Flying à la carte with Wizz Air

We flew from Budapest to Barcelona return on Hungary’s discount airline Wizz Air.  I think the name was meant to conjure images of speed but I can’t help thinking of urination when I hear it.  With the bankruptcy of Malev Hungarian Airlines in February 2012 (after 66 years of continuous Continue Reading

Climbing in Montserrat

We took a short break from our travels to meet up with our friend Lee who was in Barcelona, Spain on business.  We left the S&M Motel safe and secure in a campground in Budapest, Hungary and arranged for a taxi to pick us up there at 3 AM in Continue Reading

Impressions of Hungary

The Hungarian language is very different from those of its neighbouring countries which speak Slavic languages.  Hungarian is more closely related to Estonian and Finnish which share a common history from when the Huns invaded the region in around 500 CE. The Kingdom of Hungary existed for 950 years before Continue Reading

Impressions of Slovakia

We passed though Slovakia for our 2nd time. We were here last October briefly, visiting Bratislava for 1 day only.  Thankfully we had more time and better weather this visit. Here are some of the things I found interesting… Slovakia is a narrow, landlocked country in Central Europe. It is Continue Reading

Vignette Regret

Today, you get a $60 blog posting.  Others may give you a $20 posting, or perhaps even a $30 posting, but I give you a full $60 posting.  I’m willing to suffer for my art.  How can I be sure what it’s worth? Read on. We were camped at the Continue Reading

Down to our Last Złoty

Many countries in Europe are part of the Eurozone, a monetary union of 17 European Union (EU) member states (a subset of the total number of 27) that have adopted the Euro as their sole legal currency.  Some members of the EU are not members of the Eurozone, including several Continue Reading

Auschwitz III

This is the last of 3 related postings regarding Auschwitz.  The first post is available here and the second here. The last selection took place on October 30, 1944. In September Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS, ordered the crematoria destroyed before the advancing Soviet Army reached the camp. The gas Continue Reading

Auschwitz II–Birkenau

This is the 2nd of 3 related postings regarding Auschwitz.  The first post is available here. As many as 1 million Jews had already been murdered by the Nazis when they made the decision, in January 1942, to systematically kill all the Jews of Europe.  This was described by Hitler as the Continue Reading

Auschwitz

This is the first of 3 related postings about Auschwitz.  The second post focuses on Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and the last post on my experience visiting the memorial. Auschwitz was established as a concentration camp, a place where criminals, political prisoners, academics, dissidents, prisoners of war, Jews, Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, and Continue Reading