Europe, Part Four; Hungary, Final Act

Get ready for our last installment of our Europe Trip 2014. This one is jammed packed!

Our final stop on our Hungary trip was three days in Budapest. It's still kind of a blur but I'll try to remember the details as best as I can. Day one, Thursday, was really a half day split from the morning in Debrecen where we did some shopping and checked out the branch house.

Our first task upon arrival was check into the hostel (bucket list! check!) and drop off our bags because our next item was to return the rental car to the airport. When we dropped off the car, we bought a three day transportation pass to all forms of transport in Budapest of which there are plenty of options. Buses, trams, subway and water ferry. We rode three of four while we were there. The only way for us to get back into Budapest proper was to ride a bus. Now here was where I was the most nervous. Budapest is a huge city and I never served there. When I visited for different reasons, the APs drove us around or I followed the throng of missionaries. I never had to navigate the bus and subway system on my own but I spoke the language and I live in DC, how hard could it be? Not that hard it turned out! Which was a huge sigh of relief.

We made it to the Nagy Palacsinta Haz without a hitch and ate some more delicious palacsintas. With our bellies full, we walked around Buda. Some exlination seems to be in order here. Budapest is actually two cities divided by the Danube River (or Duna River as it is called in Hungary). One the older, more beautiful side is Buda and on the more industrial side is Pest. The Buda side has the castle and the mission home/office while Pest has St. Stephen's Basilica and Parliament, all of which we visited. Back to Buda. Scott found a Budapest tour book back at BYU and bought it for me. This book was now proving its worth. There were a bunch of mini tours in there and we happened to be in an area where one started so we followed it.

Our view of Buda after we crossed the river

We got a quick rest after the tour and crossed the chain bridge to the Pest side and continued to walk along the Duna to see the Shoes on the Danube. These shoes are iron molds of shoes representing the victims of the Arrow Cross terror in 1944-1945. It was too dark to get a picture of but it always amazes me.

From Wikipedia, The Shoes on the Danube.

It had been a long day so after ice cream, we caught a bus back to the hostel to turn in for the night.

In the morning, we joined a free walking tour of the major highlights of the city. We started at St. Stephen's Basilica and walked for three hours seeing the sights with a local University student. Here are some of the things we saw along the way:

A lucky bellied police man.

Hero's Square, one of my favorite places in the whole country.

We ended at the Castle and when we broke, Scott and I found some lunch and ice cream. Our next stop was the catacombs/labyrinth which ended up being a huge disappointment but hilarious at the same time. Rumor has it that Dracula spent many years as a prisoner in these very catacombs so they had a section devoted to that. They also talked about the ghosts who haunted the paths and had masquerade balls. To honor that part of its past, they had mannequins dressed in ball gowns and suits with opera music playing all around the catacombs. It added to the eerie story so I was glad to get out of there.

Having thoroughly walked around Buda Castle, we made our way to the Nagy Piac which is a large market that sells all sorts of tourist trinkets and food for the locals, like a meat market. We caught a quick seat to get back our energy and made our way to St. Stephen's Basilica to go inside. Well it was closed so we walked around and ultimately decided to go back to the hostel and call it a day.

Saturday was our last day in Budapest and in Hungary and in Europe! We started it off by catching a tram to Margitsziget (Margaret's Island) in the middle of the Duna that has a 5K running path. I wanted to run one more time in Hungary and we did! It took a little longer than expected so we quickly got ready for the day and actually met up with my one Hungarian companion, Antonia, for lunch. It was her mom we stayed with in Polgar but she is living in Szeged, a city in the south. How fun it was to catch up with her and learn about what's going on in her life since we last saw each other. I always have a great time talking with her because she understands English and I understand Hungarian so she speaks to me in Hungarian and I respond in English. I bet it sounds like a one sided conversation to others but I think it's awesome!

After saying our goodbyes we rushed off to Parliament for a tour. We almost didn't do it but Scott insisted that I wanted to and he was right and I'm so happy we did. The inside of the building is just as stunning as the outside. It is my absolute favorite building in the world (with the exception of the DC Temple).

Still amazed at the beauty of the Parliament building, we went back to St. Stephen's Basilica and still couldn't get in. Another wedding! We compared it to the Salt Lake Temple, which we lovingly refer to as the Wedding Machine. So if we couldn't go inside, we'd climb the 200+ stairs to see the view of the city. St. Stephen was the first king of Hungary and is well loved by all. His basilica is the tallest building in Budapest and no building can be built taller than it, just like the Washington Monument in DC.

Our view from the top.

We climbed down the steps about 45 minutes later and grabbed a Magnum bar and a bus to Gellert Hegy (Gellert Hill) for a final view of the city. We saved this trip for last since it was the last spot I visited as a missionary. On my last night, the APs (Assistants to the President) drove all the departing missionaries first to Hero's Square and then up to Gellert Hegy. It was here in 1987 that the Dedicatory Prayer for missionary service in Hungary was given by Elder Russell M. Nelson. It is a sacred place for me and I wanted to revisit it on our last night in the city.

Our view from Gellert Hegy. My beautiful Budapest!

The red shirted person is Kiersten.

Having fulfilled my wish of seeing the beautiful Pearl of the Danube at night, we made our way to a perfect little restaurant we found conveniently in our Budapest tour book. It was down a side street and we were the only patrons. The food was divine. Rantott sajt, gyümölcsleves, paprikas csirke and szilvasgomboc (breaded cheese, fruit soup, chicken paprika and plum dumplings). To end our perfect evening we found our last bit of ice cream of the trip. The flavor of choice was black vanilla, definitely an oxymoron. I chatted with the ice cream vendor in Hungarian and he was so impressed by my ability to speak his language that he gave Scott an extra scoop of ice cream free of charge! God bless the Hungarians!

Fruit soup, breaded cheese and a happy Kiersten.

When we got back to the hostel, we packed our bags in preparation for an early start in the morning to catch our flight home. The flight, another Air France with a connection in Paris, was uneventful. We landed in America by 5pm and fought to stay awake until 8:30pm. The next day, Labor Day and Scott's birthday, was a holiday which gave us another day to recover from our fantastic vacation. It was a priceless trip for us and so meaningful for me. Returning to Hungary reminded my of the love my Heavenly Father has for me and for His children in Hungary. We will cherish the time we spent in Europe this summer and look forward to planning our next visit in the future.