Gerald Hi, I went to Hungary in June, 2007 and have a few suggestions for you. Get some Hungarian Forints in the US before you leave home, at least $100.00 worth of Forints. Then go to a bank to exchange US dollars for Forints. Your hotel might be able to exchange currency for you. If at the end of your trip, you have forints left, the hotel will not re-exchange for US, you will have to go to a bank. Get a currency conversion chart (a cheat sheet) for both Forints and Euro's. The charts can be printed off the inter-net..... This chart helped me to know how much something cost, for instance, my sister ordered a sandwich that looked good. The clerk wanted 1100 forints... My sister nearly had a heart attack until I got out the cheat sheet and showed her it was equal to about $ 6.00 American. The prices are comparable to what you would pay in the US for an item. Try not to use your credit card as the fee's and charge s are outrageous. We took $1000.00 in cash, each, in a "body! safe", and came home with change. We also used our credit cards tho. We were there about 2 weeks. Be very careful of the "Taxi" service. Have your hotel call one for you. The ones on the street are not reputable and charge too much. Shopping in Budapest was easy since most Hungarians in larger towns speak enough English to make transactions. We had no trouble with shopping in Budapest. We went to Hungary with a lady who was from Hungary and translated most everything else. I had the big Hungarian to English and English to Hungarian dictionary with me, but did not use it much. When you go to visit people's homes it is customary to take some sort of gift. It could be flowers, photos, but, we took American Made beach towels since the people we visited had a small swimming pool and admired the towels we had here when they visited the US. Things like that. June, 2007 was a very hot month and only some hotels had air conditioning. We traveled cheap..... get at least a 3 s! tar hot el, and check to see if they have A/C, unless that is not important to you, it was to us. We paid dearly for it. I am very interested in your trip to Gavavencello. My grandmother's maiden name was Juliana Takacs and she was born in Gavavencello in 1884 to Domnic (Zakacs) Takacs and Maria Domanics. The town used to be called Gava until it merged with another small town and became Gavavencello. What are the names of the ancestors you will be visiting in Gava ?? Is it possible we may be related ? I don't know much about my Hungarian ancestors passed my mother really. I never knew my grandmother and no one really kept records of the ancestors so now I have nothing. I was very upset that I had to make that trip (an opportunity arose), without any info and so, did not get anywhere near Gava. Gava is near the Ukraine border. My grandmother made a trip back to Gava in 1910 with 3 children and stayed there for 2 years. They left Hungary through the Ukraine port of Fiume. My mother was one of the kids. She was age 6 at that time. Juliana Takacs married John Toth around 1900-19! 05. My mother Helen was born in New Jersey in 1906. My mother's name was Helen (Ilona) Toth. Anyway, take some of your genealogy work sheets and old photos with you and leave a copy with them. Also take your comcast password. I forgot my papers and my passwords. You may need them for communication. Budapest was fairly high tech and people drove fairly nice cars there. Don't try to drive yourself in the big cities, it is too crazy. There are a few American fast food places there. We registered with the US State Department before we left so that in case of emergency, somebody knew where we were. If you don't have your passport yet, get it now. It takes 6 months or more. Take a cell phone. Your cell phone company can advise you on h ow to make the phone work over there.... I hope I did not freak you out too much, but I wish I had more info before I left home. What airline are you using ? -- Fran [email protected] -- Fran [email protected]