what could orange crocs possibly mean?

they mean i'm hanging out with my pal batalz...

philly's got balls...

lots of them! yesterday, mike and i went to philadelphia to see the galileo exhibit at the franklin institute, and when we stepped out of the museum, what did we see? balls! lots and lots of balls! and boobies and wieners and girls' hoo-hoos! not everyone was naked or even half-naked...some people were painted, some were in undies, many were wearing backpacks and helmets, and some were covered in human fur. unfortunately, they were riding by so fast, i couldn't get the best pictures with my cheap camera.
we decided to jump in the car and follow them for more pictures, because we're...ummm...creepy? no, but...well, wouldn't you?
we also witnessed a mild hit-and-run during the event, as a car tried to force its way through the crowd of bikes.

we don't think anyone was hurt, but it was amusing to watch a naked guy talk to the police in all seriousness...
since i couldn't take the best pictures, i attempted to record these nudists. that didn't come out so well either, but you'll get the idea...

if you're wondering, as i was, why people were doing this, here are the list of reasons i found:

• We ride to PROMOTE CYCLING ADVOCACY.
• We ride to RAISE AWARENESS about FUEL CONSUMPTION and the environmental impact of car culture.
• We ride to PROMOTE POSITIVE BODY IMAGE.
• We ride to PROMOTE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY as a way of life and a corporate responsibility.

(borrowed from http://phillynakedbikeride.org/about.html)

el centro: where the sun spends the winter

el centro (fondly called hell centro), california is the place i grew up. it's about 120 miles east of san diego in a desert 50 feet below sea level. according to an article written in january 2009, el centro has the second highest unemployment rate in all the united states - second only to yuma, arizona. el centro's claim to fame is - are you ready? - cher. that is correct. cher was born in el centro, so suck it all you jealous people.

besides cher, the imperial valley is also home to some very delicious treats. first and foremost is something called the special quesadilla. it's really just a fried tortilla stuffed with cheese, but i haven't been able to find this anywhere else in the united states. look how happy mike is digging in at christmastime last year.

next on the list is a delightful drink, which is actually non-alcoholic. although, from the rest of this blog, you may not believe it. here is the chili mango raspado, which i've found in other parts of the world, but they're never as good as this one from cuchi's.
something else i had during my most recent trip home was this chili-covered apple.

unfortunately, it was a little too salty for my taste, but my nephew seemed to enjoy it.
that's tristan sitting in the lavender bedroom i grew up in. i bet you like the wallpaper.

the other mexican food i miss from california is the fatty fried fish taco with a side of rice and refried beans probably cooked with lard...mmmm...

and finally, during my august trip, i kidnapped a small thing, so i wouldn't have to have one myself.

but then i gave her back. the dog's name is barney in honour of the real barney in my life...

don't take my picture, you beeznatch!

i'm home, but i've found reasons to continue this amaaaaaaaaaazing blog. as i was looking through the ten thousand pictures i took on this trip, i realized how many hungarians i had pissed off over the course of three weeks...zooming in on my photos, i found these people giving me the stink-eye...
those three weren't as offended by my tourist behaviour as these few, though...
noticing a pattern, i discovered that people really get mad when you take pictures of them while they eat...this guy was in pécs... but these people were trying to enjoy their lives with drinks and a meal at the lake balaton wine sellers (not cellars) before i came along and ruined their lives...
back in budapest, i really thought i did a number on this kid...
but then i read his mom's purse and realized why he was so upset...
and finally, i don't know what this guy's problem is, but he needs to get over himself...

Too. Many. Things. To. Write. About.

behind behind behind! and I’m flying home sunday!

here’s the short of it after lake balaton: we drove south, then east, then northwest…first to pécs, which was a tad under construction.

the best part of my day was finding a collection of locks across the street from some university.

those of you who can read hungarian may find some humour in this close-up.

after pécs, where we didn’t even have time to spend the night, we passed through mohacs ‘til we got to szeged. there, we watched some movie we didn’t understand about a kid named öcsi who seemed to be having a lot of dreams (we think).

it was a fun city, slightly seedier than the rest we visited, with prostitutes greeting us on the drive into town…in the center, though, szeged was cleaned up and proper like this…(mike wouldn’t let me take pictures of the hot street girls.)

we also agree that szeged is probably home to the best bakeries in the country, but mike has dibs on our pictures of foodstuffs…speaking of food, however, we visited the pick salami and paprika museum where we got to taste some of the famous salami. after swallowing a bite of the tasty meat, we got to read about the salami-making process.

i like to think i would’ve been one of the groping women, but i can only dream. in the museum we also saw lots of pictures that made us very hungry.

not satisfied with that experience, we visited a nearby pick market. for some reason, we didn’t buy anything, although I wanted to try the famous winter salami (called téliszalami) encased in horse intestine.

after our first day and a half of szeged, we drove drove drove across the border to subotica, serbia (sorry, dorina…it was mike’s idea) where we saw markets that looked like this, chock full with hungarians and paprika.

so much paprika that people were buying it by the sackful.

we left Serbia…

…spent another half-day in szeged, and then drove through kecskemét to get back to budapest where we picked up my brother aaron (yes, i have one) at the airport.

hard to believe he’s al’s age, isn’t it? i could’ve chosen a more embarrassing picture of him, but he has young children i don’t want to scare.

and finally…finally…i saw sam!! sam (better known as spam) who I haven’t seen in ten years, spotted me walking down the street with mike and aaron, so we met up at a cafe, and he told me all about the people we used to know who either own four-star hotels now or who went to jail (including mozes aron…eeee hee hee)

boldog szent istvan napot!!

hungarians sure like to get wet...

we visited a few places around the hungarian sea, lake balaton, but i think balatonfüred on the northeastern shore was my favourite.

this place is s’posed to attract older people, because there’s a heart hospital nearby...go figure...

swimming in the lake is like swimming in a gigantic, shallow, calm swimming pool. there’s no sand like at the beach but, instead, there’s soft green grass and trees everywhere…not to mention the appealing eye candy.

there were also loads of places like this where we bought fattening food mike will discuss in detail later.

oh, and then there were these things…gross...they were not fattening enough for us to eat.

the town of kesthely to the far west was mostly nice for its flowers...

but nearby héviz was nice for its warm-water lake that was so deep we had to rent inner tubes...

these waters are s’posed to be good for gynecological healing…maybe students going into that field, or perhaps midwifery, should look into the benefits of geology on the female bits.

the area around the 78 km-long lake is rather nice, too, although I’m not sure if it’s necessarily physically healing or not...

lastly, if you ever decide to come here, you should probably watch out...