Our Senior Get Together!

As August drew to a close, we enjoyed a fun Senior get together.  It began with a luncheon upstairs in President and Sister Smith’s apartment.  Then, following a bit of training, we went to dinner at the Bistro.  The food was good, as usual, but when the check came, we had a hard time figuring out what everyone owed.  Elder Bagozzi always did this when they were here and so, since Elder Carpenter was the new Office Elder, we told him that he could do it.  ;)  After collecting all of the money, he counted it to make sure we had enough, and we didn’t.  So, then someone else counted it and it still wasn’t enough :)  So, then we took it to the other table where yet another person counted it and it still wasn’t enough!  We thought it was funny that we were all having Senior moments at the same time!   Finally, we just all gave up trying to figure it out and put more money in.  :)  After dinner, we went back to the Mission Home to visit and play games. 

 

My Stuffed Chicken dinner!  Very Yummy!

Our attempts at trying to count the money.

The next day, we continued our Senior get together with some sightseeing. We began at Szell Kalman Ter where everyone bought tickets for the metro.  We walked past cute, little gypsy lady who was selling homemade items.  We then took the escalator down to catch the Red and then the Yellow Metro.  We got off and rode the escalator back up to go to Heroes Square.

 



Kal Szellman Ter

 

Cute, little gypsy lady.

Riding down the escalator to catch the Metro. 

 

 

 

And riding back up again at Heroes Square!

Our Senior Missionary Group

Some of the Heroes honored at Heroes Square

The Senior Sister Missionaries & a view of the Hero Statues

The Senior Elder Missionaries & another view of the Hero Statues

After finishing at Heroes Square, we walked over to Vajdahunyad Castle.  It was originally built for the Millennium celebration out of cardboard and wood, but everyone loved it so much that they later built it out of stone and brick building materials.  So, it is now a huge, beautiful ‘Sleeping Beauty’ like castle, with water surrounding it, and housing the Museum of Agriculture.  The only disappointing thing was they had drained the water directly in front of it and were setting up for some kind of concert or political program.  Sister Smith and I were disappointed that everyone couldn’t see how pretty it was with the water surrounding it.  I loved the happy lions guarding the entrance to the castle.  We had our pictures taken at the very cool entrance, and with an anonomous Monk.  The building was beautiful like many buildings here in Hungary.  After leaving the Castle, we walked over past the U.S. embassy and the stature of Ronald Reagan to catch the Yellow Metro again with plans to get off at Kossuth Lajos Ter so we could go tour St. Istvan's.   I find it a little humorous that I am considered the one who “knows how to get everyone everywhere!” :)   Because, all I have is my little list of places to go with directions on how to get there.  What it doesn’t say is how to get there from somewhere else, so we soon found out that I am still learning too, because you can’t get to Kossuth Lajos Ter on the yellow metro.  So, we ended up taking it to the end of the line, watching the driver walk back along the rails to the other end of the Metro and then taking us back the other way!  We got off at Deak Ferenc Ter because that is where all the Metros cross and you can get on the correct one to get you where you need to go.  Howver, once there, Sister Smith said, “Let’s just see if we can see St. Istvan’s from here, so we all left the Metro and went outside and we were in luck!  It was right there and even a shorter walk than it would have been from the Kossuth Lajos stop.   After touring St. Istvan’s, we walked up the 302 steps to the top of the clock towers where there is a wonderful view of the city. Then, we left and went to the Strudle House for lunch.  They served us asparagus soup, chicken tacos in orange sauce and of course our choice of strudel.   That concluded our Senior Get together.  It was nice to see everyone who's still here and all of the new missionaries coming in.

One happy lion guarding the castle.

The cool entrance to the castle.

The beautfiful castle.

The annonomous Monk and all of us Senior Missionaries.

Some beautiful art work on the Castle. 

I loved the entrance gate.  It was a work of art!

St. Istvan's Cathedral

 



Silly Seniors gasping for air after the climb up 302 stairs.

 



 

View from the top with Sister Hartwell and Sister Smith.

 

 Looking down at the square where we saw Elder and Sister Adams waving to us from below. 

They are the speck of white shirt off to the left. 

 



 

The U.S. Embassy

 

 

Dinner at the Strudle House and the end to a very fun Senior Activity!