We just got
back from our incredible first camily trip – to Budapest. It was so much fun, for
us and for the kids. We did a bunch of attractions that were all home runs, had
a lot of chilling time, and got closer as a family. It was so fun to watch the interactions
between the kids, and especially the uniqueness of their personalities. And it
felt like Shifra and I were seeing eye-to-eye on everything, which was really
fun.
We have a Google
Photos album, we are printing a digital one, and I am making a video. But
sometimes the written word can add more to those memories than photos could. I
am going to write down some things that stood out, mostly ones that aren’t in
the pictures
Some
highlights:
· The taxi driver
having the wrong address
· The taxi driver
not waking up on time to bring us back to the airport, and downloading Bolt
quickly to get a ride so we didn’t miss our flight
· The guy in
Normafa who went on a long run, chugged a beer, and continued
· The Assado and
Goulash in the Jewish Quarter
· Meeting REG in
the Jewish Quarter
· All the Hebrew
we heard
· The kids
excitement to go on the Budapest Eye
· Shabbat: Meital
getting us in on the digital code the first time, getting us locked out the
second time and saying “all done” until we got a Goy to come open for us (was
fun trying to explain to her)
· Managing with
one toilet (we are NOT a one toilet family anymore)
· Walking 75,000
steps in 4 days
· Walking into a
church accidentally and walking right out
· Planning to go
on a boat thanks to ChatGPT and then figuring out that that boat hasn’t existed
for 4 years
· Using chatgpt
to take a picture of a statue and ask it to explain to a 5 year old what it
means
· Watching an
army marching band at Hero Square
· Climbing trees
in Normafa and finding the giving tree
· The specific
shows at the zoo (feeding sharks – with the guy giving Eitan a high five, sea
lions amazing show, elephant training show, penguin feeding). Being able to
spend almost 7 hours at a zoo and still feel like we could have been there for
longer
· Circus – the dogs
going down the slide and one not going down, only going down backwards – the Meital
· The spaghetti
the kids went on crazy about
· All the
different transportation we went on
· First
airplanes, first boat
· Helping check
in for El Al on the way out
· The bike lock
on the stroller issue in both airports (BG didn’t let me out of plane to find
the key, Budapest didn’t let us through on airplane with it
· Deleting Slack
off my phone in BG Airport
· The freaking
cucumber
· Lots of help
the one time we took the underground M1 with the stairs
· Shifra (and all
of us) climbing up the magic rock mountain for no reason
· Hadari (and all
of them) in the petting zoo
· Putting them on
the plastic elephant and then catching them when it fell (it wasn’t nailed in
apparently)
· How much they
(especially Meital) enjoyed putting feet in the fountain
· The beauty and
energy of walking through Budapest
· Buying cold ice
water in Mcdonalds in a day with a bunch of walking
· Seeing the
ghetto wall – which they will understand when they are older
· Hanging up a
Tal sticker
· The views from
Normafa
· The taxi “booster
seats” on way to airport
· Meital figuring
out how to unbuckle
· Scaring the
pants off Meital with the flusher
· Middle of landing,
taking off again due to wind
· The kids being
nervous to go on the zipline, Meital basically pushing them out of the way to
get on.
· Meital nodding
when we said she needs to hang on with two hands the whole time, and then
waving to Shiff when she passed her
· Eitan being the
best big brother ever, caring for his sisters every step of the way
· Hadar being a
big girl and great middle sister and an absolute princess
· Eitan being
asked to do things much older than him – like pulling two suitcases, watching
Meital
· Cherry coke for
4 shekel (but with almost no CO2 besides in the airport)
· Daily Tesco
berries
· Terrific Lady
Night
· Running up to
see Bubi in the airport
· Sticker
activities on both flights
· How excited
Hadar gets to tell a story
· Their animal (especially
sea lions) imitations.
· Using google
translate transcribe to get subtitles on trainings, and Google Lens to hover over
signs
· 10 pieces of
luggage as carry ons and backpacks instead of paying for a suitcase. And El Al
giving us seats all next to each other for free which was perfect.
· Watching their
reactions on the flights – nervous for takeoff and then calm very quickly
· Seeing the cockpits
· Most of all,
just to watch how much fun they were having non stop on this trip. Excited for
the next one!
