Caving

I got an email a little while ago that a Hungarian Fulbrighter wanted to organize a Fulbright caving trip. We want to do everything we can to see Hungary and surrounding countries while we're here, so of course we said yes! One reason this was the best trip ever was that I didn't have to plan a single thing - it was entirely planned by Adam, a Hungarian who spent some time in the US last year. The other group of people met us there and included Adam's wife, a couple of their friends who were also into caving and another former Hungarian Fulbrighter.

We got picked up early on a Saturday by Adam, he had room for all 6 of us in his car! We drove a few hours to Jósvafő. Along the way we stopped for snacks (and a new shirt for J who had already puked by this point - carsickness for the win :-/). 

We then drove to Baradla cave (a couple more sick kids along the way), which really looked a lot like caves/caverns we've been to in the US (Carlsbad, Lost World, Laurel). Stalagmites & stalactites & about a hundred other people with us. 

After that cave, we checked into our hotel, the Tengerszem Szálló  in the tiny village of Jósvafő, which is literally right next to the cave exit we came out of.  The caves are part of of Aggtelek National Park. After checking into our hotel we explored the grounds a bit.

 

We had the top two rooms at the peak - one with 4 beds one with 3. 

 View from our rooms

 The salamander is the symbol for this national park, and we saw a few while we were walking around. One in the water on a log (hard to see) and one on a bridge.

After our outing we hung out in our room (the adults may have fallen asleep) 

and the kids read books and played on their ipods.

Then we all drove to dinner at a little tiny restaurant (we must've been the biggest group they'd had in a while). We had some traditional Hungarian/Slovakian foods. J's schnitzel was as big as he was, and he impressed us all by eating most of it. 

The next morning we woke up and went to the same restaurant for breakfast (TONS of food). We walked around the village which only took about 15 minutes & fed the horses we saw. They are a Hungarian breed, and common in the part of the country we were in. 

 

Then we went to Rákóczi Cave 1. This cave was much more adventurous. We climbed up & down tons of stairs in there, holding onto the railings of course, because there were lots of drops and two large lakes at the bottom. The kids borrowed head lamps from our traveling companions and they all played with some of the mining equipment at the end. On the way out, we could see Slovakia across the road, but weren't close enough to cross easily by foot, so we didn't. We saw some bats in there too but didn't get any good pics of them.

Slovakia across the fields.

Group photo since we all survived it!

When it was over, Adam drove us all home and dropped us off. Easiest trip ever for us! We definitely would not have planned all this on our own and having the translators there for us was great! So glad this happened!

Vienna

The grandparents came into town for a visit. We spent a week in Budapest - visiting the castle, riding the funicular, touring the operahouse, going to the opera (we saw Das Rheingold), shopping at the grand market hall - then a long weekend in Vienna. 

 

The train ride to Vienna from Budapest is fairly short - only 3 hours and easy. The weekend was nice, we stayed at a familiar hotel so we didn't get lost too often either! We toured the Vienna opera and had just toured the Hungarian Operahouse a couple of days earlier. The Budapest house is much more beautiful inside the auditorium. The Vienna house is very plain - I agree with the legend that Franz Josef left in the middle of the first act in Budapest because he realized how much more beautiful it was than the one in Vienna. 

We toured the imperial apartments where Franz Josef and Sisi lived, then the silver collection and the Sisi museum. It was a rainy day so good that we did this and the opera. The next day was nicer and we spent more time outside. We visited St. Stephens, hopped on a hop-on/hop-off bus (first time) and rode the giant ferris wheel - that was very neat. We happened to go during the beginning of the Christmas season, and the extra markets were nice. We hope to go back before we leave Budapest. 

Serbia

We spent last weekend in Belgrade, Serbia - not a place we ever thought we'd visit. 

I had a conference there so we bought some extra train tickets and the whole family came along for the ride. The 8 hour ride (which actually seems longer when there's a group of drunk 30-something guys in the seats across from your kids...) was rough. And long. Way too long.

While there we toured the Nikola Tesla museum, a Medieval torture device museum, visited Republic Square, the Fortress of Belgrade, the Roman Well, the city park, the Bohemian Quarter (Skadarlija), the Parliament building, walked by the zoo & amusement park, saw St. Mark's church, saw the famous Hotel Moscow, some local parks and (of course) McDonald's. My kids have made it a mission of theirs to eat at McDonald's in every country we visit. I picked up all of one word in 4 days there - Hvala - which means 'thank you'. 

We saw a few interesting sights on our way into the country and the city. Recently, a border has been erected between Hungary and Serbia due to the current migrant/refugee situation and the train goes right through there. 

We also saw some buildings that were still standing despite being bombed in 1999 by NATO as well as some memorials to those who died in the bombings. 

We left the weekend with a sweet note to the hotel staff at Hotel Excelsior from our youngest about how much he liked the family suite room. (We really did like it - plenty of room for the 6 of us and they were very accommodating). 

Oh yeah, the conference talk went well, too :)