We just finished up a fantastic week of training in Budapest with our supervisors, Elder and Sister Healy. They flew into Budapest from their area office of Frankfurt, Germany, and we drove from Miskolc through thick fog and snow to Budapest. We spent four full days learning the ins and outs of our new assignment.
During this time, we met with 3 of our NGO partners and are very excited to begin working with them.
SOS Children's Village - is a wonderful organization that provides aid to children in all stages of need. The interesting thing about this organization is that I had found them on the internet and became very interested in what they do even before coming to Hungary. SOS Website
Menedék - Hungarian Association for Migrants - works with Refugees in aiding them to adjust to their new life in Hungary. Menedek Website
The last day after a morning of training, we took a tour of the Parliament Building and also attempted to take a Hop On Hop Off Bus Tour of Budapest. After three stops though, we were informed that the tour was over and we were several miles from where we had parked the car. We proceeded to get a partial refund for our tour, went out to dinner and took a taxi back to our car. Certainly an adventure to remember.
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Trying to figure out how to pay the parking fee. A Hungarian woman finally came by and offered to help us. She even offered her money since we were short of coins. We had just learned that is quite common with people here. After our meeting with SOS, we returned to our car to find out that we had a parking ticket (only $12 - thankfully). We were later informed that cars register their license plate number and pay a monthly fee so that they can park on the street. We had no idea. We should have known that the parking place right in front of the office was too good to be true. - - - the rest of the story - Paying for the parking ticket was an all new adventure. We had to go to the Posta (post office) to pay, but in order to do so, you have to take a number electronically by choosing from several different options (of course all the options were in Hungarian). Luckily we were able to find someone who spoke English to help us "push the right button" so that we could wait our turn. |
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| Inside the Parliment Building |
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| The Parliment Building |
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| The Parliment Building from the Buda side of the Danube River |
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We have had some interesting food experiences. Most of them good. Some not as good. In the center picture are hot dogs -- extra yummy - as in better than Costco and only cost about $0.75. The bottom center is hot chocolate - regular and white chocolate. It was almost as thick as hot fudge sauce and tasted about the same. Yummy but not what was expected.
Click on the link to see: Budapest at Night - January, 2017
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Thank you, Healys for the fun and informative week. We have found new friends and look forward to working with you on our humanitarian projects over the next several months.
Bridges of Budapest
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