Budapest - Day 1

We've never done a December trip before, because of  all the typical holiday activities. However, in November, we impulsively booked a short trip to Hungary to see the Christmas markets.

We left a few days after the kids got out of school, and they were excited for a trip so close to the holidays. We flew in the afternoon, which is another uncommon occurrence for us, so we arrived in Budapest after dark.

She did this pose on her own

Beautiful Yorkshire

Hello Budapest

Yes, those are my kids playing on the airport floor

When our planes land, we usually wait until everyone else has passed before getting out with the kids. This time, we patiently waited until there was a large space for us to get through. Matt and the older two walked toward the front, but Clara was a bit slower coming out. An older woman came up behind me and started pushing me forward. I told her not to separate me from my child, but she just kept walking into me. Luckily Matt saw, and came back to help me. Gladly, we did not see that woman again.

As we waited for our pre-booked taxi, a man came up to me and asked if he could help me. I thought it was just a random guy wanting money or something, so I said no. I was embarrassed to find out that it was our driver, though Matt found it very funny. We checked in to our hotel/apartment and went to find a place for dinner.

We settled on a Jamie Oliver pizzaria nearby, and sat on the covered patio. There weren't many people around, apart from a larger table of Estonians having their work Christmas party. Two of these party people started sword fighting with bread boards, and accidentally knocked one toward our table not far from the kids' heads. We weren't upset, but they came over and apologised profusely. They even bought a bottle of prosecco for Matt and me, and hot chocolate for the kids. One of them (Guido) came to our table a few times to talk to us, which started getting a little weird, but they were nice and left soon enough. The food was not bad for a chain restaurant.

That's Guido sitting next to me

The kids spotted this outside and insisted on pictures...

photo by Miles

We were all tired by now, so we went back to the hotel to get the kids to bed. We had two bedrooms and a sofa bed, and had thought that we could put all three kids in one bed. That was a poor choice. We eventually put Miles and Lily on the sofa, and Clara in the 2nd bedroom on her own. She finally fell asleep, but then Miles and Lily were up giggling and messing around. We sent Lily in to sleep with Clara, but Clara did not sleep well. She was up and down, whining much of the night. I ended up sleeping with her, and Lily went in to sleep with Matt. It was a rough night, and I was very much looking forward to coffee in the morning.