Budapest, Hungary

July 12
195 and I enjoyed sure enjoyed the time at Zoltan and Erika Wahl's place but we had to continue our trip out to Krakow, Poland. After a good breakfast and more chatting with picture-showing of their friends and enage party. The hunsband wasnt present as he had to get up at 4 30 am everydays for his work. We also took the picture with the family, minus the hunsband :( , in which we will post later on when we were back in our country. We headed out to the mall to do more blog updating for you guys, smiles! We were going to see some more places such as labryinth of the Castle Hill and statue park, citadel & liberation monument, and great synagogue today before catching the overnight train to Krakow, Poland.

July 11
The day was bit cool and gloomy as we head out by noon toward the city park (Városliget) where they got a park, palace, zoo, and amusement park. It was deaf day where all deaf parents, grandparents even that were not working that day brought their children to amusement park at discounted price. 195 and I parted our way at there to view the city and the spots. It was rainy and I failed to bring my umbrella so we only got to see St. Stephens church where they got a mummified hand of King Stephens but we could hardly see it in its glass case. We went to an Indian restaurant for a simple lunch then headed to the mall to use the internet at the book store and bought some food from Spar. We finally arrived back at our host's place around 9pm even through we said we should be back by 8pm, they said, "oh, dont worry as you got to see much as you want for its once in the lifetime" The wife, Erika, had the dinner ready for us (195 had told them that we didnt eat any meats that shocked them and after I explained that I was raised that way and 195 liked it so he followed as well without my part in telling him to be a vegetarian) Erika managed just fine, cooking up quite great and stomach filling dinner consisted of hard-boiled eggs in spicy sauce and oil alongside with a potatos and cheese soup (I am not sure what else was in it) but 195 and I both loved it. One thing we noticed that they tend to give us lot to eat and kept telling us to have second helpings while themselves only had one helping. We incidated to them to have more too but they just said they were already full, very generous host and hostess!

July 10
The train that arrived on evening of July 9's couches was manily of couchettes, only two couches were sleeperettes but 3/4 of it had to be reserved so the non reserve part was pretty full. We finally found a seat in one sleeperette where two other couple offer to share their space for most of people seem to be pretty selfish of their space so taht they could have more room to stretch out to sleep. Ah well but we managed to sleep most of night and woke up pretty early on the morning of July 10, out of Croatia, in Slovenia and into Hungary. When we pulled into Budapest, Hungary (they had three train stations), 195 and I mulled over which one of those should we get off at as we want to go to internet cafe to see if 195 got reply from his friend who was born in Hungary but moved to Canada at age 10 and still got a friend back there. We decided to wait until the second stop at more big train station, Keleti, in more inter part of city. At the turn out, we were glad that we got off at there instead for as we walked toward the exit of station, 195 spotted a guy standing with name sign, saying his name. I wasnt pay attention and almost went past that couple with the sign it was lucky that 195 spotted his name and realized that they were looking for us. Hence, we were lucky to catch eachother at right time and place. After a discussion of what to do next, look for a hostel with the deaf couple's help, their name were Zoltan and Erika Wahl. The wife, Erika, suggested that we stay at their place for we were going to stay only for two nights. We were grateful for it and it certainly nice to have a local deaf guide to show us around. They lived at edge of Pest part (Budapest was actually made up of two parts of cities, which were Buda and Pest) in a cozy small apartment with three small rooms, dining room, and kitchen along with half bathroom and shower/laundry room. They had two boys, one was 10 years old named Zsolt, and two 1/2 years old named Dániel. Both boys were hearing but signed real well. We dumped our backpacks in the playroom where we would be sleeping in and ate a light dinner then the husband, Zoltan, took us back to the center of Budapest to see some spots. We went to see the Chain Bridge (Széchenyl Lánchid) with its lights on at evening, they closed off the bridge at evening so that people could walk over it enjoying bands that were scattered throughtout it alongside the food stands. 195 and I were already drooling over a stand that cook vegetables on big round iron bowl so we got some; it was very delicious. Then with our guide, Zoltan, we head up the stairs toward tne Castle Hill (Várhegy) to get the city view and of the bridge. After it, we walked down to Matthias Church, its extior was covered with fanicful scluptures and carves with colorful mosaics on its rooftop. At last, we headed back to Zoltan's home around 10pm with him reminding us of the routine to take toward his place for the tomorrow as we had to transfer metro or tram then to bus then to metro, last bus to his place for the part of metro was under the construction.