Bye, Bye Budapest

The past couple days have been rainy so we’ve been inside the flat or at coffee shops and bookstores most of the time. We’ve gone on at least one long walking adventure each day before heading back to the flat to dry out. We were blessed with the opportunity to visit with Robyn, a missionary friend of Mariella’s from EV Free. We enjoyed an evening of conversation over dinner. Thanks for hanging out with us Robyn. This afternoon we leave on a twenty-nine hour or so marathon train ride south to Athens, Greece. We have reserved two bunks in a sleeping car. Hopefully we can get some sleep. We plan on spending four days in Athens before heading to Tel Aviv, Israel.

A Happy Birthday in Hungary

We arrived safely to Budapest, Hungary, a seven hour train journey from Prague. What we did not know is that we were passing through Slovakia. The Slovakian conductor kindly informed us that our rail passes do not work in Slovakia and we owed him a chunk of money. It turns out he was willing to let us remain in the first class seats if we settled with him a different way, which would cost a fraction of the price. I hope he bought his wife something nice. When we exited the train we were greeted by a woman offering us an apartment to stay in. She looked friendly so we jumped on a city bus and she took us to the other side of Budapest to her flat. The flat was in a great location and we worked out a price cheaper than the most affordable hostel. We bless God that we were greeted by this stranger.
We woke up this morning and walked around parts of Budapest. It is an impressively beautiful city. We spent most of our time walking along the river and the nearby streets lining its banks. A highlight was the visit to the city market. The market was stunningly clean with food stalls on the bottom floor and shops on the top. I gifted Mariella a beautiful, hand-made necklace and earrings; she was thrilled, grinning and singing about them as we walked back to the flat. After strolling around the market we walked to Iguanas, a Mexican food restaurant that our friend Matt recommended. It was a fantastic dinner that reminded us of the Mexican food at home. Mariella enjoyed her Hungarian slash Mexican birthday. Although it would be much better if friends and family were here with us. She misses you all.