Wine, Women, and History (Including Budapest Wine Festival)

Wine, Women, and History (With Budapest Wine Festival) Destination: Budapest, Hungary Tokaj, Hungary Krakow, Poland Date: September 8-19, 2022 Price: $3,800 (based on single occupancy) Sign Me Up! Did you know that Hungary has 22 wine districts scattered throughout six wine regions? The country is only about the size of the state of Indiana. That’s […]
Wine, Women, and History – Tour A

Wine, Women, and History Destination: Budapest, Hungary Tokaj, Hungary Krakow, Poland Date: July 7 – July 18, 2022 Price: $3,800 (based on single occupancy) Sign Me Up! Did you know that Hungary has 22 wine districts scattered throughout six wine regions? The country is only about the size of the state of Indiana. That’s a […]
Speaking English

After an-hour-and-twenty-minutes riding the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from the San Francisco airport to the Oakland airport, I arrive and make my way to security (actually, to the bar; security is just a small obstacle to get there) a pod-like structure catches my eye. I open the door to peek inside and find that […]
It's the Journey

Guilt. I admit it; I have guilt. I’ve not written in a while. Most of it was for good reasons – working on the Drop Me Anywhere book, attending writers’ conferences, pitching agents, leading tours through U.S. national parks, leading more tours to Cuba, pitching articles to magazine editors, getting my taxes done (it’s about […]
A Love Letter

It’s done. Visa on arrival letter received, plane ticket to fly to Delhi, India this Friday and some hotel reservations, more than usual actually. You see, to actually receive the visa when I arrive, I must show my visa application, with attached photo – aah yes, carry extra passport sized photos with you or find […]
The Good, the Bad, and the Köszönöm’s

It’s that time again; time for the last article in this series and, as always, it’s The Good, the Bad, and the Thank-you’s. While I’ll stay in Budapest for a couple more weeks until I leave for the next location you’ve chosen (have you voted? Still a couple more days left), this will be the […]
A Serious Day and a Cabaret

Today I head over to the House of Terror Museum, which, if this were October, would sound like one of those Halloween haunted houses, but this is a museum which has one has been in operation year-round since 2002. It explores the two terror regimes which controlled Hungary for forty-years. I begin walking down Erzsébet […]
The Strong Hand of the Law and the Church

It’s another beautiful day today, so different than the everyday, winter-gloom that I experienced in Germany. But, just as I visited the head of government in Germany, the Reichstag (Parliament building), today I’ll visit the Parliament building here in Hungary. I head over to the Astoria Metro (subway) station and hand my ticket to the […]
The Jewish Quarter

Today I head out to explore my neighborhood. The apartment I’m renting is about two blocks from the Dohány Street Synagogue, the largest synagogue in Europe, and the second largest in the world (Temple Emmanuel in New York is the largest). While I stopped by the Dohány Street Synagogue when I first arrived, it was […]
The Great Escape

When I last left you, Emily and I were going to play an “Escape Game.” After an hour of searching, we finally locate Exit, the Escape Room (we weren’t that far; how will we ever find our way out of the escape room?). E-Exit has two themed escape rooms; one a circus theme and one, […]