Election Day Thoughts

As Don and I did during the 2024 election, we left the country. I booked a trip to Central Europe, specifically Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. After our 2024 losses to democracy, I wanted to visit places that survived the Nazis and Communism, and seem to be on the other side. We went on many free walking tours and soaked up knowledge like a couple of sponges. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be blogging about those tours over on PillsburyTravels.Blogspot.com. This post is about how I feel post election.

The election took place a week ago. We went to sleep in Vienna as the polls were closing on the East Coast. Having voted, protested, wrote FB posts encouraging one and all to vote, had a yard sign reminding people to vote, and wrote postcards, I felt there was nothing left for me to do but wait.

When Don woke up around 3 am (9 am East Coast time) he did not see any results.

When I woke at 6 am (midnight) the results were a definitive blue wave, perhaps even a blue TSUNAMI! 

An immediate weight was lifted. Elon could spend nearly half a billion dollars to ensure Texas remained red, and yet the voters had other ideas and flipped just about the entire state. It felt like what we had learned in Hungary when the people spoke and ousted Orban. What was repeated in Brazil the week earlier. What seems to be happening globally. People are tired of only a few people benefitting from policies. They want a piece of the pie, too.

Seeing the variety of voices joining the House and Senate, plus governorships, and state houses, I am so excited about the future of our nation. Maybe now we can scrap the electoral college, have universal healthcare, tax the super wealthy (if Elon can afford to spend half a billion dollars on the election, he has money to spend on taxes), abolish ICE, hold people accountable, restore USAID, restore SNAP benefits, increase social security, increase funding for cancer research, support veterans, help ordinary people, ERA, voting rights, get rid of Citizens United...the sky is the limit. We might even be able to end the war in Iran and have money for all of this to happen.   

I wish during our trip I talked to a wider variety of people. On our last day as our Uber driver was taking us to the airport he commented how happy he was for us that our election went the way it did. 

You and me, both, driver. 

Meanwhile, the person who is responsible for Don and I meeting posts angry faces whenever I say I am pleased with the election. Another friend, still MAGA, cuts and pastes her party's rhetoric. We have far to go. With this sweeping election, though, we have a chance to make some positive changes. I wish they realized they too benefit from these changes in ways that they never benefited during the past two years of negative policies.

 

Countries Visited

Because this comes up in conversation every so often, thought I would create an official list of countries I have been to so far. Since crossing the International Date Line I've wanted to cross the equator (open for suggestions). I'd also like to go to Africa.

(Written in 2017, updated 2023 and 2026)

1. Canada
2. Iceland
3. England
4. France
5. Belgium
6. Luxembourg
7. Switzerland
8. East Germany (visited while separated)
9. West Germany (visited while separated)
10. Germany (visited post reunification)
11. Holland/Netherlands
12. Portugal
13. Italy
14. Vatican City
15. Japan
16. Cuba
17. Mexico
18. Denmark
19. Estonia
20. Russia
21. Sweden
22. Finland
23. Israel
24. Palestine (from Jerusalem into Bethlehem)
25. Spain 
26. New Zealand
27. Australia
28. Norway
29. Peru
30. Hungary
31. Austria
32. Slovakia
33. Czech Republic

Central European Travels By the Numbers

From October 26-November 9, 2026 Don and I travelled added four more countries to my list of countries I have visited: Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. When I realized Slovakia was a mere hour away from Vienna, that became a bonus country added.

Our vacation by the numbers:

2 LEGO museums

2 tours of Parliament

2 restaurants named Einstein, plus one visited by Einstein

3 US Embassies spotted

3 different currencies (four if you count our layover in Denmark)

4 flights

4 hotel rooms (3 hotels)

4 LEGO stores

4 Thermal Spas

?? Churches visited

6 train rides

?? Free Walking tours

16.3 average number of flights of stairs each day

3,000+ photos taken

22,892 average number of steps each day

I'll try tom come up with some other stats as I write blog posts. May we both enjoy the ride.

Budapest Day 2: Margaret Island Fountain Show

A free thing I was looking forward to doing was seeing the fountains dance to music on Margaret Island. Once again we weighed taking mass transit with walking, and opted to walk.

The fountains put on a show every hour from 10 am to 10 pm through October 31. There is a different show every hour. Some are geared towards families with small children, at six pm there is a block of songs about Budapest, and the nine pm show is the most elaborate.

We arrived in time to catch the last ten minutes of the seven pm show, and stayed for the eight pm one. In between we found a Budapest sign, perfect for tourists posing for a picture.

We walked around the island, but as it seemed deserted for the season we walked back to the fountain to wait for the 8 pm show. Had we walked a little further we would have found something else on my list: Lumina Park. 

This site says the fountains would be closed from October 1, 2026 until May 2027, so we got lucky.

The schedule (in Hungarian) was:

19:00 óra ifj. 

Johann Strauss: Kék Duna keringő Brahms: Magyar táncok - 1. tétel Coldplay: Paradise Avicii: Addicted To You Michael Bublé: Feeling Good Johann Strauss: Radetzky induló Bizet: Carmen-Habanera Justin Timberlake: Can't Stop The Feeling Ed Sheeran: Shape Of You 

20:00 óra 

Guns N' Roses: Sweet Child O' Mine Paddy and the Rats: Pilgrim on the Road Johann Strauss: Radetzky induló ifj. Johann Strauss: Kék Duna keringő George Ezra: Budapest Herman's Hermits: No Milk Today Liszt: Liebestraum Mozart: Kis éji zene

As you can surmise, a wide variety of music from Mozart to Guns N' Roses! After the 4:30 sunset, sitting by the fountain felt cold.

We found dinner at an Asian restaurant before checking into room number 2 -- the one with the sloping ceiling and head to toe beds. 

Budapest Day 2: Lukacs Thermal Bath

One of the highlights of going to Budapest is visiting thermal baths. They have at least a half dozen. We made it to three. Gellert is closed for renovations until 2028. Rudas Baths were sold out. 

Lukacs Bath was only open until 7 pm. It was located about a 30 minute walk from The House of Houdini, with a similar ETA if we took mass transit. We opted to walk, passing people walking their dogs and other signs we had left the tourist district. By the time we found the place (it seems to be tucked into a campus of some sort), we only had forty minutes to enjoy it. Fortunately it is half price for the last two hours, which likely contributed to the crowds.

There was a bit of a learning curve simply trying to figure out where to get changed. The initial room was clearly co-ed. I popped in the tiny bathroom to change. We then tossed our clothes into a joint locker. In hindsight, I should have grabbed my own locker as that added to the chaos at the end. We also should not have taken the first available one and went deeper to find one not next to a doorway.

There is an outdoor lap pool that looked stunning, but was empty. I'm sure it was cooler.

We toggled between a few indoor thermal baths under domed ceilings, inside brick rooms that resembled ovens. I wish I took my phone inside to snap a few pictures.

The place was covered in tiles. There was one sauna that was too crowded for me to join. The circular tub under the tiled dome was my favorite spot. I was not alone, as it was fairly crowded. I think that one was 38 degrees C. They ranged from 30-38 degrees, with one colder that was pretty empty.

Seems to be a favorite spot with locals. I did not hear any English. As we were leaving an Asian woman struck up a conversation with me. I was distracted trying to sort my clothes from Don's as the thermal baths were closing. The gist of it was she prefers these baths to other, more touristic, ones and travels here several times a year.  I could see why. Even after only 40 minutes, it was still quite relaxing.

There are the changing rooms!
The stone structure is the back of one of the baths.

Love it when things are in multiple languages

Budapest Day 2: Between Tours Visiting a Ruin Bar

We left Bulak's tour and wandered around looking for lunch. We had noticed the long line around Mama Goulash and decided to give it a try. They have two locations around the corner from each other, each with a 20 minute line. The food was good, and reasonably priced. The atmosphere was a bit eclectic with a variety of literal doors hanging on the ceiling. The only drawback was that the sink in the Ladies' Room was broken, directing us to the Men's Room sink, immediately next to a urinal in constant use. Ahh...we are not back in Kansas.

After lunch we returned to the most famous Ruin Bar, Szimpla Kart. Szimpla Kart is a romkocsma, or simple garden. They started as places for locals to get cheap drink in a relaxed enviroment, and have become major tourist attractions. The walls are adorned with a mishmash of items found leftover from when the Jews were forced out of Budapest. The place had been in ruins (hence the name) for decades before it was brought back to life. 

I went anticipating seeing the abandoned items given a new life. I was not expecting the blinding amount of graffiti. It was hard to know where to look. On the one hand, I am glad we went when they opened at 3 pm, we were with other tourists only interested in a look-see, and not interested in getting a drink. Yes, some were drinking, but the norm were people like us taking selfies and being assaulted by the two floors of uncoordinated color.

Here are some pictures from the inside:

It was a beautiful afternoon (just look at that sky!) so we walked to the Houdini Museum. Halloween would be Harry Houdini's 100th birthday, and the museum was planning to be closed to celebrate for three days. We were able to join their last tour on October 28th. We had tried to go on a tour the night before, but missed it by ten minutes. As Don said, we were too tired to appreciate it.