Archaeological park 4:55 from fast-moving bus. To boat 5:02. #4 unused booms 5:05. #5 military ship with brig in back from 1976 tall ships. #6 final Constanta panorama 5:08 with golden domes. Vlad: meet in lounge for critique at 6PM! Type 5:15-5:32 and prepare for more packing. Shift things around and make order out of souvenirs according to size and put sizes in different containers---and then look at my watch to see that it's 6:01! Dash to lounge just as Vlad is looking for me, and he talks to me INDIVIDUALLY to try to find what I thought were the negative points, and I list as positive points his humor, timing, historical knowledge, presentation, then compliment the learning experiences, the unexpected discoveries, but DO negate the "standing outside talking about something when we could be inside LOOKING at it" and we talked about how MOST like shopping but he has to satisfy those few who don't, and we talked back and forth until I finally asked, "What did you think I'd say that I haven't said?" and he couldn't come up with anything, but talking to Diane's mother she reminded me of that awful barnlike first dinner out with awful food, and I cornered him on his cell phone and told him that and he did admit that many didn't care for that. But I said I loved the ship, the tours, particularly the printed material, the extras about the gypsies, and was even sorry I missed the evening when we could question him and Roman about personal things if we liked (I guess I was permanently traumatized when I heard Istvan talking about his upcoming marriage to his engaged girlfriend, though I still held out a thread of hope that he might be switching genders). Talked to Vlad 6-6:15, then sat with Diane and her mother, who was also interviewed, and the sexy older guy who turned out to be a financial advisor and told me about a SOLO 401K, which I should ask Schwab about, because maybe if I started the paperwork before October 31 I could put in a plan to cover 2006, he said it had only been possible for the past two years, I might be able to pass by April 15th and declare EVERYTHING of my earnings as protected, though at the end he wasn't sure if I could do it if I were over 70.5 (and he expressed appropriate amazement that I was in that category, the handsome dog) and made a note to himself to find out. AND he said I should ALSO ask about the CURRENT advantages if I switched to a ROTH 401(k), since I wouldn't have to pay any tax on what I took OUT! HAVE to talk to Schwab about both. Poor Brooke May! Talk to 6:50 and say I have to find Vlad, which I do, and pack some more, and pee, and get to the repeat of the next day from Roman from 6:55-7:07, nothing really new, and dinner to 8:30, taking a cue from Bill Bush and filling BOTH glasses with red wine, and the Bozarths sat across from me, and we talked AGAIN about rubber and Akron and Litchfield who wrote three good books, and they were better than the former policewoman-mother and daughter across from me. Then to my video and took #7 at 8:48 of the quartet, and videoed lots (taking my video down to ONE marker of charge, but with 24 minutes, which seems like a LONG time, though I think some diminution occurs spontaneously over time, and maybe the Novotel in Bucharest will have a plug that fits in ITS bathroom tomorrow!). The quartet plays, rather tacky, mostly American rip-offs, though I video lots and some views even reflected in the window, which I mouth to Diane when she asks why I'm filming outside, and I flash my nametag to Joan when she waves at me when they play "New York, New York," and I fall in LOVE with the way the violist looks lovingly at the first violin, and decide, with all the red wine, that I'm feeling REALLY HAPPY at the moment, in Romania, almost done with a successful trip, tired enough for bed, plans for tomorrow already on my tabletop, and almost tear up with happiness. Then sign for my $110.15 Visa bill, turn in the evaluation form to Veronika, saying I never met her before, with my universal excellents, and identify the winning Ayers! He's the pop-eyed older fellow I confuse with the male Davies and she's a red-headed younger wife, plump, who's rarely with her husband. I congratulate them and they have the grace to say it was mainly luck, but they DID ask the maitre d' how old he was. But WHAT makes THEM so smart?? I ask myself at 9:39, moving more stuff around, taking off most of my clothes, and type 9:52-10:10, right this second, really ready for bed, ready to stuff everything into my green bag to be left outside at 7AM and all the bottles and "current" papers into my black bag for the train tomorrow. Hope I don't need any more than two aspirins, since I have only one whole one and would have to salvage the thirds from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Or ask someone for some. Ready now at 10:12 to wash my face and take my pills and finish this for the day, 6 meals left, only TWO days to home! In a flash of brilliance decide to put the rest of the elderflower concentrate into my WATER bottle, which I never use anyway! Where it FITS with three teaspoons to spare! Try to pee but CAN'T, and finish this at 10:25PM, leaving PRECISELY 8 hours to sleep by 6:30AM to pack and put my bag out at 7AM. Bed at 10:28PM.

THURSDAY, 10/12/06: 1:47AM pee and type dream. 5:17AM, wake, nervous about oversleeping, and think not to pee so that I can sleep for an hour and wake and pee and pack. Look at watch at 5:32AM. Up at 5:43AM to shit, sitting numbly, realizing I can't possibly sleep now without risking not putting my bag out at 7AM, so I put on the light and type this to 5:50AM, knowing I'll have to pass 70 minutes somehow before breakfast, thinking to tire myself out for a good long sleep tonight before tomorrow's marathon flight-day ending the NEXT day. Boat is rocking, though no waves are visible from window over port, and a CONSTANT creaking-rocking sound echoes though my bathroom, like a sluggish giant trudging wearily on an old wooden floor. As I type this I hear two wake-up calls coming from nearby cabins---or could they be cell-phone signals?---maybe the same thing. Watch just passes 5:55:55AM. Wash face and comb hair and take 1/2 mg melatonin at 6AM. More alarm-chirps and toilet-flushings as I meticulously fold clothes into first bag by 6:11AM. Safe, which had always been open and empty, is now mysteriously locked: should it have been locked when I first saw it? First mystery: I was SURE I had TWO blank rolls of film in my bag yesterday, and put a new one in late yesterday, but there IS no spare one in my bag now, and I only have TEN rolls of film, though I was quite sure I had one roll in my camera and TOOK ten new rolls of film. Will one show up in some souvenir bag or other? 6:32AM: Thought: FUCK! I should have left my lock out, so now I'll have to dig to the bottom to---but there's the lock on the zipper-pull of the green bag! Close and lock green bag at 6:42AM. Have everything together: green bag at door about to go out at 7AM, stuffed black bag ready except for this in side pocket and jacket, which I'll wear just to save room, by 6:49AM, hungry for breakfast---and yet have the lunch-bag to add to my pile! Pack black bag, shoes on, last items on tabletop waiting for my return from breakfast, now at 6:56AM. Faint blue light outside, not really yet the pink of dawn; voices in the hall after another chorus of chirps throughout my packing, and now coughs and footsteps passing, maybe it's OK to put bag out early at 6:57AM. Hall JAMMED with bags; lobby FULL of chattering people; I guess it will be a CRUSH for early breakfast at the dot of 7AM, as I type this, ready for Bucharest, last stop, at 6:59AM. 7:15AM: Typical final breakfast of oatmeal and apple juice, breaking up a couple at a yet-again new table, place jumping at 7AM, but when I get out at 7:14, having packed another falater, most of the bags are already gone from the hallways. Back to my room, rather warm already though it's refreshingly cool out, and now high jet-trails glow, reflecting the morning sun, which appears to be coming up right over the deck of the warship out my window. Flocks of birds are---coincidentally? it would HAVE to be---grouped ONLY in the part of the sky that is brightest with the coming dawn from the viewpoint of MY window. Now 7:20AM and have no idea what I'll do before the train. Read New Yorker? Sudoku? Decide to put extra roll of film and empty pillbox in JACKET pocket so they won't get lost in any part of crammed black bag. Decide to go on deck! Sun peeks over horizon at 7:24, reflecting off windows in Constanta just as it does in Manhattan, and a car alarm goes off to give the big-city savor, while workmen come by to get two folding tables from the back deck, and the Captain's in the lobby in jeans and a jacket. Type this at 7:35AM, ready to pee and pack final papers and go sit in the lounge before the train, seeming to hear that the lunches will be waiting for us on the train. 7:41: Wipe a FANTASTIC amount of shit from my ass (now HOW am I going to transmit this to the world?) and sit with the sun streaming DIRECTLY into my window, reminding myself to note the busses being loaded with luggage, the orange-tagged ones at the last, and I made sure mine was NOT among them. Guess I'll leave the room for the maids, whom I can hear knocking on doors, and sit in the lounge now at 7:43. 8:35AM ON train, alone in my four-seat cabin until others come by. Notes: 7:52 LOTS of passport stamps. Read daily news, awful, so North Korea really DID have a nuclear test? 8:03 people lining up to get lunches and board busses. 8:08 on JAMMED bus. #8 8:14 farewell crew photo through bus window with flash probably ruining it. Leave. To train station at 8:30, and to private train. Couple joins me and lets me type until 8:40, all ready for 3.5 hours to Bucharest, which the guide Vlad pronounces BEW-charest, to rhyme with YOU. Train starts at 9AM. #9 Romania's first nuclear power plant 10:02: one on-line, another in June, two more by 2012. #10 canal lock from bridge above. #11-14 TRIES at 111-year-old bridge at 10:10. Orvamona (Orv and Mona) happen to mention Bellingham, and I say this is only the second time I heard this name: I was supposed to share with Alexander Van Dyke. "He's on the trip!" She takes me to him, I pee in toilet open to tracks below while guide speaks to them, and then I ask if he knows my name. No. He DID ask for a share, paid an amount they charged him without knowing whether it was with or without a single supplement, and never got any information about a roommate, though he says he really never looked at the papers he got from GCT. Others amused by this, he couldn't care less. Orvamona found it interesting, noting that he's longtime friend of founder of GCT! First rode along canal, seeing much from one side, crossing bridges, then to the central plains, which seemed to have mesas of planted-at-the-same-time trees interspersed with what Orv thought might be winter wheat, looked like lettuce in some parts, and elsewhere like dried-out husks of corn-shocks or sunflowers. Lots of horse-carts hauling corn-shocks, standing in fields, waiting at railroad crossings, or doing other work. Herds of cows and sheep and goats, lots of workers along the right-of-way, and at first no villages, then a concentration-camp-seeming barbed-wire enclosed area that had "Laborator" on one building and "Danger Explosives" and "Entry Forbidden" in Romanian on another, so I surmised it WAS an old concentration camp built conveniently by the railroad. Some villages had no paved main streets, many back gardens had only maintenance huts in them, and there were also stretches of forests in rows that were obviously planted, and other stretches that seemed clearly wild. For miles along they'd cut down all trees within ten feet of the tracks, with workmen coming with horse-carts to cut them into manageable pieces and cart them away, followed by areas where the foliage almost touched the cars as we alternately sped past and sometimes stopped for no discernible reason. Past rivers and lakes, many with fisherfolk along the banks, many people in coats but one shirtless man, so we couldn't quite tell what the temperature was. Finally a cluster of buildings on the right at 12:15 made me think we were nearing Bucharest, and our guide, Vlad II, didn't come past after he pointed out the power plant and the bridges, though he stayed with us so long we wondered how he could spend as much time in each compartment, but we found when we searched for Van Dyke that one compartment may have had ten people, and there may have been as many as three guides filling people in on the history of the Danube River, the canal, and the country. Arrive in Bucharest 12:45 and off train at 12:51. On bus 12:54, and at 12:56 Vlad runs for stragglers but comes back with Roman, who takes off with the 17 bound for Transylvania. Bus off at 1:01. We'd eaten two of the sandwiches and drunk the juice from the box lunch on the train before noon, and I polished off the last of the lunch sandwiches and my falater in my room at the Novotel at 4:15 so as not to waste them, conscious of having to meet Vlad on level M at 6:30 for dinner out, dinner in this hotel obviously too much for the budget, though the special train must have cost a pretty penny. #15 Bucharest Intercontinental Hotel at 1:19, quite a sight in the partly ruined, partly modern city. #16 University and bookstalls 1:21. #17 Military school from 1900 at 1:23. #18 tower and WIRES 1:24 on all the utility poles. #19 Opera house and Enesco statue probably ruined by flash 1:27. #20 Military University and warrior monument at 1:32. #21 Boulevard 1:33. Palace of the People is 260 feet high, 850 feet deep, and 860 feet long, 80% used, she says, having taken 200 architects "because he changed his mind a lot," and has over 1000 rooms. Off bus at 1:47 to take through #26 to 1:54 of surprisingly boring, too-symmetric palace and Finance Ministry on the left and Justice on the right, all governmental offices in the Civic Center, around Constitution Square, which sometimes hosted rock concerts and beer fests. Take almost last of video, failing to enliven somewhat boring building, which now houses both chambers of Parliament and some other offices. Bus leaves at 2:03 after I simply can't get far enough away for a photo that encompasses the whole thing, even crossing away from Constitution Square on a perilous crossing. #27 "their Champs Elysee" from the side. Off bus at 2:20 for a pee stop, $1 for two pees, #28 of detail of 1803 Manuk's Inn interior, that goes to 2:32, Vlad finally announcing that those who don't feel like walking to the old area and the glass factory can sit and drink until we come back in about half an hour. #29 ruins of "princely court," with #30 2:40 a statue of Vlad Tepes, 1456-1462, who I guess was the prince then, and she explains that Drac=Devil, and Dracula=Son of the Devil. #31 glass factory at 2:56. On bus 3:05, bored. Bus goes 3:13. Vlad announces he's going to the hotel to make sure our keys are ready when we get there, and the rest will mostly be by bus. Thank goodness the bus-window shades stayed up after the fiasco of the driver needing to manually reroll the shades, which wouldn't stay down and couldn't go back up. Down many streets, past innumerable universities, making the city young, many museums of art, science, Romania, natural history, more art, until I feel totally weary, eyes dropping shut and popping open at busy intersections with hordes of people waiting for busses or trolleys. #32 egg (symbolizing Genesis) called the "Impaled Potato" by those that don't like this symbol in Revolutionary Square across from the balcony on which Ceausescu made his final speech before his being shot with his wife on December 25, 1988. As one guide said, after 49 years of Communism and 17 years of failed reconstruction, how hard could it be to join the EU? They figure they'll be fully in by 2012. I see the statues in the courtyard of the National Museum of Art, built as a Royal Palace until 1948, when Prince Michael was deposed, who went on to become an airline pilot and "like a normal person" have houses in New York and Switzerland. Take #33-36 of sexy statues by unknown Romanian sculptors, get to the tail end of a talk by the guide outside the bus, and I take #37 of the palace facade, change to roll 8: #1 Central University Library at 3:58, and bus goes at 4:02, #2 of oldest church from 1732, in error because it's not "washed white," at 4:03, and get to Novotel at 4:06 to force them to take out posts from the central plaza so we can drive in, overlooked by a mob of suited men on the balcony who, we're told, came out to smoke only. Follow someone across the lobby until Vlad calls my name, hands me my key to room 515, which I go up to to find it right at the elevator again, with my bag outside, and I take a pee in the separate toilet, find the bathroom on the bed-side of the room, but outroot my recharger to find it doesn't fit, with only 12 minutes left, and I look at Novotel book to find it's "two minutes from the Natural History Museum," by which I assume they mean the National Museum of Art, and when I look into the guidebook I took from the glass factory I find it's open till 6PM, but even though it's clearly close, I just don't feel like going downstairs to ask if they charge an admission fee and changing money, since I have only a single single left, treating each of the recent quarter-day guides to $1 each, only Renny deserving $3 for her full day in Veliko Tornovo, and since I was so bored from the day on the bus, I figured I'd just continue being bored in the museum, though I had the threat of being bored in my ROOM, so I immediately ate the two sandwiches, then found the Mars bar and found it delicious, and started typing at 4:40, finally getting to this point at 5:26, so in an hour I'll have to start finding level M for dinner. Took #3 from Novotel window of skyline at 4:37. Even for only 13 days, maybe because this was the fifth trip of the year and I didn't have a partner to confide in, eat with, gossip about others with, even though the guiding and route and surprises were excellent, I still feel tired and somewhat bored, just not wanting to see anything more new, no more new towns or museums or exhibits or shops or hotels (even though this is only the second of the trip!). I just want to be home, impossibly late tomorrow, only four meals left before getting home, only two with anyone at all from the group, and then RELAX. NOW what do I do at 5:30?? Sudoku to 6:21 and wash face and pee and down to M. Everyone's milling in hallway with glasses of champagne, and I push through to get one and retreat to the sidelines, then when people start going into the actual meeting room I go to the refreshment table and drain the last of a last bottle of champagne for a second glass, though I see some entering the room later with Vlad, who obviously found another bottle or two. He repeats tomorrow's schedule, answers a dozen inane questions, and doesn't say goodbye but "With the world getting smaller, we'll probably meet each other again." Some are giving him his tip-envelope, so I do, too, though he insists he'll be around to see everyone off. This ends about 7PM and the bus leaves 7:08, me again sitting in very back. An impromptu race takes place between the first-leaving yellow bus and the first-arriving blue bus, and we're to McMoni's Restaurant next to the remote Sofitel, at which the group used to stay, far from anything. Into a room not quite as barnlike as the previous hall, with a bandstand near which 9 women and I choose to sit, Diane next to me very cheery and chatty, telling me about her mother's unknown virus from London a few years ago from which she's likely never to recover her promised 82-year-old wit and strength, Diane slipping in that she's 52, with a gay son, so I tell her I'm gay, too, and she smiles and says that Joan told her about a minute after I told Joan, but shouldn't tell Joan that Diane told me about it. Band starts in low key but builds until the dance floor is full with a dozen couples dancing to Elvis's "Love Me Tender," which at some point Diane says she can't stand, and I suggest we go outside and wait. #5 dinner combo at 8:45. Beginning antipasto plate decent, with very salty feta cheese, no soup, and a smallish portion of beef in a tan sauce that wasn't bad, wasn't good. No trouble eating not much, and no trouble drinking not much, since the initial glass of red or white was never refilled. Last full-group meal completed! To bus at 9:09, into room at 9:32. Take two night pills and Ambien and Valium at 9:38, fuss a bit on the john, and get to bed at 10PM under the duvet since the room is so cold. Fall asleep very quickly.

FRIDAY, 10/13/06: Wake at 4:18 with dream and pee. Wake at 6:09 with dream and pee and type both dreams out. Take melatonin at 6:25, shower 6:35-7, silly shower-door dripping all over the floor, and take Valium at 7:07, over 9 hours after first one, not really feeling I need it, but as insurance against future feeling that I might like it. Then type up-to-date by 7:22, hair drying, still cool though I turned the thermostat up to 26°, put on last clean underwear and socks, hoping it's seasonable (not too hot, not too cold) in NYC in 20 hours. Breakfast is 6:30-10:30, and I assume most had departure times of 4 or 5 or 6AM, with breakfast boxes on busses, wondering whether it's a joke that we three at noon will be getting a 47-passenger bus, but sharing Vlad's opinion: "I really don't care." Start to attend to repacking at 7:25AM. Note that I'm on note card 13, for the 13th day of trip. Feel somewhat tired. It's finally light out by 7:30AM. Try to think of what to do next and my prime thought is: I just want to be HOME! Watch TV to 8:15 and start dressing for breakfast. To breakfast 8:25. Eat somewhat more than usual: no oatmeal available, so I have corn flakes with honey, apple juice, hot chocolate, and a lot of fruit with a buttered roll, and then make a ham and cheese on a roll covered by a paper napkin I took from under a bowl of ketchup, all others being cloth, and put it in the plastic glass-cover, into which it just fit. Type this at 9:10, having packed tonight's pills, the last of the trip. Brush teeth and watch TV to 9:45, having decided to price the Art Museum. Leave 9:55. Get to "Art Store" and find it's the admission to the classical paintings from King Karol's collection, entry 2L (which turns into 4L when I go in), but she refuses to make change or accept dollars, so I dash across streets and find a change place that gives me 11.70L, without commission, with the final price of 11.88L marked at bottom. Dash back to museum at 10:20, check my bag, free, because there's a 10L charge for photos and he says, "You can get postcards anyway," which I do for their masterpiece by Antonello da Messina for 1.5L at the end, ending up with 1 5L note, 1 1L note, and 2 10-bani pieces, which I keep out for the airport, which undoubtedly takes credit cards. Handsome Farinelli portrait, three GOOD El Grecos, including an enormous Adoration of the Shepherds, and lots of Breugels and Teniers "Cel Batran" and "Cel Tanar," one of which means the Younger, the other the Older, but since I never kept them straight, it hardly matters. A second, large, Wtewael, which name she doesn't even recognize. Out at 11:11, down a wonderful stairway in former Royal Palace, which had some spectacular rooms, and dash back to hotel, past two beggars, at 11:16 and pee quickly and put rest of papers and (optimistically) my jacket into the green bag and finish this at 11:33, having LOWERED the thermostat in the now HOT room! Reluctantly pour out last 4 ounces of elderflower, having judged it well got its mileage, and put empty bottle into green bag at 11:39, and put bag out. Squeeze out last shit, wash glasses and sunglasses, and pack this at 11:49, ready to go downstairs. Pick up my green bag and fellow comes out of elevator at 11:52 with cart and list to take my luggage (and that of 505, a mistake, since he doesn't leave till 1PM; and NOT Esther's and Lois's bags from third floor), and down to check out at 11:56, Vlad waiting, Davies still congratulating herself for not throwing me overboard; they're not on the e-mail list, but he's the only Mitchell Davies in San Francisco, so I should call if I visit. Bus goes with the three of us, the driver, and a guide at 12:05. #6 Dance of the Bear, traditional Valachian festival 12:35.  Huge traffic, huge construction on roads, lots of melodious horn-blowing at 12:43. Think to take out SkyMiles card, just to be sure (it's in system, she smiles) at 12:48. #9 airport 12:50. On check-in line 12:53, and in by 1:09, reading New Yorker, getting right window in last row, with 21A confirmed to NYC. Through x-ray (belt, watch, and computer in basket) at 1:23. Gate 5 woman says there IS food onboard flight (though she doesn't know what) at 1:28, boarding for 2:25 flight scheduled for 1:55, weather report for mostly cloudless Europe, so here's hoping at 1:38, waiting area filling up, I think I'll go to sudoku to leave interesting New Yorker for flight or boredom. At 1:55 they announce that the flight will be delayed 10 minutes because on the previous flight they had to find and unload a bag of a passenger who never showed up. Board at 2:20 and pee instantly, last row filling up late, but here come Lois and Esther to take the two last seats on the other side. No TV on the flight at all. Announce at 2:37 that it's a 2:30 flight and we'll be in on time after all. Off at 2:44 and I can't find the map at first, but then root around and find it. Wonderfully clear at first: #10 Carpathian Mountains and dam at bottom 2:58. #11 Valley 2:59. #12 mountains 3PM, and I know I'm trying to exhaust my roll, but this is ridiculous, since all the countryside looks so STRANGE. #13 TINY striped farms outside 3:16 just as lunch is served, first a cold barley and corn salad that I'm surprised to read on the bottom is CHICKEN salad, and then a passed pizza rectangle so hot it momentarily burns, ask for red wine AND orange juice, the latter of which I drink quickly because I'm dry (never DID use Vicks on this leg, though I did, with relief, take off my shoes), and the wine's label reveals that it's a Chilean Cabernet/Merlot combination, of all things. Pilot announces we're routed over Budapest and Vienna, which is nice, but clouds start rolling in below and I have no idea where we are even with the map and many rivers winding below, but everything---villages, hills, farms, rivers---is on such a SMALL scale it's hard to keep track of where we are. #14 a BIG city, and though I try to focus down the big river, I can't tell if it's Budapest or not at 3:38. Maybe I can tell by triangulating times on a complete map, since mine ends with Germany and I have no real idea how far Amsterdam is from the edge of my map. #15 another big city, with a big grid-pattern of a palace garden, and I fantasize it might be Vienna, still dim through clouds at 3:52. 3:56 really dense clouds start, and that's essentially the end of anything to watch, so I start reading New Yorker while asking for another glass of water. Guy next to me reads or sleeps, and the clunk on the aisle insists on standing and rummaging in his bag FAR beyond the time the Captain says we're landing and everyone should be seated and belted. Land at 5:09, actually ten minutes early (actually 4:09, since we lost an hour between Romania and Amsterdam, but I don't change my watch yet. At 5:15, maybe I mishear, but the announcement says something about the gate-crew not being ready for us and our disembarkation will be delayed for 45 minutes? Can hardly believe it, and then don't have to believe it, since in a few minutes they announce the doors are opening and we can deplane. Off the very last one because I had to pack away my map and camera and New Yorker and put on my shoes, and get off at 5:25. Told that if we have a boarding pass we just go to gate, but gate F03 seems FOREVER away, slidewalk after slidewalk, each ending with the canned "Mind your step," and I idiotically don't record when I GET there at last, something like 5:50, because all the seats seem to be taken and lots of people are standing around or sitting on the windowsills, and I head toward maybe the only vacant seat (maybe 40 seats for 500 passengers?) and ask if it's taken just as her boyfriend returns, but he offers me his seat and I thank him and take it and type all the way through to 6:08, at which point many people line up to board, which seems equally strange because, at 5:08 here, we don't depart until 6:20, much over an hour away! That's one way to solve the "no seating available in the waiting area" problem, but it seems a strange use of an airplane, unless we're going to leave early and arrive early, which would be marvelous. Really making a lot of typos and backspaces, but it all seems to get done, even though I'm well on my way to filling up ALL the slots, since this is file 6, I'm already well into file 7 after filling up file 8 with dreams, though admittedly file 3 is only scratched with an extra episode to be transcribed into file 2. Line doesn't seem to move, more people sitting down, and I'm tired of typing and get caught up on my notes by 6:13, really 5:13, still over an hour to takeoff, with a baby starting to cry ALREADY. At 6:20 [5:20] boarding announced for business class. Read New Yorker to 6:40 [5:40], line still not ending! Some cute guys aboard! Gotta shit, think to get on line but see that the line winds around three times! Get on line at 7PM [6PM] and at 7:07 all four bottles of my liquor (two flavored brandies, one Tokai, and one tall bottle that I forget) and my one bottle of water are taken from me, despite my arguments that they're CLOSED, and you could buy liquor in the terminal and have it DELIVERED to you! SHIT! Even past the line for the carry-on inspection there's a long line to board, and find that A21 is RIGHT OVER WING! They changed the plane! DOUBLE damn! Pull back 7:25, flight time 7:23. STRUGGLE in cramped space for pills, which for a moment I fear fell out with all the plastic bags emptied when the bottles were STOLEN from my carry-on. Also separate out camera and bags and Vicks and facemask. Captain points out sights I'll never SEE above wing at 7:37. Very hazy out, but quite light so far. Take off at 7:42. This is a 777-200 plane. 7:43 hazy, photos would have been impossible anyway. Sun is still WAY above horizon. #16 pink-topped clouds at 7:47PM. TV control to get to map is MADDENING to 8:01. "Could I get a glass of water?" "They're coming with drinks in just a few minutes." Sure; then he BRINGS it and I take night pills at 8:04, including Valium and Ambien, and eat my falater sandwich. Earplugs in and eyemask on at 8:15. Must doze. Look at watch 10:20PM and map says "out 2:36, 4:10 left," still cloudy and slightly bumpy. Forms passed out at 11:10, and 11:33 I note that lights are on ALL the time. At 11:47 I simply give up; people constantly talking, lights always on. At 12:01 I put on headphones, play games, time passes, I'm numb. Starting down 2:48. Land 3:14AM [8:14PM really]. Off plane 3:38. 3:48 through passport line and to luggage carousel. Get luggage at 3:51, blessedly quick. Pee. Taxi at 3:57 and home at 4:32 for $36. Call Bill Petersen, get message from Sharon, take two night pills and another Ambien at 4:48AM [9:48PM] and bed at 4:59 [9:59PM]. Weigh myself naked at 195 pounds.

SATURDAY, 10/14/06: Wake at 1:52AM and up at 2AM [9AM]. Jerk off with enormous difficulty to 3:55AM real time, and back to bed at 4:02AM, cock WORN! "Zushy" dream at 6:31 and pee. Actualism works, and I dream and up at 8:10AM. Don't do much all day except page through newspapers, work puzzles, have breakfast and lunch ONLY, and call Spartacus, Bill Petersen to pick up papers, and Piri for Games Group tomorrow. Eyes very tired from reading and bed at 10PM, one minute later than last night.

SUNDAY, 10/15/06: Dream and pee at 1:05AM. Pee at 6:23AM and up at 6:45AM to watch sunrise at 7:07AM, quite bright. Finish the Times, including today's, and go through all magazines and start putting small things away, Games Group 1-5:30, telling everyone it's now 12:30 in the morning for me, tired, and stop off at Great Wall for egg foo yung that I have ONE of with pills, so exhausted that I don't even bother trying to stay up and just surrender to bed at 7:35PM.

MONDAY, 10/16/06: 12:05AM dream, unrecorded. 1:35 mympths and pee. 1:46 take Ambien. 4:20AM wake, first time in ages over eight hours, and pee. Jerk off 5:06 to about 6:30 and get into day, finally cleaning up j/o stuff in the afternoon. Read through all the mail, sorting into two piles: discard and "look at," which latter I put as a third pile on the coffee table. Check e-mail, Jontzes saying they got CD but haven't looked at it yet, spend a lot of time with Spider and Sudoku; call Citi to get maximum extended, finally finding at 7PM that it's up to $9000; call Schwab about I401(k), which I can do, and maybe even Roth IRA, more reasonable now that I'm past 70, they'll mail me stuff; call Carolyn to find that Tristan came through operation fine, still working on site. Had one more egg foo yung with yogurt for lunch and made tuna casserole for dinner, which I had while watching the first hour and a half of Casanova, brushing teeth, and getting to bed at 10:10PM, still really tired, taking only a whole melatonin.

TUESDAY, 10/17/06: Pee at 5:07AM, ALMOST seven hours’ SOLID sleep! Up at 5:55AM, Actualism not really working, eager to get into a CLEAR-UP day. Make a trip-wish list of 12 items, go down for the mail to get LAST week's New Yorker, dated yesterday, at last, then notice five helicopters hovering in the sky and see bright red reflected off Manhattan's towers and look out to see FABULOUS redness of sunrise, taking #17 of sunrise-light at 6:58AM and #18 of sun risen at 7:10, planning to finish off this roll and send them all off today, finishing typing this at 7:47AM. Somehow through the day I clear the table of the stuff from the trip except for souvenirs, and put other events into NOTEREPL, where they really belong. I take whole melatonin; bed 10:30.

WEDNESDAY, 10/18/06: Wake at 2:50, 3:25, 4:25, and pee at 4:40. Jerk off 5:20-6:11 in bed VERY WELL! Shit and put stuff away and back to bed at 6:51AM. Start Actualism, get only to Will, and wake at 8:02 with INCREDIBLE dream, which I transcribe for me and Sharon. Breakfast while watching the end of the film, then MUST do something useful, so at 10AM I decide to finish the last roll of film by taking photos of MAPS for the slide shows that don't HAVE them. #19 Budapest, #20 World, #21 Kenya/Tanzania, #22 Germany with Fred in red, but fear it won't be in focus! #23 Morocco with Ken, even more out of focus? #24 Caribbean with a FLASH yet. #25 Madagascar and South Africa, #26 Jugoslavia and Greece, more and more desperate that these won't work out at all, tipping the lamp on the side so the camera isn't tempted to use flash, but they just won't be in FOCUS because they're too SMALL. I'm sweating and terribly uncomfortable, but determined to use up the roll. #27 Ireland, #28 Scotland, #29 Spain, #30 France, #31 Venezuela, but disheartened, so I follow my original idea to use up the roll with shots of the apartment: #32 my stamp collection storage unit, #33 my file-box storage unit, #34 panorama of stuff atop "kitsch" cabinets, #35 panorama of stuff atop "prime souvenirs" cabinets, #36 my balcony view from inside the apartment, #37 new buildings blocking my East River view. Rest of the day is in NOTEREPL. Bed at 10:55, still feeling exhausted from trip.

THURSDAY, 10/19/06: 8:30AM: Pee at 3:30, 4:07 start Actualism and it must work SOME, since I'm up at 6:55 feeling not terribly underslept. DETERMINED that this will be the clear-up day I wanted the last two days to be! File souvenirs, check website, watch TV.

SATURDAY, 10/21/06: 8:22PM: Finish proofreading this whole thing. Now to dinner and TV, then have to isolate photo-list and do summary page and print it all out when as many corrections as possible can be found. Summary FOLLOWS:

BUDAPEST SUMMARY
SUN,10/1: Fly JFK-Amsterdam 11:09PM-11:16AM (6:07, 6 hours' time difference).
MON,10/2: Fly Amsterdam-Budapest 12:44PM-2:15PM (1:31). Hotel Mercure Budapest Korona. Walk streets 4:30-6, dinner at Magyar Etterem Es Sorozo, bed at 8:45PM.
TUE,10/3: Up at 4:05AM. Bus tour 9:30-10:57, climb St. Istvan's tower and to Schatzkammer. St. Matyas's Church for real Crown of St. Stephen. Lunch at Irish Cat Pub. Museum of Hungarian History 3:15-5:30. Bus to Ladik Csardas Folklorecentrum for awful dinner with gabby people. Bed at 10:37, exhausted.
WED,10/4: Up 6:28, breakfast, bus tour 9AM to Caprice diamond shop and Szentendre. Back to taxi to Boscolo Hotel for great New York Cafe lunch. Fine Arts complex for "musical soiree," Ludwig Museum, and dinner. Bed at 9:20PM.
THU,10/5: Up at 7:02, Bus to Holloko, home-lunch, board River Rhapsody at 3:18. Captain's Dinner table at 7, good meal next to Vlad, bed at 9:03.
FRI,10/6: Vukovar, Croatia, 9:30, Ojisek 11:44, local lunch in Aljmas with elderflower. Five-person Croatian combo after dinner, bed at 10:34PM.
SAT,10/7: Novi Sad, Serbia, two marriages, Royal exhibit, wonderful couples and dancers before dinner, dinner, Liar's Contest, bed at 10:15.
SUN,10/8: Belgrade tour, Tito's tomb, Kalemegdan Fortress, zoo, Serbia talk.
MON,10/9: Danube Iron Gates, kitchen tour, Inner Circle party, crew show, bed 9:58.
TUE,10/10: Rousse, Veliko Tornovo, Arbanassi Spider Restaurant lunch, climb to top of Veliko Tornovo, dinner, The Terminal on TV, with Tom Hanks, bed 10:55.
WED,10/11: Canal to Black Sea, Constanta tour: Natural History Museum, Mosque, Mamaia, beach, shopping, critique to Vlad. Dinner, quartet plays, bed 10:28PM.
THU,10/12: Up 5:43AM. Train to Bucharest 9-12:45. Bucharest bus tour of Palace, Manuk's Inn, glass factory, pass MANY museums. Novotel. McMoni's dinner, bed 10.
FRI,10/13: Up 6:09, National Museum of Art 10:20-11:11, bus to airport 12:05-12:50. Fly Bucharest-Amsterdam 2:44-5:09(2:25). Fly Amsterdam-JFK 7:42-8:14(6:32), which is 3:14AM Saturday due to 7-hour time change. Bed 4:59AM (9:59PM local).
SAT,10/14: Up two hours, sleep, up at 8:10AM, starting long jet-lag recovery.