Goodbye Budapest!

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Author:  Tiffany (Mom)

We are getting ready to leave Budapest, Hungary and go to our last destination before heading back to London to fly home.  I feel like Brandon and I have the sense of the end hanging over our heads.  We both enjoyed our experience and are not quite ready to come back to reality, even though I know both kids are ready for California again. 

Our flight is late this afternoon, so we have some time to kill before we leave for the airport.  Luke and Brandon decided to go and see if they can get their haircut before we take off (Update:  they were unsuccessful). Olivia is reading in the other room, for what I think is the 3rd time through the Rick Riordan series.  She told me she just opens the book to a random part and reads from there. 

Yesterday we decided to take a walk to the Vajdahunyad Castle.  It was really pretty with an amazing church, but we discovered that you cannot go inside the castle.  We enjoyed walking around the grounds.  The castle wasn't that old (built for an exhibition in 1896) and Brandon felt it had a "Disneyland" feeling to it.

Luke and Brandon decided to be twins for the day.  

For some reason Olivia forgot how to smile on this trip.  
Once we stopped for lunch, I decided I wanted to check out a cute little museum called Miniversum. I think Brandon had his doubts, but it wasn't very expensive and it was air conditioned, so he went for it.  It was a great little museum where they built miniature villages based on towns in Hungary, Austria (the one without the kangaroos) and Germany. They had information on each of the buildings for me and Brandon, and little controls for the kids to activate some of the people, cars and lights on the displays. I think Olivia and Luke's favorite was the one where you could make the little man pee on the side of the road. It was a really cool way to spend an afternoon. This was one of my favorite Budapest activities.
 
Olivia is smiling!

One of the mini castles.



They had a selfie area, so we had to try it out!
We decided to walk towards St. Stephen's Basilica because we hadn't seen a church in Budapest and if there is one thing we do in every town, it seems to be look at churches. The interior of St. Stephen's was so different from all the other churches we have seen on this trip. It was beautiful. (My favorite though, is still the St. Stephen's in Vienna).



I'm sure Brandon took a better picture, that wasn't crooked.
We decided to go up to one of the towers to see a view of Budapest. It was a warm day and it warned us that it was 300 steps to the top. Brandon wanted to take the elevator, but I decided we should walk. There was a huge line for the elevator and sometimes old small elevators make me a little nervous.

Brandon saying "hi" as we go up the stairs.  We got halfway up and Brandon decided that we would take the elevator the second half up.  Probably a good decision, otherwise, he would need to buy a new shirt.


We were hot and sweaty when we reached the top, but the view was worth it!
Once we took a million photos and decided to go back down Luke said he did not want to take the elevator. So, Luke and I decided to walk down together. Before we went down, he noticed how cool the stairs looked, so I took a picture.

One of many pictures I have taken of stairs on this trip.

After the church, we decided to take the rest of the afternoon easy.

I have enjoyed Budapest, but I have to admit, this wasn't my favorite city. I loved the bridges and the castle high on the hill, the lights at night, but I do think I missed some type magic in this city. The running along the river was fun, I crossed two bridges today, running on both the Buda and Pest sides. I'm glad I had this experience because traveling is something no one ever regrets doing.

One of the paths I took running today.

He is painting the bridge I just crossed!

One of the many statues found in Budapest.

Thanks for reading! We will see you soon!


-Tiffany
Location: Budapest, Hungary

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