Szia, Budapest!

It was during our first days in Budapest when Maria, our landlady, made her way up to our flat to explain how to use her "old, but good" washing machine. Later, heading down the stairs I heard her say in what became a familiar rhythmic fashion of goodbyes: Bye, chow, szia, goodbye. I immediately responded, Bye, See ya!

The stairs to our flat.

Maria turned around with a surprised look on her face. You know Hungarian?

At that time I didn't know Hungarian, nor did I know that there was a Hungarian word that sounds just like our English phrase, "See ya." I responded to her question explaining that what I said was short for "See you later." I further gestured, pointing to my eyes meaning "see" and then to her, meaning "you." She didn't understand my lame attempt at explaining our casual manner of an English farewell. With a shrug, a chuckle, and a wave of the hand, she dismissed me making her way down the steps.

Stepping back into our flat, I quickly referenced our Hungarian/English dictionary to find out that szia is simply an informal Hungarian word for hello or goodbye. Informal meaning it is used when speaking to children or people you know on a first-name basis.

Living in Budapest just short of three years doesn't make us experts on the Hungarian culture, but we definitely learned to know this beautiful city on a first-name basis. And, that made it difficult to say goodbye.

Special moments enveloped our final days. Josh's visit was extra special and rounded out all our kids visiting us during our Europe season. Several of the photos in this post were taken by him. He was able to capture people dear to us and familiar places that never ceased to amaze us.

Freedom Bridge. Loved having you, Josh!

This springy little lady bug hung on my pantry door.

Szia to our flat - our favorite place to live. I ask God for windows, and He gave me lots of them.

Szia to our favorite bridge - the Szabadság Hid (Freedom Bridge) where we left our mark with a engraved lock - D&G 2012. This spot holds meaning too dear to share.

Szia to the awesome public transport. Out and about in the city was easy, not to mention that a 10-minute wait was a rare maximum time to board a bus, tram, or the metro.

Szia to the night beauty of the city.

Szia to good friends, Zoli, Ella, and Krisztian.

Szia to our landlords and friends, Frank and Maria.

We were told that it's better to find good landlords over the price of the flat. I don't think there are any better landlords in this world than Frank and Maria. It didn't take long for us to grow to love them.

 Szia to my favorite Costa coffee baristas.

Laszlo at Corvin Costa, one of several baristas that I enjoyed getting to know.

 Szia to our friends at the Free Methodist church.

A familiar Sunday morning scene. Our friends, Jerry (playing bass) and Jan (keyboard), were such a huge help when we first moved to the city.

On Tuesday morning we looked down upon Budapest as our flight ascended over the Danube. The bridges, the castle, Parliament, the 11th district that we called home, were easy to spot as the plane rounded north toward Munich.

Dennis stretched his neck to see the city as I pointed out landmarks. Once Budapest was out of sight, I turned toward him, finding tears in his eyes, as they were in mine, and said, Szia Budapest. We have loved getting to know you, Budapest, on a first-name basis. Until next time, Szia!