day 17

we are ready to come home...day 17 turned into day 71..

we didn't do much today, budapest closes everything on sundays.  we just spend a lot of time preparing to come home. this morning we went out and about. we went and visited the synagogue, it was really pretty. we had a tour guide who showed us a few things then we toured the rest on our own.

after that we took the metro to the oldest station in europe. then our plan was to go to old town buda and look down upon the danube and watch the air races. we waited at the bus stop for about half hour then found out that the bus doesn't stop their anymore because of construction. considering the air races start in 5 minutes we thought it would be faster to go watch at the parliament building instead. it was packed!! there was so many people watching but it was fun to watch. that planes were zooming through the course. 

after the race we went looking for ice cream. it was so hot today and its more humid than home. we found dad hanging out in the shade a lot today. we ate our ice cream then headed back to the hotel to prepare to go home. the germans kept exploring the city. our plan was to come to the hotel and get things ready so we could go to sleep early enough to wake up to watch the USA play in the world cup championship. 

we hung out in the hotel for an hour or two while packing and getting ready. then we met up with the germans for one last dinner together. it was delicious. i had one last plate of schnitzel and it was the best schnitzel I've had yet, going out with a bang. doreen got a huge hamburger I'm talking HUGE it was hilarious. it was fun being able to spent one last night all together. saying goodbye wasn't easy. we had such a fun time and so many good memories made. hopefully we can see them again soon.

we plan on watching the soccer game at 1 a.m. then headed to the airpot shortly after the game probably 4 a.m. for our flight home. 

day 16

dad is getting a little bit better everyday so that is a good thing. kristen had a rough morning, after all the hassle and harassment she got for buying the blow dryer this morning she realized that she left it at our last hotel. what seemed to be such a good purchase went right down the drain. it was so funny! so now we are back to using the hotel blow dryer. we began the day with a city tour of budapest. it was beautiful.

we made three stops. first hero square, then a look out over buda and pest, and finally castle hill. each of them were very pretty. the tour guide gave us a lot of information but it was hot so i didn't really listen, oh and i fell asleep on the bus ride. oops.

after the tour we got dropped off at the green market where the first level was a bunch of food and the upper level was souvenirs. it was so crowded, we didn't last longer than 10 minutes then we were with dad at the burger king having a beverage. after auto an hour we met up with the germans and had lunch at a good little cafe. we ordered schnitzel of course. it was delicious. oh and we got ice cream after and for some reason the guy made me a special ice cream and it was really something...

after lunch we headed back to the hotel to let dad rest while the germans went and watched some of the air race. after a well needed rest went on a dinner cruise. it was really pretty especially at night. they provided a buffet for us and it was okay but it was so hot in the cabin so we ate a little then headed out to the front deck to get some fresh air and enjoy our ride. we rode up and down the danube it was so pretty and got even prettier at night. it was such a great way to end the night.

day 15

things are looking up for dad here in hungary. he is still feeling pretty sick but he looks a lot better and he is aware of his surrounding. i think a day or two more of rest and he will be feeling better just in time to come home.

this morning we woke up and had another not so great breakfast but we are use to it by now. then we headed to our next hotel. we had to travel 4 stations by subway. it wasn't to bad except that we had all our luggage and people were looking at us funny. the funniest thing happen today to kristen and her luggage. who would have thought. so we get on the escalator to go down in the subway and this escalator is steep like really steep and it is moving faster than any escalator i have ever seen. so i jump on with my bag and kristen follows me. kristen has two bags that probably combined weight 100 pounds. so a girl go on in between us. i look up at kristen and she has this terrified look on her face and i realized her bag is about to fall off the step of the escalator. she is using all her body weight to hold it from causing dominos all the way down the escalator. since it was so steep if her bag fell so does everyone else. so i bust up laughing kristen gives me a death glare and says "BAILEE STOP IT!! IF I LAUGH THIS WHOLE THING IS GONNA FALL AND SO IS EVERYONE ELSE!!" i have never seen kristen so serious in my life and i honestly could not stop laughing she was holding on with all her might. after she even shed some tears. no need to feel bad it was hilarious!!!!!

budapest is split into two parts. one side is budda and the other side is pest. the first night we stayed in budda, now we moved to the other side of the danube which is pest. we arrived at the hotel after hauling our bags all through the subways, up stairs, up escalators, and around the streets of budapest. we took and hour to recoup then headed out for lunch and some sight seeing. budapest is beautiful.

this weekend they are having the redbull air race in hungary across the danube. it is so cool. airplanes fly under the bridge and across the danube through a course. they are going so fast its insane.  today were test runs, the races start tomorrow so hopefully we can go watch some of that.

we ran into the st. stephen's basilica it was so pretty. everyone went to the lower level of the basilica where they hold mass every night. kristen abby and i paid to go to the top of the basilica instead. it was so pretty. we had to hike 304 stairs to the top on a winding stairway. but the view was very well worth it.

helmut got us tickets to see the hungarian parliament but we had a few hours to kill before that so we went shopping. dad hung out in the shade with the boys and we headed out to shop. we found a nike store so thats where we spent all our time. i love nike so i enjoyed it. then we headed to the parliament for our tour. the germans tour started 15 minutes before ours cause they did german and we did english. the building was beautiful i actually enjoyed this tour. i got a lot of information but once again forgot it so if you'd like to know about it kristen is the one to ask.

afterwards dad wasn't feeling so good so he headed back to the hotel. we stayed with the germans to shop some more and get dinner. we shopped a little but realized if we buy much more we aren't gonna have room in our luggage for anything so we decided to go to mcdonals to have a beverage. later on we meet the germans for dinner, it was nice we went to an italian restaurant and had pizza and pasta. we love the food here I'm not kidding out plates are clean off after every meal except breakfast. i think helmut misses kirt at dinner, us girls aren't quite as fun to talk to.

we brought dad back a pretzel and some water so hopefully we can get him eating again. tomorrow we will go on a tour of budapest.

day 14

where to begin........

breakfast wasn't to good again. they did have a hot chocolate button on the cappuccino machine though so i was thrilled, but the warm milk in cereal is just not okay. maybe it was a bad idea for sick kirt to drink chocolate cereal in warm milk. thats where things first went wrong, but it only got worse but also a lot funnier. 

since dad wasn't feeling well we had many options to bail on the bike ride but he wanted to starts on the bikes and see how he feels. today was the last day of the bikes so he really wanted to finish it out. we rode about 6 k to the ferry to cross the danube to the other side. we rode about 10 k then we stopped for a bathroom break. dad was feeling worse and there was a train station nearby. us being confident and all told the germans to move on their way and we will jump on a train and meet you at the hotel in budapest.

everything was going great. we were on the train headed in the right direction then we realized budapest is a big city and their might be more than one train station. on top of all this we can't read the language or communicated with anyone, no one knows english outside the big cities.

we got off at the at the stop we were suppose to, id tell you the name of it but i can not spell it or pronounce it. we talked to a guy at the ticket office and showed him the map of where our hotel is. he said "oh that far, take bus" well the buses don't allow bikes, and even if we wanted a bus you have to buy tickets through a machine and it was in a different language. at this point we were S.O.L. so we turned on the data and typed the hotel in our GPS. we were six miles away, biking was our only option. how bad could it be?

dad still isn't feeling good at all. he has literally checked out, a constant confused glazed look on his face. the first part of the bike ride went smoothly, it was just kinda iffy. we were making a lot of turns on streets that did not look like streets. finally we got into the busy part of town and it was a nightmare. people everywhere, the bikes were a problem. as we were riding along i was leading the pack, abby was behind me, dad, then kristen. we were riding on the sidewalk of a main street and a car was turning onto the main street, as abby and i approached the car then signaled for us to pass. dad and kristen just assumed they were good to. i look back and dad had got hit by the car. no one was hurt. they just clipped the tail end of his bike. luckily dad caught himself and didn't even fall down, the guy got out and started talking in hungarian, dad said it's fine and we moved on. at this point things couldn't get worse for kirt. i felt so bad for him but then again it was so funny.

we got about half way to the hotel and stopped for a rest and ice cream. of course dad got a coke light, this is not a good thing when you are sick. it was immediately a mistake. as we were leaving there were some steps and a ramp type thing. dad slipped down the ramp, thankfully he caught himself and didn't fall down but i think this really did him in. it was so sad but once again so funny.

we were so excited when we saw the bridge over the danube that meant we were close to the hotel. the closer we got to the hotel the more crowded it got. there were people everywhere and we were just ringing our bells and making people move out of our way. at one point we were all beside each other on the rode, taking up a whole lane because it was the only possible way. seeing the hotel was the best feeling ever and we couldn't get off the bikes soon enough. I'm sure dad felt so much relief when we showed up.

the rest of the day we spent recovering. dad is doing a little better so hopefully a lot of rest and water will get him ready to tour budapest. we left dad home and headed to dinner with the germans. other than breakfasts our lunch and dinners have been excellent. kristen swears she eats way better here than in america. we couldn't be happier with the food. as we were leaving we asked the waiter if we could get some soup to go. he was so nice and got us some soup and bread ready to take home. as we looked in the bag we realize that they put the soup in a jar, like a used pickle jar. i guess they don't believe in to go food. gosh it was so funny, but dad didn't care he ate the whole thing.

we turned the bikes in and now we will get around by subway or on foot and we couldn't be happier. tomorrow we will be changing hotels so everyone pray for kristen and her luggage to get there without any trouble. on a positive note budapest is beautiful.