Budapest, Hungary

Budapest will forever be known as "The City of Statues" to our girls. We could have explored for days. Statues were everywhere! We captured over thirty on camera. George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were among some of the statues we took pictures of in Liberty Square. We had the most fun hunting down the tiny statues in the city (and watching the girls play in the fountains). We sought out whichever ones were closest for the six little legs we had with us. I believe there are over twenty tiny statues throughout Budapest.

1) Tivardar Herzl - He was a Jewish Austrian-Hungarian writer and political activist who was born near the Dohany Street Synagogue.

Near this first statue their is the Dohany Synagogue where many Hungarian Jews were executed and are now memorialized in the courtyard. In the center of the Synagogue, there is a beautifully crafted metal willow tree. Each leaf on the tree has been engraved with a name of a fallen Jew.

At the edge of the Danube River, there are more statues reminding us of other Jews who lost their lives during WW2 in Hungary. Here Hungarian Jews were forced to remove all their belongings, including their shoes before they were executed. Statues of shoes in all shapes and sizes, including children's line the edge of the river. I cannot even begin to imagine. We just briefly explained this piece of history to the girls. This was their first exposure to it.

2) Diver - We called him "Luca" from the new Disney sea monster movie, but this diver holds the keys to the New York Cafe (clsims to be the best in the world) to support the legend of the owner throwing the keys into the Danube River nearby in hopes it would never close it's doors.

3) Rezso Seress - This statue is to honor a Hungarian WW2 labour camp survivor who worked at a bar and wrote music in Budapest.

4) Hanna Szenes - This statue was created to honor Hanna for her amazing heroism. Despite her safety in Britain, she volunteered to parachute into the former Yugoslavian territory to disrupt the Nazi invasion however she could.

5) 14 Carat Roadster - This was created to honor another Jewish resident who wrote fantasy stories with this Roadster being among one of his famous tales.

6) Noah's Ark - This one is special because Demi really wanted to find this one. We found it near sunset beside a playground with just enough light that when we looked through the doorway, the seven windows on the other side revealed the colors of the rainbow. Addy knew right away "They made a rainbow because of God's promise!"

Addy joked later that finding the statues was a "little" hard. She said, "Get it mom a LITTLE hard?" Silly girl.

This city is full of history, culture, tasty food and of course lots and lots of statues. We ate the famous Chimney Cake and loved it! I recommend trying one! Addy also found another cinnamon roll, but squishier than the last one. We then had this incredible dinner at Antré with a deep green salad (greens that I've never had before), curry rice noodles with cauliflower, creamy mushroom soup, gourmet burger, Belgium style fries and some kid food. This was my favorite dinner we have had our entire trip. Yum! I went back and ordered the salad again the next day!

Addy road her shortest and longest escalator in her life in the same day here. The shortest was about five steps deep up into H&M in the city center. Her longest was the escalators down to the subway (second oldest in the world), which was nearly ten stories deep and very, very steep. Originally crafted this way to be a bomb shelter.

Fun that we encountered extra kind Canadians when we arrived and when we left. On the way in we met a kind Canadian girl who helped us on the tram as we struggled to figure out how to punch our tickets. On the way out, we sat with a lovely Canadian couple who enjoyed our girls giggling as they played cards on the train. Such a fun trip. We will definitely be visiting this city again!Read more