Budapest
The trip into Budapest went smoothly. We took off at 8 and crossed the border a couple hours later, getting some more passports stamps along the way. We got into Budapest at around 2 and checked into our hotel, which is more of an apartment complex. After getting settled we headed out to Market Hall, which is a massive indoor market in what looks like an old trainstation. The kids had Hungarian fast food and picked up some very nice local trinkets. We then walked up Vaci Ut, a very nice walking street and up to St. Stephen's cathedral where we saw St. Stephen's hand, always a chilling experience. We then headed back to the Hotel by subway and then up to dinner a couple blocks from the hotel. Everyone was pretty tired from all the traveling so we got to bed relatively early.
Yesterday morning we started with a 3 hour city tour from Hosok Ter (Heroes Square) all the way up to Castle Hill and the Citadella. We all took in some great views and a bunch of Hungarian history. Our tour guide was again very effective and friendly. The tour ended at our lunch restaurant, Gundel, the fanciest restaurant in the country. All the kids were very nicely dressed up and we had a fabulous meal. The high point of the meal was when they brought out the suprise piece of cake for Jordan's birthday which was capped off with a HUGE sparking fountain candle thing. It was rather impressive. After the meal most of the kids headed over to the Szchenyi thermal baths, and a couple went to the fine arts museum. We all met back up at the hotel at 5 and Sondor took us to the city center for a quick dinner. After dinner we went directly, by bus, to the Erkel Theatre where we saw the Opera L'elixir d'amor. Even though it was in Hungarian, it was not hard to follow and everyone had a great time. We took the subway back to the Hotel and crashed immediately.
This morning we headed off in 3 groups -- a couple kids went to Jewish services at the very large Synagogue, a bunch went back to Market Hall, and I took a bunch of kids to Margaret Island to walk, see some ruins and play some Ultimate. Everyone had a blast -- the kids who played Ultimate had a 5 on 5 game in the middle of the island and managed to get pretty muddy. We saw some 500 year old ruins then walked to the meeting point, a fountain at the large mall in central Pest. All three groups met up about an hour ago and now the kids are enjoying some time in the mall eating, shopping, and exploring. We're going to meet up in an hour and then head off to the Fine Arts Museum, and hopefully to Ice Skate at the huge rink next to Hosok Ter. We also might have an hour long cruise on the Danube tonight, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. Should be a fun evening.
We take off at 8am tomorrow morning for Slovenia -- should take the whole day. Turns out everyone in the group is able to enter Croatia, so we'll be taking the road that dips into the country -- so 5 countries total on this trip! The kids are very excited to see some of Croatia and to get to Vogel.
Hope all is well back in the states!
Yesterday morning we started with a 3 hour city tour from Hosok Ter (Heroes Square) all the way up to Castle Hill and the Citadella. We all took in some great views and a bunch of Hungarian history. Our tour guide was again very effective and friendly. The tour ended at our lunch restaurant, Gundel, the fanciest restaurant in the country. All the kids were very nicely dressed up and we had a fabulous meal. The high point of the meal was when they brought out the suprise piece of cake for Jordan's birthday which was capped off with a HUGE sparking fountain candle thing. It was rather impressive. After the meal most of the kids headed over to the Szchenyi thermal baths, and a couple went to the fine arts museum. We all met back up at the hotel at 5 and Sondor took us to the city center for a quick dinner. After dinner we went directly, by bus, to the Erkel Theatre where we saw the Opera L'elixir d'amor. Even though it was in Hungarian, it was not hard to follow and everyone had a great time. We took the subway back to the Hotel and crashed immediately.
This morning we headed off in 3 groups -- a couple kids went to Jewish services at the very large Synagogue, a bunch went back to Market Hall, and I took a bunch of kids to Margaret Island to walk, see some ruins and play some Ultimate. Everyone had a blast -- the kids who played Ultimate had a 5 on 5 game in the middle of the island and managed to get pretty muddy. We saw some 500 year old ruins then walked to the meeting point, a fountain at the large mall in central Pest. All three groups met up about an hour ago and now the kids are enjoying some time in the mall eating, shopping, and exploring. We're going to meet up in an hour and then head off to the Fine Arts Museum, and hopefully to Ice Skate at the huge rink next to Hosok Ter. We also might have an hour long cruise on the Danube tonight, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. Should be a fun evening.
We take off at 8am tomorrow morning for Slovenia -- should take the whole day. Turns out everyone in the group is able to enter Croatia, so we'll be taking the road that dips into the country -- so 5 countries total on this trip! The kids are very excited to see some of Croatia and to get to Vogel.
Hope all is well back in the states!
posted by Eastern Europe 2005 at 4:34 AM
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