Arrival in Budapest

View from the Marriott concierge lounge towards of the Chain Bridge over the Danube and St Matthias (on Castle Hill on the Buda Side) 

We made it to Budapest - I'll have more details on our guide and driver on my more comprehensive "after" blog, but we had arranged with our Budapest Guide Magdi Pelech to have her driver pick us up at the airport at 7:15 PM (that's 19:15 for the military types and folks in Europe!)  At 35 euros for the transfer, it's more costly than a group transfer or the local bus, but possibly less than a taxi, because you could get one that doesn't treat you right. And after a long day in the unfriendly skies, there is nothing like seeing someone waiting for you at the airport with your name on a placard! Arranging a transfer for our first night in a place is one of those splurges well worth it. 

Our trip from the airport, along the Pest side of the Danube at night was a beautiful introduction to Budapest, and we could see the river cruise ships heading out of port and doing their "drive-bys" of the monuments at night. We saw ARosa, Viking, Grand Circle River Ships, and we weren't even looking that hard! We also saw the party cruises and night site seeing cruises traveling up and down the river. One can see why the river ship lines start or end many of their cruises here, it is really lovely and scenic!

A view to Elizabeth Bridge from our room at the Marriott

Our room is on the top floor concierge level (making all those stays in anonymous Residence Inns in college towns all over the New England and NY worth the effort for the free upgrade and access to the concierge lounge with included breakfast and snacks! We stopped in tonight for a late snack and a quick look at the panoramic view from the lounge. 

Tomorrow we meet Jeff's sister and BIL, K&N for a full day of touring with Magdi Pelech and the driver we met this evening! 

13 Words You Do Not Want To Hear Immediately After Takeoff

Sitting over the wing over Istanbul

"If there is a doctor onboard, please identify yourself to a flight attendant" 

Ah, The joys of air travel in economy. I promise I'm not going to make this a negative blog, just to get laughs, (and not just because there is no laughing permitted in economy) but when it comes to flying these days, there is not a lot of positive. 

One positive is we are directed to the TSA precheck line at the airport (despite the fact that we have not yet signed up for pre check) but it's a busy Friday night and they are trying to move things along. It's like hitting the TSA jackpot; Congratulations! You've been selected for pre check - you get to preserve your dignity and you can keep your belt, coat, underpants and any metal replacement parts on! As an added bonus you don't have to unpack your private toiletries, (this is my denture cream, preparation H...) or (new this year!) fire up all your electronics. And special tonight- you can even keep your shoes on! 

Our luck continues, here in the terminal building, it's crowded but we find a couple of those little shoe shine chairs with foot rests to sit in when most of the other flights board leaving just Turkish Air and Emirates to leave after 11 PM. I think it's a bad idea, being comfortable in the terminal so close to a flight in economy; better to have the memory of comfort be a distant thing before boarding. 

But given we've booked economy tickets, our luck cannot hold out. We've just boarded, the Turkish airlines airbus is turquoise colorful. The very first sight we see is a chef in a torque - we know immediately that he has nothing whatsoever to do with anything that will be served in our cabin! We arrive at 17a and b; the space between rows gets stunningly smaller every time we fly, but at least we've got two seats together, window and aisle with no one next to us. Of course the people in front of us can recline into our laps so low we could do dental work on them. Watching my 6 for 6 inch husband attempt to arrange himself in this space is a little heartbreaking and I vow to pay for business class for the next flight longer than 6 hours, even though it kills me to spend thousands for a few inches of recline and leg room.  (Having just completed the flight, Jeff admits it's never as bad as it first seems, call it Stockholm syndrome)

In addition to trying to stow our carry on gear and arrange our travel comfort items, we've got to contend with the rubble of amenities meant to appease any seat discomfort; look there's a pillow! a blanket!  (all plastic wrapped and hopefully sanitized) a pair of cozy slippers! a cute bag with lip balm! toothpaste! ear plugs! eye shades! 

Is there a soul back here in steerage who wouldn't trade it all for a few more inches? "Alex, I'll take 6 more inches of leg room for a toothbrushe and lip balm please" 

Poor Jeff- knees to seat! 

We settle in and finally take off just about on time. We've got a tiight connection when we get to Istanbul - 1 hour and 45 minutes to make the last flight out to Budapest, so when I hear the announcement for a doctor, I can't help but panic. Of course, I hope the afflicted person is ok, but as I watch the two doctors who volunteered (a tall young African American man and a short middle age white man) consult in the aisle about whose specialty best matches the offending body part of the affected person, I can't help but worry our travel plans may be dashed! I see them hustle up to business class (what does it say about our own economy that the doctors are all sitting in economy? Remember when doctors were the rich guys?) and I worry that any moment the captain will come on explaining that we must return to Boston because someone is ill. I begin to dread each "bong" worried it will bring the dreaded announcement. Luckily, after an hour or so the announcement doesn't come. And I stop panicking every time I hear a bong ( and what is with those bongs? What do they mean, why must they go off randomly every 7 or 12 minutes startling everyone out of a sound sleep? No one knows what they mean or why they happen, but we all ignore them like a car alarm in a parking lot) 

But despite sitting on tenterhooks, no announcement comes. I'm Thankful that the podiatrist  or immunologist, or pathologist, or whatever specialty the vacationing doctors have they was able to distinguish between a panic attack and a hear attack,  or a leg cramp and a blood clot and not only is everything all right with the patient, but we will make our connection! 

And look! The guy in the torque is coming down the aisle, asking "pasta or fish"? 

Maybe there is hope for us in economy after all! 

Our plane was parked next to this one in the "plane parking lot" that stood in for gates in Istanbul.

What camera gear am I bringing?

Jeff here, for the non-photo types this post may be a bit techie.  No offense taken if you bailout now. 

So while I can select and pack my clothes in a few hours, selecting which camera gear to bring on a trip is a much longer process.  A few months before the trip, I’ll go on photo outings to see if I’ll be happy with what I plan to bring.  Now here’s the deal, you need to bring only “exactly” what you’ll need.  Too little and you’ll curse yourself on the trip for not taking what you needed, too much and you’ll curse yourself after the trip for hauling around all that extra weight.  In an effort to reduce the size and weight, I've tried smaller mirrorless systems, but frankly I've never warmed to them and have gone back to taking a DSLR (guess I’m just old-school).

The Kit

Here’s what I selected for this trip.  Given the location, I needed a camera body that didn’t look too professional, but at the same time, I also needed one that worked well in low light conditions as I’ll shooting during the evening hours in the cities and inside building.  With that in mind, I’ve selected the Nikon Df.  While the Df is a high-end camera, the retro looks (lots of dials) and two tone silver/black look make it appear older.  Now while the experienced camera thief will know the difference, the grab and run types are more likely to snatch a soccer moms entry level DSLR before mine.  The Df is excellent travel camera.  The images are fantastic, it’s great in low light and the file size is reasonable (which makes processing later much faster).

The Df

For lenses I’ll be taking the Nikon 16-35 f/4 VR and the Nikon 24-120 f/4 VR.  The latter will be the workhorse lens, while the former (wide angle) lens will come in handy for architecture and interior shots.  Both lenses are fairly fast (meaning they have a larger apertures which will let in more light in any given situation) and both have Vibration Reduction (or VR) which stabilizes the lens when handholding the camera (which I’ll be doing all the time as I’m not bringing a tripod) at slower shutter speeds.

Unfortunately I couldn't leave well enough alone, and at the last minute I added two other lenses that will stay behind most days.  First is a Nikon 50 f/1.8.  This is a very small, very fast lens that I’ll use mostly in the evenings.  Next is the Nikon 28-300 VR.  This is a “do-it-all” lens that will mostly be for backup, but I see using it while we cruise during the day, as it’s a much longer telephoto lens.

Now I know what I said above about mirrorless cameras, but I am taking a specialty one along – my Nikon 1 AW1.  The AW1 is a waterproof, crushproof camera.  If something happens to the Df, the AW1 is the understudy.  If there’s ever a day that a total washout, the AW1 will be there for me and if we visit one of the public bathes, the AW1 is all over that too. 

While for some this may seem like a lot, you can trust me when I tell you I took far, far more to Africa and the Galapagos J, and since photography is part of the travel fun for me, I tend to bring more that you really need for documenting your trip.  An iPhone can do that just fine.  I’ll report how things worked out after the trip.