William Penn Life, 2010 (45. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2010-11-01 / 11. szám
Branching Out with Endre Csornán Over the next few months, I will be filling this space with my recollections of the WPA 2010 Tour to Hungary. As with any such trip, we hit a few bumps in the road, but, in the end, everyone in our group returned with many fond memories of our time spent together. You will notice that I begin my "diary" with the second day. Let's just say that, on Day 1, some of us hit one of those "bumps in the road"—actually, it was more like a road block. To make a long story short, five of us leaving from Pittsburgh were delayed getting to New York. Our original flight out of Pittsburgh was not permitted to land in New York, and we could not get a flight until the next day. That meant we missed our connecting flight to Europe. So, therefore, we start with... Day 2 We finally arrived in Budapest. We were greeted at the Ferihegy Airport by our Hungarian tour guide, Andrea, and immediately transferred to Lake Balaton to join the groups from Cleveland and Detroit. This year, a total of 22 travelers from various states joined the WPA 2010 Tour to Hungary. At Lake Balaton, we boarded a 35-passenger, air conditioned bus to travel to Croatia. Unfortunately, at the border we were treated by the Hungarian border guards as undesired foreigners. The trip to Opatija, which is located on Croatia's Istria Peninsula, was enjoyable but long. We counted nearly two dozen tunnels through the picturesque Ucka Mountains. It was late at night when we checked into the Milenij Grand Hotel 4. Opatija is an elegant tourist destination, the center of the Riviera, with the longest tourist tradition in Croatia that stretches back 160 years. Day 3 The next morning, we departed by a large boat for an excursion along the Opatija Riviera and the Kvarner Bay to see the panoramic view of Lovran, Volosko, Rijeka and other places along the Riviera coastline where we enjoyed a pleasant lunch at a local Croatian restaurant. Day 4 After breakfast in the hotel, we departed for a bus tour on the Istria Peninsula, which is Croatia's largest peninsula with lovely and varieci inland areas. We visited Pula with its 2,000-year-old amphitheater and the Temple of Augustus. We also visited the town of Porec and the Euphrasian Basilica, which dates to the Byzantine times. Here, most of us did some shopping as well as tasted some Istizian food and wine. 4 0 November 2010 0 William Penn Life
