Tuesday was Amanda and my second wedding anniversary. It was actually a bit of a ratty day because I had quite a bad chesty cough which was playing havoc with my asthma so Amanda was taking all of my classes. This meant that she had to take the Grade 2s out to PE. I must admit that I was a little worried about it as they can be very crazy once they get into the gym but it seemed that Amanda had more than enough control over them. I shouldn't have worried as she does have them for English, but PE can be more insane than English at times. Anyway, it all worked out well and Amanda actually had a good day of teaching while I was a home coughing rainbows. Fun.
We weren't going to let a bit of bad health get in the way of our celebration however so we jumped into our car and headed off for our favorite restaurant in Nyiregyhaza. It was a nice evening. I got Amanda a massage voucher that she can use once she gets back to Melbourne, and she got me a whip that I can use anytime. We actually tried to use it when we got back home, but either we were out of practice from when we were learning to use Will's whip, or possibly this whip is harder to crack. Unfortunately, Amanda got the sales lady to try it out before she bought it so we have no excuse.
On Wednesday we headed into Budapest. The school has organised for the kids to go to on trips over the next week. The older kids went with us to Budapest and the younger kids, Grade One and Two, will go to Nyiregyhaza and Grade Three and Four will go to Eger. Anyway, as the older kids were going anyway, so we thought we would tag along and get a free trip to Budapest!
Once we arrived in Budapest, we quickly dumped the kids with their form teachers and struck out on our own. We had a mission. Last year, we attached a lock of love to a rail in Miskolc for our anniversary, and we wanted to continue this tradition by attaching one in Budapest. We already had the lock, all that we needed to do was find someone to engrave it and make our way to the lock of love fence and then throw the key into the Danube. It was 10am by the time we arrived and we had to meet up with the others by 1pm so we had plenty of time.
Or... not so much. It is shocking how difficult it was to find a locksmith/keycutter in Pest. We eventually went to a tourism info center and they told us about one hidden under the stairwell of a local apartment building. We spent around half an hour finding it, only to be told by the man that he didn't engrave. The only place was across town. So we jumped on the underground Metro, coasted across town, got lost a bit, eventually found it... only to be told that he couldn't engrave, but he could fax the request to his colleague and then if we waited an hour we could pick it up from another nearby location. By this stage it was almost a quarter past twelve and we knew that we'd run out of time so we had to scurry back to meet up with the others. Some adventures aren't rewarded, I suppose.
Anyway, we were happy that rushed to get back to the others because they were just about to embark on a boat ride on the Danube. It was a big ferry type vessel that was more than able to accommodate the sixty or so children that we'd brought with us. We were also very happy because we weren't the last to arrive. Laima had also gotten lost and basically arrived about the same time we did. It's okay being late when you have company.
The boat ride was really relaxing and fun after the stress of scouring the streets of Pest. It was a nice slow enjoyable ride up and down the river. Amanda and I had not been on a boat on the Danube so it was new and exciting. We got to see the city from a new angle and look at many of the beautiful buildings. It was awesome.
The slow part of the boat ride did cause an issue however as Pisti (Science teacher), Laima, Amanda and I had a tour of Budapest Parliament to get to. We were really looking forward to it, but by the time we got off the boat we were already late. So we raced off down backstreets to get to there as quickly as possible. Aaand we missed it by maybe 5 minutes. Sucks. As much as Pisti attempted to coax the scary looking security people to let us in, we were not budging. In fact, all tours had closed for the day and no one else was allowed to come in. It was only 2pm. Crazy.
It is a sad place, but I think it affected the adults more than the children who were more than happy to leave and go to a nearby park to wait for the bus. Overall, despite not getting everything completed, it was a good trip.
- Daniel.
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