Budapest

It is beautiful weather in Budapest (which today I learnt is pronounced budapesHt). The sun is shining and it is is a warm 29 degrees. I had to opportunity today to work on my muscles ( and work off all the lovely food we have been eating). We went on a tour of Budapest and pushed grandma around bits of Buda in the wheel chair. There are lots of cobblestones, we could start a milkshake buisness by puting a glass of milk with flavouring in her lap at the beginning and taking out a milkshake at the end.

Grandma stayed on the bus in Pest where we went to the hungarian opera house as it had too many steps. Grandad seemed to like the opera house, he kept saying to me he had been to the opera house before. At the beginning of the tour he was saying he had been there once before, then twice, then four or five times. But by the end of the tour he was trying to convince me he had been there 40 times before.

Grandad is very concerned with grandma's lack of mobility and tries to suggest solutions. His suggestion today was that we attach a colapsable stick to her belly button, when she wants to get up all she would need to do is lean forward and press the button, the pole would help her to lift herself up! Lol!

There are so many lovely people in the world, everyone seems to go out of their way to help me move my two elderly grandrentals around. From the cruise director chopper, to the crew, to other passengers aboard the silver hair ship, to random strangers we meet on the street!

Our boat the amadiago

Today, I had free time in the arvo while the grandrentals were resting so I tried my hand at kamikaze bike riding. If you have never heard of this sport let me fill you in. Kamikaze bike riding has 4 rules:

Rule number 1- kamikaze bike riding must take place in a foreign non english speaking country where they drive on the other side of the road. An important subsection to rule 1 is that participants must not know their left from their right. This adds some extra excitement to the sport. Kamikaze bike riders get confused as to which side of the path they should be riding on and need to constantly swerve to avoid other bike riders and pedestrians. They also get confused when crossing roads as they have no idea which direction cars will be coming from. This gives the kamikaze bike rider an adrenalin rush when they manage to avoid being hit by a car.

Rule number 2- Kamikaze bike riders must not have a sense of direction. They must ride off on a bike path in a strange country, with out a map (although it probably would not help any way if they did have it). To over come this rule kamikaze hike riders are allowed to follow the bike rider in front of them, however problems tend to occur when the bike rider in front of the kamikaze bike rider speeds off into the distance.

Rule number 3- kamikaze bike riders must ride a strange bike. They may adjust the very tall seat so they can sit on the bike. This results in the kamikaze bike rider needing to adjust the handle bars as well. This also causes problems especially if the kamikaze bike rider is unable to click the lever back in properly, and so rides off with a wobbly handle.

However all these rules do not make for kamikaze bike riding. In kamikaze bike riding the bike rider needs to follow the all important rule number 4!

Rule number 4- the kamikaze bike rider must feel smug and cocky that they have overcome the challenges of rules 1 to 3. This is where the kamikaze part comes in. The kamikaze bike rider decides to add some extra speed, stands up to give that bit more power while crossing the road, swerves to avoid a other bike rider coming from the opposite direction, the loose handle bar spins and the kamikaze bike rider completes a spectacular stack; complete with bruises, cuts and a lump to the knee (I am sure i will feel the effects of my kamikaze bike riding experience tomorrow when I am pushing grandma around Bratislava).

If you are interested in joining the kamikaze bike riders association just let me know as I am currently the only member.