Day 63 – Hydrofoil/ Budapest

We were up a lot earlier today as we had to be at the docks at 8am for our 9am Hydrofoil trip to Budapest. We quickly ate breakfast – the staff I think just thought – “more Americans in a rush.” We took a cab to the dock and then finally found it. Of course, we were on the wrong side of the check in so we had to take all of the bags to the front of the building. A guy with a cart for the luggage was thankfully downstairs so we checked the luggage with him. But after check-in we got nervous that maybe he didn’t work for the company so Scott checked on the bags, thankfully they were still there.

Upon a suggestion from our friend in Hungary, we took the Hydrofoil (a large boat) down the Danube. We boarded the hydrofoil with a tour group who pretty much took up all of the spaces so we had to split up. It was air-conditioned but because we sat so close to the door, it did not feel very cool. The trip lasted 6 hours. It was very neat. We went through two locks. The first lowered us 6-8 meters. The second lowered us 18 meters. My ears actually popped on the second lock. We had some lunch on board. Luckily the tour group got off at the stop before Budapest and we were able to stretch out (and feel the A/C). Scott got some pictures of the towns we were passing. It was very pretty.

Finally at 3:30 (although it said 2:30 on the website), we arrived in Budapest. We were met by our friend, Norbert. He took us to the Buda castle (#19) where we got some pictures high above the city. We ended up going to a Sorfest (Beer festival) in the back of the castle. While we waited for Timchi (Norbert’s wife and also an old friend) and their 2 kids to arrive, Scott & Norbert had some beer and we had some lemonade and pretzels. Then Timchi arrived with Greta (6 YO in a week) and Lolo (2.5 YO). Both kids were adorable in matching dresses. We quickly thought that Lolo was loco. She was all over the place and so cute. Greta was practicing her English (most learned from kids videos or Barney). She would ask her parents in Hungarian how to say something in English and then ask Emily & Ainsley. We were very fortunate to arrive in Budapest on the second hottest day. The hottest day would be tomorrow. We hung out and visited a few more sights before heading back to their house. Timchi had prepared a dinner for us. We ate and didn’t get to bed until almost midnight. Since there is an one hour time difference, our girls didn’t seem as tired.

But it was a rough night. Their house does not have any A/C although Norbert gave the girls the portable A/C machine to cool their room. Norbert & Timchi are building a new house and that will have A/C but for the amount of days in the year they need it, it never made sense to get it in their current home. Thankfully, since both girls were tired, they fell asleep quickly even if they were hot.