May 29, 2008

Our holiday is quickly coming to an end. It's hard to believe that 2 months have passed since we left Kelowna. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time over here, with a few exceptions (see previous comments, Paris) but we are ready to return to the real world. We miss the wide streets, and the English-speaking people.

We have enjoyed our visit with my mom for the past two weeks, and thought it was time to update the blog, as we figured out a way to access the internet rather than having to go to an internet cafe. We thought we'd include a few pictures of Budapest.



The tiles used for the roof on this church came from a factory in the town where my grandmother was born.



This contraption is called a "funicular" railway. It goes straight up the side of the mountain to the Castle, similar to the one we took in Paris. Tomorrow, we are planning to take a tour of the Opera House and hopefully get a peek inside the spa at the Gellert hotel. We'll attempt to add more comments on what we've done tomorrow night, before we head off to Frankfurt on Saturday.

May 24, 2008

We spent the last week at my mom's house in Budapest, relaxing and getting ready to return home after a very enjoyable 2 month vacation.

On Monday morning we returned the rental car early and boarded the train in Munich for Budapest. We had a very enjoyable trip in first class, which our eurail pass entitled us to. The car we were in had power outlets, so we were able to use our computer the whole way, although I wasn't able to locate an internet link. I guess the train was moving too fast to find a stable connection. We had lunch on the train and and passed the time playing games and watching the videos we purchased.



Sometime after we entered Hungary, the rain started and by the time we arrived in Budapest, it was a downpour. My mom met us at the train station, and a taxi driver promptly cornered us to give us a ride. We stopped to reserve our seats on the train to Frankfurt next week, so that was something we wouldn't have to worry about. After a long ride through rush hour traffic, we finally arrived at mom's house. It's amazing that in Budapest as in Vancouver, they are building a subway. Unfortunately, they are also refurbishing one of the major bridges at the same time, supposedly to cut costs, and it's causing huge traffic jams, especially when it rains.





We've had a great visit. I'm picking up the language much faster than 2 years ago when we were here. Today we met my youngest sister, Hanita and her fiancee, Gabor, and had a nice visit with them. They are planning their wedding for August. We found a "tulip tree" in mom's garden for all you flower people. Mom says she took a picture of the flower to a horticulturist and was told that it was a tulip tree, very rare, and that he had never seen the flower of one before. The tree has been in mom's yard for 16 years and last year was the first year that it bloomed.