From the Santorini wall painting exhibition.

Santorini was destroyed by an earthquake in the 50s, and people dug into the caves to survive. I think these are some of them.

This is what it looks like coming off a ferry on any of the Greek islands. All these people want you to stay in their rooms. Most of them want to try very hard to make you pay way too much. This scene is actually much calmer than on some of the islands, where they will come right up to you and harass you relentlessly.

Some shots from the Irakleon archeology museum in Crete.

From an airplane information card on how to get out of the plane in case of a crash. I only hope that in the case of a horrible crash, I can jump out of the plane with the same panache.

The Budapest opera house is incredibly ornate. They really love gold leaf, and it gives the place a surreal glow. You can probably guess, a camera doesn't do any justice to these enormous buildings.

We bought tickets for the night's performance without even knowing what it was. Turned out to be Tchaikovski's Eugene Onegin ballet, and it was fantastic! We were both crying, it was so moving.

Saint Steven's basilica in Budapest is the most ornate thing I have ever seen. So much gold. People apparently forget to close the door in the evening, too. It would be a shame if someone came in and stole Saint Steven's thousand year old mumified hand, which is on display in the back in a little hand-cathedral. I thought I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the hand, or I would have a shot of the shriveled thing for you. The hand guard looked very mean, and there are an awful lot of places that don't allow photographs in Europe, so I just kind of assumed it wasn't allowed. Then I heard an account from a fellow traveler about their hand viewing. When they were there, it was just as a horde of stereotypical Japanese tourists arrived. Now, as I said before, the hand is in a little hand-cathedral. It's like a doll-house cathedral built to hold the hand. It's a relic you see. So anyhow, you don't just waltz right in and look at the hand. Being a good church-goer, you first deposit some coins into the clinky metal church box. Then the hand-cathedral light comes on and you see the hand in all its shriveled glory for three minutes. So the Japanese didn't understand this of course, as the sign is written in Magyar, so they were all in a huge group admiring the hand cathedral without being able to see the hand. A local then stepped up to pay the hand lighting fee. A gasp swept the group, all eyes bulged, and all jaws dropped. The shock quickly wore off, however, and the room became a blinding attack of flashes. That is when my source for this story fled the room without even taking a shot.

I think "the hand" would be a good scary tale to tell children. After a Friday night mass you take them to see the real hand and say: "Don't be naughty, the hand of Saint Steven comes out once a year to strangle naughty children!"