BUDAPEST

You say Buda and I say Pest,
You say Buda and I say Pest.
Buda, Buda. Pest, Pest.
Let's call the calling off off.
Let's call the whole thing off!

There was The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, Ultimatum and Legacy, and we all anxiously await Bourne Again, in which our intrepid hero joins a monastery in Nepal and still, yet, finds no peace. Ah well.

Ahead of them all, I bring you The Bourne to Stay in Tiny Studio Flats in ancient and mysterious European capitals.

This morning at precisely 8:32 a.m., this is what the large clock on the wall said. I thought Kafka was a Czech hero!

Every night at 11:30, after watching a movie on Netflix and eating my microwave popcorn, I leap into bed - literally. It is the only way to get up there.

In my wanderings yesterday, another of those ridiculous coincidences. I stared at this sign in front of a theatre for only a few minutes and then realized why it looked so familiar.

For the guy in the top left corner, think Alan Arkin, for the girl, Audrey Hepburn, and for the handsome guy on the bottom left, Richard Crenna. They were the stars of the movie version of the Frederick Knott ("Dial M for Murder") scary play, "Wait Until Dark." I did the Richard Crenna part at Metro Theatre in Vancouver only 42 years ago!

So much of yesterday was taken up with a visit to the largest synagogue in Europe and easily one of the most beautiful, the Dohany Street Synagogue. 

In the courtyard is the Holocaust Memorial by sculptor Imre Varga, a silver tree of life. 

Step closer and look at the leaves, each engraved with the name of yet another murdered.

As Henry Miller said in one of his great essays, "Remember to remember."

The day comes to a quiet close at the famed Central Kavehaz, where the request for a croissant with butter and jam produces three tiny fresh warm crescents with butter, jam and honey! No wonder this place has been famous for about one and a half centuries.