Loving and Leaving Budapest

Our departure date from Budapest is basically final now.  It looks like I will be leaving around April 30th so that I can be at work in Dallas on May 1st or 2nd.  Phillip's departure date is a little more uncertain...he will either leave with me or go back about 2 weeks before me.  Although we have known for a while now that we would be leaving at the beginning of May, the finalization of this has hit me really hard.  When I arrived in Budapest, I could have never imagined it would be this hard for me to leave.  I could have never imagined I would grow to love this city and this country so much.  I could have never imagined I would love so many people here.  And, I certainly could not have imagined what precious, precious friends I would make.  All of these things are making the thought of moving home terribly hard for me.

At the same time, I am excited about the prospect of Phillip and me buying our first home in Dallas, and I am excited about starting our family.  I am excited to be back in the same state as our family and our wonderful friends at home.  I am excited to be home for special events, favorite foods, and mostly for the people we love.

Our friends Richie and Stefanie just moved to Budapest for two years, and we all went together to have a glass of wine last night.  As we were riding in the tram down the side of the Danube River with the Chain Bridge and Castle Hill in sight, Richie said, "This view never gets old".  Phillip and I both quickly agreed with him, and then both of us at once added, "but you will only grow to love it even more".

I am still not sure how it is possible to feel like you belong in two places that are an ocean apart.  I am still not sure how I can love two places and feel so totally at home in two such totally different places, but I do. 

With the last month that I have here, I plan to enjoy every minute.  I plan to take every opportunity to spend time with Betti and Kinga and my other friends.  I plan to savor every walk along the river.  I will enjoy every wonderful Saturday morning I get to spend with Phillip here in our first home.  And, I will remind myself that friends like I have made here are friends for a lifetime regardless of where we are, and that Budapest will always be only a flight away.

Welcome Home, Phillip!

Phillip arrived back in Budapest last weekend after having spent 6 weeks in the US for work.  It was a long 6 weeks for us...being an ocean apart.  I was so ready to have him home!!  Betti, Kingu and I decided that after 6 weeks away, Phillip definitely needed a welcome home party.  We also decided that this party should involve Hungarian food since we knew he would missing it too.  We finally got to have the welcome home lunch today.  Here is a picture from lunch, although the guest of honor was taking the picture.

Since it was a Hungarian lunch, most of the details were left up to Kingu and Betti.  We had sausage that Betti helped make at a traditional pig killing she recently attended in the Hungarian countryside.  You cannot get any fresher than that :)  She also made a yummy, yummy cottage cheese cake!! 

We were sooo tired and full after our lunch, that this is about all we could do.  At least until it was time to go shopping :))))  Well, for the girls, anyway.

The other major event of this week was that our dear friend, Wilson, moved back to the U.S.  Katie will join him in about a month.  We had his farewell dinner and party last weekend, and it was really hard to say good-bye.  We sure will miss Wilson.  What a week!!!

Our Roman Holiday

The first stop on our Tour de Europe was Rome!  The city that needs no introduction.  In fact, it took me so long to blog about Rome because I kept thinking how much history I was going to have to write about, and then I finally came to the conclusion that there is absolutely tooooo much history in this city to even begin to capture it in my blog.  So, instead, I have chosen to show only the pictures and leave out all the details.  If you are really curious, check out the Rick Steve's book :)

We took the train from Budapest to Rome.  We had to change trains in Vienna, and from there, we had about a 12 hour overnight train ride to Rome.  All four of us shared one sleeper car...one very small sleeper car.  It was pretty interesting and did not allow for the greatest night of sleep.  Here are some pics of us trying to get settled on the train.

Loved our hotel!

Let the sight seeing begin!  Here is the Colosseum.

SO many sights to see :)

Trevi Fountain (pretty during the day, amazing at night)

 Enjoying our Italian gelato.

Vatican City (technically an independent country separate from Italy) and the Vatican Museum.

The Sistine Chapel and Rafael Rooms of the Vatican.  I had not previously been very interested in art and history's famous artists, but there was something about seeing all of these amazing originals in a place as spectacular as the Vatican, that gave me a new interest.

St. Peter's.  It is absolutely breathtaking.  Apologies for the strange camera setting on this one.

Love the streets and squares of Rome!!

The Spanish Steps

Enjoying some down time!

The greatest gelato in all of Rome was at Giolitti's!!!

Hanging in the park.

Many Bowmans in Budapest

How lucky were we to be able to bring Sheila and Tyler back with us to Budapest when we left Texas in July.  We arrived in Budapest and spent about a week here prior to leaving for our trip to Italy and Germany.  It was so fun to show them around our city.  There were so many Bowmans in Budapest this week :)

Day 1 of sightseeing

 Walking to Pata Negra for dinner!  We got to introduce Betti to our fam!

Tapas for dinner at Pata Negra, and of course, the fabulous sangria :)

 Checking out the synagogue.

Sheila and her boys by Szabadsag Hid (Freedom Bridge).

Begininng the long, tiring walk up Gellert Hill.

But, the views at the top were worth it!!

The girls were finally recovering from the walk!

 The boys enjoying the Citadella.

Representing our schools :)

About to enter Szechenyi baths.

And they were wonderful!!

We had sooo much fun in Budapest!!  Time for Rome!

Our Trip to Texas

In July, we made a mad dash to Texas to see the fam and to attend Abbey and Michael's wedding.  It was a great, albeit short, trip!  We flew into Dallas and were able to spend several days with Phillip's side of the family in Hillsboro during the first part of our week home.  Mark, Sheila, and Tyler picked us up at the airport and took us to Babe's for dinner.  We were flat out exhausted from the trip and from having been up for over 24 hours, but nothing was stopping me from having some good ole Texas food immediately.  It was such a treat...I had pot roast...of course.  It was great, and only my mom's could have beaten it :)

We really enjoyed seeing everyone, and with Abbey and Michael's wedding over the 4th of July weekend while we were there, we were able to have lots of family time at all the wedding festivities.  We loved it!!

Here are a couple of pictures from the rehearsal dinner. 

  Sheila and I were assigned the task of setting up for the rehearsal dinner.  It was a lot of fun...we got to spend the hot part of the afternoon indoors while the others were rehearsing outdoors...and we got to have beverages and chit-chat at the same time :)

We also spent the 4th of July in Hillsboro, and I spent the day eating Mark's BBQ!  No better way to spend a day!

We also made a quick trip to Dallas to have a couple of meeting at work and to see our friends that we miss soooo much!  Richie and Stefanie had everyone over to their house, and we cooked out and enjoyed catching up with everyone.  Here are the boys at the "Boys' Table".  I learned what happens after you get married....the boys no longer want to sit with the girls :)

Our next destination was west Texas.  We also got to spend a few days in McCamey and Odessa visiting with my side of our family.  It was great!!!  We had dinner at Grandad and Diana's when we first arrived.

Samantha loved her new Budapest shirt.

And, I got to spend some quality time with my Grandaddy :))  I sure had missed him.

I also got to spend some time with this precious boy!!

Steven and Amanda had us all over to dinner so that Phillip and I could see their new cute house.  We were so proud for them!  We had so much fun playing with Connor too.

Do you think he is going to be a CPA like his Aunt Holly and Uncle Phillip???

Looks like mom was having lots of fun too!

Enjoying the lovely Texas summer and the beautiful patio.

We had a wonderful time at home, and as always, it was hard to say good-bye to the people we love.  However, we were really looking forward to seeing our favorite Hungarians, going on our family vacation, and spending our summer in Europe so that helped for sure.