budapest – robinchartier

This is the end . . . (and a Budapest day)

I don’t think there is anything else for me to do. The move is finished except for the actual travel to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Every detail has been hashed out and if we forgot anything, it’s too late now. I have an afternoon ahead of me with no suitcases to pack (I got them zipped and NO ONE BETTER TRY TO TAKE ANYTHING OUT), no errands to run, and no car to go anywhere. I’m going to sit and do nothing. Absolute bliss after our schedule the past 2 weeks.

So I should probably write a bit and then I can marathon Gilmore Girls without feeling completely unproductive. I’ve been wanting to write this post about our trip to Budapest’s Zoo Cafe before we leave for AD, but have been too brain dead to do it until now.

When I was researching things to do in Budapest, a friend said a must see place was the Zoo Cafe. She warned me that it’s weird, but that the kids would love it and that would make it worth it. When looking at a map I found that the Zoo Cafe was only about 3 blocks from our apartment so on Thursday morning we set out to have a mid-morning coffee and see some animals.

That was the plan. Camille is pretty stubborn at times and decided that she didn’t want to wear a pair of purple corduroy pants that I had packed for her because they were boy pants. I don’t know where she got the idea that they were boy pants, or why that would even be a problem for her, but she had a bug up her butt that morning and refused to wear them. 99.5% of the time I give her free reign of her clothing choices, but for reasons I can’t remember now, those pants were not negotiable that morning.

It could have been that her other ones were in the wash, or maybe I had a bug up my butt, but we ended up in a face-off over those pants. Somehow, eventually we got them on (I’m pretty sure it involved both Josh and I putting one leg in each side). So as she’s crying on the floor (in her boy pants) I have this thought, and she evidently had the same thought, because I said, “You better not angry pee!” And she yelled, “I already did!”

She thought if she peed in her pants then she wouldn’t have to wear them. Well, we proved her wrong.

Oh, vacations are so much fun!

Yes, we made her wear the angry pee pants. Josh and I quick conferenced and decided she was wearing the pants until she got over wearing the pants and because her daddy is nice, he packed something for her to change into. As we were walking she sniffled, “I’m cold and wet, but it’s my fault because I angry peed.” (She rages, but snaps out of it really quickly.)

In the end it didn’t matter that she was wearing pee soaked pants because the cafe smelled like everyone peed their pants. Cats roaming everywhere, birds and other reptiles on display, and even a small alligator in an aquarium. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the Zoo Cafe smells like a zoo.

We had coffee and hot chocolates, but when lizards and baby hedgehogs run and poop all over your table, it kind of takes away the appetite. At least there was hand sanitizer everywhere! We kept giggling how the restaurant health inspectors in the US would flip if they saw this place.

Cats lounging and shedding where people eat

The hedgehog was adorable, but he left droppings with every step . . .

and he was in danger of walking off the edge of the table.

Everyone else was scared of the snake and refused to hold it until mama showed them it was safe.

The cat making friends with the snake?

Caleb got the cockatoo to spread his wings and flap along with him. They had us rolling.

The cat teasing the alligator — quite bold.

In spite of the rough start, we had a great morning. Yes, it was crazy and yes, we loved it.

And yes, Budapest in winter is cold!

A King Midas kind of day

It’s almost impossible to top Day One in Budapest, but there’s a lot left on my list to see and do. Since it’s another overcast day we decided to stay on this side of the Danube river and save the views of Buda for tomorrow. This place used to be two cities: Buda, the hills on one side of the river and Pest, the flatlands on the opposite bank, until they joined back in 18 hundred and something or other to form Budapest (pronounced “Pesht”).

We slept in again — the sun isn’t rising until about 7:30. Perfect for a relaxing vacation and such a nice break from home where the sun rises at 6 am even on the short days of December. Thank God for Josh who has been making breakfast for everyone before I’ve even opened my eyes.

After breakfast we headed out to the large market right around the corner from our house. Gorgeous displays of vegetables, cheeses and meats and magnets, potholders, gloves, and t-shirts that say things like “Communism is a party,” and any other tchotchkes you can think of branded with “Budapest” or “Hungry for Hungary.”

Since I was having second thoughts about my lack of layers, we stopped back by the house where chaos ensued — we are staying in an apartment with a code for the front door and of course everyone fights over who gets to input the stupid code. I don’t even know the code myself since one of the kids has done it every time since we’ve arrived. I’ll be locked out in the cold if they ever aren’t with me. Anyway, tears and fighting over the dumb code and threats to leave them at the apartment because they are ruining my vacation happened, but we finally got things worked out and instituted a ban on two particular children not being allowed to have contact with each other for the rest of the day.

Yay for family time!

We set out again for the metro and on our way to our first stop Josh made a new friend. A guy was promoting tours and Josh asked him where he was from because he could hear that he spoke English with an Arabic accent. He was from Tunisia and then he and Josh chatted in Arabic on the street corner until Josh could pull away.

We went to St. Stephen’s church, known for having a mummified hand of St. Stephen that sounded a lot more interesting than it was in real life. The church was huge and beautiful and ornate, all red marble and gold, but a bit strange because the main statue/sculpture up front was Stephen himself (not Stephen from the Bible, a different one) and all the areas to pay tribute to Jesus were off on the sides.

Anyway, the best part of the church was our hike to the top — round and round and round up a million steps and then coming out on the turret that surrounds the main dome, looking out over the roofs of Budapest. Amazing views, even through the mist.

It reminds me of Mary Poppins and the chimney sweeps . . .

the Parliament building

They want to go on “the eye” (big freaky ferris wheel in the background). I’ll be passing on that one.

One of the Christmas Markets in the square below — with a blue Christmas tree and an ice skating rink in the center.

After descending the tower we explored the market in front of the church. Lots of booths with handmade crafts and souvenirs and hot wine was sold in every other stall.

Hey, a nativity scene! It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of these.

Smoking fresh salmon over hot coals

Warming up with hot tea and mulled wine

After a short break we headed over to the Parliament building. Yes, it was a hike, but I wanted to see the river so we walked down toward the water and the Chain Bridge. Caleb had to stop and see if the lions really were missing their tongues (from Hannah’s Cold Winter — they are!) and then we walked down the river to the HUGE Parliament building.

Josh got tickets and we had about an hour so we went around the corner to grab lunch at a cozy cafe.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes and it was gold, more gold, long hallways, gold ceilings . . . lots of gold. All the gold that is overhead and out of reach is actually gold — the bits that are down low are paint.

My camera never captures the sparkle nor the brightness of these interiors, but I keep trying.

The brass fixture at the bottom is a cigar holder so back when they used to be able to smoke inside, peeps could leave their cigars burning outside the meeting room while they went in to vote.

The voting room — students were in session doing a mock government exercise.

Right on the Danube. What a beautiful place to work.

Since we were on an opulent roll, we decided to walk over to the opera house to see if there were any tickets left for the Nutcracker. They’ve been sold out for months, but I wanted to see if anyone had canceled and turned some in to be resold.

No such luck. But the building itself is beautiful, gold leafed, and worth a visit. No more tours for us today though. Too tired.

We opted to walk up the street to the Alexandra bookstore and cafe to rest our feet. Hot chocolates and cappuccinos for everyone with live piano music and gold painted mirrors and ceilings. super fancy. If it seems that we are drinking our way through Budapest, that’s because we are. If we’re not stopping for coffee, it’s to fill our cups with some hot wine. It’s freezing here.

Not your neighborhood Barnes & Noble . . .

Chili, mint and dark hot chocolate. All great choices. (I had to taste them all)

We headed home to warm up and grab dinner. We tried to go to one restaurant on our street, but it was booked with a party so Bob pointed out a pub a few doors down that looked interesting. We went in and had some comfort food — goulash, pickles, red wine and sweet crepes for dessert.

Pickles!

All warmed up from the inside out and home to bed.
(We walked over 10 miles today!)

Life’s a zoo

Our first full day in Budapest we woke up with a week’s worth of activities, but where to start? We decided it was only fitting to go see the sight that cemented our plants to come to Budapest: the zoo. If it sounds strange that I’d choose a particular city because of a bunch of animals, this was about more than just some four-legged creatures. When I was homeschooling the boys, our curriculum used picture books as the base of learning — drawing lessons in social studies, art, language arts, science and applied math from the setting, characters, and plot of each story. A simple concept that has continued to pay off years later as even my high schooler still remembers the lessons he learned from “simple” children’s books.

As I was deciding where to go for this Christmas trip and browsing websites of various central European locations, checking out their “Top 10 things to do” lists, I came upon a photo of the Budapest zoo that looked vaguely familiar. Then it clicked — one of our school books was based on a story about Budapest during WW2 and the cover of the book was a drawing of the zoo entrance. It was meant to be. We were going to go to Budapest to visit Hannah ourselves.

So we added some extra layers (after feeling the chill the night before, we had learned our lesson) and bought a 24 hour group travel pass and headed out on the metro toward City Park and the zoo.

One of the reasons I like to stay in a place longer than 2 or 3 days is because we get more efficient as time goes on. The first day we might spend 10 minutes figuring out which direction and which platform we need, but by day 3 even Camille knows to turn left at the bottom of the escalator to get to track 3.

Calvin’s station: Caleb changing it to a ‘C’ instead of a K

We got off a stop before the zoo so we could walk through Heroes’ Square which is important for some reason, but like I said in a previous post, if it didn’t stick in my head during the research process, it’s just a place to see and experience and enjoy for its beauty. It’s a huge square with a lot of statues and it reminds me of the square near our apartment in Paris — guys on horses, weathered to a pale green Lady Liberty color.

We continued through the square and over the bridge into the park and ICE SKATING!

This is magical. We are coming back, but first to see Hannah.

We arrived at the zoo, I handed Carter the map and he brought us straight to the Hippo House. It looks just like the illustrations from the book. The story takes place during WWII and is about a special hippo named Hannah that opens her mouth wide for food every time the family goes to visit. (It’s also about how the city worked to save their hippos during a bitter winter of German occupation by feeding them straw mats, slippers and hats that the townspeople collected.)

Outside each of the buildings were bronze figures of the animals that were housed inside — it made it easy for us to figure out which building was which, even without speaking the language!

We walked into the beautiful, ornate, mosque-styled building and there were the hippos. Was it Hannah? One hippo was submerged, but the other heard us call her name and she swam right up to us and opened her mouth! Caleb yelled, “It is Hannah!”

It felt a bit like preserving the myth of Santa Claus as the older boys said, “No, it can’t be. She’d be dead by now.” I said, “I think hippos live a long time, like as long as people. Maybe she was a baby back then and she’s an old lady now . . . ” (I have since learned that although hippos do live a very long time, 40-50 years, they do not live for 70 years. But I’m only telling him if he asks.) Content with that explanation, Caleb glowed that he was face to face with his storybook Hannah as she kept opening and closing her mouth, waiting for food. It was a magical moment.

Domed mosaic ceilings and a chandelier — just like home for us

This article explains a bit more about why this zoo is unique: Budapest Zoo

Going to see the lemurs

The elephant house does not smell very good

Adorable lemurs on the loose

The emus were getting a bit too friendly!

Tropical fish in the Australia house

Free flying bats

I don’t know what this guy is, but he gave us a surprise in the bat house when he cruised by

We can not jump as far as a kangaroo. Not even close.

We loved the rest of the zoo too. Getting close to the lemurs, playful baby orangutans that had us shrieking with laughter as they wrestled and pulled each other’s wild hair, kangaroo playgrounds where we practiced our jumping, and hanging out in an actual bat cave were all unexpected pleasures.

After exploring the zoo for a few hours it was time for lunch.

Everyone is bundled up except for one very serious shirtless ping-pong player!

After lunch it was time to hit the baths (ornate yellow building). A must-do when visiting Budapest. One of the reasons the hippos thrived in the Budapest zoo is because the city is built on top of thermal hot springs which provided plenty of warm water for them to wallow in. There are spas all over the city that boast healing hot baths in both outdoor and indoor pools. The water comes out of the ground at about 70C/170F and it is mixed with cooler water to create pools ranging in temperature from around 25 – 40C (from 80 to 100 degrees F — too long overseas and I’m starting to think in Celsius!)

We entered, got our wristbands, then navigated the co-ed locker room. There are individual changing closets and then everyone uses the same locker room to store clothing. It was a bit jarring to see women and men walking around the locker room together wrapped in towels, robes and swimsuits, but that’s just because we rarely even see knees where we come from.

We got everyone changed over — thanking God I didn’t have my babies in cold climates. Wrestling with jackets, tights, layers, gloves and hats all day long is not my idea of a good time. At least at 5 Camille isn’t totally helpless, but it’s still on-off, on-off, hold my gloves, my head is hot my head is cold, where are my gloves, all day long. We entered the baths and went right for the hot pool. At 101 it wasn’t burning hot, just perfectly warm and soothing. We also tried the one across the way that was 95 degrees, but it was a bit chilly, so back to the hot pool for all of us.

My kids are excellent travelers. They may drive me crazy when they are tackling each other in the morning instead of getting dressed or when they swear they didn’t hear me ask them to take the clothes out of the dryer and fold them (both of those were this morning), but take them to a spa with a bunch of adults and they all sat and soaked just like all the 70 year old men. God bless them. Of course I reminded them that this was a spa and not a pool for swimming and splashing before we entered, but they figured it out and played along.

After some time in the indoor pool it was time to brave the cold and head outside to the ultimate hot tub. Steam rising, hot jets flowing from below, a warm fountain spraying from above . . . I think we stayed for an hour, moving from area to area around the giant pool, watching the old men playing chess (on the board that was in the pool), debating whether the statue was of a naked lady nursing a goose or if the goose was just nuzzling her armpit (really, European sculptures are weird), and taking a break from the hot water to do a long, freezing cold lap around the entire perimeter of the 3 pools before hopping back in to warm up again.

We stayed until after the sun set and then headed back inside to change over and take the metro home to grab dinner in our neighborhood.

A buddy that came home from the zoo with us: Queen Hannah, the ring-tailed lemur.

Near our apartment is Kalvin square, Kalvin metro station, and Calvin bistro!

Our apartment is right around the corner from the Grand Market — it’s like a giant farmer’s market with handicrafts on the second floor (spices, vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, souvenirs, etc). It’s closed for the evening, but lit up for Christmas. We’ll go there tomorrow.

We ended the night with dinner at a pub. There were huge baskets of peanuts on the table and Caleb couldn’t believe his great luck that he could actually drop his shells on the floor.

Lemonade (fresh juice from crushed citrus and sparkling water)

Goulash and pork for everyone. It’s the Hungarian way.

All that in one day? No wonder I’m tired!

Jet lag

I’ve written about this before, but one of the things I hate about traveling from here is that we only shift an hour or two in time zones, but we always have wicked jet lag because we have to travel in the middle of the night. Really, all the flights to go anywhere other than Dubai or Oman leave between midnight and 4am. This flight to Budapest was scheduled to leave at 2:30 am — not enough time to go to sleep before our flight, but enough time to sit around and get sleepy while Camille cried, “Can we go now?” 50 million times starting around 3 in the afternoon. She’s very excited about the trip except for the skiing part.

Meels chatting with Josie before we head out — probably showing off her toenail polish. Josie stays at our house whenever we travel and takes care of the pets. She makes our lives so much easier!

Caleb crashed before we’d even left the house. We’re in for a long night . . .

Yes, we get Christmas trees in Bahrain! They are in all the public spaces.

We headed over around 11:30pm so we could get checked in and try to rest in the airport lounge. I figure because of the way the flight is broken up into 4 hours and 2 hours (with an hour layover in the middle) no one is probably going to get more than an hour or 2 of sleep all night.

Scratch that. No one is going to be sleeping after that coffee shake. The plan is to arrive in Budapest at 8:30 am, hang on as long as the adrenaline lasts and then will either succumb to a nap or crash early. It’s the way our trips always go.

I was just drifting off when this group of women crashed in our lounge area — they weren’t going on our flight, they were super loud and there were 4 of them with a 2 year old boy that kept screaming and trying to hit his mama. They finally got a phone call and went rushing off. Because of the holidays it seemed that there were a lot more Saudi travelers than usual at our airport. Lucky Calvin slept through it all.

Why do we have all this time to sleep at the airport? Because our flight was delayed. No one was telling us why, just the sign listed a 10 minute delay that was never updated beyond that even after that time had come and gone. I was getting edgy, thinking that there must be a mechanical issue and I was going to be the test bunny after the repair. But after about an hour Josh was looking out the window at our plane (because it had been at the gate the entire time) and saw them moving a body out through one of the front doors of the plane and into a truck. So maybe someone died on the previous flight? Not that I’m happy that someone died, but I was relieved that all was fine with the plane. Sorry, dead guy.

A few minutes later they rushed us onto the plane like cattle, since we were over an hour late, and we took off. A few minutes in there was an announcement over the loudspeaker looking for any medical personnel, since someone was having an emergency on board. For a split-second I thought I might be trapped on a killer plane, like something from a Stephen King novel, but then it turned out to be nothing and we continued on. Our pilot tried to make up the time lost, but it wasn’t enough for us to make our connection. We landed just as our flight to Budapest was taking off. Oh well. More hours to spend in an airport.

We did get a meal comped by the airline to feed us while we waited. Whoppers and fries for breakfast! Why not? Our body clocks are all fouled up anyway.

Several hours later, up up and away to Budapest! This two hour fight was a smooth one except for the very end when the pilot was coming in for a landing and then changed his mind and shot back up into the sky. He came on over the loudspeaker and said there had been a sudden change in weather so he was going to try again for “a good landing.” Yes, yes. I’d definitely prefer that. As we were looking out the window and kept getting lower and lower, I was waiting to break through the clouds to see the ground. And then I saw the lines on the runway about 15 feet below and we touched down before I could even blink. Zero visibility on that one. Nice job, pilot.

All our luggage arrived along with us and we grabbed a cab to the apartment.

Our first views of Budapest. Lots of old buildings — it reminds me of Paris.

Our apartment is perfect. Under $1000 for 7 nights in a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom place right in the center of town.

Our bedroom. Chocolates on the pillows and it’s decorated for Christmas!

After dropping our luggage we added a few layers and went out to explore our neighborhood before it got dark (It’s 3pm, but it gets dark around 4:30).

There’s a yarn store around the corner — look at the name on the ball of yarn in the window! I’ll have to go buy some. It was meant to be.

The sign on the gun shop next to the yarn store. Maybe they can shop while I shop . . .

Walking up the main pedestrian street to the Christmas Market

Admiring the beautiful architecture

Getting closer, getting crowded

Christmas tree on the square

Merry Christmas 2015

And Happy Birthday to me. The end of my birthday is turning out WAY BETTER than the beginning of the day.

Stopping for mulled wine, of course.

All the booths lining the square selling everything from leather goods, to sweets, to pottery . . .

Dinner: sausages, sauerkraut, stuffed cabbage (my favorite), goulash in the bread bowl and pork with vegetables.

Topping up our mugs with lemon tea and some other version of hot grog for the walk home.

Pitch dark and it’s not even 5pm. We walked home and warmed up (gotta add extra layers and make sure to wear gloves from now on!) and I crawled in bed to relax. I was out by 5 and slept all night until 8:30 the next morning. I guess the rest of the family went out to the grocery store and explored a little more while I was in la la land, but they were all asleep by 8. Jet lag strikes again!

research

This week I’ve been diving into my Budapest travel guides and trying to gather every last bit of information before we leave. Once we’re on the ground I don’t usually rely on our books, just the list I’ve made of things we should do and any facts that have stuck in my head during the research process. It leaves me free to enjoy the holiday without having to have my nose in a book. It also means I look at monuments and say things like “the Russians built this when they occupied Hungary after WW2. They were not nice people” or “this bridge is super old and is a big deal because it’s the first one that connected the two sides of the river. Look at it.” My commentary doesn’t have a lot of depth to it. Our trips are more for learning through experience than full of historical facts. As long as they get a taste of the culture and file away experiences in their memories that they can draw on later when they do learn about those events in history, then I’ll be happy.

So far Budapest looks like it will offer us Christmas markets, natural hot springs (spas scattered all over the city), underground caves, a zoo, some parks, a Roman ruin, the Danube and its bridges, a palace, an opera house and a Parliament building, some beautiful churches/synagogues, and more museums than we would ever want to visit.

But before we head out of the country, we’ve had several Christmas events before our Winter break begins.

The kindergarten and first grade classes had a big Polar Express party. She said, “My teacher said we can wear our pajamas, but I don’t want to.” I fished out that she didn’t want to ride the bus in her pajamas (sharing a brain helped me zero right in on the problem. Would I want to ride the bus in my pjs when all the big kids were wearing regular clothes? No thank you!) As soon as I offered to drive her to school she was happy to dress for the party.

All the students got a golden ticket for the train!

The base CO came over to the school to read to the kids. After the story, the kids had 2 hours of games and other activities at stations around the room. Military members came over to help run the activities: Christmas coloring pages, writing letters to Santa, making a Christmas train out of candy (a roll of lifesavers, some mints and some hershey’s kisses — super cute!), and many others.

facepainting — this sailor was an expert, drawing stars, Rudolph, Christmas trees, and other designs on all the happy kids. (Camille asked for Rudolph.)

She was a little hesitant about seeing Santa when he arrived, but marched right up, sat on his lap, and got her candy cane and bell. I had the pleasure of escorting her and 3 of her fellow kindergartners to the various stations. They were making me smile all morning. There is something special about being a kid and just enjoying that moment, without any grownup worries as distractions.

They loved the card making table. Glitter, stickers and markers. My girls could have stayed there all morning.

But there were sugar cookies to decorate

and hot chocolate with marshmallows to drink. Just like in the book! Camille and I are having a very fun kindergarten year.

The next big Christmas event was the base party where they had the tree lighting, Santa, crafts, candy, a snow machine, live entertainment, free food . . . over the top fun.

Unless you’re this kid and the last time you were at a party here it was Halloween and everything was scary. She threw a big crying, screaming fit in the afternoon, “I’m NOT GOING!!” But I told her we had to go because I wasn’t going to let her fears get in the way of her doing fun things. So we went and she hated it.

What caused the tears to start?

A guest appearance from the cast of Frozen! No joke, Olaf made her cry. She’s crazy. As Josh would say, “Just like her mother . . . “

Slow to warm up, at least she was smiling by the end of the evening. (But still had her nervous hands in her mouth.) She was happy to head to the car the moment I decided that she had endured long enough. Lord, I don’t even know what to do with her. She’s fearless one moment, and frozen the next. Once something gets in her head, forget trying to reason her out of it. She was invited to her friend’s birthday party and she tried to casually say, “Mom, I don’t need to go. I’ve been to a birthday party before.” Too bad for her that all those excuses used to be mine. I’m not going to let her world get smaller if I can help it. Ironically, she’s super excited about going on an airplane next week. I’ll sit next to her and hope some of her enthusiasm and fearlessness rubs off on me.