Budapest

Budapest was great! The apartment that Paul organized for us was awesome and quite roomy considering we are in Europe. We arrived first then in the morning and made our way there from the train station. It took us a bit to find the metro station as there was a bunch of construction outside the train station. We took the metro one stop and then had to transfer to a tram to the stop we were to meet our apartment guy, Greg, at. He found us no problem and we walked the block or so down to the apartment. All the buildings have lovely architecture. It is truly a beautiful place.

We took showers and got cleaned up. We went out for some lunch and wandered around. It is an amazing city! We stayed in the Pest side of the city.

While in Budapest we saw:

• The central market
• St. Stephen's Basilica
• had lots of interesting food
• drank many local beers and some from Czech too
• went to the Great Synagoge
• walked around the Jewsih ghetto
• ate lots of hummus
• felt rain almost every afternoon for about 30 minutes in which we would pop into a coffee shop for an afternoon beverage while it rained and we waited
• had langos---a local snack that is deep fried bread like with garlic sauce, sour cream and cheese on top. they were good but made my tummy upset.
• sweated a lot
• walked near the Parliament building
• rode the M2 tram along the Danube
• saw and walked across the Chain Bridge
• walked around Buda at Castle Hill, saw the Fisherman's Bastion, saw Matthias church, took a bus through the Vienna Gate to Moskva Ter.
• walked around two different shopping malls
• went to a really old and famous coffee shop called Gerbaud where we had desserts and coffee
• walked through Erzebet Ter, a park where there are tons of people hanging out and skaters skating.
• went to the Nyugati station
• went to the YWAM coffee shop on Friday night and met Justin and Lee Anne. They are great people there running the cafe and coffee shop. It was a great night of conversation.
• did laundry
• walked down Andrassy ut (a famous street)
• toured the House of Terror, a museum about the two different occupations of Budapest---Nazi and Soviet. It was artsy and cool.
• witnessed a demostration and loads of riot police
• had a snack and lemonade at the cafe at the Sofitel
• went to a festival on Chain Bridge where there were performers and all sorts of crafts
• took a very long route home because of all the riot police having most of the major areas blocked off due to the demonstration

We also tried to try some Hungarian food at this little cafe. It was a truly interesting experience. We did not speak Hungarian and she did not speak English. Finally, Paul got across that we would eat anything she gave us. It was ok, but definitely not exciting. Although I gave us points for trying our best.

We loved Budapest and really feel living there is an option. It is great city with lots of character and exciting opportunities.