Jim & Laurie picked us up at about 9am Monday morning. We loaded our bags into their pickup, climbed in and headed to the border. It took us one and a half hours to get through (not too bad!). We arrived in Budapest around 2:00pm. Mike & Jim navigated the busy, twisty and confusing streets until we arrived at the American Embassy at 2:30pm. Jim & Laurie had an appointment there to get some documents for their vehicle. Mike, Solomiya and I walked around a bit, found an ATM to get some Hungarian currency in our pockets and had bowls of Hungarian goulash soup. We met back up with our fellow Americans, once again navigated the streets of Pest and crossed the river to Buda (where we were all staying). After some dinner, a walk across the bridge (over the Danube), and a wonderful time talking and hanging out with Jim & Laurie- we all went to bed.
Tuesday morning: up at 7am to get ready for our 8:45am taxi pickup. The taxi took us to the Ukrainian Embassy. We were taken into the compound presented all of our paperwork, letters of invitations, pictures, applications and passports to the very nice young woman behind the glass. After she looked everything over, she told us we had to go to a certain bank, pay the fee for the visas there and return to the Embassy before 12pm with the receipt. Mike was very brave and hopped on the public bus outside of the Embassy to take care of this. Solomiya and I took a walk on the streets outside of the Ukrainian compound (we were told that the bus cost 340 ft a person and we did not have enough small change for all 3 of us- but that was okay because while we were walking and waiting for Mike, we saw an Ewok - pictures coming soon). Met Mike at the bus stop after 40 minutes (he had completed the mission successfully), went back to the Ukrainian compound to give the lady the receipt and were told to come back Friday morning! Yay!
After this, we walked down the road a bit to see if we could find a taxi or a public phone- did not find either. So... as we were contemplating as to how we would get back to the hotel, we decided to stop at a small cafe and look over our maps (thinking we would just walk). Ended up having a kickass lunch (I'm sorry- but it was.) and the waiter called a taxi for us. Arrived at hotel, Solomiya (and I ) took a nap and the Person family contacted us (they have been missionaries based in Budapest for a while- maybe 7 years?). Tanya picked us up and we went to their house for dinner. They grilled hamburgers! Haven't had one of those in a while :) We had a lovely time hanging out with Jim & Tanya and their 3 kids.
Tomorrow we plan on doing some language homework, taking a walk through a park and Solomiya wants to look at the new Summer 2012 collection at H&M. It is so rare that she asks anything of us, so we simply must take her.
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