Arrival in Budapest

We flew KLM from Houston to Amsterdam, and Air Malev (KLM partner) to Budapest. The flight was as comfortable as 13 hours in coach can be, and completed without remark.

Our first contact with Budapest was quite favorable. The airport is comfortingly modern, efficient, and secure.
A polite taxi driver dropped us at our hotel, the Leo Panzio, centrally located on the Pest side of the Danube. Fairly modern rooms situated in an old building. The rickety open-cage elevator welcomes the guest on entry with a loud crack and a jolting drop of an inch, a most satisfying frisson.

We celebrated arrival in a nearby restaurant/beer-hall with cream of asparagus soup, gundel pancakes, cottage cheese dumplings, and Austrian beer. On leaving the restaurant we were arrested by an elderly Hungarian lady, well and expensively dressed, who informed us that her family had at one time owned most of the commercial buildings along the street. She claimed current residence in Miami and Palm Springs, and assured us (repeatedly) that she was a "lady of means". Not releasing us, she commandeered a prominent table in the restaurant and proceeded to write out with painfully slow but clear script the particulars of her life, addresses, personal references, and friends in the United States. She seemed to be urgently trying to establish her place and her significance. Why this Magyar ancient mariner latched onto two jet-lagged travelers to hear her tale was never explained. Perhaps a local "character", a victim of terminal nostalgia bordering on dementia. We extricated ourselves with difficulty and left, she to her memories and we with our first mystery of the east.