Settled in Budapest

The family is reunited. Spencer left Charlotte at noon, made a connection in Atlanta, arrived in Munich, took light rail from the airport to the train station, purchased a ticket to Budapest, and met Jeremiah at 5:03 p.m. in the train station, having not slept for 30 hours but still amiable and, to Bob and Pam's relief––Jeremiah and Martin have more confidence in their brother to figure out foreign travel––here.

We found a place to stay, also, which was quite a feat considering that the upcoming holiday (here, called Sylvester) has filled up most of the hostels and hotels, which feel free to charge top rate, and although it's not exactly in the center of town, it is near tram lines and a subway stop and, more importantly, a Tesco (Europe's answer to Wal-Mart) where there are aisles and aisles of everything imaginable, including store-brand liquor.

After an uneventful, but somewhat jarring night on the train––traveling through three countries in a night means that one's ticket/passport is checked many times––the day was filled by locating a place to stay and waiting for Spencer to arrive. Once he did, we went to a tourbook restaurant (the kind you "must" eat at) shaped like a barrel, and walked down Adrassy Ut, a ritzy street in the center of town.

Encouraged by Spencer's need to adjust to the time-zone difference, we slept late, and split up for the day, Martin writing this and hanging out in a coffeeshop/bar that shows movies, the kind of place he'd love to be at all day in the States, if such a place existed, and the rest of the family going to museums he visited the last time he was here. Martin also recommends Balkan hip-hop, which he is listening to while writing this thanks to street vendors of bootleg CDs in Sarajevo.