There is SO much to tell, and many stories. I'll keep the best here and try to be brief :)
This Easter break Anthony, Rebekah, and I were blessed to be able to visit 2 other team members in their homes. First stop was in Hungary to visit Alpar in his hometown of Gyor. We were welcomed very warmly in his home with a homegrown, home cooked meal. Alpar's family is incredible that way! They have a cottage house out in the country where they grow fruits and vegetables. They make their own jam, juice, wine, and just about everything else. I loved that they still have their milk delivered by a milk man as well!
Alpar was an amazing tour guide for us the whole week. He has a real passion for history and architecture, so we could look at any building and say 'what's that?' and hear an incredible story. We were really lucky that way! We went to Gyor, Budapest, and Fertod. The best thing about Gyor was this amazing park by the river. We were able to sit and people watch. I don't know if it's the heat (pushing 30 Celsius) or the culture or what, but people were so relaxed - and I definitely caught a few couples... :) The best thing about Budapest was this really neat market where we got to experience Hungarian food and desserts - I had Langos (a potato pancake with garlic butter, sour cream, and cheese. mmm! And for dessert we had this long bread tube thing with cinnamon on it - delicious! And my favourite about Fertod was walking quite a ways to a castle where Haydn lived and composed! We took a tour and saw where he would have written and performed - pretty sweet if you ask me! Then we had a great lunch sitting in the GIANT lawn before running back to the train :)
Haydn probably roamed this garden humming his compositions... wow!
The most interesting cultural experience, though, was Easter monday. Easter Sunday was celebrated with church and a nice lunch along with a bike ride down to the Danube with Alpar's Dad. Quite pleasant. But Easter Monday was an event! The tradition is that the boys 'water' the girls for new growth - very Eastery. But do the girls run away or try and get them back? No. They give them cookies and cakes. So Beka and I awoke to buckets of water being poured on our heads. This is the first of 3 times that day that we were saturated by some male! But that's much less than the 20 times that some girls end up changing their clothes! We got to accompany Alpar around to his friends houses to continue watering :)
Beka and I. Saturation #2
Cycling to the Danube with Alpar's Dad
Our final night in Hungary was spent at the family Cottage house where we cooked dinner on a fire and had a chance to get to know some of his Brother's friends from Uni. There was music blasting from a car, and a good time was had by all, even if our communication was 95% non-verbal. We felt very blessed to be able to experience that world wide community first hand. We were dancing, laughing, and sometimes just sitting in silence as the fire crackled. Wow.
Riding Icelandic Horses
The whole gang with a Swedish Gnome in Stockholm
Getting ready to hike at Sara's house
Me climbing out of a bathtub of a puddle!
For more stories and pictures of Hungary, click here, or here, or for even more, here
For more stories and pictures of Sweden, click here, and for more, here.
As always, know that you are all in my prayers. I love and miss you, and hope that your life is just as crazy as mine in your own special way :)
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