Day 65 - Budapest, Hungary

Tremendous city. Perhaps the most beautiful city we have ever been to. The parliament building along the Danube river is absolutely breathtaking. There is a beautiful walking path along the river which allows for great photos of all the architecture. Lovely city.

We had what should have been a train wreck of a day. Let's just say we learned not to play high stakes 3-card Monte the hard way.......I won't let being scammed by a few devilish men ruin our trip to Budapest, this city rocks and I highly recommend it. After the scam, Sue was is in shock. Luckily I have 10 years experience of losing money gambling, so we were able to weather the storm. It really is a great story, so I'm sure it will be told over a few pints down the road. An expensive story.

Now, to the situation in Korea. Firstly, this situation is for real this time. With much of the North Korean posturing and brinkmanship it's easy to just shrug off. This time, we have 46 dead South Korean sailors. It's like if someone smashed the windshield of your car and you have the video evidence, you show the culprit the evidence and they say, 'if you think that is me, I'm going to smash all the windows in all of your cars.' The North Korean leadership is filled with the biggest assholes in the history of assholes. A little retarded bully that accepts aid with further threats of war. I have family and friends living very close to the border and my two brothers in-law are in the South Korean army serving their mandatory two year terms.

Secondly, the situation in North Korea is too intense. The North Korean people are getting poorer and poorer, their leader may be dying of cancer, and they may be quickly losing support from their only ally in China. I don't think there will be a peaceful solution to this mess, but I don't expect South Korea to have any difficulty winning a war. A lot of people slag-off the American troops in Seoul, but how many of them want the Yanks to leave now?

I'm almost hoping for a non-peaceful resolution to this conflict because I think that this whole mess needs to be cleaned up. Sanctions aren't going to improve anything because it will only affect the very poor in North Korea, which is most of the population. Every year that passes without the North Koreans having access to the Internet is another year where they fall further and further behind. I'm not talking about keeping up with friends on Facebook, I'm talking about information and evolving ideas.

Off to Vienna tomorrow, then Bratislava on Monday.

chad