Our vacation experience in far away places...
Meeting up in Vienna airport, so happy to see a familiar face after 6 months of new faces.
 Seeing some of the sights our first night out at the Christmas Markets. You can see it is cold in Europe just like MN and they had no snow so walking around was easy and enjoyable as we all had on our 3 layers plus coat.                                                            
Christmas day we went to mass in a Polish church spoken in Polish. Thought the manger scene was unique in that you could see Mary enjoying her little baby and behind her is her holding her son 30 some years later. Thank you Jesus for Christmas!

 Would not be Christmas if Katie was not working on a resume, application or cover letter with her dad.  This year it was application for a summer internship that will pay her so she can continue in the grad school program at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.  GO STEELERS!

This is a lesson learned. After leaving Vienna we traveled by train to Budapest. The woman who issued our tickets asked if we wanted to reserve seats. She said there were 100 available or open seat. We said no we would not reserve.  I think with 100 available seats they took one of the train cars off and left all of us fools that did not make a reservation to find somewhere to stand sit or kneel. We are on the steps where luggage goes and little kids can watch videos. Lesson learned pay the extra for a guaranteed seat. It is a long ride without one.  

At the Christmas Market in Budapest I found the perfect job for mom for the summer. A doughnut wagon food truck. Complete with fresh coffee. We did not try the doughnuts but they looked pretty.

 A Hungarian Police man. The longer we stayed in Budapest the more I started looking like him.  I found an artisan bakery day 1 and went back several times... They made butter carmel rolls fresh fruit in bread with fresh homemade custard. Plus seeded dark breads. It was joy having all those choices.  Here it is mostly white bread that is eaten even thought they grow wheat here they do not eat much whole wheat.

 Our landmark church. We stayed not far from here and went to mass here on New Years day, this time in Hungarian. Christmas in Hungry is celebrated on Dec. 25 Gregorian calender and Jan 7 Orthodox calender that is why the markets were still up in Hungry.

Looking at Buda from the Pest side of the Danube which seperates the 2 citys. We spent 5-6 hours a day doing walking tours and exploring.  Sometimes because we were lost and other times because it is a beautiful place to see. Much history, many occupations, elegant architecture, clean, friendly (helps to speak Hungarian) and great food, especially the bakeries.....

Our last day together. A fitting picture as Kate and Conor left for the west side of the Danube and we left for right side of it. Conor back to Best Buy in Minneapolis, Kate to Pittsburgh, and us to Moldova. 

Today is Christmas in Moldova and it is bitter cold. The tradition is for children to come sing to you and you give them treats and money in return With is soo cold we had only a few kids that we welcomed to come in and sing have hot chocolate and talk to warm up before going out again.  It was a lovely day!  This is how they say Merry Christmas here and many years to come! 

 
This is Tom, tagging on at the end of Marcy's blog. We were blessed to have both Kate and Conor be able to come over and join us for the Christmas holiday, I guess to even want to! We have had a few Christmas' away from home together now and all have been memorable. The next challenge will be to get Jake, Heather and fam to rough it for awhile, out of the country and join us one of these years. What surprises me is when all goes so smoothly during these adventures and this one did; the only snafu was not getting reserved seats on train from Vienna to Budapest, but that was only 3 hours. Wish you all could have been there for the Vivaldi concert at Karlskirche in Vienna. It was magical; thanks for getting the tickets Marcy! And you'd love the thermal baths in Budapest I think; just ask Katie. So here we are back in Siberia it feels like...and we're from Minnesota. Just trying to stay warm. Remember to book your tickets for Moldova early because we don't get all that much time to travel; first come first served. Better end this before I get in trouble for messing up the blog. Love ya'll!!