Budapest

June 11-13 - Budapest

We've spent the last few days bumming around Budapest. I can't say that it has been one of my favorite places, but it has been a cool place to hang out in cafes and watch the World Cup. On Sunday we did a bunch of sight seeing, heading across the river to Buda and taking in the Royal Palace and the Castle District. We spent a few hours wandering the War Museum which was free (!) and well done with a great section on WWII. In the evening we went to a cafe near our hotel and watched the Mexico v. Iran game. I was, of course, cheering loudly for Mexico.

Yesterday we walked to Hero's Square and saw that along with the neighboring park. We took the metro a couple times and the stations are adorable...they are so clean they look like a museum display! Very Norman Rockwell with shiny white tiles and nice benches. In the afternoon we headed to a sports bar to watch the US game. We met a bunch of Americans from Minnesota there - it was fun to chat with all of them and nice to have some fellow Americans to cheer with (even though the game was a big disappointment). It's been pretty surprising how many Americans we have seen in Hungary and Turkey compared to Asia, India and Russia. We saw very few American tourists in Asia and now they are everywhere.

Today has been a total lazy day. We are officially ready to leave Budapest. We had a long, leisurely lunch and this afternoon we're going to try to catch the Da Vinci Code at one of the theaters nearby. It will be our first trip to a movie theater in many many months....I am crossing my fingers for buttery popcorn.

Tomorrow we meet up with my family in Venice. We'll be in Italy for about 10 days. It's hard to believe we only have two countries left in this adventure... In just a few weeks we'll be celebrating 4th of July in Atlanta!