A great week!

This picture should give you a clue as to what we did this week...

I ended last week's entry with David running in the Budapest 2011 marathon and Glenn, Debbie and me following him around the route to cheer him on. He didn't think it outrageously funny when the rest of us made comments about how sore and tired our feet were, at least not as funny as we did!

We figured he would be a little sore the day after the race so on Monday we went to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths.

Since we got a late start (somebody was awfully tired and sore and slept late! ME!), we decided to pack a lunch and eat a picnic in the park on the grounds of the baths. Why do sandwiches always taste better when eaten on a picnic???

We enjoyed going from one pool to another (they have different minerals in them and are different temperatures too) soaking in each one to get the various medicinal benefits they have to offer. We tried a couple of saunas too. I prefer the one with the eucalyptus aroma but the room is so foggy that I can't see where I am sitting. I'm always afraid I'm going to sit on someone's lap (other than Glenn's) by accident!

We stayed until our hands were like prunes and we were totally relaxed! Ahhhh!

After a couple of days of working from our home, we noticed the weather was about to turn cold and nasty so we planned a day in town to show David and Debbie the sights of the city. With a trusty map and our cute looking guide (Glenn), we headed into town for the day.

My daughter, Kari, discovered this perfect spot for taking family photos with the Parliament building in the background.

And it's been at least two months since I showed any photos of the tourist sites in town, so please bear with me ONCE AGAIN. This is of the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, my favorite bridge in town. (There are 8 bridges that cross the Danube River in the downtown area.) The Szechenyi bridge, completed in 1849, was the first permanent stone-bridge connecting the city of Buda on one side with the city of Pest on the other side of the river, and today is the most well-known bridge in Hungary.

Just north of the Szechenyi Chain Bridge is the Margaret Bridge (Margit Bridge, in Hungarian) and just beyond that bridge is the Margaret Island, which today is a city park that is popular with joggers, lovers, frisbee throwers, tourists and local citizens alike. Margaret Island sits in the middle of the Danube River, a short walk from the gorgeous Parliament building.

We spent some time up on Castle Hill overlooking the Danube River and the city of Budapest. It must have been a school holiday in several of our neighboring countries because we saw and heard many tour groups of high school students speaking different languages.

These 3 tourists are looking over at Fisherman's Bastion.

The white-stoned Fisherman's Bastion, is described as being Disney-esque because it is full of turrets, projections, parapets and climbing stairways. (That word "parapets", I got from a web site; it's a real word. I didn't make it up. It means "a defensive wall or elevation, often made of earth or stone, in a fortification." It was built in 1905. The seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that came to Hungary in 896 that eventually joined together to form Hungary, or Magyarorszag ... as it is called in Hungarian.

This monument, Shoes on the Danube Promenade, commemorates the death of Hungarians shot by the terrorizing Arrow Cross party in the winter of 1944-45. Containing 60 pairs of iron shoes, the monument is about 40 meters long. Even though this is not the only location where people were killed and dumped into the river (to save them the trouble of burials), it is symbolic of all the victims who were told to take off their shoes before being shot (because shoes were valuable belongings at that time). The iron shoes were placed on the bank of the Danube River in 2005.

A magnificent sight in the late afternoon with the sun reflecting off the words of Christ, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life", St. Stephen's Basilica is the largest church in Budapest and the second largest in the country. It is dedicated to Hungary's first king, St. Stephen, who is credited with bringing Christianity in 1000 to the seven warring tribes that came together to form Hungary.

More known for housing Hungary's most sacred treasure, the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, than for any worshipful experience or its' extravagant gold inlays inside, the church is a favorite among tourists and a must-see for those who out-of-curiosity want to see the mummified hand. It took 5 decades to complete and 3 architects to build due to several unfortunate mishaps, including a collapsed dome and 2 wars (the 1848-49 Revolution and the War of Independence). It was finally completed in 1906.

After all this sightseeing, of course we had to "show" Debbie and David the famous and delicious Kurtoskalacs! Sweet bread strips deftly wrapped around a wooden spindle, slowly baked until puffy and golden brown, unceremoniously dredged in cinnamon sugar, coconut flakes or chopped walnuts, and then while still scorchingly hot, slid into a cylindrical plastic bag, easy for pulling apart to devour, these Hungarian delicacies are the best!!! (How was that, Kari?) Glenn calls it Decadence on a Stick.

And while we were in town, we saw quite a few of these three-wheeled bicycle-carts for hauling tourists around whose shoes were not designed for hours and hours of walking on our cobblestone streets. This is a NEW thing for Budapest, having arrived this past summer. Don't they add class to the landscape of our city? At least they could have made them to fit in a little better with the quaintness of the architecture or chosen a more appropriate color, such as tan or beige!

While at the bus stop, Glenn and I enjoyed a good laugh. This is an advertisement of an American Express credit card, complete with a very popular Hungarian name. That's a little funny to me.

But it's sad that Hungarians are following too closely and too quickly in the debt-filled footsteps of overextended westerners, and it's especially sad that they are being encouraged to get it the American way-with an AMERICAN Express credit card.

Made my weekly way to Judit's house for some more English conversation on Tuesday. I really enjoy her friendship, but I have to keep reminding her to speak in English as much as she can; after all, that was the original point of my going to her house each week I am in town! It's amazing how much Hungarian I can understand! Anyway, I never plan ahead what we will talk about because there's usually enough going on at her house to keep us talking for an hour. Such as her flowering plants that are EVERYWHERE inside and around her house!

And this week, she learned the all-important English word "hedgehog". Now, how many times in her lifetime will she need to know the English word for this prickly little fellow? They found him lying on their driveway, drunk from pigging out on the rotting (fermented) figs fallen from the trees in their yard. It was really hard to get excited about petting this little creature. His quills are stiff and painful if you rub him wrong!

One day this week I took Debbie and a couple of ladies staying at the Eden House to a pottery outlet and we stopped for lunch at a roadside kiosk that makes from scratch the delicious langos that you've read about several times here on my blog. Sorry, the picture isn't light enough for you to see the four sweet batter langos deep-fat frying in oil!

The langos are light and fluffy but they sit pretty heavy in the stomach once they are laden with sour cream, ham bits or salmai (as pictured above), shredded cheese and garlic sauce! YUM!

After all my raving about it, I was relieved that Linda, Debbie and Jessie enjoyed the Hungarian specialty as much as I do

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After almost a week of sunshine and unseasonably warm (mid-to upper 70's) temperatures, Saturday turned out cool and slightly overcast. Perfect for working out in the yard. But that's NOT me out there planting Jonquil and Daffodil bulbs under the apple tree in with Glenn. No, that is Debbie! She lives in an apartment in Moscow and misses being able to play in the dirt so she was thrilled to "have the opportunity" to work in the yard, which she did for hours and hours on Saturday! After having traveled so much this summer and early fall, our yard was in sad shape. Not sure why we planted Pansies since we will only be in Budapest for 14 nights between now and January 1. (No joke.) Who will be here to enjoy them???

We invited the Doyles, Jessie and, of course, David and Debbie who are still staying with us while waiting on their visas for Russia, for lunch on Sunday. I used a recipe from Elaine (who used to live here in Budapest) for a Mexican Chicken casserole. It seems all our personnel love Mexican food!

We leave on Tuesday for Serbia for a week. David and Debbie will still be here, waiting on those visas. Be back soon!

Run! Run! Run!

This past week we were in Germany for Emigrate, a conference for our first-termers. I was successful at finding Sour Sticks (Brause Stachen), the candy I used to eat when I lived in Germany in middle school! Yea!

For the security of our personnel who live in closed countries, I can't show you any pictures of the meeting or the people who attended, but Asya allowed me to post her picture! She is Bulgarian and came to provide childcare while parents were in meetings, but in her real life she is in school to become a massage therapist. Do you believe I asked her to "practice" on me? You betcha! And I found out she used to live in Marietta, Georgia for two years!!

On another note ... when we arrived at the conference in Rehe, Germany, Glenn realized he'd left his beige windbreaker somewhere in the Frankfurt airport. At the end of Day 1 of the conference, Glenn couldn't find his fleece jacket that he'd left somewhere in the hotel. Two lost jackets in two days. Good thing the weather was nice!

Well, the day before we left Germany, after a dozen people asked him if he'd checked for his fleece jacket at the front desk of the hotel, he found his way down there, not really expecting to find it there. It had been turned in! Yea!

And then when we were about to fly back to Budapest, Glenn decided, on a whim and a wild shot, to check the lost and found at the airport. He found his jacket! Boy, was he happy! Can you imagine how much fun I would have had teasing him about losing everything!?!

The day after we returned from Germany, we were expecting Debbie and David to arrive to stay with us for 10 days while they re-apply for another visa for their country, so ... Glenn and I had a ton of things to do on Friday before they arrived on Saturday at 5 pm. We ran to the grocery store to stock up on fresh fruit, veggies and dairy products, and then for the rest of the day we made a huge pot of applesauce for freezing (apples were less than 25 cents per pound!!!!), baked an apple cake and a batch of brownies, made hummus, brewed a gallon of sweet ice tea, made from scratch 2 pounds of sausage patties and cooked them up, mixed up a double batch of biscuits, cooked and deboned chicken, and using the crock pot, made some southern pulled pork barbecue. By time I crawled into bed at midnight, I was exhausted and my feet were screaming, "Get off of me!"

I had to get all this stuff done on Friday because on Saturday morning and afternoon, we were helping the our friends, the Pollards, move from our neighborhood out to a house closer to the Christian school where their kids attend.

I spent the morning and afternoon sweeping spider webs from the ceilings, dusting the baseboards, window sills and closets, cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms, and mopping floors. I had such a good day!

David and Debbie arrived on time, and I was home in time, showered, and in the kitchen preparing dinner when they got to our house. :-)

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David had registered for the Budapest Marathon (42.2 kilometers) that was on Sunday morning, beginning at 11 am so we all went into town to cheer him on.

There were different kinds of "runs", such as the full marathon, a half-marathon, Family Fun Run, Team relays, and a Kids Run and a race for those who are handicapped. In the FULL marathon that David ran, there were 3,000 runners!!! Can you imagine how many people were participating in all? Downtown Budapest was packed!

This is David's "heat" as he approached the starting line.

We were able to see David at 3 different points along the race and at the finish line as he crossed it! (David is in the third green shirt, on the center line.) He made it in 4 hours and 45 minutes! We are so proud of him, and we had a blast! Walking around in the hot sun, cheering joggers on for almost 5 hours would not have been much fun except that we knew someone, and that made all the difference. It was really a fun afternoon!!

Tomorrow, we are going to a thermal spa for David!

I'm so domestic!

We were in town for a week and had lots to do but it was all fun stuff ...like having several families down from the Eden House for a meal, or going over to Dan and Janet's for a meal (since we haven't seen them in about 2 months!!!!).

I love talking with our kids on Skype amd getting caught up on their news, but especially the times when their babies are awake and we get to see them. It's amazing to Glenn and me how much Jazmine and Alec have grown just in the past 3-5 weeks since we've seen them!

Speaking of our kids, today is our son's birthday! We called Chris this morning at 7:30 am his time in New Jersey, but he was already at the hospital doing his rounds so all we could do was leave him our birthday wishes. We hope he had a good day and knows that we wish we could be there to celebrate with him, Kate and Jaz.

Judit, my Hungarian friend, invited me over to pick figs off her tree so I hauled Glenn over there on Thursday with my jumbo-size Tupperware bowl. I've never eaten a fig by itself before but I loved Glenn's mother's strawberry fig preserves that she used to make. I looked up the recipe on the internet and found that the figs never met a strawberry. What I mean is, there are no strawberries in the recipe but that you use strawberry jello (which I'm sure never met a strawberry either!) to flavor it.

Anyway, I cut up the figs (about 16 cups) and added 8 cups of sugar (yep, you read that right) and boiled them all together for about 30 minutes until it made a nice syrup and the figs were soft. I added 3 boxes of Jello (from America) and one strawberry gelatin packet (from Hungary), and one Sure-Jell (from America) and boiled for another 2 minutes.

While the preserves were still piping hot, I ladled them into canning jars, closed the lids tightly, and then placed the canning jars upside down in a basket lined with a thick beach towel (not that it matters to my fig story, but my mom and dad gave me that beach towel in 1994 so it has been around for a long time and we use it often. It's especially nice because it is a double-wide beach towel!)

Then we wrapped it again with a blanket and stuck it out of the way to let it cool down slowly for 3 days. The hot preserves and the slow cooling down process insures that a nice vacuum seal forms on the jars and then the jars can be stored in a cabinet until ready to eat.

And now I have 13 jars of strawberry fig preserves to share and enjoy for the next 3 years!!!! But aren't they pretty??? I feel so domestic!

Glenn and I left for Germany on Sunday morning for a week.

We flew Malev, the Hungarian airline, on a 7:55 am flight to Frankfort. It's a pretty nice airline, but I got tickled when I saw the tiny amount of lettuce on my cheese sandwich!

We are attending an Emigrate, a conference for our personnel who have been on the field about 9-12 months; kind of a refresher course on strategy and vision, and a time of encouragement. We are doing member care appointments with everyone.

And when we got to Frankfort, I was tickled again when I saw this sign that points to "Other Directions"!!! What??? Some things are just funny to me, and this was hilarious!

Well, off to bed. Morning comes early here and I've got a full day tomorrow. I'm having a great time getting to know all these "new" folks since it is a pretty small group (18 people, plus those of us who are facilitating, speaking or working). We head home on Friday.

Have a great week!

I see London, I see France...

After a few days with Andy and Kaye, we went to the south side of London to spend a day or two with our boss and his wife, Mike and Julie. Glenn spent one day in the London office with Mike, asking questions, going over budgets, making plans for the future...

and then the day we were to fly out, they took us to the British coast to see the cliffs! We didn't go as far as the famous white cliffs of Dover, but almost. We saw some pretty impressive white cliffs!

The cliffs are chalk (pure calcium carbonate with black flecks of flint) and the water close to them is a whitish green because of all the chalk "dust". It was quite an awesome sight for miles and miles.

The cliffs, 10 miles long, drop as much as 107 meters down into the Strait of Dover, which separates England from France.

I was not about to trespass beyond the wire fence. Going to the edge of the cliffs is very dangerous as it can break off and plummet into the water below. This is also where some folks have committed suicide. I preferred to go down to the water's edge and look UP, rather than go to the edge and look DOWN.

We had taken a sack lunch and found a nice roadside park next to a sheep pasture for our scenic picnic. It was quite lovely. And quite a surprise to see a phone booth out in the country!! Who makes calls from out there? The shepherds??

And before we left London, Elaine (who used to live down the street from us in Budapest) and Julie took me to Costco! Can you believe it??? It was like I had walked into America. Even though I had recently been to America (three times, actually), I managed to buy a few items. Surprised, are you?

Then we got on a train and went to France via the Chunnel. It is called the Chunnel because it is a 50 kilometer tunnel built underneath the English Channel. Even though evidence shows the first mention of building a tunnel connecting France and England as early as 1802, construction did not begin until 1988. Yes, 180 years later. The Chunnel was 80% over budget when it was finally completed in 1994.

I love riding on trains. I think they are my favorite mode of transportation. I would love to go on a long ride to some exotic place, but I've slept in their sleeper cars. They aren't very comfortable!

We stayed in Gentilly, a suburb of Paris, with Jerry and Kathy who also do member care with us. They took us out to see the Chateau de Fontainebleau, originally built in the twelfth century. While there, I got to enjoy great Middle Eastern kebabs. Yum!

Chateau de Fontainebleau, a gorgeous castle about 55 kilometers south of Paris, has been inhabited by many, many kings and emperors throughout the history of France. Each king or queen has either built additions or remodeled sections of the castle according to their own taste or needs. It was interesting to see what was important to each leader, and the egos some of them had.

After visiting the chateau, we walked through the quaint little town of Fontainebleau and enjoyed the stroll among the shops.

And the pastry shops, called patisseries, were incredible! Truly edible!

We saw London, we saw France, but when we got home, we did our happy dance!

We love to travel to see our co-workers, but home is always a good place for us to be, even if it is for just a few days. How long? 6 days. Next stop? Germany. Auf Viedersehn! (That's "good-bye" in German.)

How do you say this in ... English?

Sorry for the lapse in updating my blog. It was an incredibly busy week back in Budapest after being away for a month (2 weeks in U.S. and 2 weeks in Senegal). We had to do all the things we have to do when returning from a trip, like grocery shop, pay bills, do laundry, etc, and we had several families from the Eden House down for meals.

We were in Budapest for Labor Day, and the couple that manages the Eden House invited us down for a Labor Day cook-out with the guests. I had signed up to bring a dessert so that morning I made 6 quarts of ice cream as our contribution to the meal. (Next summer I'm going to keep track of how many quarts of ice cream I make.)

There were 10 adults and 3 children at the cook-out, and the burgers were soooo good.

I wanted to take a meal to one of our families in Budapest that evening though to help them out so I had to plan my schedule out very carefully to make sure I could get the meal to them on time!! (The wife had gone to the U.S. for a family emergency, taking her youngest child with her and leaving the older 3 children with her husband in Budapest.) I had calculated that, at the very latest, I needed to be back from the cook-out and working on the meal no later than 4:30 pm. I actually got home and started working on the meal at 4:20 so I had 10 grace minutes!

We were heading out of town on Thursday, so Glenn had to harvest our grapes before we could go. :-) We didn't have a huge crop this year so it didn't take a lot of time. Phew!

Thursday afternoon we flew to London to visit with one of our member care couples who are responsible for most of western Europe. They leave for their 6 month stateside assignment on Friday. Andy and Kaye live in South Gate, a suburb of London, and we really enjoy our time with them, wherever we are!

Kaye taught me how to eat the way the Brits do: with the fork turned upside down, and using the knife, scoop the food onto the backside of the fork, putting it in your mouth upside down. You never put your silverware down. I enjoyed the famous fish and chips!

Kaye and Andy also taught us that here in the U.K., chips are french fries, potato chips are crisps, biscuits are cookies, barbies are grills, and boots are trunks. Even though they speak English here, it is definitely a different English! We learned that instead of having garage sales, they have boot sales. On certain weekends, people will pay a small fee to park their car in a field and sell their good junk out of the trunk of their car!

Saturday we went into town to the Portobello Market, probably the most famous street market in the world. It is about 2 miles long of antique shops, local foods, clothing (new and used), and fleas.

It was packed!

There was one store that sold men's clothing, and part of the decor was that the walls were lined with antique sewing machines. Quite fabulous!

I kept losing Glenn in the crowds so I just looked for a man in a red shirt!

Just one block off the street was this book store that was made famous in the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Glenn and Andy took a "look see" inside while Kaye and I were in a different shop, and they found out that the book store is closing! I'm guessing it is because Amazon.uk is putting them out of business.

We were there over the lunch hour and looked around for something to eat but we decided we DIDN'T want this breakfast. At least, we didn't want baked beans which is part of a typical British breakfast!!

We got yummy steak sandwiches on this awesome bread. (By the way, according to some Brits that we met, the word 'awesome' has recently come into vogue in England.)

Does anyone use a telephone booth these days?

Throughout the city we found these blue circular signs that advertised where world famous people had lived, stayed, eaten... This one says that George Orwell, the novelist and political activist, 1903-1950, lived in this place.

Red double-decker buses were everywhere.

We hopped on one and rode it through the city to see things from up high!

We eventually got off when we got close to Buckingham Palace and walked the rest of the way.

When I was in middle school and living in Germany (my dad was in the army and stationed there), our family traveled to England to see the Queen. Well, not really, but we did get to see the changing of the guards here at Buckingham Palace!

This house was covered with beautiful, colorful flowers.

I thought this building was quite attractive.

And I loved all the red brick buildings.

This statue of Lord Nelson, who led in the Battle at Trafalgar against Napoleon, is located in Trafalgar Square. The lit dome in the distance on the left of the base is the tower of Big Ben. Did you know that Big Ben is actually the name of the BELL that hangs in the tower, not the big clock? I didn't.

Another view of Trafalgar Square. The red digital sign on the other side of the fountain is the count-down clock for the Olympics that will be in the U.K. next summer.

Glenn and I left Kaye and Andy's house and moved to the south side of London and are now staying with Mike and Julie. (Mike is one of our bosses.) Today, while Glenn and Mike went into the office to talk business, Julie, Elaine (who used to live in Budapest), and I went to COSTCO today! I felt like I was back in America!!!

We leave tomorrow (Tuesday) for Paris to visit with another member care couple for a few days so my next update will probably be of our time in France.