Budapest Emily Style

And now for my turn. I wanted to do three things: hit the playgrounds,  the baths on Margitsziget (Margaret's Island), and the Budapest Zoo which is Europe's second oldest.  Since Mark had some work related business to attend to I was on my own with the children for a chunk of time, which was slightly stressful due to missed nap time and a huge downpour. Thank goodness for two things: Deet's obsession with trains and Wreck It Ralph. Yes. I am one of those parents who bust out the iPad to keep the peace. You know what? It worked when we were stuck in a subway waiting for the rain to ease up.

Deets in his element.

Margo representing the Schlink futbol obsession at one
of the many playgrounds we hit.

Water baby #1

Water baby #2

People non-chalantly feeding the camels.
Are these people crazy?!

Deets yelled "bang, bang" with such joy. Hmm.

Mark deftly said this was a sweater pig from the Andes.
I almost believed him. 

Strawberry break at the zoo.
People thought we were so weird.

Budapest Mark Style

Despite detouring a few times to the US Embassy in Budapest and Mark's field trips to the VW dealership accomplished our goals in Budapest. Mark wanted to eat pastries, drink espresso and walk, walk, walk. Mark made us walk all over the city; until his knees, my hips, and the kids succumbed to exhaustion. I kid you not, we walked with children mind you, over 14 km (8.6 miles) on the day. If it weren't for his joyful skipping and sentimental enthusiasm, I probably would have hailed a cab back to the apartment.

Parliament from Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion

Peter and Deets on the river

Széchenyi Chain Bridge. We slogged across
Elizabeth Bridge on the way back

Jewish Synagogue

Cappucinos and apple strudel

Water break

Hungary for Some Action?

I typically like to begin my blog posts with positive spins about our travels, so here goes my attempt for the first day in Budapest...

Border crossings. So much fun.

While waiting for Border Control's computers to kick back on so they could stamp our passports, the sweaty police-officer-man waddled up to my window: "Your front tire does not look so great," he mentioned. Sure enough we could see our tire, like my own spare, bulging off the sides. Taking a deep breath we drove onward to Budapest.

Thankful for a relatively uneventful arrival, we found our apartment but couldn't check into quite yet so instead headed out in search of an ATM, ice cream, and beer. Settling on a local Stardust Coffee, we ordered and eagerly waited for a snack that surely would hit the spot. If by spot, you mean moment of absolute meltdown, we hit it with fury. Deets uncharacteristically exploded, angered by his ice cream and  totally exhausted from what I can only assume was from having too much fun.

Ahhh, an outside cafe!
What could possibly go wrong?

Oh wait. This.

After chilling out in the apartment and gaining better toddler perspective we decided to hit the town again in search of playgrounds and happy hour. Sadly we didn't make it farther than a block and a half where we parked the car: a rotted crotch-monster busted the front passenger window in pursuit of Mark's seven year old iPod. Nads! He stayed by the car to deal with broken glass, police reports, and notifying the Embassy while I attempted to find dinner and calm the roar of hungry, wild eyed children.

Settling on pizza, the girl at the counter just watched with amusement (I hope) as Margo dug into her baby food smothering anything within arm's reach and Deets gleefully erased the outside chalkboard menu with abandon. I could only sigh and eat my stale slice of pizza.  Mark caught up with us and we went for our third attempt to find the bright side of an otherwise frustrating day.

In the end, we did find a small oasis of park and beer activity. Margo entertained a cute ten year old girl who wanted to practice her English and Mark got to practice his Hungarian by talking about shoes and swearwords to other fathers at the playground. Then we all promptly passed out from a long eventful day.

Fast forward... Now the Foreign Service has a lot of perks, most which I try not to take for granted. The Regional Security Office assisted us with paperwork and scheduling an appointment with VW to inspect the damage the very next day. First the good news: repairs would be completed within two days and they would go ahead and wash/vacuum our car. This was something I fantasize about doing on a regular basis, but never actually do.  Bad news: we needed to replace all four tires. You win some, you lose some right?