Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Thursday, November 1: we were able to sleep in a little and eat a leisurely breakfast at the Kalvin House. the girls even got their first bath of the trip (this was the first place we'd stayed that had a tub!). feeling refreshed, we said goodbye to our palatial accommodations and drove to St. Stephen's Basilica for All Saints' Day Mass. the church is named after Hungary's first king, St. Stephen, who ruled from 1000-1038 A.D. his preserved right hand is in a reliquary here, which we were able to see briefly after mass (before they ushered us out to clear the area before the next mass!)
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| St. Gerard of Csanád, one of Hungary's patron saints |
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| bust of St. Stephen above the door |
after mass, the girls gallivanted around outside the church for a little bit, and then Angel had the brilliant idea to go get ice cream at a famous shop which sculpts the ice cream into the shape of a flower.
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| the most delicious bouquet! |
we then set off on an epic quest for a public restroom, and ended up at a Burger King a few blocks away at the recommendation of a guy in a little wine shop. we all traipsed downstairs to find the bathroom door locked with a small sign stating that you had to get the code from a receipt of purchase to unlock the door. so back up the stairs i went, to buy a bottle of water ... and of course they didn't take euros, only Hungarian forints. so after waiting for my credit card to go through, i finally flew down the stairs, triumphant, before anybody peed their pants. small victories!
when we made it back to the van, Father Aron had cooked up a genius plan to drop off the girls at an indoor trampoline park while the rest of the group squeezed in some more sightseeing. Nick gallantly agreed to watch them while i got to indulge in an hour of grownup time! the girls had an absolute blast. when i thanked Nick for taking one for the team after we met up again, he laughed and said he had fun too! they really needed this time to just play and do something that was entirely geared towards them for a while.
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| not exactly the most aerodynamic way to slide |
meanwhile, the rest of us drove up the hill to the Buda Castle district to visit the Matthias Church. this church was founded in 1015 by St. Stephen (whose eponymous church we had just left), and has quite an interesting history. during the Turkish occupation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the church was transformed into a mosque, all of its frescoes were painted over, and a stone wall was built to hide a votive statue of the Blessed Mother. in 1686, the Ottoman-Habsburg Wars raged over Hungary and other parts of the empire. the Holy League, led by Pope Innocent XI, laid siege to Buda. cannon fire caused that stone wall to fall, revealing the statue. the Turks panicked, and the Christian armies reclaimed the city of Buda later that day.
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| bronze statue of St. Stephen on his horse |
another notable historical fact is that the Emperor Franz Joseph and Queen Elizabeth were crowned here in 1867, as well as the last Habsburg king, Charles IV, in 1916. the church was named after King Matthias, who ordered the reconstruction and building of the southern tower in the nineteenth century, not St. Matthias (St. Matthew).
inside, every inch of the church is covered with intricate frescoes. my camera doesn't do it justice!
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| this statue of our Blessed Mother is traditionally thought to be the one that appeared to the Turks when the stone wall collapsed, although it's not clear that it is actually the same one. |
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| this capital is decorated with faces of famous Hungarian kings |
we also explored the Fisherman's Bastion, the terrace overlooking the Western bank of the Danube. the bastion was constructed with seven towers, representing the seven Magyar tribes that settled here in 895, to protect the side of the Buda castle. it is said that the fishermen's guild was responsible for defending this part of the city. today, it's swarming with tourists and vendors, a fascinating place to walk while taking in the best views of the city.
we finally went back down the hill and rejoined Nick and the girls. by this point, it was after 2 PM and we all needed some lunch. Father had a great traditional Hungarian restaurant in mind, but we still have no idea where it is because neither the van GPS nor Google Maps on Father's phone could get us there. we spent a frustrating fifteen minutes circling on and off the highway, arguing about which way to turn when none of the street signs matched up with the GPS directions, and eventually just ended up at a McDonald's as we wanted to squeeze in a visit to Memento Park before we left Budapest to head towards Slovenia.
but our disappointing lunch was overshadowed by Memento Park, which exceeded our expectations. as we pulled in, an ancient speaker was blasting Communist era music at full volume. the first exhibit in the park was an old Trabant car. i had never heard of them, but Nick and Father were like kids in a candy shop, hopping in the front seat and looking under the hood. Greta was into it, too!
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| all you ever wanted to know about the Trabant! |
we walked ahead to the rest of the park, which is dotted with 42 oversize statues from the Communist era that used to stand in various places around Budapest. the subjects include Lenin and Marx, as well as abstract monuments to Liberation and Hungarian-Soviet Friendship. while the guys struck poses with the gigantic dictators, Greta and Cecilia entertained themselves by playing in the gravel and had their own little photo shoot with Angel and Carly.
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| America's Next Top Model? |
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| classic Cecilia eye-roll while playing with the Rubik's cube she got in her Happy Meal |
then it was back in the car for the three-and-a-half hour drive southwest to Slovenia. Father's trampoline park plan paid off, as both girls fell asleep in the car and slept most of the way. night fell as we passed Lake Balaton, and after a stop for some gas station snacks, we arrived in the town of Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia around eight PM.
i have to confess that i felt the most ignorant about Slovenia, of all the countries we visited on this trip. i had no idea what to expect from the culture or the architecture, and the bottom line is that Slovenia is beautiful. but we couldn't see much of it until the next day, since we arrived after dark. we were staying in an eco-farm located just outside the town, and as we left the city limits, the GPS directed to make a hairpin turn up the hillside. we continued up, switchback after switchback on an increasingly narrow dirt road, squealing at every turn, squinting our eyes at the darkness outside the window to see just exactly how close we were to plummeting off the edge to our presumed deaths. finally the van scrabbled up onto a paved plateau and it was smooth driving for the next five minutes until we arrived at our destination.
we were immediately greeted by a fluffy white dog who, despite his fluff, definitely looked like he actively herded sheep. the girls were delighted, and when we entered the farmhouse, the welcome continued! the hosts had shots of homemade schnapps for all the adults, and we raised them in a toast to surviving that hill! (we asked the hostess about the GPS directions later, and she said that there's a perfectly paved road just a bit beyond where we turned onto the dirt road that would have brought us straight to them! darn GPS!!)
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| photo credit: one of the Pongrac girls! Na zdrowie! |
then our hosts treated us to an absolutely delicious homemade dinner, made with ingredients sourced from their farm (including the lamb!), all washed down with homemade apple wine. as we sat around the huge wooden table, Greta played with the pool table and Cecilia colored (and eventually started watching Daniel Tiger on my phone, as we relaxed and talked).
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| and again... Na zdrowie! |
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| delicious soup! |
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| we practically applauded when our host brought out this cauldron of meat. |
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| prune dumplings - i was skeptical once i discovered they contained prunes, but they were so good! |
at last, we brought our luggage upstairs and settled into our rooms. we had a veritable apartment, with a full kitchen, separate bedroom, pack 'n' play for Cece, and a sweet little twin bed for Greta. (of course, Greta ended up sleeping in our bed yet again, but Cecilia actually slept in the pack 'n' play!) the Pongracs' room was adorable too -- Carly and Rylee were sleeping in a little dormer room with a steeply slanted roof.
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| Greta discovered all kinds of kids' cups in the cupboards |
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| Cecilia was thrilled to find a little step stool in the bathroom! |
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| Greta's adorable bed |
we really could not fathom leaving this place in the morning. everything was both cozy and immaculately clean, every need anticipated, and our hosts were so kind! we actually discussed canceling our reservation at the next night's lodging and staying here another night instead, since our next stay would be at an alpine hut without electricity (and we weren't sure about the toilet situation, although we were pretty sure there would be running water). there were several cries of "do we HAVE to stay at The Hut?", and i think we actually might have changed the reservation except that we had already paid a non-refundable $250. as it turned out, though i would love to go back to the eco-farm (especially in the summer!), The Hut was an unforgettable adventure and i'm so glad we stuck with the original plan. but that, my dears, is a tale for tomorrow!
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