Family A Journey to Forever!: Budapest, Hungary

We are all packed and ready to get on the bus for our
Fabulous Vacation to the Imperial Cities (Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna).

We took 4 suitcases with us and two of the suitcases were filled with food.
Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables too! We only had to purchase food twice on our entire 5 day
vacation. Whoot Whoot!!!! We only took 300 Euro with us (spending money) and the kids each got 50 euro spending money. We all stayed well within budget. Jeremy and I even came home with a little extra money. Yeah!!!

February 16, 2015 Our trip is finally here. We got on the bus at 5:45pm. We got there a little early so that we could choose our seats.

We wanted the very back of the bus. We were a little sad when they told us the seats were

assigned. Boo! But were super happy when they told us we had.... You guessed it the back of the BUS! Sweet!!! We left K-town at 6:00pm. I asked the kids as we drove out of town what they were most looking forward too. Kayden said, " Experiencing New Countries."

Brooklyn said, "Seeing all the New Countries."

Chandler said,"Spending time with my family."

Jeremy said, "Seeing new countries and exploring them with my Sweetheart and kids."

I personally was so excited to explore these beautiful Imperial Cities with my family.

I have done so much research and preparing that I was super excited to go and see in person all of these awesome cities.

This is how Brooklyn spent most of her time.
Listening to music and playing on her Ipod.

The boys on their electronics. Killing time on the very long bus ride.
Chandler was so smart; he downloaded movies on his device.

It was a rough night. We drove all night trying to sleep as much as we could.
But the bus stops all the time. Our first stop was 10:00-10:30pm, Then again at Midnight- 12:30am, and again at 3:00am- 3:30am, and our final stop at 5am-6am. EEEKKKK It's almost like sleeping in the hospital.
It was kind of funny. My Fitbit didn't even registered that I slept. I guess sleeping on the bus
with all the disruptive sleeping and stops doesn't equate to quality sleep. Ha!

Kayden started off with his own two seats but couldn't get comfortable
so he came back to sit next to Brooklyn . Next thing you see is the two of them all snuggled as they slept.

Chandler kind of scored he got two seats all to himself so he really slept well.

Good Morning, We arrived in Budapest, Hungry at
7:20am. The first thing we did was stop for breakfast at a beautiful hotel across from the Parliament.
When they said they would have breakfast for us we were NOT expecting a full on Breakfast Buffet.
Filled with Juice bar, Fish Bar, Fruit bar, meat & cheese, French toast, Pancakes, and Potatoes, not to mention
all the pastries and yogurts.

Kayden first order of business was eating a fish!
YUCK!!! Fish is a delicacy here in Hungary. Yeah, I think I will pass.

This was our view from our table at Breakfast.
Budapest Parliament Building. BEAUTIFUL even with all the fog.

We started our Guided tour of Budapest at 9:00am
The first half was spent on the bus as they took us to different areas in Budapest.
One of the first things we learned was Budapest was actually two different cities that became one.
Buda (The older part) was on the western bank of the Danube while Pest (the newer area) was on the eastern bank of the Danube. These two cities joined together to make Budapest. You actually pronounce it Buda-pesht.

After our bus tour we started our walking tour to the Four Corners in the
"Castle District."

Our first stop was the Matthias Church. This beautiful church has been destroyed and built several times of the last 800 years. It's a neo-Gothic Congection designed by the architect Frigyes Schulek in 1896.. The church is known by two names. The Church of Our Lady And The Matthia Church because King Matthias Corvinus married Beatrix here back in 1474.

When the Turks took it over they changed it from a Catholic Church to a mosque.
They took out any catholic symbolism and added their own. When the Turks left the Hungarian people changed the church back to Catholic.

Andrea our Tour Guide. She was awesome. We just loved her.
She loved answering all the kids questions too!

Holy Trinity Statue
This Column commemorates the people of Buda who died from two outbreaks of the Black Plague.
The top represents the Holy Trinity, below the whole column is decorated with smaller statues depicting angels, cherub like figures, and larger statues of saints.
The biblical scene is King David Praying to God that his people avoid the outbreak of the plague.

Fishermen's Bastion
The Bastion is a neo-Gothic masquerade that looks medieval. It was build as a viewing
platform in 1905 by Frigyes Schulek, the same Architect behind Matthias Church, the Bastion's name was taken from the medieval guild of fishermen responsible for defending this stretch of the castle wall. The seven gleaming white turrets represent the Magyar tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th Century.

Can you find all the Bastian's? We loved Fisherman's Bastion!

This is Fisherman's Bastion from the front. Isn't it beautiful, and majestic?

This is the Beautiful Tile on the Matthias Church.
We got this awesome pictures standing on the Fisherman's Bastion

It was kind of a foggy day so we didn't have beautiful views.
Apparently the Fishermen's Bastion is one of the places people go for breathtaking views.
Unfortunately, we went in the winter so we got Foggy Views.

The White Turrents representing the Magyar Tribes.

Kayden got to hold this Eagle.
Now if only he would get inspired to finish his Eagle for Scouts.

Cute Brooklyn exploring the grounds.

Picture of the Castle District. You can see how big it is. and we only go to
explore the bottom part.

Back on the bus... Now we are headed over to the newer part
the Pest part on the East side of the Danube River

We got to go to The Great Market Hall.
This is largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest. It is three stories.
The ground (main) floor has all the fresh produce, meats, pastries, candies, and spices. The top floor has all the restaurants and food venders as well as lots of stalls for souvenirs. The basement has all the Butchers, Fish markets, and pickles.

Andrea our tour guide told us Mr. Eiffle helped construct the market. How cool is that.
You can see all the Iron lattice. The Market use to have a canal that ran through it that the merchants would use.
This market was really cool. We only got to spend about two hours here. I wish we would have had more time.
I'm sure Jeremy is happy we didn't; he got to keep more money. Ha! The kids wanted to go shopping for some fun souvenirs However, Jeremy and I wanted to go shopping down on the main level. So we decided to split up. We told the kids to stay together and Jer and I would stay together. We did not communicate a specific time to meet just a location. It was getting close to the time we needed to get on the bus to check into our hotel and we couldn't find our kids. I was not worried they were missing. I was worried we would miss the time to catch our bus and have to figure out where our hotel was. I was praying so hard that we would find the kids and make it to the bus on time. God answered our prayer and we found the kids and made it back on the bus before they left. **** Note to self. Do not split up until you have a meeting place AND time.*****

They had so many options for paprika all different flavors and spices.
It was so fun to shop here. We picked up a couple different paprika's to try.

The Great Synagogue. It's the world's second biggest synagogue.
We didn't get to explore it but it looked beautiful.

We are all full of Drama in front of the Hungarian State Opera House
or in Budapest it's called Magyar Allami Operahaz

This is the back side of St. Stephen's Basilica

The Front Side of St. Stephen's Basilica
St. Stephen's Basilica is the largest Church in Budapest. It's dedicated to the First king of Hungary.
The basilica stands 315 feet tall making it one of the tallest buildings in Hungary. There is only one other building that stands as tall as the Basilica; the Hungarian Parliament. The Basilica can hold 8,500 people at a time. Wow, that is crazy to me. It's beautiful decorated in a Neoclassical style.

Jeremy and the Kids in the front courtyard of St. Stephen's Basilica
We got to explore the inside of the Basilica.

Beautiful Alter.

The Center Dome

Stained glass with the Royal Crown of Hungary.

The Basilica has amazing Acoustics. I would have loved to heard a concert here.
There were some available but not in the time we had. Bummer.

The Holy Right Hand of St. Stephen King of Hungary

Budapest Castle across the river. We just didn't have enough time to explore everything we wanted too.
I would have loved to explore the Castle.

We also got to tour Heroes Square
Hero square is the largest and most symbolic square in Budapest and contains the Military Monument.
The pillar is 36m high. The male statue means "War".
The female statue is "Peace".
It also represents the 7 tribes of Magyar.
It also has a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Bastianclan in front of Heroes Square

Andrea told us the horses were not this big or strong. They are descendants of Mongolia so the horses would have been much smaller. So this was the Artist Vision and was not realistic. The Artist wanted the horses to be big and strong.

The kids at the Lion at the beginning of the Chain Bridge.

Budapest came alive at night. The fog lifted and it was BEAUTIFUL!

This is the Beautiful Chain Bridge
It is a suspension bridge that spans the river Danube between Buda and Pest.
It combines the Western (Buda) and Eastern (Pest) sides.