saturday evening we went over to liszt ferenc tér in district VI. (budapest is split up into like twenty-something districts, so people are always referring to the district when talking about the location of something. tér means square in magyar and liszt ferenc is the name of the square.) it's a nice little area with lots of cafes and restaurants with a pretty path down the middle with trees, flowers, benches to sit on and a statue thrown in every once in a while.
we stopped at café vian which our lonely planet book recommended. i loved my food AND they had a highchair for reese. highchairs, or "baby chairs" as we have to ask for in budapest, are hard to come by. lots of places don't have them, so it makes for a more difficult dinner. we will make sure to remember the places with highchairs!
sunday morning we went to a different church than last week. this time we visited danube international church. this church had about 200 people and was all in english. we even knew some of the songs! most of the people at this church are either here with the military working at the american embassy or missionaries. ...all families with at least 3+ children! we ran into some people we know from matt's work, so it was nice to see a familiar face. we also saw some other people who we met at a bbq a couple of weeks ago. the other good thing was that i met a nice woman/mom who was planning to go to the playgroup on tuesday and invited me to go with her. so nice! this seems like a place i can find some american friends, so we'll probably go back there again.
after an emotional morning at church we took naps in the afternoon and then ventured out to tesco. tesco is the wal-mart of hungary. we found our way there (always an adventure), ran into a co-worker of matt's on the street waiting for the bus, roamed the isles, bought some groceries and came back home. it was a successful venture.
4 comments:
I LOVE reading your blog! It is so fun to see all of the pictures of my old Budapest haunts. I remember the 3 week letdown well--only I didn't have a toddler to worry about! I never had to choose a restaurant based on high chairs OR try to wrestle a stroller onto the metro or a bus(you haven't blogged about that yet but I'm sure it's been a frustration) and still I remember feeling tearful lots at the beginning. I hope it doesn't sound like a cliche to tell you that it all does start to feel more normal and, in hindsight, it really makes you more appreciative of how convenient things are when you do come back home.
ha! i haven't blogged about taking the stroller onto the metro or bus b/c i haven't braved it by myself yet. i have always had matt with me. for the bus...one of us carries reese and the other carries the stroller and the bag. for the metro ...we stroll her right on the metro and the escalator. i think we've gotten over the scariness of the escalators. we've done it enough times now. for the stairs...if reese is in the stroller, we simply pick up the whole stroller (with her in it) and climb on up. funny...we talked the other day about how buff we feel! ha! :)
i'm sure the normal feeling will come soon. thanks for the comment!
Hilary,
I love reading your blog and hearing about your adventures. I'm sorry to hear you are feeling frustrated - sounds like culture shock. I know you will learn and adjust and life there will feel somewhat "normal" over time. I have complete faith in your ability to do all things Budapest!
i think jen nailed it. my new motto is "all things budapest!" :)
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