Hungary... but I really got a lot of food here...

Since I haven't done this story in order, I actually began my trip in Budapest, and then went to Slovakia.  So now I am finally getting to Budapest, and hopefully I will get to Vienna and maybe even Prague tonight. 

It was my first day in Europe - and it was a long day. Almost 9 hours- closer to 10 of flying and waiting around in airports. I slept a few hours on the plane, but kept going until late into the next day. I was definitely feeling the jet lag. 

But the fun stuff - we arrived in Budapest and met up with Olivia and our tour guide, and drove to Olivia's church, and had real Gulash. (Which is soup with meat, potatoes, and other wonderful goodness). It was sooooo good! Then we hung out and took pictures of the church as we waited for host families. Karen, Deb and I stayed with a family who lived across the street - the wife spoke some English, and the son was pretty fluent, so we were able to communicate pretty well. 

Soon after getting settle I got asked to go downtown with their neighbor, another host family, to go downtown. So I went with Alison, Jessica, and their hosts. It was so fun! They showed us a lot of cool things in the town, bought us Gelato (yummm), and we walked around a bit. There were so many restaurants with people eating outside - such a wonderful atmosphere.  It was cool because they they told us a lot of Hungarian culture/ language/ history and taught us some phrases. It was fun talking to them although we could not always understand each other. It took some patience. I learned that when "zo" is on the end of verbs, it means the place to do that thing.  Such as "Teazo."

After that I was about a zombie walking and went straight to bed.

The next day we had our first concert in Szekesfahervar, about an hour outside of Budapest. But first, we had breakfast with our host and some wonderful sightseeing. We went to the fort/ castle thing, and the Matthias church.  We continued walking through the streets, by the "castle" and palaces where we saw some wonderful views of the city from the Buda side.  Akos gave us a lot of history of Hungary, it was interesting to hear the background on these people. Then we went to Pest, I exchanged money to forints, and went to Starbucks!

Then we traveled to our concert. It was an amazing 1st concert. They way we connected with those people was truly an act of God. Although we didn't understand each other, we found common ground in Christ and in the music. It was beautiful. Everyone sang beautifully and was engaged. I was overwhelmed because I knew this is what God had called us to do - to declare the love and light of Jesus to people.

Olivia's family was there and it was great to see them and watch her mom so engaged with the music.

But I felt so blessed watching the Hungarian's faces as they were touched by the music. Especially on Esti dal, they knew the words, and I watched their faces light up. It brought tears to my eyes. Later that night, I was listening to All Sons and Daughters, and these words fit what my heart was feeling.

"All will sing out, Hallelujah, and we will cry out Hallelujah!"

This is so true.  The people were brought into God's presence tonight. Not by us, but by what God did. I am so thankful for the vision Dr. Walters had, and how this trip was made a reality.  I am so blessed!

Afterwards, we ate dinner which was wonderful. I think their potato salad beats the Schaefer family recipe. The people were so hospitable  We sang for them, and they for us. One guy came up to us, saying he had no words for how much he enjoyed the concert, but that it really touched him. 

They also gave us pins with Hungarian flag colors, like they wear in March for what I believe is their independence day.

Our third day in Hungary, we did some more sightseeing with Akos. He took us tours to the Hero Square, and the real fake castle... (not exactly sure...). We saw some great things including a hot spring! And of course I knew that they had the most of them in Iceland...
But anyway, afterwards, we went to the Holocaust memorial museum. It was definitely hard, and an emotional experience for many of us. It was hard to see because so much history had happened right there in Hungary. I think the site of the Museum itself was a containment for Jews in WWII. We had a very quiet bus ride following where we then prepared for the concert.We  had a pretty good concert, but a hard beginning as we were all tired from a long day. It was another great concert. It was amazing how many people we could connect with.
It was fun too because there were some probably high-schoolers who really wanted to talk to us, and we tried many languages, but none of us knew the same ones.
The next morning we sang in Olivia's church! It happened all so fast, but it was a third great, and final concert in Budapest. Then we were off to Slovakia! Which I already blogged about. 

And hopefully our Bratislava concerts coming. And as soon as I can, I will write about Vienna, and Czech. I have about a 7 hour bus ride tomorrow, so I will try to work on it then!

Picture time!

View of Budapest from the Citadel.