Amazing Budapest, Hungary

We were at Disneyland Sunday and Monday, back to Paris Monday night...spent Tuesday doing laundry and then flew out to Hungary Wednesday morning! Michael had been invited to go to Budapest, Hungary for several days...so Eden and I tagged along! Wow...what a trip! We were all impressed with the beauty of the city and the friendly people who live there!
It was also so nice to get out of the apartment for an extended period of time too!
Our first day involved MANY modes of transportation. Wednesday morning, we got up early, walked to the Metro, rode it to the train and then the train to the airport and flew to Budapest. Michael's host then picked us up from the airport in a car. (Eden commented on how fun it was to be in a car again-I had forgotten that it has been 8 weeks since we had been in a car). We stopped briefly at the hotel, then his host picked us up and took us on the Metro in Budapest, then on a river taxi to their flat for dinner! Whew! We enjoyed both a home cooked Hungarian meal and the company of our hosts! The next day was rather uneventful...Eden and I caught up on 3 days of "home school" and ventured out only for lunch. There was a nice mall near our hotel.  We got to eat Subway and shopped around for a bit and found some American products! Yay! So far, we have seen very few American brands in any stores in France...so it was fun to see things we recognized!! We even found My Little Pet Shop toys.  I bought one for Eden...but unfortunately, I made an error in the conversion of florint to dollars and totally overpaid--but she was really happy with her new toys!!
After Michael got back to the hotel, we walked around and found a local restaurant for dinner. That was interesting! We got to have a disco ball and music while we ate:) Again, the people were friendly and quite a few speak English...
The next day, Michael went off to work again, and I surprised myself  by bravely venturing out for a bus tour! Eden and I went from the hotel, to the Metro, located the correct stops and found our hop on/hop off bus tour all while following Hungarian signs... Yay for me:) We enjoyed a tour of the beautiful city!

I am including lots of pictures since several people have asked for them! Hopefully not too many! 

Part of the ceiling of one of the buildings

 

 

Our last night we booked a dinner cruise down the Danube. Totally worth it! It was beautiful and such a cool way to experience the city! We included our "self portrait" from the upper deck.

 

 

The band on the cruise

We all agreed that we wished that we had added one more day to our visit...we didn't get to see the bath houses...and we didn't get to go in any of the buildings, which would have been awesome! If we ever get the opportunity to go back, we will do it!!
 If you can't tell, the Oelzes loved Budapest!!!

Disneyland Paris

Sunday and Monday we met up with Michael's host and her daughter for a fun trip to Disneyland Paris!!
It is about an hour by train outside of Paris. We stayed one night so that we could watch the night time light show. Well worth it! I might add that normally thoughts of Disney World or Disneyland bring up memories of being warm or being hot--but not this time! It was FREEZING cold! The sun was shining, which was awesome, but I was so, so cold and could not feel my toes/fingers most hours of the day... Of course, it didn't seem to bother the girls too much:)

Something that was an unpleasant surprise, was the sheer number of people --especially when it was such a frigid weekend! It was very crowded for early March!! Apparently this was the first day of a two week break for the schools in France and many other families had similar ideas about a fun way to spend the start of the break! We stood in long lines for everything, rides, food, bathroom breaks, entering and exiting... (which I think is normal for Disneyland) but it was so crowded that even walking from ride to ride was difficult. Most of the rides we wanted to do had a 70 minute wait time, again this is "normal" but we discovered that in France, perhaps they haven't mastered accuracy in guessing the "wait time" because a 35 minute wait was usually closer to an hour...or longer...Fun times! The good part is that Eden and her friend had a great time! That is what it is all about--making sure that the kids have fun!

Eden LOVES roller coasters! Not the ones for little kids (she refers to those as "lame")  but the faster and crazier kinds are her favs! This one goes upside down three times in the dark!! And she was sooo excited to do it! Here she is in front of Rockin' Roller Coaster Aerosmith...

She was so proud!! 

 

Eden and Michael on the Tea Cups-kind of looks like he was having just as much fun:)

This castle was lovely...it had a pretty waterfall too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry it is so blurry...we were so cold we might have been shivering!

Our lips were frozen...

The picture doesn't do it justice!!!

We are glad that we went...not so sure if we are going to go again...we are afraid when its warmer there will be even more people!

Sundays adventures

Sunday we were feeling cooped up (okay, actually it was only me)... I wanted to get out and see some more sites! I went online and picked Eglise de St.Germaine, which is the oldest church in Paris, built in 542! Wow!!!
I also picked the Luxembourg Gardens or Jardin du Luxembourg which is the second largest public park in Paris. On our way to the Gardens, we stumbled across a fabulous fountain and a huge structure! We were all so excited!

Outside of St. Germaine

Inside St. Germaine --It was breathtaking

Here is the fountain we came across...

 

The surprise find of the day!

Eden was mortified! 

Another beautiful structure-across from the fountain!

 

The Luxembourg Gardens

I think that in the Spring and Summer it is going to be absolutely stunning! I cheated and looked online:)

My favorite shot from Sunday

 

And then, we were close to the Pantheon, so of course, Michael wanted to go see that too! 

 

Sacre Couer

Saturday, we set out to visit Sacre Couer in the Montmarte area. The weather was clear and sunny and I think we got some neat pictures! I had visited a long time ago (during college) and Michael had seen it from a distance. It was built up on a hill and the views from the top are incredible. It is neat to watch our little second grader taking it all in...she is now trying to figure out the chronological order of which buildings were constructed first, second and so on. I hope that she remembers some of this!

Views as we are climbing some stairs

One of the views over the city

My fave from the day...I was experimenting with the camera

We also found a little friend along the back...he wasn't as excited to see us...but it reminded us of our sweet Leo at home! So we "kind of" followed him around:)