Happy Birthday to Me (Me, not you!)

Budapest Monday Feb 27 Overcast skies Hi: 5°C/41°F Lo: -1°C/30°F

Thank you to everyone who wished me a "Happy Birthday," yesterday, and a 'shame on you,' to all who forgot 😅. This morning, I am in Budapest; I have a flight out to Istanbul at 15:30/3:30p.m., this afternoon. For the next two weeks I'll be spending time with Lyle & Anna Breaux, from Uptown N'Awlins, in the Beyoglu section of Istanbul, on the European side of the Bosporus. Last October, I spent a week in Istanbul with Mary & Dave. At the time, we had visited all the major sites, and I thought we had seen Istanbul; on my last day in town, I had a couple of hours before catching my train to Bulgaria, so I took one of the harbor tour boats around the Strait that lasted a little over an hour, and boy, was I mistaken: we had seen only a small part of that city. It is huge and we had yet to step foot on the Asian side. So I mean to rectify that on this trip.

The news says that the U.S. is dealing with record cold & snow in the Northern reaches, while the South baked in 80° temperatures(!). In February!?! That doesn't sound right, and it does not bode well for the summer. This was shaping up to be a mild winter in Europe, until the middle of January, when the temps started acting more like winter and it got cold! It will barely reach the 40's today here in Budapest, after a string of mild Spring days in the middle of last week. We were excited, thinking Winter was receding, until it didn't. Istanbul should be in the high 50's, low 60's during our stay the next 12 days. Perfect.

More later.