I have a perfect illustration – now I need a sermon to go with it! As soon as our flight was in the air, the couple in front of us – who had already demonstrated their love quite obviously – leaned their seat back, robbing us of six precious inches. So I immediately am tempted to “I hate them” mode. I managed to avoid that obvious temptation. Well into the flight I was trying to get to my back pack, a task made much harder by the leaned back seat (do you feel my pain yet??) when I saw the iPhone under the seat. Clearly the lady had dropped it. So in full Jesus style “love your enemies” I determined to retrieve it for her. But how?? I reached with my foot and pushed it around the seat foot, but there was no way to reach it. I tried using my Kindle as a tool but no joy. Then I thought my foot might become “handish” and took off my shoe. No joy. Then I took off the other shoe and tried to manipulate it with the two opposed. I could get it, but couldn’t lift it. Finally I realized I might be able to get it into the pocket of my back pack. Success! I was able to pull the back pack up, retrieve the phone and restore it to the lady. She was delighted – and I still consider her a forgiven robber!
Amsterdam was a brief layover where we had to do a bit of sorting to get Sherry’s assistance worked out. Ended up being a very nice Dutchman who wanted to ensure everything. Sadly the plane ride to Budapest was over clouds so I didn’t get to see anything.
Big Regret!
We arrived in Budapest, retrived our bags and walked out of the airport – No Hungary stamp in our passports. Very sad! It is the outcome of coming here from within the EU.
First day of exploring
Terry Cokenour picked us up and showed us a bit of the town on the way to our flat. We unpacked and then Arpi and Andi Horváth picked us up and we took the bus across the Chain Bridge to the Halászbástya or Fisherman’s Bastion which Wikipedia tells me is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style situated on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill in Budapest, around Matthias Church.
Matthias Church is behind Sherry and Andi. Unfortunately I could not get far enough back to get all the church into the picture. The Falconer and his bird is a total tourist trap, Arpi said. For 5 Euros, you can have him on your arm, it seems.
This is the street we walk to get to the entrance to our flat. It’s a beautifully remodeled one bedroom with a kitchen Sherry immediately had to have transported back to Portland. Since the owner is a Finn, it is fitting that there is a sauna in the shower room. The bed is great for sleeping – but tired as we were we would have slept on bricks!
There were several lessons from our day. First is that Arpi and Andi are wonderful! Delighted to have them as new friends. Second, there is so much history in Budapest. It ranges from beautiful to completely tragic. For example, we were near the Shoes Memorial memorializes the place were many Jews were forced to remove anything valuable including shoes before they were shot, falling into the Danube. Third, the public transportation system is something to bring to every US central city. Fourth, Sherry will never again do the Undergroud here with its super long, super steep and especially super fast escalators.