Final blog entry!

So, the last few days in Hungary were tough. It's really, really difficult having to say goodbye to people, especially when they've all been so amazing and generous. There were also doubts on our end. Were we doing the right thing by leaving? We loved our jobs and our friends and our lifestyle in Hungary so much. And so much of what we were returning to in Australia was uncertain. But we were determined to press on...

Daniel and I spent our last full day in Hungary in Nyírbátor, a town about 15 minutes drive from Máriapócs. We'd heard about an awesome walkway between the town's two large churches, so we grabbed some kenyér lángos and set off to explore. The walkway turned out to be really pretty. There were lots of sculptures including some awesome dragons and replica medieval weaponry. The dragons were a reference to a legend explaining the town's origins. In the year 900 a warrior named Vitus set out to kill a dragon that had been causing problems for the locals. According to the legend, he slayed the dragon with three thrusts of his lance and scored a neat castle as well as a new nickname (Báthory or "brave hero") for his efforts. The Báthory noble family has been associated with Nyírbátor ever since.

Anyway, after touring the walkway, Daniel and I went to Ili's house for lunch. Ili had prepared some wonderful Hungarian cuisine for us, including goulash (gulyás) and Hungarian crepes (palacsinta). Everything was delicious! 

After lunch we returned home and set about finishing our packing. Fitting two years of memorabilia into a couple of small suitcases was no easy feat, but with a lot of grunting and shoving we managed to get the buggers closed. Hooray!

Wednesday morning was very, very sad. We said our final goodbyes to Sanyi and the other teachers, climbed into the town's minivan and were whisked away to the airport. It was extremely hard to look out the windows as we left Máriapócs and the rest of Hungary behind. Once at the airport, we said a teary final goodbye to Ili, then practiced pretending that our carry on luggage was within the allowable limits. Soon enough, we were strapped in to our seats and climbing into the sky, bound for Melbourne via Doha. I won't bore you with the details of our flights other than to say that we arrived in Melbourne feeling relatively fresh and relaxed.

Yesterday we spent the day catching up with family, and getting reacquainted with Melbourne. It's very strange to be back. I miss Hungary. 

And now I can no longer put off bringing this blog to an end. It's been an epic journey. 204 posts, over 10,000 pageviews and many, many hundreds of hours spent writing and researching. Still, I think this blog is a wonderful record of our experiences in Hungary and I hope that you have all enjoyed reading it as much as we have enjoyed writing it. 

There will be no further updates after this entry, but please continue to leave comments as we love reading them.

Goodbye and thankyou for reading!

- Amanda and Daniel