Another day as in we got to spend a lovely day out today, and also as in for the first time ever I lost a day in planning and now we have a whole extra day, with no lodging for Friday night. I mean, we have it now because i scrambled, but I somehow missed a whole day. So wild.
So instead of pictures being fully out of order today they are just halfway out of order.
So after getting the girls a brunch and some other activities, we walked the Chain Bridge.
Not Delaney with her hair flowing beautifully in her sisters faces.👆🏼
Getting 5 big heads and a beautiful background and not making a dumb face is just too much sometimes.
The bridge was beautiful and the views were stunning. Have I mentioned how beautiful Budapest is?
We saw the Shoes on the Danube Memorial.
This is a holocaust memorial for the, mostly Jewish people that were lined up, had their shoes taken, and the were shot and had their bodies fall into the Danube.
It’s such a simple and beautiful memorial. There’s something so vulnerable about feet and shoes, I can’t pinpoint it, but I feel it.
D checked out the Danube and said it’s cold and not quite swimmable just yet.
I’m surprised she didn’t put her feet in, honestly.
One fun thing about today was on our way down to the subway we ran into some sister missionaries. They are having zone conference and were out learning Hungarian history doing some challenges from their mission leaders, and after that we saw missionaries everywhere and even met and chatted with the mission leaders. So that was really cool! They told us we had to get cookies from The Cookie Beacon, and they did not disappoint. They are fat cookies, like my giant chocolate chip ones, but with a frosting/creamy filling inside. I am very intrigued and feel like I could duplicate this. So instead of my cookies being US/Australian, they could be US/Australian/Hungarian.
D’s hair strikes again.
There’s the cute sisters! We also sent this shot to Jen Tripp since she served here.
On our bus yesterday we heard about this willow tree memorial to Hungarian jewish victims of the holocaust, and it was neat to walk by it today.
Matt brought some Maryland stickers for Europe to remember us by, and I finally reminded him to bring them with us when we went out.
Up high so it lasts longer.
Home. ❤️
We’ll leave one when we go back to Zagreb and one in Vienna.
Adi picked a fun lunch spot and these two twinners both raved about their choices. They worker was super cool with us bringing in outside food and drink and they even had free toilets, so when he asked us to review him, I said of course! And then read through all our reviewed we’ve written and we all laughed.
I love Jesus Christ and I love Easter and I love cake.
This is our yard in our Airbnb. I really like this one and wish we could just stay here another night. Why am I such a dummy?
Matt and I went adventuring this morning and let the girls sleep in. For our door to our apartment you have to gently swipe the pad and that wakes it up and then you put in a code.
We went to Great Market Hall which is like Reading Market in Philadelphia. I’ve been buying cute hand painted eggs so I got a few. And I really wanted a langos for lunch, but we walked and walked and weren’t finding anything. We finally decided to share a wrap and then the next stall over was langos. 🙃
We took a picture of this cool nativity, and then bought it later at a different store. So unique. ❤️
Matt wanted to go out to Memento Park where they have old communist statues and other artifacts, but whomp whomp, it was closed. Those are boots from a Stalin statue that was in town, and they had toppled it but left the boots up in town for awhile as a reminder.
The park looked cute, we were bummed it was closed.
So back to our day with the crew and the pictures should be in order from here. I read about a public transport boat and thought, after looking online that our 24-hour transit pass would work, so we walked the Chain bridge and the girls sat while Matt and I found a bathroom. And later we found that the boat actually wasn’t included, so that was fun. Every transit and every pass in every country is so different and it feels like there’s no rhyme or reason and it’s difficult to figure out exactly what is what. I wish it was more clear. 🤷♀️
The inventor of the Rubiks Cube is from Hungary, so they have a few Rubik’s cubes around. That’s what I’m point to.
And then I found a similar tank. 🤷♀️
We rode the M1, which is continental Europe’s oldest metro line.
When we got off the metro we found a tribute to Alexei Navalny and I just read his book so I really appreciated it. I looked it up to see why it’s there, and they put it across from the Russian Embassy, since Russia murdered him while he was in prism. They also tried, unsuccessfully to change the name of that metro stop for him.
Frankie found us a Laskos place for dinner so we metro’d/walked there and these Easter centerpieces were so cute.
More bus riding fun!
We hiked Gellért Hill where there’s hot spring and a cave church.
I love a hilly hike with a view!
I would use it all the time!
Tired adventurers.
We’ve always met up with people in Europe and slowed down a little, but not this trip. We’re still full tilt boogie and our feet and knees are feeling it.
Delaney and Adi climbed up on this tall curving ledge and k could just see Delaney sliding off and I was v uncomfortable.
Conservation area further up the mountain. Hungarian language is wild.
We took the switchbacks to start making our way down. I wish we’d had more time to explore up there though, it’s really beautiful!
We couldn’t tell if this was warm water, but there was no steam and no smell so maybe not.
These interesting monuments, not exactly like this, but very cool are all over town.
Mary and baby Jesus. ❤️
Our last activity of the night was a Buda Castle District Dark History and Legends Tour.
Our guide, Bernadette was a vampire, sorry, a
wampire. The tour was interesting and Bernadette was a great guide, but the scenery was what I really loved.
We hiked up here the other day, but seeing it at night was unreal.
It’s so beautiful and the weather was so pleasant yesterday, just a nice breeze until the end of the night when we got a little chilly.
🇭🇺❤️
As with everything, pictures don’t do justice.
But they do jog my memory. That’s why I try really hard to take lots of pictures.
I’m in love with the neighborhoods up there!
They are the cutest and there such a good vibe.
We hadn’t seen this view of the Buda side. Before this trip I didn’t know that Buda was on one side of the Danube, and Pear was on the other. Now I know.
I die! I.love.it.here.
Fisherman’s Bastian again.
Fun tour and I love that it was different. I like a well rounded trip.
And also we took a tour with a vampire on a night with a full moon. That’s cool.
3 cute sissies.
We tipped our guide and walked to our next tram stop and this was our 10 minute view.
I changed laundry out when we got home and since we walked over 20,000 steps again, we were exhausted. A few verses about Christ, prayers, and bed. Another gorgeous day in Hungary.
Everyone enjoyed their food and even though they wouldn’t let us drink the water we brought and made us buy water, we’d recommend it hands down. It’s only a 5 minute walk from our Airbnb so super convienent too.
Big, warm pool in the middle, with 4 smaller pools in each corner. One coolish 28° C, 2 that were 33°C, and one very hot 42°C. Then there are also steam rooms down there. We went into one and I couldn’t quite manage my breathing, so I stepped out and got it under control and then went back in and was fine. Loved it! After that suana they’ve got showers and one of them has a cold bucket that you pull to get splashed with ice cold water, so Matt did that but I opted for the 28° pool instead. 
Another view of up top (all pics from their website). 
They also have a beautiful lap pool that we don’t go in because it requires swim caps and then several wellness pools. Adi asked us to do a contrast bath with her. First you soak in the hot hot tub - 42°C for 1 minute. Then you soak in a cold bath 11°C for 10 seconds. I repeated that 3 times, twice with Adi and once with Delaney. Mind over matter!
We also tried the salt room that I loved. They had chairs inside and it was just warm, not hot. If you breathed through your mouth, you could faintly taste salt on your tongue. It was so relaxing I fell asleep do a hot minute. And we tried a 60°-70°C dry sauna that was 1000 times easier for me then the steam sauna. 
It was all so lovely and the perfect break from our long long long walking days. We loved it and would 1000% recommend. 
This little Airbnb is cute and perfect for one night. I did a load of wash as soon as we left got here and have our last European load in right now. View from the front door. 
Our room right up front. 
Girls room right next to ours. 
View from the girls room to the front door. 
Not pictured - the occupied bathroom/washing machine room. 
