Beautiful Budapest - Day #1

We had a new experience last Friday for our monthly all-school worship service.  It was led primarily by students, and the format was very similar to an American-style praise service.  The student group started by leading several contemporary songs, some of which we knew in English, so we were able to sing along with the Slovak words on the screen.  Then one student gave a powerful personal witness, which must have taken a lot of courage in front of her peers.  The pastor gave a short sermon, and then we finished with another song or two.  It seemed like the students were much more attuned to the worship in this setting, and it was exciting to see them taking leadership roles for the service!!    

Our talented students leading the praise service --- awesome young people!!  :-)

The rest of the students, all bundled up with their coats on during the service. 

We'll just fast forward through the rest of last week and focus on our 3-day weekend trip to Budapest. Our primary goal was to connect with Laura, our American Lector in Aszód, Hungary, about a half hour east of Budapest.  She's the last of our Global Missions group to receive a visit from their 'lead teachers' -- us!   Our church/school pastor let us borrow the church car again, which helped to transform a very LONG series of train and bus rides (8-13 hours with connections) into a 4-hour car trip.  

Tim and Laura in front of the entrance to the back of the school, where she lives in a nice 2-bedroom apartment on the second floor.  Many of the students are boarding students, so the school complex includes a dormitory as well as a few teacher apartments.  

Our view out the spare bedroom window, overlooking the Lutheran church and some of the village below.  The church bells rang every 15 minutes, but thankfully they stop between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.     :-)  

Heading around the front side of the school building - it was beautiful!!  They are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.  

Our first stop on Day #1 of touring Budapest was the Cave Church, literally built into the rock behind a cave.  It was boarded up during communist times, but now it's open again.

The entrance to the Cave Church, on the Buda side of the river.  (I'm sure many know this, but Budapest is really two Hungarian cities --- Buda and Pest --- on opposite sides of the Danube River.  So we explored both sides !!)

There are many small chapel areas carved out of the rock.  

Liberty Bridge, looking over to the Pest side from the Cave Church.  

Looking over the Elizabeth Bridge, from the Liberty Bridge, with a view in the distance of the Buda Royal Palace area.  

Our next stop was the Great Market Hall - a beautiful structure that is not only a tourist attraction, but also a popular place for locals to shop regularly.  

Inside the Great Market Hall there are two stories filled with shops of all kinds.  Fruit, vegetables, meats, cheeses, breads, flowers, sausages, paprika, and many other fresh foods were sold on the main floor level, and upstairs there were many shops selling souvenirs, leather goods, traditional clothing, and MANY other types of goods.  There seemed to be many more 'real' shoppers than tourists there.   

Every part of the pig was on sale - feet, tails, and ears, for example!!   

There were sooooo many examples of beautiful architecture all over the city.  This is just a random picture that shows typical buildings we walked by.  

We always love to wander into random churches we pass by in European cities, but sometimes later I can't remember where they were, or what the names were.  This one is: St. Michael's!   :-)   So beautiful!!  

As we were looking around, musicians started gathering at the front of the church preparing to rehearse, presumably for a concert which was advertised on a sign out front for the next night.  So, we got to sit in on part of the rehearsal, and it was amazing hearing the orchestra and choir with the fabulous acoustics!    Lucky us!!  

O.K. - I tried expanding my technology skills.  These should be two links to the choir and orchestra rehearsing in St. Michael's:    

St. Michael's - rehearsal

St. Michael's - rehearsal too

And this is the famous St. István's Basilica (St. Stephen - Hungary's first Christian king).    It was built in 1896 for the 1,000 year anniversary of Budapest.  

The inside is pretty impressive too - really a huge basilica.  

St. István's dome.

In one side chapel, they even have a glass case displaying St. István's right hand.  Yes indeed, the actual mummified right hand of the king.  It's a little grotesque, but it does draw big crowds!   ( I didn't take a picture of it though!!)

This nativity scene was decorating another side chapel - it was really big, and the stars in the sky were lit up through holes.  

Street sculpture!  We have no idea who it is, but Tim did a great job of posing with this guy!    :-)    (Laura later told us that when her parents visited over Christmas, they took the exact same picture with her dad posing by the statue.  LOL!!)  

This is looking over to the Buda Castle Hill, at the start of the famous Chain Bridge, guarded by lions, symbolizing strength.  

Tim and Laura on Chain Bridge, with the Buda Royal Palace in the background.  

Looking back down from atop the Castle Hill, at the Parliament building on the Pest side of the river.   What a view!    :-) 

This is part of the Royal Palace Courtyard on Castle Hill.  (The former castle is actually now in ruins behind the palace.)  

Approaching Matthias Church, which is the church seen earlier from afar, up on Castle Hill.  The tile roof and gothic tower are so pretty!

St. Matthias Church, originally built 800 years ago, has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and it is one of the most impressive sights up on Castle Hill.  

The interior is absolutely gorgeous too!

The vaulted ceilings and the organ in the back loft.  

The pulpit.  Wow!

An altar in a side chapel --- and there were many others to see too!

Out behind St Matthias Church is the Fishermen's Bastion, which is, according to Rick Steves' Budapest, "a Neo-Romanesque fantasy rampart."  It too was built for the 1896 1,000th anniversary, but there were medieval guard towers here once, guarding the Budapest fish market below.  

The views from the Fishermen's Bastion were fantastic - here's the Parliament over on the Pest side.  

Up on the Fishermen's Bastion looking over the Danube at Pest, with St. Matthias in the background.  

We walked back down these stairs from the castle hill.  

This is looking up to the Royal Palace on Castle Hill.  We actually took the short tram ride (on the right) up the hill when we first went up.  You can also see on the skyline between the palace and the tram, the famous Turul bird, which according to legend, led the Magyars from the Russian steppes to Hungary in the first place.  

Heading back over Chain Bridge to the Pest side again.  We crossed a lot of bridges between Buda and Pest!  

On Chain Bridge, looking out over the Danube!   

This is a side altar inside another of the random churches we wandered into.  I took this picture as a reminder of how many live plants were on altars all over Budapest.  It seemed unusual, since in other cities, there are more cut flowers or candles placed there. 

This is University Church, which is an amazing Baroque church.  Again, we just stumbled across it as we were walking.  (We didn't take any public transportation in Budapest - just parked the car in one location and walked everywhere until evening when we returned to the car for the ride back to Aszód.)

The Baroque altar is absolutely amazing, and the wooden nativity in front of the altar was still up from Christmas - very pretty!  

Just so I could remember which church this was!   ;-)   It's evidently very famous, so we're glad we got to see it.  

Another random sight - this Cadillac all decorated for a wedding!   

O.K., this picture needs a little back-story.  Paul spent a January-term in Budapest during college, taking a math class there.  The part of the city where he lived wasn't the cleanest, and he always had to walk carefully to avoid the 'dog poop' on the sidewalks.  So, when we said we were going to visit Budapest, he warned us to watch out and not step in any dog poop!!  Well, we never did see any of the stuff on the sidewalks, but we did tread carefully just in case.  At the end of our first day in Budapest, we saw a bunch of these symbols painted on the sidewalks next to some buildings.  I took this picture to show Paul how the city of Budapest evidently solved their previous dog-poop problem!  Who knew?      LOL!!   

Laura and her family had eaten in this restaurant.  All the walls, the ceiling and the poles are covered with notes, receipts, business cards, and any scrap of paper anyone wants to stick or pin to the place!   

The food was all fabulous - we had Hungarian dishes that were really delicious.  We were all really full, but couldn't resist sharing some Hungarian desserts - including "apples in a dressing gown" - YUM!!  

O.K., so it's not in focus, but seeing the Castle Hill from the Liberty Bridge at night was a sight to remember!!  :-)

This "Hospital in the Rock" was built during WWII as an underground nuclear bunker and hospital.  We didn't take the tour, but it was interesting even from the outside! 

And that wrapped up Day #1 of our trip to Budapest!   It's too much to include both days in one blog post, so I'll try to get the second day done in the next couple of days to bring the blog up to date.  We did see quite a bit, but Budapest has much more to see than we could cram into one weekend.  Laura did a super job as our tour guide, and we had a lot of fun!!  So, stay tuned for the next installment.     :-)