Heroes Square
St Stephen's church
The kids waiting for the bus to pick up the kids on the 2nd day of school -- in front of our temporary home at the Marriott apartments in downtown Budapest.
For the first 10 days we were here, we stayed at the Marriott, and this was the view from the terrace at the executive lounge on the 9th floor.
We all spent many hours in the lounge during the first 10 days, before school started and while we were looking for a house. We treated it like our living room, where there was more space to stretch out, food, and WiFi internet access. We'd go up to the lounge to read, check email, play games, and talk about what to do about a house.
There was a medieval festival on castle hill -- good food and interesting entertainment.
Grant and Nash at the 0 km mark of Budapest and throughout Hungary -- all distances to Budapest are measured from this point.
We got desperate one night and did some laundry in the bath tub. Grant and Luke were excited to help out doing laundry the old fashioned way.
They must love archery here -- at many tourist attractions and any time there is a festival, they always have a stand where you can try archery.
Luke with a Haribo shish kebab which he always gets on the way out of Vapiano (a handful of gummy bears at the counter on the way out, plus a tooth pick), an Italian restaurant that we grew to love in Bonn, and were happy to find here in Budapest (3 locations!).
At the church building -- the Pest ward.
We never got tired of the view from the terrace.
And the kids in front of the chain bridge -- the central bridge across the Danube from the Pest side to the Buda side of the river.
After a great summer break in the US, we all arrived here in Budapest on 10 August 2011. We had hoped to be able to move in to our house within a few weeks, but the day before we left the US, we found out that the house we had selected (house #1) had a pipe leak and the basement flooded. The owner graciously let us out of the contract. So the first few days of being here in the country were spent going to look at additional houses. We found two houses that we thought would work for us, and we ended up deciding on one of them (house #2), and had our real estate company start working on a contract for that house. Within a few days we found out that the owner of the house wasn't being exactly honest about things and we found that he had quite a bad reputation, so we abandoned those negotitations, decided to go visit that other house (house #3) a 2nd time, and decided we could make things work at that house with a few changes. Over the next three weeks our real estate company went back and forth with the owner, his lawyer, Ford's lawyers, HR, etc. And on Thursday we made the decision that this owner really doesn't want to rent to us and/or is just too difficult to work with, so we made the decision to go look at more houses. So we're hopeful that tomorrow, afer seeing 4 or 5 more houses, we'll be able to start negotiating a contract on house #4.
In the mean time, we've been staying right here in downtown Budapest -- the first 10 days at the Marriott hotel, right on the Danube, in a room with a view over the river and of Buda castle and the city. Since then we have been in a Marriott apartment hotel, about a block away. We have two separate rooms with a total of 3 bedrooms and 2 living rooms, so it gives us more space than a regular hotel, but we are anxious to be in our own house. It is nice to be right here in the city, which we like a lot -- it is a beautiful place.
The kids have been in school for 3 full weeks, and are really liking it so far. Last week Nash, Grant, and Luke each went on 3/4 day trips with their classes. Here's what they had to say about it:
From Grant
This week the whole middle school went on a trip for the week. 8th grade went to a place called Pécs (pronounced Paych). It was really fun.
On the first day we got there and we had an hour of free time to eat lunch. I got chicken nuggets at McDonald's (I regretted it but I had to). Then we went to a town called Orfü. We went to this club where we did some team building activities. One of them was to wrap up an egg so we could throw it six meters and it wouldn't break. I had the idea of putting a parachute on it. It worked! That night we had chicken for dinner. Then we went to our hotels which were about a five minute walk away.
On the next day we woke up and went back to the club to eat breakfast. Then we got into groups and did 3 activities. The first thing we did was a blind simulation. We blindfolded ourselves and did this little obstacle course. Then we went canoeing. I got really sun burnt. Then we went to a cave. It was OK. There wasn't anything new for me. Then we went back to the club and swam in the lake. That night we had more chicken.
On the third day we ate breakfast then went to this place called Mecsextreme. First, we went to a playground and we went on some trampolines. Then we went to a ropes course with a zip line. Afterwards we went on a Bobsled thing. It was so fun. Afterwards, we ate lunch and we went to a waterpark. We were there for four hours. We played volleyball with some crazy guys. It was fun. Then we went back to the hotel and had...guess what...chicken. Then after dinner we had a dance. It was boring.
On the last day we went back into Pécs and we did a scavenger hunt thingy. Then I ate at McDonald's and had chicken nuggets again and then we went home.
Overall, it was a good trip. I liked it.
From Luke
So right now I'm really ticked off because we have to find ANOTHER HOUSE!!!!!! I'm really sick of this stupid hotel! I wish I was still in Germany.... I'm kinda glad that we have to find another house though because I didn't really like the other one that we were going to get, and because one of the options for a house is this really big one with 9 bedrooms and an indoor pool.
On Wednesday we did this thing called the fall trip, where every middle school grade goes somewhere different. Grade six went to this place in the south of Hungary called Szeged. It was really fun. We stayed in cabins with lots of bugs. I think there is a sulphur plant under all of Szeged because all the water there taste and smells like rotten eggs. It's even kinda yellow. The taste was easy to ignore, but the smell wasn't. There were no bathrooms in the cabins so we had to walk outside to go to the bathroom and to take a shower. It was annoying. In the showers there was this really cute bright green frog that we would see every time we took a shower. I named it Foop. Also on the trip we did this thing where we were in teams and we all had to do weird stuff for example I had to eat a "Dirty Diaper" which was just a diaper filled with pudding, and i also had to pop a water balloon with my back. It was really fun.
On Wednesday we did this thing called the fall trip, where every middle school grade goes somewhere different. Grade six went to this place in the south of Hungary called Szeged. It was really fun. We stayed in cabins with lots of bugs. I think there is a sulphur plant under all of Szeged because all the water there taste and smells like rotten eggs. It's even kinda yellow. The taste was easy to ignore, but the smell wasn't. There were no bathrooms in the cabins so we had to walk outside to go to the bathroom and to take a shower. It was annoying. In the showers there was this really cute bright green frog that we would see every time we took a shower. I named it Foop. Also on the trip we did this thing where we were in teams and we all had to do weird stuff for example I had to eat a "Dirty Diaper" which was just a diaper filled with pudding, and i also had to pop a water balloon with my back. It was really fun.
