Visegrad, Hungary ... November 18, 2006
About 30 KM north of Budapest, along the Danube Bend, is this fun little village. There is a fortress at the top of a hill overlooking the sharp curve of the Danube. We climbed up to the fortress and saw some old wagons and catapults. Katie and Ashley had their picture taken on a throne that looked like a king and queen would sit in while watching medieval outdoor activities. There were a lot of stairs that we climbed and verandas where we stopped to take in the view. The girls had so much fun running around and climbing rocks. This fortress was a very strategic location and part of King Bela IV's fortification project of the area (not unlike the castle hill project in Budapest). Subsequent rulers (King Sigismund and King Matthias) continued to add to the fortification until taken over by the Turks, who left it severely damaged, as it stands today.
Halloween 2006
We did trunk or treat at the American School (Nagykovacsi Campus) since, obviously, they don't celebrate Halloween here in Hungary. Katie was Sleeping Beauty and Ashley was a Fairy Princess. Katie also had a Halloween presentation at school that we attended. Her Pre-Kindergarten class sang "5 Little Pumpkins", Katie's line was "Oh My it's getting late".
Transylvania, Romania ... October 28, 2006
A couple of months ago I saw a deal on Wizzair to Transylvania for basically free, so I purchased tickets for the family to visit Dracula's land in Romania. After a driving trip to Romania a few weeks ago, we decided that it would be easier to do this trip by ourselves, so we left Katie and Ashley with some friends in Budapest and boarded a flight early Saturday morning for Targu Mures, a city in central Romania, in the heart of Transylvania. We hardly prepared for this trip, just bringing a borrowed Romanian guidebook and a photocopy of the two places we wanted to visit from our 1000 Places to See Before You Die book (Dracula's castle and the painted monastaries of Moldovia). We arrived at this small airport with no real clue where to go. Fortunately there was a rental car place, or rather, a guy, a counter, and 2 automobiles. I had been told by a Romanian friend at work to NOT rent a car from this type of place, but we had little choice, as this city was in the middle of nowhere. We decided to risk it, even though the guy only took cash, the first car he gave us had a dead battery, and we were only required to put Euro 100 deposit down. Not sure how this amount would deter a dishonest renter, but I figured if the worst he could rip me off for was Euro 100, it was worth the risk to have transportation in this country.We drove first from Targu 
Mures to Sighisoara, Dracula's (Vlad the Impaler's) birthplace. We saw his childhood home where he learned the art of impaling his enemies with wooden stakes so that they would live for 48 hours in tortuous pain before they died. The city is on a hill, which we walked around its streets, all made of bumpy cobblestone. We walked around the town center and to the top of the Clock tower which houses a historical museum and allows for a wonderful view of the city. We bought a picture next door to Vlad's house, which is now a restaurant. The city is eerily intriguing, despite a cardboard cutout of a vampire with fangs and black cape standing in front of the entrance to the restaurant.From Sighisoara we drove to Brasov, where we didn't stop because as we drove around it, this supposedly called "Prague of the East" seemed more like "insert your least favorite looking city here". So we drove immediately the 30 KM southwest of Brasov to Bran, where "Dracula's" castle is located. Although it is depicted as his castle, Vlad the Impaler actually never lived here, although he MAY have stopped over for the night while on one of his crusades through the countryside. But evenstill, the commercialism of 
this legend is well maintained outside the castle grounds. Being so close to Halloween, it was fun to be there and see everyone dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Once inside the castle, though, any remnant of vampire legend disipates and is replaced by a Little House on the Prairie version of Versailles. Basically, think plainly furnished and the complete oppposite of the ostentatious castles of the West (or North into Russia, for that matter).We decided to go the long way to Bucharest because it included Romania's ONLY stretch of highway (about 50 Kilometers). It was an incredibly scenic, meandering drive, providing spectacular views of the virgin country side. Once we finally did get out of the mountains and finally did find the 50 KM of highway, we were disappointed to find out that 45KM of it was under construction, forcing us to drive even slower than we had through the mountains. But we arrived in Bucharest, just randomly drove around until we ran into the downtown historical district, including the Marriot Grand Hotel. It was starting to get dark and we were starving, after having only eaten granola bars all day, so we asked at the Marriot where to eat and they directed us to Ruby Tuesdays for just a mediocre meal. Knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us to our next destination, we decided to drive north towards the Painted Monastaries in NE Romania. We drove a couple of hours, as far as Bazau (300KM south of Suceava). There are as many horse and carts on the road as there are cars, so never was the drive easy, although the stretch of road between Bucharest and Suceave were by far the easiest to drive, as there were no mountains, and the road had 2 shoulders that served as passing lanes. From Suceava we found the Humor Monastary, about 25 KM from Suceava. This one was particularly beautiful inside, including a fresco of the Last Judgement. Maybe a five minute drive was 
the Voronet Monostary, whose outside still maintains most of the original painted frescos created hundreds of years ago. Most of these monostaries were built and painted between 1500 and 1600 AD under the direction of Stefan cel Mare. We then continued on to the Moldovita Monastary, whose gardens were particularly impressive, with stone walls and towers surrounding it, reminding us of the Monostary in Les Miserables where Jean Valjean lived with Cosette while hiding out from Javeir. Also reminds me of the monastary icon in "Age of Empires", but who knows. We debated whether to visit a fourth monastary, but feeling like we wanted to ensure we 
made it back to the airport in time, we decided to skip it. Unfortunately, as early as we thought we would arrive at the airport, we did not succeed due to mountains, rain, construction, and literally herds of cattle surrounding our car while trying to make it back to Targu Mures. What looked like a couple hour drive on the map ended up taking closer to five hours and we arrived at the airport just as our flight was leaving, not able to get on. Heather cried, but that wasn't enough to make them hold the plane for us. Remember that rental car guy that seemed so shady? Turns out he was the nicest Romanian we have ever met, as not only did he return my deposit in full, without any issues whatsoever, he also let us use his internet to find another flight back to Budapest (our only option before this was to wait an entire day, since there was only one flight a day to Budapest). He helped us find a flight leaving Monday morning at 6:30AM leaving from Cluj Napoca (about 2 hours NW of Targu Mures), helped us arrange a taxi (who couldn't have driven slower and then tried to charge us 70 Euros instead of 50...settled on 60 since I was so tired at that point) and hotel room by the airport in Cluj. Without his help we never would have returned home as flawlessly as we did, although it cost us about $500 extra for missing that flight, as we had to buy two new tickets home (vs. the basically free ticket we orginally flew in on), the cab ride, and the hotel expense. We were still nervous the next morning because we had to be at the airport at 5AM to purchase our ticket from the travel agent (airlines don't do their own booking much in Eastern Europe), but nobody arrived at the agency until 45 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. Fortunately we were able to quickly make the arrangements and made it back to Budapest early Monday morning, ready to start a busy day and super excited to see the girls again.
Mures to Sighisoara, Dracula's (Vlad the Impaler's) birthplace. We saw his childhood home where he learned the art of impaling his enemies with wooden stakes so that they would live for 48 hours in tortuous pain before they died. The city is on a hill, which we walked around its streets, all made of bumpy cobblestone. We walked around the town center and to the top of the Clock tower which houses a historical museum and allows for a wonderful view of the city. We bought a picture next door to Vlad's house, which is now a restaurant. The city is eerily intriguing, despite a cardboard cutout of a vampire with fangs and black cape standing in front of the entrance to the restaurant.From Sighisoara we drove to Brasov, where we didn't stop because as we drove around it, this supposedly called "Prague of the East" seemed more like "insert your least favorite looking city here". So we drove immediately the 30 KM southwest of Brasov to Bran, where "Dracula's" castle is located. Although it is depicted as his castle, Vlad the Impaler actually never lived here, although he MAY have stopped over for the night while on one of his crusades through the countryside. But evenstill, the commercialism of 
this legend is well maintained outside the castle grounds. Being so close to Halloween, it was fun to be there and see everyone dressed up in their Halloween costumes. Once inside the castle, though, any remnant of vampire legend disipates and is replaced by a Little House on the Prairie version of Versailles. Basically, think plainly furnished and the complete oppposite of the ostentatious castles of the West (or North into Russia, for that matter).We decided to go the long way to Bucharest because it included Romania's ONLY stretch of highway (about 50 Kilometers). It was an incredibly scenic, meandering drive, providing spectacular views of the virgin country side. Once we finally did get out of the mountains and finally did find the 50 KM of highway, we were disappointed to find out that 45KM of it was under construction, forcing us to drive even slower than we had through the mountains. But we arrived in Bucharest, just randomly drove around until we ran into the downtown historical district, including the Marriot Grand Hotel. It was starting to get dark and we were starving, after having only eaten granola bars all day, so we asked at the Marriot where to eat and they directed us to Ruby Tuesdays for just a mediocre meal. Knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us to our next destination, we decided to drive north towards the Painted Monastaries in NE Romania. We drove a couple of hours, as far as Bazau (300KM south of Suceava). There are as many horse and carts on the road as there are cars, so never was the drive easy, although the stretch of road between Bucharest and Suceave were by far the easiest to drive, as there were no mountains, and the road had 2 shoulders that served as passing lanes. From Suceava we found the Humor Monastary, about 25 KM from Suceava. This one was particularly beautiful inside, including a fresco of the Last Judgement. Maybe a five minute drive was 
the Voronet Monostary, whose outside still maintains most of the original painted frescos created hundreds of years ago. Most of these monostaries were built and painted between 1500 and 1600 AD under the direction of Stefan cel Mare. We then continued on to the Moldovita Monastary, whose gardens were particularly impressive, with stone walls and towers surrounding it, reminding us of the Monostary in Les Miserables where Jean Valjean lived with Cosette while hiding out from Javeir. Also reminds me of the monastary icon in "Age of Empires", but who knows. We debated whether to visit a fourth monastary, but feeling like we wanted to ensure we 
made it back to the airport in time, we decided to skip it. Unfortunately, as early as we thought we would arrive at the airport, we did not succeed due to mountains, rain, construction, and literally herds of cattle surrounding our car while trying to make it back to Targu Mures. What looked like a couple hour drive on the map ended up taking closer to five hours and we arrived at the airport just as our flight was leaving, not able to get on. Heather cried, but that wasn't enough to make them hold the plane for us. Remember that rental car guy that seemed so shady? Turns out he was the nicest Romanian we have ever met, as not only did he return my deposit in full, without any issues whatsoever, he also let us use his internet to find another flight back to Budapest (our only option before this was to wait an entire day, since there was only one flight a day to Budapest). He helped us find a flight leaving Monday morning at 6:30AM leaving from Cluj Napoca (about 2 hours NW of Targu Mures), helped us arrange a taxi (who couldn't have driven slower and then tried to charge us 70 Euros instead of 50...settled on 60 since I was so tired at that point) and hotel room by the airport in Cluj. Without his help we never would have returned home as flawlessly as we did, although it cost us about $500 extra for missing that flight, as we had to buy two new tickets home (vs. the basically free ticket we orginally flew in on), the cab ride, and the hotel expense. We were still nervous the next morning because we had to be at the airport at 5AM to purchase our ticket from the travel agent (airlines don't do their own booking much in Eastern Europe), but nobody arrived at the agency until 45 minutes before our flight was supposed to leave. Fortunately we were able to quickly make the arrangements and made it back to Budapest early Monday morning, ready to start a busy day and super excited to see the girls again.
Germany's Romantic Road ... October 20, 2006
We left Friday night for a three day weekend driving the Romantic Road in Germany. We began our trip driving from Budapest through Austria, where we arrived in the dark in Mondsee, 30 
Kilometers East of Salzburg. We found a hotel right off the highway (Landzeit, an Austrian chain) and were surprised how beautiful our view was in the morning. We were right on the lake in front of the mountains.We left early Saturday morning to drive the beginning of the Romantic Road. We drove 2 hours to Fuessen to see Neuschwanstein Castle at the start of the road. We saw the bus stop we got off at six years ago when we made the visit. That time it was Winter and foggy and we couldn't see the top of the castle, even though we were right up at the base of it. We took a bus to the top of the castle and this time had beautiful weather and actually saw the top. Ashley screamed the entire time. 
We started the tour of the interior of the castle but since Ashley was still screaming and nobody could hear the tour guide, Heather took her out and missed the tour. I clandestinely videod a little bit of it, but it wasn't the same as seeing it first hand. I stayed with Katie and we took the tour of "Sleeping Beauty's Castle". We saw Sleeping Beauty's bedroom, kitchen, dining room, the ballroom where she got married to Prince Philip, etc. etc. (At least, according to Katie and my narration). In reality it was Mad King Ludwig's castle and only 15 rooms of the castle were completed before he died. It was never completed and opened to the public six weeks after his death. We also took pictures on Marionbruecke that crossed the gorge with a beautiful view of the castle.We then continued up the Romantic Road toward Noerdlingen, a medievel walled city. 
We walked around the wall that surrounds the town, with a medievel church in the town center. The openings in the walls, where the archers would stand to protect the city, were shaped as crosses. We then drove 15 minutes more to Dinkelsbuehl, another city, not unlike Noerdlingen. We walked around the town for a while until it got dark when we continued down the road until we found a Bed and Breakfast for the night. The room was perfect because it actually had 4 beds, so we all got a pretty good nights sleep. Ashley wasn't ready for bed at the same time as the rest of us, so she watched Dora on the ipod for a while before falling asleep. The rest of us were asleep by 8:00 after a long day of traveling.Sunday morning we continued 20 minutes along the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, by far 
the most intriguing, although more touristy. But since we were there very early in the morning, before anyone was up, it was nice to stroll the empty cobblestone streets, window shop, while eating pastries from a local bakery. Once the shops opened, I bought Heather a snowman to add to her Christmas decorations, I tried a Sneeball (snowball: fried dough dipped in chocolate) that was terrible, and Ashley nibbled on a piece of bread for an hour (who knew!). We decided to collect ornaments for the girls from each country we visited (we are 12 behind on Katie already), but unfortunately didn't find anything we liked on this trip. We'll be back for the Christkindlmarkts during Christmas, so I figure we can do better then anyway. We went to Hotel Eisenhut, where there are remnants of a 12th century chapel in the front lobby.We made a quick stop in Wurzburg at the Northern end of the Romantic Road and drove by the Residenz, a baroque palace, and then continued to Bamberg, which used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Heinrich I
I in the 11th century. We walked the streets of this town to the Rathaus (town hall) that is in the middle of the river, and ate bratwursts and ice-cream.To end our trip, we drove south to Garmish (Southern Germany), to ride the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in germany and the site of the 1936 Olympic games - Munich Olympics. Unfortunately we arrived an hour after the last ride up, so we settled on just viewing it from the base of the mountain. We started heading back to Budapest, drove through Innsbruck, and studied our Hungarian along the way. These trips have been a great chance (only chance, actually) to study. I feel like I did growing up taking piano lessons. Every week no practice in between lessons, hoping I could fake my way through. We drove toward Alchau, a German city halfway between Innsbruck and Salzburg. We passed by Jenbach, where GE Jenbache
r (GE Energy) is located. I could absolutely work here. The office is situated in this valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Exquisite picture. We decided to stop and found another Landzeit off the highway. Again, after a long day of traveling, we all slept well and in the morning we drove to Residenz Heinz Winkler in Alchau, Germany. He is a famous Munich chef who moved to Alchau near Lake Chiemsee and opened his own restaurant. We didn't stay there long, but we would have spent the previous night here had we known what a beautiful alpine town it was.Finally, we drove home, stopping at ToysRUs outside of Linz to get some birthday and Christmas presents and we arrived back Monday afternoon to Budapest. We ended up driving about 1500 Kilometers over the 3 days, but all very relaxing and peaceful!
Kilometers East of Salzburg. We found a hotel right off the highway (Landzeit, an Austrian chain) and were surprised how beautiful our view was in the morning. We were right on the lake in front of the mountains.We left early Saturday morning to drive the beginning of the Romantic Road. We drove 2 hours to Fuessen to see Neuschwanstein Castle at the start of the road. We saw the bus stop we got off at six years ago when we made the visit. That time it was Winter and foggy and we couldn't see the top of the castle, even though we were right up at the base of it. We took a bus to the top of the castle and this time had beautiful weather and actually saw the top. Ashley screamed the entire time. 
We started the tour of the interior of the castle but since Ashley was still screaming and nobody could hear the tour guide, Heather took her out and missed the tour. I clandestinely videod a little bit of it, but it wasn't the same as seeing it first hand. I stayed with Katie and we took the tour of "Sleeping Beauty's Castle". We saw Sleeping Beauty's bedroom, kitchen, dining room, the ballroom where she got married to Prince Philip, etc. etc. (At least, according to Katie and my narration). In reality it was Mad King Ludwig's castle and only 15 rooms of the castle were completed before he died. It was never completed and opened to the public six weeks after his death. We also took pictures on Marionbruecke that crossed the gorge with a beautiful view of the castle.We then continued up the Romantic Road toward Noerdlingen, a medievel walled city. 
We walked around the wall that surrounds the town, with a medievel church in the town center. The openings in the walls, where the archers would stand to protect the city, were shaped as crosses. We then drove 15 minutes more to Dinkelsbuehl, another city, not unlike Noerdlingen. We walked around the town for a while until it got dark when we continued down the road until we found a Bed and Breakfast for the night. The room was perfect because it actually had 4 beds, so we all got a pretty good nights sleep. Ashley wasn't ready for bed at the same time as the rest of us, so she watched Dora on the ipod for a while before falling asleep. The rest of us were asleep by 8:00 after a long day of traveling.Sunday morning we continued 20 minutes along the Romantic Road to Rothenburg, by far 
the most intriguing, although more touristy. But since we were there very early in the morning, before anyone was up, it was nice to stroll the empty cobblestone streets, window shop, while eating pastries from a local bakery. Once the shops opened, I bought Heather a snowman to add to her Christmas decorations, I tried a Sneeball (snowball: fried dough dipped in chocolate) that was terrible, and Ashley nibbled on a piece of bread for an hour (who knew!). We decided to collect ornaments for the girls from each country we visited (we are 12 behind on Katie already), but unfortunately didn't find anything we liked on this trip. We'll be back for the Christkindlmarkts during Christmas, so I figure we can do better then anyway. We went to Hotel Eisenhut, where there are remnants of a 12th century chapel in the front lobby.We made a quick stop in Wurzburg at the Northern end of the Romantic Road and drove by the Residenz, a baroque palace, and then continued to Bamberg, which used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Heinrich I
I in the 11th century. We walked the streets of this town to the Rathaus (town hall) that is in the middle of the river, and ate bratwursts and ice-cream.To end our trip, we drove south to Garmish (Southern Germany), to ride the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in germany and the site of the 1936 Olympic games - Munich Olympics. Unfortunately we arrived an hour after the last ride up, so we settled on just viewing it from the base of the mountain. We started heading back to Budapest, drove through Innsbruck, and studied our Hungarian along the way. These trips have been a great chance (only chance, actually) to study. I feel like I did growing up taking piano lessons. Every week no practice in between lessons, hoping I could fake my way through. We drove toward Alchau, a German city halfway between Innsbruck and Salzburg. We passed by Jenbach, where GE Jenbache
r (GE Energy) is located. I could absolutely work here. The office is situated in this valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Exquisite picture. We decided to stop and found another Landzeit off the highway. Again, after a long day of traveling, we all slept well and in the morning we drove to Residenz Heinz Winkler in Alchau, Germany. He is a famous Munich chef who moved to Alchau near Lake Chiemsee and opened his own restaurant. We didn't stay there long, but we would have spent the previous night here had we known what a beautiful alpine town it was.Finally, we drove home, stopping at ToysRUs outside of Linz to get some birthday and Christmas presents and we arrived back Monday afternoon to Budapest. We ended up driving about 1500 Kilometers over the 3 days, but all very relaxing and peaceful!
Opatija, Croatia / Ljubljana, Slovenia ... September 20-23, 2006
Joe and Penny came to Budapest again on September 16th, right before a conference Joe had in Croatia. We spent a day here in Budapest with them, then they left for Croatia. Aaron had a conference at Lake Balaton, and they dropped him off on their way. On Wednesday, Heather, Katie and Ashley picked u
p Aaron at Balaton, then drove the rest
of the way to Croatia to meet Joe and Penny. We had a room next to theirs at the Hotel Adriatic, with a stunning view of the Adriatic Sea. Opatija is a fun, touristy little coastal town on the northern shore of Croatia. We had a nice time walking along the coast and through their outdoor shops. We tried a few different gelato places, and also found a great place that had the yummiest hot dogs baked inside warm, melt in your mouth bread. Heather doesn’t even like hot dogs, but loved these.
After Joe’s conference we left Opatija and drove through Croatia’s capital,
Zagreb. It was interesting, we didn’t see any place where we wanted to get out and spend some time, so we kept driving on to Slovenia. Who knew Slovenia was such a strikingly beautiful country…. so green and mountainous. We drove to Ljubljana and walked around this historic center. We happened upon a big festival where there were bands playing and vendors set up along the street. There was loud music blaring from large speakers, and booths set up with soccer ball kicking contests, and the like. The girls ran around the town square and we took pictures on the bridge (what great European town doesn’t have a quaint town square and a bridge?). We really liked Ljubljana, but decided to get a little further before finding a hotel.
When we crossed over the Austrian border and drove through the breathtaking Alps (we couldn’t believe the view), we found a little bed and breakfast nestled on a mountain road. We ate weinerschnitzel for dinner, and spent a
comfortable night in one of their rooms. Katie and Ashley shared a bed, which was nice for Aaron and Heather to have a little space. We were served a typical European breakfast in the morning, with meats, cheeses and bread. As we left we noticed the back side of the B&B had a beautiful mountain river that ran through it, and tons of farm animals (which made us a little nervous about what we had just eaten). They had food for the girls to feed the animals, and the little goats were eager to be fed! There were pot-bellied pigs and chickens and billy goats. Katie pointed to an animal and exclaimed, “Hey! That looks just like a llama!” Well funny, because it was a llama! The girls loved to see a llama like the one they had seen on Go Diego Go! After a lot of hand sanitizer, we got back in 
the car and headed for Baden, Austria. There is a Roman Bath in Baden that Joe and Penny had been to years ago that they wanted to return to. We spent a couple of hours in their thermal baths, enjoying the warm water and fountains that spontaneously spouted. Ashley enjoyed it a little too much and swallowed quite a bit of water, which instigated her throwing up in the pool a few times…. fun.
We drove through Vienna on our way back to Budapest to get Zanoni’s gelato, and we drove by the Economics University, where Aaron attended for a semester in 1996. We had a very fun-filled and busy 4 days, but were happy to get home to our own house and beds.
p Aaron at Balaton, then drove the rest
of the way to Croatia to meet Joe and Penny. We had a room next to theirs at the Hotel Adriatic, with a stunning view of the Adriatic Sea. Opatija is a fun, touristy little coastal town on the northern shore of Croatia. We had a nice time walking along the coast and through their outdoor shops. We tried a few different gelato places, and also found a great place that had the yummiest hot dogs baked inside warm, melt in your mouth bread. Heather doesn’t even like hot dogs, but loved these.After Joe’s conference we left Opatija and drove through Croatia’s capital,
Zagreb. It was interesting, we didn’t see any place where we wanted to get out and spend some time, so we kept driving on to Slovenia. Who knew Slovenia was such a strikingly beautiful country…. so green and mountainous. We drove to Ljubljana and walked around this historic center. We happened upon a big festival where there were bands playing and vendors set up along the street. There was loud music blaring from large speakers, and booths set up with soccer ball kicking contests, and the like. The girls ran around the town square and we took pictures on the bridge (what great European town doesn’t have a quaint town square and a bridge?). We really liked Ljubljana, but decided to get a little further before finding a hotel.When we crossed over the Austrian border and drove through the breathtaking Alps (we couldn’t believe the view), we found a little bed and breakfast nestled on a mountain road. We ate weinerschnitzel for dinner, and spent a
comfortable night in one of their rooms. Katie and Ashley shared a bed, which was nice for Aaron and Heather to have a little space. We were served a typical European breakfast in the morning, with meats, cheeses and bread. As we left we noticed the back side of the B&B had a beautiful mountain river that ran through it, and tons of farm animals (which made us a little nervous about what we had just eaten). They had food for the girls to feed the animals, and the little goats were eager to be fed! There were pot-bellied pigs and chickens and billy goats. Katie pointed to an animal and exclaimed, “Hey! That looks just like a llama!” Well funny, because it was a llama! The girls loved to see a llama like the one they had seen on Go Diego Go! After a lot of hand sanitizer, we got back in 
the car and headed for Baden, Austria. There is a Roman Bath in Baden that Joe and Penny had been to years ago that they wanted to return to. We spent a couple of hours in their thermal baths, enjoying the warm water and fountains that spontaneously spouted. Ashley enjoyed it a little too much and swallowed quite a bit of water, which instigated her throwing up in the pool a few times…. fun.We drove through Vienna on our way back to Budapest to get Zanoni’s gelato, and we drove by the Economics University, where Aaron attended for a semester in 1996. We had a very fun-filled and busy 4 days, but were happy to get home to our own house and beds.
Taranto, Italy ... September 9-13, 2006
Heather flew to Italy to meet her sister, Dawn, who was meeting her fiance’s family for the first time. Dawn and Gianni Delle Foglie are engaged to be ma
rried in October, and Gianni’s family was hosting a huge party for them. Gianni’s mother is everything you would expect an Italian mother to be… she was so warm and loving… and fed everyone like crazy. Heather felt like she would never be able to eat again, then she would serve an amazing meal of pasta with fresh pesto sauce and Heather would stuff herself again. There was no resisting “Mama’s” food. It was too good. Dinner at midnight every night (the best pizza and calzones we’ve ever had), and sometimes gelato for breakfast. Heather spent a day at the beach and enjoyed relaxing, reading magazines and books, sleeping in and taking naps. It was a nice break and so fun to spend time with Dawn and meet Gianni.
rried in October, and Gianni’s family was hosting a huge party for them. Gianni’s mother is everything you would expect an Italian mother to be… she was so warm and loving… and fed everyone like crazy. Heather felt like she would never be able to eat again, then she would serve an amazing meal of pasta with fresh pesto sauce and Heather would stuff herself again. There was no resisting “Mama’s” food. It was too good. Dinner at midnight every night (the best pizza and calzones we’ve ever had), and sometimes gelato for breakfast. Heather spent a day at the beach and enjoyed relaxing, reading magazines and books, sleeping in and taking naps. It was a nice break and so fun to spend time with Dawn and meet Gianni.
Katie’s First Day of Pre-Kindergarten ... August 23, 2006
Katie started school today at the American International School of Budapest in Mrs. Pahkasalo’s class. Heather wasn’t so sure about sending Katie to school all day every day when she was just barely 4 years old, but Kati
e LOVES it! She adores her teacher and the assistant teachers, Ms. Orsi and Ms. Bea, and is making darling little friends (representing 10 different countries and counting!). All of the children get along so well together. Katie has art, music, PE, computers, library, ballet, Hungarian culture, baking on Wednesdays, assemblies and a big sing on Fridays (including the Pants Dance!), and the rest of her days are filled with crafts and projects and play. She eats hot lunch from school and a morning and afternoon snack. She is doing so, so well at school and is sad when the weekends come!
Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia ... August 10-15, 2006
August 10th we took a vacation to Russia. This was a much more complicated experience than I had imagined. We randomly decided to go a couple of weeks ago, so we quickly bought airline tickets to Moscow, not realizing until afterward that we needed Visas to the country. I was surprised considering how long ago the communist regime fell, that it would be this complicated, but I now know that everything related to Russia is a challenge, at least still in 2006. We didn’t have enough time to go through the regular visa application channels, so I paid way more than I paid for the plane tickets to get the visa. And once we realized how hard it was to get to Russia, we decided to visit St. Petersburg as well as Moscow (not to mention everyone we told that we were going to Moscow for 4 days, asked “what are you going to do in Moscow for 4 days!!!??). So we bought a ticket from Moscow to St. Petersburg to visit that city, which was much more beautiful and exciting than Moscow (outside of Red Square, at least). We flew to Moscow and immediately got a bus to the regional airport to get on a plane to St. Petersburg, the once ca
pital of Russia from 1712-1918.. This city is so much more European than Moscow. We got in late in the day Thursday, so we just checked into the hotel and relaxed. Friday morning we started early with a walk to the Hermitage, an actually quite interesting Museum complex at the Winter Palace. While waiting for it to open we were in the middle of the square where we watched a Russian film crew film a movie that had a big crowd of people dressed up in what looked like early 1900 military gear and old cars. Right across form the Hermitage is the dock to catch a hydrofoil on the Neva 
River to the Gulf of Finland to Petrodvorets, Peter the Great’s grand palace, Peter’s “Window on Europe”…”Too Russian to be European, too European to be Russian”. It has beautiful grounds, with 12 miles of manmade canals. We took the hydrofoil back to the Hermitage and walked to see the Grand Hotel and Mariinsky theater (Kirov in Soviet era), where the famous (supposedly) White Nights Festival is he
ld. Finally, we ended the day walking to the Yusopov Palace, once owned by one of the richest families in Russia and the Nobleman’s Nest restaurant. The cellar of the palace is where Rasputin, the Siberian mystic who somehow, like Jafar in Alladin, maintained some influence over the last Czar, Nicholas II, was killed by Nicholas’ friend, Prince Yusupov in 1916 . At first he tried to kill him with cyanide laced wine, but when that didn’t work he tied him up and tossed him into the Neva River (while still alive, supposedly).
The next day we got up early and went out and visited Pavlosk, the summer palace that Catherine the Great built for her son Paul I (Pavel in Russian). This one was hard to find and required us to take some rickety trains and the subway (not necessarily real fun with 2 young kids in a country where we can’t speak the language). Finally we arrived and enjoyed a walk from the train station through the vast grounds finally coming upon the palace about 45 minutes later. Hitler’s troops occupied this palace as Gestapo headquarters before setting fire to it in 1944. So Russia spent 25 years creating the replica back to what it was.
We finished here and found our way back to the airport where we flew to Moscow. We landed early evening and spent the next day visiting the sites in Moscow. I am glad that we included St. Petersburg because we saw everything we wanted to see in 24 hours in Moscow, including the Bolshoi Theater (which was under complete renovation, so not so spectacular-actually closed and the Ballet troupe performs in a nearby location instead).
We took the Moscow subway and were amazed at the impressive structure this is, in design and ornament. Chandeliers, statues, gold leaf, etc. etc. We specifically stopped at Mayakovskaya, Kievskaya, and Komsomolskaya. We had to just count the stops between stations because we couldn’t understand anything that was announced. We walked to Red Square and the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. 
This was truly an amazing site (including Lenin’s tomb next to the Kremlin-we didn’t go in to visit as the line was particularly long and the girls never would have survived it). Thinking about the Soviet era and being in this place was fascinating. We passed old men with tape players playing old Soviet propaganda music/speeches and waving the Soviet Flag, longing for the days when everything was handed to them (or not, most of the time). The Russians we encountered were not friendly at all. Often, as I tried to communicate with them for directions they would just turn away. I get that English is not common, but some common decency would have been appreciated. They all just seemed very sad. It is amazing to me what 
Hungary and Czech Republic, and Slovakia have achieved in the last 15 years vs. the Russians. And it makes me think what kind of economy these countries could have today if the Communists had not deterred their growth. It actually upsets me. Hungary could be Austria if not for the Communists. We then went to a Russian Flea Market, the highlight of the trip for Heather, where they had EVERYTHING. We bought a lot of Fabrege eggs, Russian nesting dolls, plates, and Christmas decorations.We completed our trip visiting the Tretyakov Gallery, where I enjoyed making up 
stories about each painting for Katie, which actually kept her interested the whole time. “What’s the story about this painting, dad?”. So I would make one up based on what I saw in the painting. I took a good picture of her in front of a huge painting of Ivan the Terrible (who actually is depicted in the painting as looking quite terrible!). We flew home and while driving back from the airport in Budapest Heather made a sigh of relief on how great it was to be back home! (Crazy considering we are still in a country that is not as comfortable as our own, although simply amazing as I can not mention enough). It goes to show how different Russia has evolved (or not evolved, rather) than Hungary. It really was nice to be home. A great trip culturally, but hard, nonetheless.
pital of Russia from 1712-1918.. This city is so much more European than Moscow. We got in late in the day Thursday, so we just checked into the hotel and relaxed. Friday morning we started early with a walk to the Hermitage, an actually quite interesting Museum complex at the Winter Palace. While waiting for it to open we were in the middle of the square where we watched a Russian film crew film a movie that had a big crowd of people dressed up in what looked like early 1900 military gear and old cars. Right across form the Hermitage is the dock to catch a hydrofoil on the Neva 
River to the Gulf of Finland to Petrodvorets, Peter the Great’s grand palace, Peter’s “Window on Europe”…”Too Russian to be European, too European to be Russian”. It has beautiful grounds, with 12 miles of manmade canals. We took the hydrofoil back to the Hermitage and walked to see the Grand Hotel and Mariinsky theater (Kirov in Soviet era), where the famous (supposedly) White Nights Festival is he
ld. Finally, we ended the day walking to the Yusopov Palace, once owned by one of the richest families in Russia and the Nobleman’s Nest restaurant. The cellar of the palace is where Rasputin, the Siberian mystic who somehow, like Jafar in Alladin, maintained some influence over the last Czar, Nicholas II, was killed by Nicholas’ friend, Prince Yusupov in 1916 . At first he tried to kill him with cyanide laced wine, but when that didn’t work he tied him up and tossed him into the Neva River (while still alive, supposedly).The next day we got up early and went out and visited Pavlosk, the summer palace that Catherine the Great built for her son Paul I (Pavel in Russian). This one was hard to find and required us to take some rickety trains and the subway (not necessarily real fun with 2 young kids in a country where we can’t speak the language). Finally we arrived and enjoyed a walk from the train station through the vast grounds finally coming upon the palace about 45 minutes later. Hitler’s troops occupied this palace as Gestapo headquarters before setting fire to it in 1944. So Russia spent 25 years creating the replica back to what it was.
We finished here and found our way back to the airport where we flew to Moscow. We landed early evening and spent the next day visiting the sites in Moscow. I am glad that we included St. Petersburg because we saw everything we wanted to see in 24 hours in Moscow, including the Bolshoi Theater (which was under complete renovation, so not so spectacular-actually closed and the Ballet troupe performs in a nearby location instead).
We took the Moscow subway and were amazed at the impressive structure this is, in design and ornament. Chandeliers, statues, gold leaf, etc. etc. We specifically stopped at Mayakovskaya, Kievskaya, and Komsomolskaya. We had to just count the stops between stations because we couldn’t understand anything that was announced. We walked to Red Square and the Kremlin and St. Basil’s Cathedral. 
This was truly an amazing site (including Lenin’s tomb next to the Kremlin-we didn’t go in to visit as the line was particularly long and the girls never would have survived it). Thinking about the Soviet era and being in this place was fascinating. We passed old men with tape players playing old Soviet propaganda music/speeches and waving the Soviet Flag, longing for the days when everything was handed to them (or not, most of the time). The Russians we encountered were not friendly at all. Often, as I tried to communicate with them for directions they would just turn away. I get that English is not common, but some common decency would have been appreciated. They all just seemed very sad. It is amazing to me what 
Hungary and Czech Republic, and Slovakia have achieved in the last 15 years vs. the Russians. And it makes me think what kind of economy these countries could have today if the Communists had not deterred their growth. It actually upsets me. Hungary could be Austria if not for the Communists. We then went to a Russian Flea Market, the highlight of the trip for Heather, where they had EVERYTHING. We bought a lot of Fabrege eggs, Russian nesting dolls, plates, and Christmas decorations.We completed our trip visiting the Tretyakov Gallery, where I enjoyed making up 
stories about each painting for Katie, which actually kept her interested the whole time. “What’s the story about this painting, dad?”. So I would make one up based on what I saw in the painting. I took a good picture of her in front of a huge painting of Ivan the Terrible (who actually is depicted in the painting as looking quite terrible!). We flew home and while driving back from the airport in Budapest Heather made a sigh of relief on how great it was to be back home! (Crazy considering we are still in a country that is not as comfortable as our own, although simply amazing as I can not mention enough). It goes to show how different Russia has evolved (or not evolved, rather) than Hungary. It really was nice to be home. A great trip culturally, but hard, nonetheless. 
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