Budapest, Hungary

The day after school ended for the kids, we took a trip to Budapest Hungary.  It was a great city and a really fun trip.
We flew from Zurich and arrived in Budapest on Friday afternoon.  We stayed at Central Passage apartments, which was a really central location on the Pest side of the city.  After checking into our apartment, we set out for the Szechenyi baths - thermal baths located in the city park!  There are lots of thermal baths in the city, such an old and beautiful setting.  We all had such a great time!  There were several different pools of varying temperatures, but all comfortably warm (to very hot!).  Our favorite part was the whirlpool that pushed you around in a circle.

On Saturday morning we took a tour on the Riverride, a bus that also goes into the river.  So, after touring around the city and seeing the major sites, the bus drove down the ramp and right into the Danube!  Dave and I had been on the Duck Tours in Boston, but that was a military amphibious vehicle.  This was a coach bus!  It was a fun experience.  On the river, we went right past the Hungarian Parliament building, which is 4 meters longer than Westminster in London, and very beautiful right on the river.  We also saw the Buda part of town, and the Royal Castle up on the hill.

After the tour we walked across Chain bridge and took the funicular up the hill to the castle.  After eating lunch near the castle, we walked around Buda.  This is the oldest part of the city and is really fun to see.  Along the way we picked up a Hungarian dress for Meredith and soccer kits for Nathan and Will.  We also tried a the Hungarian funnel cakes for the first time!  We then made our way to the Buda Castle Caves.  What an experience!  These are extensive caves underground, and you really can get lost.  It's dark and a bit wet - but also very cool.  We ate dinner in Pest, and tried Hungarian goulasch (different than I always thought it was - it's just a beef soup, not a stew).

On Sunday morning we walked along the pedestrian old town.  We had tried the Hungarian sweetbread called "kalacs" the day before, and we stopped at a kalacs shop again and had some great bread (we tried the ones coated with cinnamon, chocolate and almonds).  In the early afternoon we made our way by metro to the LDS church over on the Buda side.  The meetinghouse was nice, and this ward was actually in English!  It was a small congregation, but very welcoming.  It seems that most of the Americans work with the state department, and there was also a Korean family and a German family there.

After church we went back to the Pest side and walked along Andrassy street, a beautiful shopping street in Budapest.  We walked by the opera house, then took the yellow metro back to our apartment to get ready to fly back to Zurich.  It turns out that the yellow metro line is the oldest metro line in Europe!  And the escalators to get down to the subway are longer than we had ever seen in any city!

It was a really nice trip, and so interesting!

As it happened, Thursday night, the night before we were scheduled to leave for our trip, I had severe pain and went to the hospital.  It turned out to be kidney stones!  Luckily they didn't admit me to the hospital, as the scan showed the kidney stones' location wasn't dangerous, so they gave me pain medication and told me to drink lots of fluids.  I really wanted to go on the trip, and the doctor said I could travel (I didn't tell him where...).  I had the same severe pain again Friday night in Budapest.  Dave gave me a blessing, I took a second dose of the stronger pain medication, and I was able to feel better.  I am just so thankful that the pain came first when I was at home in Switzerland and could go to the hospital there (which is very familiar by now - and such great care!).  In any case, everything was fine, and I'm once again so  thankful for the many blessings and the protection we receive as a family.