Happy Mother's Day!!!

MOMS,

Hey Mom... I just wanted to wish you a happy Mother's Day... today as we were driving through the countyside I saw several little flower stands selling Mother's Day flowers... I mentally picked out a bouquet for you. It was a medium sized bunch of bright gerbera daisies, they were yellow and orange and red!!!! So... if I could bring some home for you I would... but I don't think that they would be very pretty when you got them ;) you will just have to be satisfied with the picture... that I copied off of the internet ;) just to illustrate!!!!

So... all that to say... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY moms!!!!

We all love you... and you are wonderful moms!!!!!

Lots of love, your three awesome kids!!!!! ;)

On this day in 1992 . . .

I got a brand new brother! And he's kept me laughing (and rolling my eyes) ever since. So, I'd like to briefly interrupt this travel blog to say . . . HAPPY 15th BIRTHDAY GABE!

Budapest

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Prague (or Praha, as it is known here) – just two more countries to go. It’s hard to believe that we only have ten days left in our six weeks of travel.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Budapest. Yesterday we heeded Rick Steves’ (our travel guidebook) advice and spent several hours relaxing in the public baths. It wasn’t really as intimidating as we first thought. In fact, the atmosphere wasn’t much different from a public swimming pool in the states. (And yes, people were wearing swimsuits.) It was definitely a hot spot for the locals, with old, pot-bellied men in Speedos gathered around chess boards in the water. We spent most of our time soaking in the large, outdoor bath located in the center of the building pictured above. There were a bunch more saunas and baths of varying temperatures inside, though.

The second photo was taken today inside the House of Terror museum - the former location of the Nazi's and (later) the Communists' Hungarian execution headquarters (they called it the House of Loyalty). The photo shows a wall in the museum covered with the faces of those who were murdered there. Communism wasn’t overthrown in Hungary until 1990, so it was a fairly new – and very powerful – museum. It would have been even more fascinating if we’d been able to understand the numerous video clips of victims recounting their horror stories (in Hungarian, of course). Still, it made for a sobering couple hours – especially the part when we watched a video describing the prison conditions and executions as an elevator slowly took us to the basement where the prisoners were held in cells, tortured and murdered. We visited Mauthausen (a Nazi concentration camp in Austria) a few days ago, but that didn’t make the House of Terror any less shocking.

Speaking of shocking, we saw a dead body tonight. Curiosity got the best of us when we noticed people gathered along a bridge with fire and police cars parked nearby, lights flashing. Sure enough - firefighters were standing in the shallow water around a dead man. Eventually, news reporters showed up. Too bad we can’t read the Hungarian newspapers – I guess we’ll never really know the full story.

Adventures in Eating

If there's one thing we're all good at, it's eating. And the food here in Budapest is downright delectable. Last night I dined on cold fruit soup and cheese-stuffed, breaded chicken breast served over rice and fries (obviously not pictured, I'll explain the photos in a minute). Our bill came to about 3,500 - but it was in Hungarian forints, so we actually came out pretty good. The money here is confusing, for sure. We feel like high-rollers carrying around wads of bills marked with 5,000 and 10,000. (With the current exchange, around 186 forints = 1 U.S. dollar.)

But back to food . . . along with the good, we've sampled our share of not-so-tasty as well. For example, Katie and I have both had our turn accidentally ordering pizzas topped with sardines and other questionable sea creatures. Sometimes, even the food we make for ourselves doesn't end up quite like we expected. European meat departments can be rather scary - chickens with the beaks and feet still attached, mold-cased salamis, mysterious skinned creatures, etc. One night, we thought we had purchased a tube of ground sausage for our spaghetti sauce. It ended up being a bologna substance, but we still fried it up and added it to the sauce. It's not a recipe I'll be duplicating at home, but it actually wasn't bad.

The photos illustrate a night in Austria when Mark made his specialty - ramen noodles with pretzels prepared in the bag so that you don't dirty an extra dish. Now that's a recipe I might actually use again - and teach my brother.

Statues?!?!?!

Ok... we were just wandering around Salzburg (we do that a lot) and came across some funny looking statues... I don't want to say that we each related best to the ones that we posed by... but... whatever you want to think ;)

These are kind of just random pix because we are staying in a hostel in Budapest with free wireless internet in the lobby area!!! It's wonderful!!!!

We are all having a blast... time is flying for me... I don't want to come home, Bethany doesn't have to for another month after we leave, and I think that Mark will be very ready :) (if I didn't have to get home for camp I would seriously think about staying longer...) k... that's all for now... I better go before my battery runs out on my laptop... ciao.

A few more photos . . . just because we can!

Greetings from Budapest, Hungary! After having little or no Internet access for the past week, we're now staying at a hostel with free wireless, so I'll post a few photos from our most recent adventures . . .
The first is the view from our room at the hostel in the Swiss Alps.
The next two were taken on a "Barefoot Walk" that Katie and I (Mark opted out) took in the Swiss countryside. (Going barefoot wasn't just our idea . . . it's actually meant to be done that way.)
The next photo is from inside Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria and the following is an outside shot of the same.
Next, we have a shot overlooking Salzburg from a cannon hole inside the fortress that sits on a hill above the city.
Next, a photo inside the library of the famous (and enormous) abbey in Melk, Austria.
Lastly, here's a shot from inside the Vienna state opera house. It's not very good, but you get the idea. We were way up in the standing-room-only nosebleed section, but our tickets were only 2 Euro, so we can't complain a bit. OK, that's all for now because my laptop battery is about to die.

AUSTRIA

ok... this is kind of a random post... with pictures of our hike in Austria. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast in Ramsau, Austria. We dicided that a nice little hike might be fun... Mark's friend Jordan told us about a lake that was up on this hill (mountain) that we should go look for.

One of these picture has an arrow that shows where are car was located... after we dropped over the other side of the mountain we found a lot of snow!!! and Bethany was wearing sandals!!!! We finally found a frozen over lake... and decided to take a break... build a little fire, and dry out our shoes and socks!!!! The scenery was amazing!!!! But the brush was a little much... Can you find Bethany in the bushes????? It was an exhausting but fun hike!!!! We left Ramsau, and spent the night in Melk... saw the abbey, and headed on to Vienna... where we are right at the moment... tomorrow we drive to Budapest.... I know... not on our original itinerary... but I'm excited!!!!! k... internet is running out... and it's a little spendy here... so I better go... keep checking!!!! After Budapest it's on to Cech Republic to see Prague... so stay tuned for more!!!!!