Wrapping up the party (final Borders fam trip update)

Checking out the sights and swapping manly stories. (I heard mention of waffles too.)

They say all good things must come to an end, but they are wrong. Chris and Kate are now safely back in Tennessee and we're back in Lyon (safely as well - thank you for asking) and my parents are back on the road. But to think of this wonderful time as a family coming to an end is too hard, so I prefer to say that it has simply come to a pause. Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad. We love you.


Chris and Kate bringing out the goods.


Men. Meat. Grill.


Dinner is served - and the corn was Iowa-good. And yes - that's rabbit. My parents' neighbor gave it to Dad to thank him for cutting her grass.


Can you tell I was the one who set up the camera timer to commemorate this family dinner while everyone else was busy digging in?


Vaci street


The House of Terror. No seriously. This isn't like my other dramatic interpretations of life events (the chairlift, the ferris wheel...), this is the former headquarters for the secret police of both the Nazi and Communist governments.


Saturday market on the Chain Bridge…


…and a very good lunch at the Saturday market.


Lion on the Chain Bridge


These pastries - oh these pastries - are a thin yeast dough baked over hot coals before your eyes, then drenched in cinnamon sugar. Careful! They're hot-hot-hot.


The kolache cooker himself


Come on - you know this one. The Parliament building!


Headed to Saint Stephen's from Treehugger Dan's. (I want to be Treehugger Dan when I grow up. )


Saint Stephen's


Inside Saint Stephen's


Kavé break at Gerbeaud - the place for coffee in Budapest.


People have been drinking coffee at this very spot, Vörösmarty tér, since 1870.


How do you take your kavé?


Bikes, photographed while the rest of the crew spent forever and a day in some camping/outdoor gear store that had nothing of interest for me.


House church on Sunday


Our "church pew". We're back couch Baptists.

Have no fear, y'all (Borders fam trip, part XI)

One of the best-known qualities of the Borders fam is that we're pretty down-to-earth people. Fancy and uppity just aren't in our gene pool. (Want evidence? Ask Mom how many old cars Chris had piled up around the yard.)

So I'm sure some of you have been concerned that all this travel and culture might change or refine us.

Let me put your fears to rest, dear friends.


Dancing with statues from the former communist regime in Budapest

Memento Park is one of the most popular stops on the tourist map in Budapest, and it happens to be near my parents' house. We made our way up there with Chris and Kate and walked among the statues of Karl Marx, Béla Kun, Lenin, Friedrich Engels... On our way in we passed the gift shop, the Red Star Store, stocked with unique communist era paraphernalia. Want a candle shaped like Lenin's head? Maybe a cd of the 'Best of Communism Revolution Songs' or a Workers' Movement t-shirt that says 'We buy anything with a handle on it - it means work!'?


Poster, anyone?

I think one of the highlights of the park, at least for Jonathan, Dad and Chris, were the training videos used by the Hungarian secret police. Back in the days of communism, the Ministry of Interior Affairs had its own film studio where several hundred short and full-length films were produced between the years 1958 and 1988.. And they got to watch four of them:

1. The way to hide bugs
2. Introduction to house-searching
3. Methods of recruitment
4. Effective networking

Mom and I watched two films, then decided we'd learned about all we wanted to for one day on the Hungarian communist era so walked home as they finished out the films. So if you want to know how to recruit a secret agent, don't ask us.


source: www.mementopark.hu

Once upon a time not quite so long ago, strange figures adorned the squares and street corners of Budapest. Twenty years ago, everyone in Hungary was required by law to respect the persons depicted, and even the statues themselves. They were grotesque reminders of the glory and the horror of the communist ideal and its impact on Hungary.

source: www.mementopark.hu

Budapest’s answer to these hated monuments of the communist regime was of thoughtful historical foresight. Instead of breaking every last statue down to bits, it enshrined a representative collection of items – depictions of Lenin, Marx, Engels, Dimitrov and monuments of the proletarian regime – in a new museum called Statue Park. In the last fifteen years this cultural and touristic center, now known as Memento Park, has grown with a new showroom, screening room and other interesting sights, and receives tens of thousands of visitors each year.
(source: Budapest Funzine)

Jonathan takes a rest next to Lenin


The entrance
source: www.mementopark.hu


Chris and Jonathan at my favorite statue

How to say 'Evel Knievel' in Hungarian (Borders fam trip, part X)

Off we go! My parents were in the chair lift ahead of us.

After being harassed mercilessly by my sister-in-law Julie about my fear of heights, I decided to take yet another daring feat. Well, kind of. What actually happened was...

We saw a picture in a guidebook of this couple riding down a beautifully sloping hill overlooking the city. It said they were on the Zugliget chair lift. I said it sounded like fun, so it was added to the list of things we wanted to do. It wasn't until we got to the highest point in Budapest (1736 feet above sea level) and were next in line for the chair lift that I realized exactly what a chair lift is. I don't know what I thought it was - but certainly not a flimsy seat hanging on for dear life to a wire that is also supporting a bunch of other chair lifts and tushes within.

But I survived.

It was actually wonderful and one of the highlights of the whole Borders Fam Trip 2008 for me.


Surviving - even smiling!


Look Julie - no hands!


Chris and Kate hopping off. Such a family of daredevils.

So you may be asking how one gets to THE highest point in Budapest. The answer is oh-so-simple. If you're starting from my parents' house, you'd take the bus to tram 56. Ride the tram across town, passing through Moszkva ter and going on to the Fogaskereku Vasut stop. Change to the Cogwheel Railway and ride it up to Szechenyi-hegy. Then get on the Children's Railway and ride it to János-hegy Station. Proceed on foot to Erzsébet Tower. And let me tell you - that proceeding will take you straight up.


The kids goofing around while we waited for the train. The adults (Dad and Jonathan) were off searching for a kavé hit.


Waiting for the train


The 'rents on the cogwheel train ride to Szechenyi-hegy Station.


After the two trains and the hike up, the stairs up the Erzsébet Tower await you at the very tip-top of the city.




The family art of the self-portrait




Taking it all in...and trying not to blow away. That wind was fierce!


Resting from the hike up and trying to hide from the wind

Budapest by water and by night (Borders fam trip, part IX)

Tuned in to the English tour guide channel and ready to go!

Back in Budapest, we decided to see the city at night. We started by taking a river cruise on the Danube and then drove up to the citadel. It's one of the highest points in the city - but not THE highest point. I braved that one a few days later...stay tuned, y'all.


All a-borders!


The Parliament building...more on that to come later. (I know - you're uber-thrilled at the prospect of more updates from this trip.


Up close and Parliamental


Sunset at about 9pm


Castle Hill




The Chain Bridge...or if you want to show off, you can call it by its Hungarian name: Széchenyi lánchíd. It spans the Danube between Buda and Pest. It opened in 1849 - the first permanent bridge across the Danube in Budapest.


Les Masson


I'm not sure how Mom managed this shot, but I love it!


Three amigos. Lest you think they were just this happy and chummy and we caught them in a candid shot, I can assure you they were just making fun of us camera-happy girls.


Budapest under the moon, taken from the citadel above the city


More cowbell Masson!





Chris and Kate, late at night, this close to turning into Hungarian pumpkins.