I'm packin' it in!

No, I'm not giving up and throwing in the towel! (We still love it here.) Glenn and I are going camping this weekend and I am too old to sleep on the ground and not feel sore for the next week so I am packing everything in our car to make sure I am comfortable while out in the woods!





We are going camping for 3 nights in the northern part of Czech Republic with two of our families who work there so Glenn went out and bought a mega travel map book to make sure we could get there. We have not done much driving outside of Budapest since we usually take trains, planes or buses for our travels so we are definitely driving outside our "comfort zone"! Don't you think a GPS would make a nice Christmas present for Glenn???





Before leaving our house, we harvested our grapes from the vines and picked the last of our apples from our Golden Delicious tree. (We still have a pear tree and another kind of apple tree that are not yet ripe. Our strawberries are STILL producing (since MAY!) and our blackberries are just now beginning to come in.)





We drove 3 hours up to Brno (I'd like to buy a vowel, please!) in the southeast part of Czech Republic and met up with the Youngs, the family with whom we are spending our first night, at this parking lot for the Haribo company. Do you recognize the logo? It is for the gummi bears that I used to eat when I was in middle school and lived in Germany!!! Gummi bears have been one of my favorite memories from living in Germany, and I was thrilled when they showed up in America at Wal-mart!





This car was parked in the parking lot of the Haribo company. As much as I love gummi bears, I don't think I could drive this car myself. Not in public anyway.





And news from Budapest:
Crushed ice has arrived in BP! Our local Kentucky Fried Chicken now sells soft drinks with crushed ice. On top of that, they have a fountain where you serve yourself and there are free refills!!!!!

Honestly, I see more and more things "like in America" the longer we are here. In the grocery store, we can now buy things in bulk, which is wild because earlier we could not buy anything in a decent size. As time passes, the sizes get bigger and bigger.


Well, we head out in the morning to go camping so next weeks' blog will have pictures of our days in the woods with the Youngs and Johnsons. After our time in the woods, we will spend a day or two with the Johnsons in their town, and then visit with a few of our families on our way back to BP. We get back home next Friday evening.


My dad will celebrate his birthday this week while we are out camping so I want to wish him a very happy birthday a little early since I won't be able to call him on the 4th. I hope he has a great day and knows that I love him.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POP!

It was so fun!

Kari and Jonathan returned to France two days ago (Friday) but I still have pictures of the end of our time with them. Earlier in the week we went on a dinner cruise on the Danube River.





It was very nice, not too crowded, food was good, and the outside temperature a little warm until the sun started setting later in the evening.






We opted for dinner outside. There was also a small "band" and a little space for dancing, most of which was done by the guests who were enjoying their drinks a little too much.





We took the evening cruise which leaves the dock at 7:30 pm and returns at 9:30 pm so we got to enjoy the cooler weather and the sun as it was setting. Notice the huge, well-let building up on the hill? That is the castle, formerly the Royal Palace. Actually, it is 3 castles that have been built on top of each other, the first being built in the 13th century. The President's office is located on Castle Hill but he does not live there.




On Wednesday, the day before Hungary's biggest national holiday, we went into town to watch the qualifying rounds of the Red Bull Air Races.

It started with some fancy flying by four planes, much like the Blue Angels.

The official air show and races were on Thursday but we got to watch them practice on Wednesday with only half the crowd! The races were over the Danube River, between the Chain Bridge and the Margaret Bridge. If you look closely, you can see the pylons (underneath the bridge) through which planes flew, being timed and scored for their precise maneuvers. The planes fly UNDER the Chain Bridge, then around and around the pylons in a specific order toward the Margaret Bridge, then do a loop in the air before reversing the whole process, and ending up by flying back under the Chain Bridge. We had great "seats" right next to the Chain Bridge where we could see the planes go right under it!

This is another view of the Castle district as it overlooks the Chain Bridge. In the distance, you can see the Margaret Bridge.

On Thursday, Saint Stephen's Day, and through Sunday, there were probably a thousand booths set up through out the castle area and then winding down the hillside to the river. It is a big festival that draws people from all over. And you thought Kari and Jonathan came from France to see us???

Anyway...

...we spent Thursday morning and early afternoon just wandering through the castle grounds and the cobblestone walkway that descends through the park on the side of the hill. Everything for sale in the booths was hand-made in Hungary! Everything from soaps to jewelry, baskets, furniture, clothing, cards, purses, shoes, scarves, pottery, blown eggs, etc.

They also had genuine artisans on hand to demonstrate their craft. My favorite is the potter at his wheel.

I also loved the basket weaving, but how many baskets can a person use? Always one more!

This is a very family-friendly festival in that they have plenty of things for the kids to do. They had games, all home- and hand-made, such as this mechanical labyrinthe for the kids to play.

They even have places where the kids can try their hands at making things. It was amazing! They had places where kids could make paper or felt, make cornhusk dolls, paint eggs, weave, spin a potter's wheel, and a lot more that I can't remember. My kids would have loved this when they were little.

They even had things for BIG KIDS to try!

While we were on the top of the castle district, we wandered to the edge to take some pictures. Here, the wall is about 3 feet thick and I am about 5 feet short. I had trouble seeing over the edge so Glenn, being the helpful husband he is, gave me a hand.

Literally.

And this is the view over the wall.

We had a really good time checking out the booths and eating some of the local foods but we didn't want to spend all day there because we didn't want to get too tired. There were fireworks at 9 pm that evening, so we wanted to get out of the sun, go home and rest, and come back that night to sit on the banks of the river to watch all the fireworks.

Good idea, but once we got home-we collapsed and never made it back into town. Instead, we watched the fireworks on t.v.! They were awesome, and had I realized they would be as good, as long and as pretty as they were, I would have made the effort to go back into town. Oh well, we learned. Next year!!

While K & J were with us, we made two batches of vanilla ice cream.

Of all the purchases I've ever made, this $2 electric 4 quart ice cream maker is the BEST!

I made the ice cream while Kari made the cherry cobbler (using cherries out of our freezer that came from our tree). Every night, almost by clockwork, Jonathan would head to the basement to get the ice cream...We will miss our nightly ritual of ice cream, but we will miss Kari and Jonathan even more!

They left Friday but will be back to spend Christmas with us, as will Chris and Kate from New Jersey. We will have a house full, but I'll never complain because I cherish each visit with my kids. I am NOT looking forward to our family living on 3 different continents. It's bad enough that Chris and Kate are across the ocean. Kari and Jonathan will no longer be "just a country or two away" once J graduates and they move to Senegal.

Well, the Stevens are still in America and so we still have Eden House responsibilities, but this is the Doyles' weekend to cover so I am going to my bedside table-once I finish this blog-and choose from all the books I'm reading right now and curl up on the couch and read, read, read.

There are not many things better than curling up with a good book, especially when the weather has turned cooler, which it has! The sky is overcast, the wind is blowing and the chimes are singing. Ahhh, this is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice (and relax!) and be glad in it!

AMEN!

Wonderful Week!

This has been a wonderful week! We have had a great time with Kari and Jonathan and hate to see them return to France on Saturday. In the meantime, we are taking advantage of every moment to do as much as we can, and for starters, we made homemade ice cream. Do folks do that anymore in America?


Ice for sale at the local gas station!

We can buy ice at Tesco (British version of Walmart) for $1.50 a bag or $2.50 at the nearby Shell gas station. (I would do better to buy the ice at the gas station because I spend way more than a dollar each time I go to the grocery store!) Seeing those freezers full of bags of ice is one of those rare things that remind me of life in America but that seems so out of place here. It just kind of surprises me since the Hungarians, like most Europeans, don't use ice in their drinks. Makes me wonder what they do with bags of ice!



Another thing we can buy here that I don't get is a version of salsa but I have yet to see anything on a restaurant menu that resembles tacos or nachos. Why do they sell salsa? I think it is because of all the Americans in the country so they import it for them. A small jar that holds about 1 1/2 cups costs about $2.75 and is sweet rather than hot. We make our own from scratch. Well, from peppers and tomatoes.



Glenn and Jonathan spent an hour slicing and dicing all the ingredients for the salsa and cooked it outside one evening to keep our kitchen from getting so hot. YUM! It is so good.

Kari has been spoiling us by cooking all of her specialties for us. She made us some orange glazed sweet yeast rolls for breakfast one morning. How can someone so young be such a good cook? She has a great recipe blog that she updates regularly. It is kind of like a recipe book of all her great recipes. In fact, I have encouraged her to publish her own cookbook because I think they are so good! I also tell all my friends here in Europe about her recipe blog because the recipes call for scratch ingredients that we can get here, whereas recipe books in the U.S. call for things like Lipton Onion Soup packets, Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix, Velveeta cheese, etc., all of which are not available in our part of the world.

Isn't she beautiful?

Well, in addition to cooking for us, Glenn and I have put Kari and Jonathan to work helping with various projects around our house and up at the Eden House ever since they arrived (today Jonathan transplanted a rose bush for me) so we decided they deserved a break (and we wanted one too) so we went into downtown on Saturday for the day.

With book in hand, we went on one of the 5 walking tours with Glenn as our trusted guide. We took the tour through Watertown, on the bank of the Danube River.

I loved this row boat tied to a bigger boat next to the sightseeing sign. Some expensive sightseeing tour!

I was amazed at the layers of stucco over the rock walls. Some of these buildings are 200-300 years old, and look it too! I love the "oldness" of the buildings.

Kari loved the flowers and taking "creative" pictures.

Jonathan and I look closely at the layers of rock and stone.

We saw lots and lots and lots of statues of famous people...

...and the head of a statue lying on the front stoop of a building in disrepair. A little later we saw a statue that was missing its' head in someone's yard. How does one go about getting an old statue for their yard? I'd love to have one. Is there a graveyard for old statues from a hundred years ago???

Saw several old churches; some were beautiful!

Saw engraved pictures on the fronts of some of the buildings above or beneath windows.

Walked through a couple of small parks tucked in and among neighborhoods and admired the beautiful flowers, bushes and trees. Saw these 3 two liter bottles filled with water, inverted and stuck in the dirt around the roots of a recently planted tree. Never seen this before. Have you?

And of course, a walk through town would not be complete without a pass in front of Parliament.

Kari pulled up Google Earth and calculated that we walked about 6 miles on our tour.

We enjoyed watching the sun go down toward the end of our long walk. It was only when the sun started setting that the weaather cooled off!

After walking for several hours, we took a small detour to one of our favorite ice cream places. Not only is their ice cream delicious, but it is also beautiful! They make them look like roses with petals.

After all that walking, we desperately needed somewhere to sit to rest our weary feet and backs. Kari and Jonathan found a place!

We got home that evening and collapsed in front of the T.V.. I don't think I moved out of my chair all night!

Sunday morning we went to the Danube International Church because their worship service is in English and we thought Kari and Jonathan would enjoy worshipping in English once again. Yes, Kari and Jonathan would enjoy it...and so would Glenn and me! They are currently meeting in a public high school.

I must admit-this was the first time I've ever gone to church with a disco ball hanging from the ceiling! It added a little pizzaz to the setting.

After church the Doyles invited us out to lunch as their guests. We went to this quaint little Hungarian restaurant about 4 miles from our house.

Tomorrow night we are taking them on a dinner cruise down the river. Later in the week is the biggest national holiday and we'll be in the middle of all the food, fireworks and festivities! I'll have lots of pictures to show you next Sunday. Give you something to look forward to, I hope!

She's occupied right now...

Blogger in chief...and in absentia

I know you came here to read Cile's blog. You wanted to know what Cile's been up to - and maybe even her sidekick Glenn. Well folks, the hard truth is that Cile won't be updating this week. Don't get me wrong. She cares about you blog readers and wants to keep you updated, but she's occupied at the moment.


Glenn and Cile in Germany

Notice I said 'occupied' but not 'busy'. She's actually laying on the futon bed with her eyes closed getting an osteopathic manipulative treatment from her son-in-law, Jonathan. He and his wife (that's me!) arrived yesterday from France. After dinner I started to wash dishes, but Mom offered me a trade: I update the blog, she does the dishes. Deal. But then Jonathan offered to work on her back and neck so Dad took over the dishes.


Us (that's Jonathan and Kari) arriving in Budapest

Count 'em: that's 1 person doing dishes, 1 person updating her blog, 1 person treating her back pain. Three people loving on Mom right now. So you can understand why blogging's not her top priority at the moment.

So what can I tell you about this past week in the life of Cile? I looked through the pictures on her camera and saw that at the AGM in Germany she spent time with friends, saw beautiful scenery, and also got to see these cool people:


Jesse and Julie!


And Renae!


Renae, say cheese!


What's that? You said you want to come visit Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Kari?

So that's a short update from me (Kari) to tide you over until the real Blogger in chief returns. Have a great week!