Hungary

Greg served his mission in Budapest, Hungary. Like moi, he loved his mission and loved the people he served. Unlike moi, he has maintained close relationships with many, many people. In fact it was humbling to hear how grateful they were that he still had made such an effort to maintain their friendship. They'd always mention the many missionaries that promised they would, but didn't. I probably fall into that category.

Since we've been married, he has wanted to take me there and introduce me to his beloved city and friends. Finally we made the trek. As previously mentioned our family loves road trips. Even if a six hour drive takes eight or nine.

We drove into Budapest in the evening through the brightest rainbow in my memory. The kids were thrilled and begged us to divert to search for the pot of gold. It was a sweet entry for my dear husband who really misses the country and the people.

We rented an apartment from a member who has numerous apartments for rent. We were hoping that it was actually the apartment he'd lived in and rented from her years ago. However, his apartment was a couple houses away.

This is the Orszaghaz - the national parliament building as seen from a cruise on the Danube River.

This is the royal palace (now an art museum) in the castle district.
Eating gelato on Vaci Street - Budapest's version of 5th Avenue or the Magnificent Mile.
This is part of the Vajdahunyad Castle - something that was built for the World Fair in the early part of the century.
When the Soviets left Hungary in 1989, the Hungarians immediately started tearing down all the communist propaganda and statues that had dotted their city for the last 50 years. Now, all of those crazy communist statues stand in a park outside the city limits.
This is Aquaworld - a water park built a few years ago. A Hungarian in Greg's office recommended it. We're glad we went, although the night we returned home, the lead story on the news was how a kid drowned there the week before and it's been under scrutiny for very lax life guards. Glad we heard about that after a fun day.
This is a huge cathedral in a city called Esztergom. It's an hour north of Budapest on the Danube bend. If you walk around the back of this cathedral, you can see Slovakia across the river.
Here's Ansel wondering why the pews in our church don't have arm rests.
Greg made us drive through Slovakia on the way home, because when else are we ever going to drive through Slovakia? On the map, it looked like it would be the same distance driving to Vienna. But what we didn't realize were that the highways in Hungary are modern, and the main highways in Slovakia are, well...like this.