Budapest, Hungary

Thanksgiving weekend we had planned on visiting my cousin Noddy in England, but I waited too long on the tickets and they jumped up to 5 times the original price and subsequently out of our budget.  Since we couldn’t go to England I had to quickly book another trip to another city high on our list, Budapest.  We originally thought we would drive, but then decided that since we’d have to cross Austria we might run into a lot of snow and weren’t sure how fun that would be in the Hoopty.  Turned out to be a good decision because last week I got an oil change and was told that our tires are so worn that it’s dangerous to drive on them.  At any rate, there weren’t any cheap flights there either so we settled on the train.

Wednesday morning we got the kids up early and to the train station by 7:00am.  The train ride went smoothly but was long (9 hours).  Taking the train is great for the kids though and we were able to secure seats with a table for most of the ride. 

We arrived in Budapest at around 4:30 and then navigated our way through the city by metro to our apartment.  I got another incredible deal on this place, which was in a perfect location, but had some drawbacks (nasty shower curtain, extremely hard beds, questionable sheets).  We didn’t wake up with any bites or rashes so it turned out to be fine.  That night we found the local market and bought some supplies and ate some gyro and falafel from a nearby take away restaurant.

The next morning we got up and took the metro to Vorosmarty square to meet our guides for a free tour of Budapest.  The tour didn’t start until 10:30 so we wandered a bit and got some breakfast at a coffee shop.  Our tour guides, Sylvia and Susan, were both from Budapest and gave us a great tour.  We started looking out over the Donau (Danube) on the Pest side (Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the river) while Sylvia gave us a little Hungarian history lesson.  Some basic facts that I can remember:  it was founded about 1100 years ago, was converted from paganism to Christianity in 1000 ad by their 1st King (Istvan (Stephen) who they later turned into a Catholic saint, it’s surrounded by mountains and has few natural resources of it’s own, and was on the wrong side of both world wars.  The Hungarian language is kind of on an island of it’s own with basically no relation to any other language which makes it very difficult to learn.  Also, according to Sylvia, although it was kind of on the fringe of the Soviet bloc, had a lot of Western influences, and has been free since the fall of the Wall, the Hungarian government still has a lot of work to do to turn completely over to a democratic government.  She gave us a description of a typical work day for one of the major government buildings, relating that the employees work maybe 3 hours out of a 9 hour work day.  As a result, she said tax evasion is sort of a national sport.  After the talk we walked over to St. Istvan Church and then across the Chain Bridge to the Buda side.  As opposed to the Pest side which is very flat, the Buda side is built on a hill.  We climbed the hill to the President's mansion and then walked through the medieval streets over to Matthias Church.  Haaken was a bit of a handful, so we missed a lot of a the information, but it was a gorgeous day and a great walk. 

Vorosmarty Square

Royal Palace from the Donau

Matthias Church from the Donau

St. Istvan Cathedral

Crossing the Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge from the Buda side

Pest in the background

On the Fisherman's Bastion (Parliament in background)

Matthais Church

After the tour we hopped on a tram to the Great Market, a huge indoor market on the south side of Pest.  By now it was 2pm and we hadn’t eaten anything.  We picked up some fresh fruit on the ground floor and then got our Thanksgiving Dinner at a food stand on the second level.  Carissa and Elise got huge rolled up pancakes filled with Nutella and Banana (Elise) and vegetables (Carissa).  Lydia, Haaken and I had Lepkoko, a traditional Hungarian fried bread with toppings – the traditional sour cream, shredded cheese and ham for me, and ham, salami and cheese for the Lydia and Haaken.  This took quite a long time as there was a long line and only one griddle for the pancakes. 


  

Goofing around at the bottom of the Fisherman's Bastion

Great Market

Whole Pig for sale

Thanksgiving Dinner

We decided that everyone needed a little downtime at the apartment so we went back there and never made it back out.  We could tell the kids were worn out so we ended up staying in the rest of the night and went to bed early.  Supper ended up being salami sandwiches and some weird Hungarian potato chips.

Friday morning we got up and hit a restaurant that we had read about for breakfast to at least partially make up for our Thanksgiving meal.  The restaurant was in a cool little hotel and we ate well – scrambled eggs, omelets, juice and coffee.  Afterwards we walked over to St. Istvan Church to check out the interior.  Another massive, beautiful church.  As an added bonus, in a small chapel behind the main altar is the mummified hand of St. Istvan, set in a gilded cage.  It has a light on a 2 minute timer so you can see it even better, for the bargain price of 200 forint (1 euro).  We couldn’t come up with the correct change but lucked out when a tour group came in.  Even with the light it was difficult to make out as anything other than a brown lump.

After the church we jumped on a tram over to Parliament.  We were only able to get tickets to an abbreviated tour due to the fact that the speaker of the British Parliament was there for a visit.  At one point during the tour we had to step to the side and let him pass, with his Hungarian host and their entourage.

Parliament

Inside Parliament

The Christmas Market had opened they day we arrived so we decided to head back over to Vorosmarty square to check it out.  We had a kurtoskalac (hollow, cylinder shaped pastry with different coatings – cinnamon sugar, caramel, cocoa) as we browsed the stalls and then walked down the tourist Vaci utca before taking the tram back to the apartment.

That night we went out to eat on Raday utca and had a good meal at a Hungarian / Italian place.  I had traditional paprika chicken and dumplings which was great.

Saturday morning we woke up to find that it had snowed the night before.  When we went out for breakfast we came upon probably 15 city workers trying to clear the sidewalk in front of the Opera House with what looked like tools they had saved from the Communist Era.  They were using the smallest most pitiful shovels I have ever seen, rickety old wheelbarrows, and brooms that were literally made from bundles of sticks.  With a regular shovel it probably would’ve been a two man job.  Breakfast was chocolate croissants and cinnamon rolls at another cool little coffee shop. 

If you click on the picture you can see the tiny little shovels

Broom from the 1800s.  Based on what we saw it is almost useless

The weather forecast wasn’t that great for the morning so we flipped our plans for the day and went to the Szechenyi Baths for what is apparently a truly Hungarian experience.  The baths are on the north side of Pest and are fed by thermal springs.  It’s a huge complex with baths inside and out.  We spent most of our time outside, away from the seemingly stale and smelly indoor baths.  Outside there are three large areas, the hottest one (105 F) for relaxing, the center one for lap swimming, and the last for kids.  The kid pool had all kinds of jets from the floor of the pools and spouts all around, and in the middle were circular tiled walls.  The center ring had an underwater bench you could sit on and the outer ring had an incredibly strong current that would whip you around and around.  Probably the highlight of the trip for the kids.  On the way out Haaken and I decided to try one of the saunas inside – easily the hottest sauna I have ever been in.  After about 1 minute I told Haaken that he could tell me when he was ready to go to which he stated “I’m ready to go Dad.”  Probably a good idea – Haaken was taking really big exaggerated breaths and the tips of my ears were already starting to sting from the heat.

We took a short break at the apartment and then walked up and down Andrassy utca very near to our apartment.  We window shopped the ritzy street with all kinds of fashion designers and high end retailers.  It was dark and a little early for dinner so we took the metro to Votosmarty square, listened to some live Christmas music and then took in the Donau at night.  We followed this up with dinner at an Indian restaurant at the other end of town and then hot chocolate and fresh kurtoskalac from the Christmas market for dessert. 

Matthias Church and Chain Bridge

Dessert

The trip home went well until we were just about home (after about 10 hours of travelling.)  From Nuremberg we took a commuter train to our neck of the woods.  A few minutes from the time we were supposed to arrive in Freihung I noticed that the next stop was Amberg which is about 40 minutes by car from Grafenwoehr.  We started asking people around us if the train would eventually go to Freihung and a German woman who spoke some broken English said no, it won’t.  We showed her our ticket and she confirmed that we were on the right train and then started discussing our situation with another woman on the train.  This woman then told us to get off the train in Amberg because we were going to have to head back to a town a couple stops back (Neukirchen) and transfer.  Apparently as the train approached Neukirchen the conductor told the passengers over the loudspeaker that at the next stop the train was going to split in half and go different directions (one to Freihung, one to Amberg).  Since we don’t speak German we didn’t understand it and happened to be on the wrong side of the train.  This little experience added 2 hours to our trip.  It never occurred to me that a train could split in half midway through a trip.  Chalk it up to another experience on our European adventure I guess.

Nuremberg, Germany

End of November already and as of today Carissa has been here 7 months.  We’re feeling comfortable and at home, but not long from now we are going to have to start getting ready to pack up and leave.  Part of us wishes we would’ve made a longer commitment because it certainly would’ve changed they way we’ve had to go about living here in Germany from the house we chose, to the vehicle we purchased and packing all of the travelling in, but we just liked our house and probably moreso our neighborhood and community too much to do that.  Oh well, Carissa and I are hoping to get another shot at living in Europe after the kids are in or out of college.

We’ve been pretty busy the past two weeks.  The Friday before last Carissa had another girls night with the women from work.  They went out to a restaurant in Graf while the kids and I had a movie night.  Saturday morning we decided we needed to get some Christmas shopping done so we drove into Nuremberg to visit for the first time as tourists.  We basically spent the day wandering around the old town, which is quite expansive and has a ton of shops.  After seeing it we wished we would’ve gone to visit earlier, but it’s we’ve also enjoyed our non-travel weekends just relaxing at home.   While we were there we got a little bit of a preview of their famous Christmas market.  All of the stalls were in place, and the vendors were getting their inventory set up, and the town was beginning to be decorated.  We are probably going to head back one of the first two weekends in December to check it out, especially since after 4-5  hours of ‘shopping’ we came away empty handed.

Sunday we were invited to go back to Nuremberg by a collegue of Carissa’s for church.  Dr. Chee is a Korean man, and had told Carissa and the other contract dentist John that we should come see their church.  It’s a completely Korean congregation and is filled with talented musicians and singers from the Nuremberg school of music.  We carpooled with John and his wife Clarise and it turned out to be a great service.  All three kids were welcomed into Sunday school and although it was all in Korean they had a good time.  This meant that we were able to enjoy the service without distraction and it was pretty amazing the amount of talent in the room.  The choir was unbelievable as was the trio of musicians (cello, violin, viola) that accompanied them.  We learned that a few of the choir members also sing in the Nuremberg Opera.  The service was in Korean as well (with German subtitles).  Following the service we attended their weekly meal  prepared by 2 or 3 families in the congregation.  We were served a bowl of ground meat, lettuce, carrots, bean sprouts and some long rectangular shaped gelatinous stuff that turned out to be finely ground acorns mixed with water.  To this we added sticky rice from common plates and mixed it all together.  Needless to say Lydia was pretty hungry after the meal. 

On our way home John and Clarise treated us all to sundaes to McDonalds.

Six Months In

At this point we've been here a little over six months.  By my count, we've been to 24 cities in 6 different countries so we're making the most of our time.  I thought I'd put some random thoughts / facts about Germany, the Army and our travels since we're more or less at the halfway mark.

1.)  The autobahn is pretty crazy, at least at first.  The recommended speed is 130 kph which is roughly 80mph.  I drive about 140 (86) and still people blow by me regularly (typically station wagons - the european SUV) like I'm standing still.  I figure they must be going 40-50 mph faster than me so that puts them at about 135-145 mph.  And that's with German gas prices at about $9 a gallon.  On the other hand you have the semi's, which are only allowed to go 100 kph, which is about 62 mph.  This means at any given time two vehicles on the same road can vary in speed by 70 to 80 mph.    It sounds dangerous, but you get used to it.  A couple basic rules to follow (always stay to the right, NEVER pass on the right) and it actually seems safer than US highways.  I'm curious to see how slow 65 mph is going to feel when we get home.

2.)  When you are standing in line at the market (or anywhere else) you have to stand almost right up against the person in front of you or a German will cut in front of you in line.  Very annoying.

3.)  When you are at the market and you want, for example, 1 bratwurst, you signal with your thumb, not your index finger.  If you use your index finger, you might end up with 2 bratwurst.  To signal for 2, you show your thumb and index finger, and so on.

4.)  To cross your fingers for luck, Germans close their fingers around their thumb, instead of crossing their index and middle fingers.  I haven't learned what the equivalent of the finger is - I'm going to have to make a note to find that out.

5.)  The most commonly used German expression is "genau", which means exactly, or correct.  They say it constantly.  I also have heard "jawohl" (prounounced ya vole) a lot which always reminds me of Hogan's Heroes.  "Jawohl Herr Commandant!" says Sgt. Schultz

6.) The smallest euro bill is the 5 euro.  The rest is change.  Not a big deal for women, but I haven't found a convenient way to carry it all which means sometimes I jingle.

7.)  When we try to speak German we've noticed that unless you pronounce the word exactly as a native speaker would pronounce it, they will have no idea what you are talking about, even if it's somewhat close.  For example, Haaken goes to school in the neighboring town of Hütten.  There is no town anywhere near here with a similar spelling.  Yet when I told my neighbor that Haaken was going to kindergarten in Hooten, he had absolutely no clue what I was talking about.  It's maybe two miles away.  The ü apparently is sort of a combination of ee and oo sounds which I can't do.  Finally he figured it out and said, "Ah, Hütten!"  Didn't sound much different to me.

8.)  Dogs are allowed and brought everywhere.  Shops, restaurants, grocery stores, you name it.

9.)  The publicly maintained flowers in the German cities are absolutely amazing.  Tons of flowers, always in bloom.  In fact the flowers in Grafenwoehr were still in bloom just a couple weeks ago.

10.)  Anytime is a good time for ice cream in Germany.  I've been out at 9am and seen people walking around with cones.

11.)  Same goes with beer.  One of the first times we went out for breakfast here we walked into a bakery at about 9:30 on a Saturday and there was a table of guys drinking beer with their breakfast.

12.)  German liquor stores do not have a section where you can get cold beer.  This is probably because most Germans don't refrigerate their beer, they just keep it in the basement.  Prior to coming here I really didn't like warm beer very much, but I'm getting used to it.

13.)  Most places we've eaten in Germany have a very limited wine selection.  Usually it's a couple 'dry' wines and a couple 'sweet' wines.  Apparently a 'dry' wine in Germany is a Reisling, which is extremely sweet for my taste.

14.)  Although Germany is only about the size of Montana, it's economy produced roughly 25% of the US GDP.  I find this pretty unbelievable, especiallly since it was basically bombed back to the stone ages in WWII.

15.)  In our area people heat with oil or gas, but they also have woodburning stoves and they pile wood in their yards like the apocalypse is coming.

16.)  You are expected to bring your own bags to the grocery store.  If you forget them, you can either cradle everything in your arms, or pay for plastic bags.  Also, shopping carts are locked together with chains.  If you want a cart, you put in a euro and if you want the euro back, you have to lock the cart back up when you are done.

17.)  Most places we've stayed have a pane of glass for a shower curtain that only spans half of the bathtub.

18.)  US soldiers are extremely polite.

19.)  We live probably a mile from the base and at probably 3 miles from the closest shooting range, yet we can clearly hear machine gun fire regularly and some of the tank guns literally shake the house.  Also, when the fighter pilot practice bombing runs it is really loud.

20.)  It's very disappointing, and I think I said this early in our stay, but the administration of the Army is incredibly inefficient and frustrating.  One of Carissa' coworkers who was an Army dentist right when he got out of dental school says if there is the Army is deciding between something that makes sense and something that doesn't, they always pick the one that makes no sense.  Even Carissa's colonel said that going around to the different office is extremely frustrating because no matter where you go it seems like the person helping you is doing it for the first time and has no clue how to help you.

21.)  At 5 pm everyday is the Retreat, where the German and US flag comes down while a bugle plays.  Everything within earshot of this ceremony stops.  Cars stop in the middle of the road and people get out and face the flag, and anyone walking outside stops and does the same.  All the soldiers salute until the bugle stops playing and then everyone resumes whatever they were doing.

Off to Budapest tomorrow morning.  I pretty sure this will be the first time in my life I won't have a Turkey dinner for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully we can find some good food to make up for it.

St. Martin's Day / Berlin

Thursday Haaken had his big St. Martin's Day celebration at school.  According to legend, St. Martin was a knight in Roman times who came across a beggar who was about to freeze to death.  Because he didn't have anything to share with this man other than his cloak, he cut it in two and gave the beggar half.  That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away.  The dream confirmed Martin in his piety.  This memorable event is celebrated to this day on November 11th, mainly in Southern and Western Germany.

The celebration began at the little Catholic church in the town where Haaken goes to school (Hütten).  The kids went off with their teachers and we went and sat down inside the church.  The church was dark except for a cluster of candles in the front and appeared to have no heat because it was freezing.  After about 10 minutes the kids were led down the aisle, each carrying lanterns they had made in school and singing German songs.  In the past, the lanterns used to be made from hollowed out beets with a face carved in it, similar to jack-o-lanterns.  These were made from cloth and paper, with a little electric votive lighting each one.  Once the kids all were seated, a priest (who was so old he may have been St. Martin himself) began speaking.  We couldn't understand him because he was speaking German and because the kids were making a ton of noise (thankfully not Haaken), but I imagine he was telling the story of St. Martin.  A couple kids then acted out the story behind a white curtain that was illuminated by a spotlight from behind.  Following the performance, the kids were led out of their seats and then stood in a circle holding hands around the altar and sung a couple more songs.  From what we could tell Haaken was doing a great job participating.  The kids then filed out of the church with their lanterns and lined up outside.  

 Entering the church

 St. Martin

 Young St. Martin is on the right, left is the beggar

We followed after the kids, who were lined up behind a man on horseback representing St. Martin.  The procession walked through the town to Haaken's school where Gluhwein, hot cider, snacks, and a bonfire were waiting.  We ate some snacks, but quickly got cold as there were a ton of people and the bonfire was not big enough for everyone.  

The march begins

Haaken and his friends

It was about 6:30pm by now and as Thursday was also Veteran's Day there was a lot going on on post.  ESPN Sportscenter was doing a special broadcast from Grafenwoehr so we decided to go check it out and get dinner at the food tents they had set up for the day.  We stopped in at the Sportcenter broadcast first and were lucky to get some pretty decent seats right away.  The tent was filled with soldiers and kids and the crowd was very lively.  We watched a few segments and then decided to head over and get some food.  After dinner we went out on the parade grounds to watch the Warrior Games, which ESPN put together as a competition between some of the different units on post.  We watched the tug-o-war event and were pretty sure we got on TV so the kids liked that.  It was freezing and really windy so we didn't last long and headed home.

 Hannah Storm and Josh Elliot

Inside the tent

Friday Carissa worked but that night we drove to Berlin.  My cousin Siri and her family are living there for the  year, and coincidentally, her sister Lydie (and husband Chris) were also visiting.  We thought we'd make it in time to see them that night but got in too late so we just went to bed.

The next morning we got up and drove over to Siri and Jonathan's for breakfast.  From there we formulated a plan and took the metro to the Berlin aquarium since it was raining.  It's a great aquarium and our girls were in heaven hanging out with Siri's daughter Solveig (14).  Lydie made the mistake of showing Haaken her mini video camera so he latched on to her right away.

Outside the aquarium

Jellyfish

It looked like the rain was letting up so after an hour or two we took a double decker bus to the Brandenburg Gate.  It's the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered and was built in the late 1700s.  Considering the time of the year and the weather there actually were quite a few people there.  The kids participated in a street performance by a percussion group who handed out drumsticks to the crowd and then we walked over to the Reichstag (German parliament) which sits along the river Spree.

Goofing at the gate

Pretzel bike

 Haaken with the percussion group

As we walked around Siri was singing German songs with Haaken which was fun to see.  By now it was nearing coffee time in Germany so we hopped on the metro to a busier neighborhood and then walked to a great coffee shop that Siri and Jonathan knew of for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake).  Our group was so big we had to split up, and I was fortunate to sit with all grown ups (Siri, Jonathan, and Lydie) and have a few tastes of the plum kuchen they ordered.  It reminded me of being at Grandma Knight's house.

The Reichstag

That night Siri and Jonathon hosted a great pasta dinner and then we ended the night with a game of charades.  

Sunday morning we packed up our things and then had breakfast with the Olson's again.  We decided that a cruise on the Spree would be a good way to spend the morning.  The cruise was nice and as we made our way down the river the weather finally began to clear up.

Haaken making videos on the boat

Berliner Dom from the river

After the cruise we climbed to the top of the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) and got a view of the city from above.  We had some crepes for lunch, and then took a combination of a double decker bus and the metro back to their apartment.  Unfortunately at this point we had to head home.  We are definitely going to try hard to get back to Berlin before we leave.  In fact, we've only been home two days and the kids are already asking when we can go back.

Climbing to the top

Berlin from above

Eating crepes

Halloween / Lydia's Birthday

Another couple weeks have gone by without blogging.  Soccer finally ended on the 28th, so we're done running around 4 nights a week for a while.  Friday the 29th we were invited by one of Carissa' coworkers to a Trunk or Treat at his church.  Basically everyone in the church met in the church parking lot.  Everyone decorated their trunks while the kids were inside the church playing games and listening to scary stories.  Once the trunks were ready the kids Trick or Treated around the parking lot and then afterward everyone went back inside to admire their haul, drink hot chocolate and eat pretzels.   It was a great time and the kids got to do a little trick or treating.

 Trunk or Treat

From what our neighbors told us, Germans don't celebrate Halloween, except in our community because there are so many Americans.  Some of the Germans in town like it, and others can't stand it.  We had a few kids at our door and instead of saying "Trick or Treat", they said something in German which we couldn't understand.  Their costumes weren't nearly as elaborate as American kids, and some of the older kids I saw walking around the neighborhood didn't even bother with them at all.

Prior to getting invited to the Trunk or Treat we had told the kids that we weren't going to Trick or Treat at all since we were in Germany, but told them they could each invite a couple friends for a Fall party (no costumes).  We had that on Saturday and just played a few games, and decorated and ate cupcakes.

Cupcake Decorating

Bobbing for Apples

Sunday we went over to the kids surrogate grandparents, Jack and Judy Daugherty's.  Jack is another contract dentist from Minnesota and they have been great to all of us since we've been here.  The kids had dessert while the adults chatted.

This past Friday was Lydia's birthday and we celebrated by going out to our favorite restaurant, Tortuga's.  Afterward Lydia opened all her presents (everyone's got here in time) and then we hit the hay.  Saturday was a lazy day playing Lydia's new games and then watched the Blind Side that night.  Today we went to church for the first time in 6 months and then out to lunch with the other contract dentist and his wife (John and Clarise Bengtson), also from Minnesota.  After lunch we went over to their house and they played the role of surrogate grandparents as well, giving the kids all kinds of gifts.  As I type, the kids are at a church kids club having a little fun and giving Carissa and I a little bit of a break (only the 3rd time we've been without the kids since we've been here).

Happy kid

This coming week Carissa has the day off on Thursday (Veteran's Day).  It's a big deal around here as ESPN is going to be broadcasting from the parade grounds, in addition to all kinds of military vehicles on display.  That day also is a German holiday, and we will be participating in a parade at Haaken's school to celebrate St. Martin.  On Friday we plan to drive to Berlin and stay for the weekend.  We will see Siri, Jonathan and Solveig who are living there for the year, and luckily Chris and Lydie will be there at the same time, so it will be a mini Knutson reunion!