One Last Visit at the Nagy Csarnok in Budapest

One vendor at the Nagy Csarnok was having fun on Thursday, the day before we left Budapest.

The Nagy Csarnok (pronounced nahj charnock) is the largest city market in Budapest, and it's really unique.

It's a place where Hungarians shop for fruits and vegetables, spices, meats, cheeses, and every other type of food product.

The second floor has booths that sell prepared food like "langos"--a big fried flat piece of dough that is topped with sour cream, cheese, garlic oil or a variety of other things.

The second floor also has booths selling Hungarian handicrafts -- leather goods, embroid- ered linens, painted eggs, and touristy things like t-shirts and mugs.


I thought you might like to see a full view of the video pig above....even his legs were on display!

Our Final Week in Budapest--Sunday

Went to church this morning at Golgota and got a chance to say good bye to some of our friends.

In the afternoon, we went to Frank and Mary's (our former land lords) and had a nice visit.  Mary invites us for a visit, but always ends up feeding us an entire meal.  We had pogacsa (little biscuits), pizza, and dessert.

Our Final Week In Budapest--Friday and Saturday

OUR FINAL WEEK IN BUDAPEST....TIME HAS GONE SO FAST.
Thursday I had lunch with my friend Jane Stevens at an outdoor cafe.  We used the blankets they provided because we didn't want to go inside where it is smoky.  I didn't get a picture.


Friday while I met with a good friend for lunch, Michael went up castle hill and got some great photos of the sights as well as some great photos overlooking the city:

 

 

 

My friend and I had a pizza at one of my favorite-view restaurants.  Out this window you can see the Parliament across the Danube. 

Friday evening we had supper with Anikó and Mark Sheard had us over to their flat.  They moved into this flat shortly before we moved from Budapest, and we'd never had a chance to see it.  We met Anikó and Mark coming home on the bus from church about 5 years ago.  They became a regular part of the small group that met in our flat for the next 4 years.  Mark is from Zimbabwe and Anikó is a Hungarian who speaks perfect English.  They used to live in a 50 square meter (538 square feet) flat, a pretty typical size for a young couple and now have a 70 square meter (750 square feet) flat. 

Saturday morning, we went to the Petofi Csarnok flea market.  It is really the people's flea market (very few professional vendors).  I bought a little metal sign (that I didn't really want) from this man (in the picture above) because he was so sweet and he seemed like he needed the money.  I found out later that the sign says: "do not cover this vent"  : )

But I also found exactly what I had gone to the market to buy.  I have two little girl figurines from our past time in Budapest, and I was looking for a third since I want them to represent my three precious little granddaughters.  (I couldn't find any cute boy figurines for my sweet little grandsons, so I'll have to think of something different for them.)  But these figurines are all similar, made in a Budapest factory that went out of business.  I haven't paid more than $10 for any of them, but saw one in an antique store the other day (badly overpriced at $80).  Since I'd gotten one of my previous ones at this market, I thought I'd give it a try.  I actually found two at the market, both priced between $10-15 and bought one of them.  I also found a little prayer book from the 1930's for $5 and a tiny pocket Hungarian hymnal for 1956 for $6 (1956 was a momentous year for Hungarians, making this little hymnal more meaningful to me).



Saturday afternoon, we met with Judit and Jucci at McCafe near Blaha for coffee and conversation.  Judit translated my first Bible Love Story seminar in 2006, and since then has had a number of financial difficulties made worse by her desire to do things honestly, paying her taxes instead of giving bribes.  Taxation in Hungary is oppressive, and along with a bad economy has forced many gifted Hungarians like Judit out of business.  Judit used to have a business teaching English to health care professionals.  Judit's grown daughter Jucci works for Campus Crusade procuring visas and residency permits for missionaries, not an easy task.  We enjoyed catching up with them and they brought us some special gifts--a piece of Hungarian embroidery, some pumpkin seed oil, and hand made coasters.

What a Busy Two Weeks in Budapest!

We have had a busy couple of weeks in Budapest...some of it fun--reconnecting with old friends and familiar restaurants and scenic rides across the Danube.  Some of it preparation--for team ministry and team arrival.  Some of it ministry team work, preparing and presenting meetings about  the love of God, doing friendship evangelism in the schools, giving devotions and doing friendship evangelism at adult English classes.  Here are a few photo highlights of the last couple of weeks...

planning public school ministry with Mandy, Brittany, Luke and Ryan, Campus Crusaders

Preparing a meal for and participating in an evangelistic English Club Ministry.

Next to me is Sondi (Hungarian), Ann, Tammy and Pam from our team

Hosting a "Beautiful Feet" meeting to bless female missionaries at our team flat

Attending "Christ Illuminates Art Tour" at the Fine Arts Museum, given by my friend Jane, far right

 Going everywhere on public transportation, Greg front right and Michael back center in his Where's Waldo shirt

Near the Gellert Hotel, Freedom Bridge and Budapest Christian Library with the team

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Never a dull moment.  Gail, Ann, Fred, Tammy, Greg, Pam

More Love, More Power (Több szeretet, Több eröt)

At one of our church services at Golgota (Calvary Chapel) in Budapest, we sang the song "More Love, More Power" by Jude Del Hierro.  It's always been a favorite of mine, and when we were going through our DTS with YWAM (15 years ago) we worked one week in an inner city church in Denver.  The church was in an old Safeway building, and our team slept on the floors of the Sunday school rooms and went out witnessing in the city with the help of one of the church evangelists.  While we were there we enjoyed their worship music, and Jude Del Hierro was their worship leader.  It's strange to think that a Hispanic man in Denver, CO  wrote a song that is blessing his Hungarian brothers and sisters in Christ.  God's family is so big and diverse.  It crosses all language and cultural barriers, and His love and power are available for all who believe!

Popcorn, Puzzles and People one night

Budapest at night

And during the day

So many places to walk

Interesting people to see (This is Father Placid who spent 10 years in a Russian Gulag because of his faith).  You'd never guess it from his happy smile...please read about him on our team blog.

Always nice to be together with my best friend, Michael

Reconnecting With Budapest Friends at Golgota

John Dekker spoke at the Golgota Church service this morning.  He served for many years in New Guinea with a stone age culture.  What's interesting is that Michael and I had worked with John 15 years ago when we were on a short term trip to Bulgaria.  He was speaking at a conference in an old Communist camp in Bulgaria and our team cleaned the camp and helped with the arrangements.  With humor and spiritual insight, John spoke this morning on acting on our beliefs.  John, at age 81, is certainly living what he preaches.

It was fun to reconnect with old friends at Golgota.  We'd seen Bruce last week, but this was our first time to see Heidi again.

We put information fliers into the information rack at the church, inviting people to the events our team has planned for next week.

After enjoying a latte at the church coffee bar prepared by our friend's Kati and Jim, we were invited to go to lunch with a group.  We ate at a hummus bar, no meat, and it was fun talking with the international group at the table.

Budapest Again...But "Flat Busted"

Well, we got back into town only to find out that the flat we had rented about 5 months ago is without heat and hot water for a week due to building repairs.  The company who rented it met us at the flat as planned and we unloaded all of our luggage on the street only to find out this important fact.

We thought we were being so smart to save ourselves a trip and pick up our excess luggage before arriving at the flat!

So they paid for a taxi to take us to a temporary flat...which isn't quite what we were hoping for...not as good a location in relation to our team flat, a little dark, and some water damage in the bathroom, etc.  So today we will see what happens...they will show us another flat.  Please pray for us!

A Fresh Haircut & Fellowship With Old and New Friends

Mary arranged for me to have my hair cut and frosted today.  The hairdresser I went to while we lived here usually does a good job, and he is so inexpensive!  Of course, he doesn't speak one word of English, so it is always a challenge to get him to understand with my baby talk Hungarian.  This time a friend called me while I was in the chair, and I let her check and see if he'd understood my instructions.  So, it's nice to have a new haircut for our 40th anniversary celebration which starts tomorrow!!

Michael took this on our bus ride home from the hairdresser.

Golgota English Home Fellowship

Tonight we went to the Golgota (Calvary Chapel) English Home Fellowship group.  It was fun to see old friends and meet some new ones.  Although this group is in English, it always attracts a variety of people.  Tonight there were Hungarians, Americans, Australians, British, and Scottish.  Bruce, the leader, shared about the upcoming meeting they will be helping us present when our team arrives, and we had an opportunity to share some of our excitement for the events we'll be presenting when our mission team arrives.  We needed someone to help translate one of our skits for the evening EHF helps us, and a woman volunteered before we even asked!!

Errands and a Long Walk

Today we got the 2 pieces of luggage we'd left here with a friend, and we have some things the team can use...a cookie sheet and two cake pans (Yea!) plus all sorts of other goodies I'd forgotten about.  I started feeling badly that I'd left so much junk behind (I thought it was only 1 suitcase), but then I remembered what a challenge it was last year to sell everything except what we could bring back in 4 suitcases...while my ankle was in a cast....and I decided those 2 left over suitcases weren't so bad after all.   We got to see Mary, our former land lady, since she will store the suitcases for us while we are in Croatia.  That is always fun.  She served us pogacsa (Hungary's version of a biscuit) plus little chocolate spoons filled with nutella and whipped cream!

While Michael ran an errand, I walked about 4 miles from the Buda side of the Danube to our flat on the Pest side.  I snapped pictures along the way, and here are a few.

I'm not sure why all of these students are standing around this statue.

This is the Freedom Bridge that they strengthened and painted last year.

It's a great bridge to walk across.

This old woman in this little flower booth looks a little wilted.

These Gypsies were laying in the same place when we left Budapest 14 months ago!  While we waited for a bus the woman got up and had a loud and animated argument with the man who seemed undisturbed by her rantings.  When we lived here before, Michael once saw this same woman threaten the same man with a knife and he reacted in the same undisturbed way!

Back in Budapest....Ahhh!

DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT
Guess what I forgot?  I realized it at the Charlotte airport...my Bible!!  I took it and my journal out of my carry-on to read it this morning, and left it!!  Fortunately, the U.S.O. in Charlotte had some New Testaments!  So, we didn't actually leave the country without it!

8 HOURS IN THIS LITTLE SPACE
Well, the plane ride was 8 hours, not 6 as we'd thought, and there were lots of children around us, but that only presented a problem for take off and landing.  I think one little girl cried "I want water" 100 times while we were landing.  Michael and I probably only slept about 1-2 hours on the flight.  Actually, I think I slept most of that time in the Munich airport stretched out on a block of seats.  Even the strong German coffee couldn't keep me awake.  (But it's interesting that Lufthansa has upgraded their free coffee machines in the international wing of the Munich airport to include cappuccino and caramel machiatto!) 

Finally in Budapest!
Do we look like we've been awake 24 hours?  We feel like it!

NOT A GREAT FLAT
We came to our rental flat via taxi from the airport, and we are disappointed.  We paid too much for it...it doesn't look as nice as the pictures, smells a bit smokey, and doesn't have any heat.  Fortunately, we only rented it for the 3 nights before we fly to Croatia, so we can put up with it.  (It's jacket weather, but not too bad, and we hope it doesn't get any colder.)  Pray for me...I'm tired and since we are not on the mission leg of our trip, I'm not prepared for this down grade in the flat!

BACK AT ARRIBA
But the location of the flat is great--a short walk from our "Cheers."  By that I mean the restaurant we used to hang out at when we lived here--like our Panera in Concord.  If you followed our blog while we lived here, you'll know I'm talking about Aribba.  Free wifi.  So here we are trying to keep ourselves awake until Hungarian bed time.  This is a picture of us in Arriba.  Normally we'd be out walking, but it's wet and windy today in Budapest.

We're Off! Back to Budapest!

After calling Budapest home for almost 5 years, it seems strange that we haven't been there since June 2009!  But today we are headed that way...As I make this post, we are sitting in the Charlotte U.S.O. waiting for our flight to Munich and then on to Budapest...the beginning of a very long journey!

We are glad to say that we weighed in at the limit with all of our bags--carry-ons at 8 kilos and luggage at 22 kilos.  We did, however, obey the letter of the law in this area, I'm afraid, as we had our pockets stuffed and we carried all the allowable items outside of the carry-on luggage.  When we first flew to Europe (on a military hop) we took over 4 bags that could weigh up to 70 pounds each and there was no weight limit on carry-on luggage.  Now, the allowed amount is one 50 pound bag per person and our carry-on must not weigh more than 17.6 pounds!  When you are planning on staying for 6 weeks and you have two climate changes (Croatia will be hot and summery, Budapest will have typical fall weather), this was a challenge!  We considered paying for an extra bag, but in the end were able to get it all in...as long as we stuffed a few things in our pockets!

Now take look at this picture and tell me...isn't that a pretty nice looking 60 year old?  I think so...someone I wouldn't mind being married to for 40 years.   Gail