Day 13 - Thursday

Today we ventured over to Vajdahunyad Castle (also referred to as Sleeping Beauty Castle). Oh my word, it's the most gorgeous place. A few photos on the way...

On the right is the Prime Minister's house. On the left is a place where Beethoven played.

We walked by one of the baths. I'm in love with the architecture.

Here's the castle. It was so fairytale like!!

I could have stayed all day! 

Next up: Hero's Square.

We met Ed and Heather for lunch. We just love them!! 

We all went to the Budapest Zoo together. One of the best zoos I've been to. The animals were so active! 

The elephants were putting on quite the show for us! The baby had so much personality! I took some adorable video too.

It seemed like a lot of the enclosures you could still pet or feed the animals. So funny! These giraffes were awesome. You could easily feed them through the fence.

 

The tiger exhibit was cool. This truck was partially in and out of the enclosure. You could climb inside, and be inches away from the animal. 

The funniest part of all??? This guy right here! We thought they were tame because the fence was so open. I stuck my hand out and petted its snout. But! Shortly after, it grabbed Jeremy's shoe! Thankfully he was able to squish his toes back in time, or that would have really hurt. The hog chomped down and didn't want to let go! Lol We learned that just because you can easily pet the animals, doesn't mean they are safe. :-) Very different than in the US! 

We bought one of these Hungarian desserts, which is a chimney column. Ours had cinnamon. It's pretty much a spiral piece of bread that you tear off. It's called a kurtoskalac.

At this time, Shane and Melissa went back to the hotel. Brian, Jeremy, and I went to Ed and Heather's for a bit. Heather graciously walked us down to the train station to buy our tickets to Vienna. I'm so thankful she directed us where to go! It was a huge help! 

On the way, we walked through what is called the nicest McDonald's in the world.

We rode with Heather back to our hotel area and said good-bye. I'm so sad! I pray God will have us cross paths again. The Durham's have been a highlight of this trip, and feel like family for sure.

The three of us got goulash at our hotel restaurant. While in Hungary, eat goulash!

I love that outdoor cafés here will give you a blanket when you sit down! 

Brian, Shane, and Melissa leave super early in the morning to go back home. Jer and I are here for a few more days. Pray for good travels for them. Tomorrow morning the two of us leave for a day trip to Vienna. Is this a dream?! Just so you don't get the wrong idea and think the church is paying for this wonderful vacation, this Budapest and Vienna part of our trip is paid for by us. ;-)

Good-night all!