Taxi & Town

Taxiiiiii! .... Carriage hailed and off to town John and I go. We're sitting in the back seat, John behind the driver and me, head down, internet searching for the Columbus Jazz Pub on my phone. I happen to glance up and notice vehicles ahead stopped at red lights, John chatting, our 60-something year old taxi driver looking right, out of the passenger window; we're doing about 40 mph and it becomes very clear, very quickly that he has not noticed the red light. This is all now happening very fast; in a slightly louder than talking voice, I say "brake" which has no response as it probably means 'wardrobe' in Hungarian. So "Brake!" again, a little louder this time, still nothing, so at the top of my voice and with the biggest shout, out comes "WHOOOOOOAAA!" ... Driver looks, realises, slams on the anchors, wheels screeching as we bounce over tram lines, cars stop, people stop, we stop, with 4 or 5 feet to go before the double-rear doors of a white van invite us in.
Frankly, I was fine, I guess because I was the only one aware of what was going on but the poor cab driver, well I thought I was going to have to administor CPR; John as smiley and chatty as before, we ended up laughing about it and how both of us had racked up thousands and thousands of miles on considered-dangerous two-wheeled travel without any real problems, yet a short 10 minute taxi ride ... hey, There But The Grace Of God ... Charge On!
After some soft, calm chatting with the less-shaking driver and convincing him that was why he should where his seat-belt, he is happy to continue with his fare and we steadily make our way into town. We pull up outside the pub, pay (hmmm), and as I watch the taxi drive away, I do wonder whether we were his last fare of the day or even the very last fare!

We board the Columbus Jazz Pub, which is a large wooden boat on the Danube, sit at a table on the deck, the evening air is warm, light breeze, sun already telling us that a spectacular setting is on its way; we're hungry, we're thirsty, we scoff, we slurp ... three hours later, we are replete. Excellent!

Unfortunately, what the foreground of this picture doesn't capture (well, it is a phone camera after all), is the dramatically lit buildings in all their glory up against the magnificance of the setting sun. I've said it before but Budapest at night is enchanting and magical; constantly captivating from every angle; a must see.

Back to Biker Camp in the early hours of this morning, where we cork open another and put the whole of humanity and its environment to rights, with solutions and Nobel Prize winning ideas before finally throwing in the towel, as we are now talking in Hungarian!

It's 3.30pm here now and I'm off to meet John (who is sight seeing), for coffee in town, next to the most enormous, meat, fruit and veg market I've ever seen and with produce presented like art in a gallery, in, of course, yet another sensational building. Weather still overcast with the odd very light shower but that hasn't put John off cycling to Serbia tomorrow (amazing) and me riding to Romania.

Ta ta x