After several months of procrastination and a frightful day where I inadvertently deleted all the photos, (Oh, yes I did) our honeymoon photos are finally up on Flickr. Our moms may be the only people as excited as I am, so this post is especially for them. 🙂
Enjoy!
Well, the roads will never be the same. Yesterday I received my Austrian driver’s license in the mail. It’s kind of a fun thing to have. It makes me feel like I really live here. Plus, my picture turned out really cute. Now I kind of want to show it to everyone. 🙂
You can pray for us on Friday as it will be my first time driving a school van full of kids. We are headed to Budapest, Hungary for a basketball game. Fortunately, I’m not in charge of reading the map, but driving in Hungary will be a whole new experience!
The first year I was in Austria, my friend Jean came over for a visit. She had a meeting in Budapest and picked me up on the way. Admittedly, I am a terrible history student, so I really had no idea of Hungary’s past other than the fact that it used to be under communist rule. When we went into the city of Budapest, I remember telling Jean that it felt like there was a heaviness in the air. Kind of a feeling of oppression.
Today I finished reading the book The Bridge at Andau by James Michener. While it’s not a complete history of Hungary, it is the story of what happened to Hungary under Russian rule. The book tells the story of the Hungarian revolution/uprising in November 1956 and the subsequent exodus of a large number of Hungarian refugees into Austria. The story is told from the viewpoint of several composite characters. These are characters that Michener created from the dozens of interviews he did with Hungarian refugees who crossed the bridge at Andau.
I can’t wait to go back to Budapest now. I feel like I will see the city in an entirely different light. I have a better understanding of what the country and her people have gone through and an amazing respect for them because of it. I also want to go to Andau, Austria which is just an hour and a half away. They have rebuilt the bridge, created a monument to the refugees, and built an open air museum in the city.
If you are planning on traveling to Budapest, I highly recommend reading this book. Just a warning, though, it made me cry on the U-Bahn more than once. So if you’re going to read it in public, bring some tissue.
My friend Sally and I went to Croatia for two days for a little relaxation before we head stateside to visit family and friends and, of course, to work on raising more support. What a beautiful country! We stayed at a great place called Hiža Suzanna. The owners are Nigel and Sue. They are amazing!
Because this was a last minute idea, we didn’t spend a lot of time researching where we were going. So, of course, we arrived late Sunday night to discover that Monday was a national holiday and everything would be closed. This wasn’t a problem though because Nigel went to the neighbors and gathered up food for us. We ate homemade sunflower seed bread, homemade cheese, cucumbers, plums, and dried prosciutto. It was yummy, and we got to have a real Croatian culinary experience.
Our goal in Croatia was to relax on the beach and recharge. Mission accomplished. Nigel directed us to a great beach and lent us snorkels and masks. We saw anemones, urchins, crabs, fish, and sea cucumbers. Fun!
If you ever decide to go to Croatia, I recommend staying with Nigel and Sue at Istra Život. Tell them Sally and I sent you. 🙂