The weather breaks!

At 2pm today my thermometer was registering a temperature on the balcony as being 41C. At about 4pm the wind started to blow and a summer storm hit, with lightning and heavy rainfall. It is now just after 10pm and the balcony temperature is now only 19.5C. The temperature inside yesterday did not go below 28C all night, making it pretty uncomfortable. The wet street scene above from this afternoon was a very pleasant sight.

Potemkin House in Budapest

The picture above shows a beautiful and well maintained villa in the Zuglo district of Budapest.



Everything is not, however, as it seems. If you look very carefully at this photo you will see why. The villa was replastered and repainted, but only on the wall facing the street. For some reason the sides (and presumably the back) were not touched and are still pretty much unrenovated, they even seem to have the obligatory bullet holes from 1956 or 1945.

More from Vac last week

This is another photo from my trip to Vac last week. It shows a victory arch constructed during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa. Interestingly, the building in the background beyond the arch is Vac Prison, reputedly the highest security prison in Hungary.



Next picture is the main square of Vac, this area has been extensively renovated in the last couple of years and looks rather good nowadays.

My favorite restaurant in Hungary

My favorite restaurant in Hungary is the Vacz Remete in the pretty Danube town of Vac, about 25 minutes north of Budapest on the train. The photos to the left shows the outside seating and below is the front of the restaurant.

Belfast Wall Murals II (Republican)

The images above are some Republican murals. Perhaps it is a sign of the times in Northern Ireland that one of the murals in this set was an advertisement for taxi tours of the other wall murals in this part of the city. These murals show the Irish Republican desire to connect their cause to other conflicts abroad, such as the Palestinians and the Basques.

Belfast Wall Murals I (Loyalist)

No set of pictures of Belfast would be complete without the customary wall murals, or "muriels" as the locals jokingly call them. The images above were taken in the lower Shankill area. The top image is a mural about Oliver Cromwell, a hero in the eys of Loyalists as much as he is a demon in the eyes of Irish nationalists. The bottom image is King William III riding a white horse, the classic loyalist motif. King Billy was probably the original political wall mural theme.

Belfast Welcome Centre

When I was in Belfast yesterday I went to a place called the Belfast Welcome Centre, which is designed to welcome visitors from abroad. I needed to use the toilet and was a little disappointed at the state that it was in, so I took some photos. This does not convey a good image for Northern Ireland.

There was no toilet paper, other than that scattered over the floor. The floor was wet over about a square meter area with who knows what.

Giants Causeway and North Coast

Here are a few pictures of the Giant's Causeway and the North Coast.
The first picture is Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, one of the most beautiful spots on the North Coast. The waters were clear and I got a good view of guillemots fishing underwater, where they swim with their wings like penguins.

The second photo is of the coastline just beyond the Giant's Causeway.