Our last day in Budapest did not exactly turn out the way we had hoped. One of the main reasons for going to Budapest was to track down and take pictures of the church and town in which Richard’s kids’ maternal grandmother was born. Maybe even find a few relatives to boot. The little town is about 3 hours by train and bus outside of Budapest. We had a plan set up for Friday. Of course, then we found out that Friday was a national holiday and buses and trains were on a Sunday (or nonexistent) schedule. So, then we would go on Saturday. But, public transportation was on a weekend schedule and though we could get to the town, there were no trains/buses coming back until Monday. Let’s rent a car – oops, all car rental agencies close at noon on Saturday so no chance to return the car. We tried all the angles but we were hooped. This was a disappointment for us because we were pretty pumped to be poking around old graveyards and looking for long, lost relatives. No seriously, we were.

So, instead, we ended up walking down to the train station to book our seats for today’s trip to Prague. Then off to the House of Terror. This building, used by the Nazis and Soviets during each of their regimes, has now been transformed into a museum documenting these periods in Hungarian history. There was quite a lineup when we got there so decided that we would stop for a bite to eat before tackling the museum. However, service was so slow at the restaurant that we did not get out until after 3:30 and decided to call it a day. It was a bit of a disappointment but we took the long way home, found a couple of cool shops along the way and had a nice relaxing evening at the apartment.

Our apartment was quite nice but very hot. There were no heaters on but the combined heat within the complex made our unit unbearably warm. So, we had to open the windows. Now the thing about visiting during a holiday weekend is that people like to party and they had three days to do so. Our choice was to sweat to death or listen to the pumping music and party noise from the street. We chose the latter. Either way, we would not have gotten much sleep but this way we were still able to “take part” in some of the festivities.

So, here I am , half asleep, on the train to Prague. The trip is about 6 hours and the landscape looks much like we would see on the Prairies – some nice sized fields with a few farms dotting the landscape. There is no longer any snow and some of the fields are turning green. We have crossed the border from Hungary, through Slovakia and are now travelling within the Czech Republic. We are looking forward to a week in the Czech capital visiting castles and churches and trying the very famous Czech beer. I’m sure that Richard will let you know how it compares to home. Until then….