Hi all,
In the time since my original post seeking stories, we took a trip of our own ... to Hungary. Had a couple days to explore the beautiful city of Budapest and took two relatively short trips by train. One was into the plains of eastern Hungary, where we stayed in a spa hotel for 2 nights, and the other a day-trip north to Ezstergom, a small city on the Danube that is the seat of the Catholic Church in Hungary. Weather was lovely, people friendly, food good, and we had a great time.
One minor fly in the ointment was changing planes at Heathrow. We didn't realize that even though we were transferring within the same terminal, we would have to go thru security again, so we ended up having to toss 3 bottles of water we had purchased. Grrrrr. But you learn that costly lesson and you go on. Lines long and the process interesting. Meds and ostomy supplies in the carry-on (I never carry scissors) and pouch on my person not an issue at all. My husband always has to tell the TSA or other agents about his knee replacements so he gets wanded and they often come across his ostomy pouch in that process. He talks to the male agents using some gritty man-to-man language, I guess, and they understand.
Many of the tourist sites have a WC where you pay the attendant a little bit for the blessing of having a facility handy, and get a private (if not always particularly modernized) toilet, running water, flowers in a vase, etc. Varies from place to place of course, but that's part of the joy of traveling.
Here are a couple photos:
1. the "Pest" side of the Danube, taken from the Citadel on the "Buda" side. Our hotel (Hotel Zara) is quite close to the church spire in the center of the photo, which was itself next to the central market where we bought packets of Hungarian paprika as souvenir gifts.
2. In Ezstergom, the domed Basilica and another church.