Final Post from Budapest

In just a little bit, we'll begin our drive from Budapest to the Netherlands to enjoy a week with Mike's parents.  We've had a great stay here!

Dinner in Pest with cousin Bobby and friend Josiah before they flew back to the states.

This is our cute little tram we used for daytime transportation when Mike was at work.

The Parliament Building.  In my opinion, one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen.

"Our" little bakery that we visited most mornings for breakfast

Best kids meal toy ever--hours of fun!

The Innotec team in Hungary has been so helpful, from finding us a place to stay to helping rent a vehicle (thanks, Csaba!) to showing us around the city.  We especially enjoyed spending time with Zoli and Annett Szabo who took us kayaking and to church and out for dinner and to a concert (but do you think I got a single picture of them?).

Their church.  Zoli even gave the message--one busy guy!

They had a really dynamic church and we spent almost the whole day with them.  A dance team was visiting from Houston, so we had lunch at church with them, they taught our girls and others a dance, and then we went to a neighborhood park to do some outreach.

And school started!  Trickier than we thought to find notebooks so we finally googled an Office Depot and took what amounted to a day trip.

This semester will be a much more organized one!

We took a day to explore the Castle Hill area on the Buda side.  It turned into a somewhat bizarre experience.  The weather forecast showed a big, round sun and our trip began with sunny skies.  As we finished lunch, rain began and continued for a few minutes.

When the rain eased up, we walked around the Fisherman's Bastion which looks out over the Danube.

But then it started to rain again, so we sought cover.

And then the hail came, some of the biggest I've personally ever seen.

And it downpoured for at least 45 minutes, until...

...there were waterfalls down all the steps.

But then finally the sun came out and people came out.

And that's when we saw that the fire truck hit the car.

 And this is part of the fun of this trip for me.  When you head out for the day, you never quite know what will happen.

Buda Castle

This view made me think of the Chris Tomlin song:
"You're the God of this City 
You're the King of these people 
You're the Lord of this nation 
You are" 

Free Fanta!

Aren't they cute? (the pop cans and the girls)

 Yesterday we took various forms of transportation to reach the Elizabeth Lookout on Janos Hill, the highest point in Budapest.  We began on a cog railway.

Then we transferred to a Children's Railroad

The girls thought it was all a little hokey.

Most of the employees are children between the ages of 10-14.  They wore these cute little uniforms and even saluted the train as it passed by.  I thought it was sweet; the girls said it was nothing more than child labor :)

Trina's pointing to the watchtower

Made it!

And a very peaceful chairlift ride down.

And we ended our stay with a very cool Jeremy Riddle worship night on a boat on the Danube.