Today everyone was on their own for the first time since we met at the airport. I encouraged (ok, more like insisted) that everyone employ the "buddy system", and not venture out on their own. So, we split into two groups. Dorothy, James, Pat and Emma headed one way down Andrassy Ut, and Gene, Dan and I headed the other.
The first group used to morning to visit the beautiful St. Stepehen's Basillica. It is named after the patron saint of Hungary, and their first king, Stephen (or Istvan in Hungarian, a language that is beyond my scope of understanding), who united and Christianized the country at the end of the 10th century. A beautiful building from the outside, apparently it is large enough to hold 8000 worshipers for one service... An amazing feat in and of itself. They then had a quick lunch and headed to one of the art museums that is around Heroes Square. Pat and Emma left after a little while, and James and Dorothy made plans to meet at a particular place at a particular time... You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? Dorothy inadvertently missed their rendezvous - James came back to the hotel looking for her. Then, went back to the museum. And there she was! When they returned, I asked Dorothy if she knew that she was lost. She replied, "Well, no! I knew right where I was!" :)
Dan, Gene and I spent most of our day at the same museum that the rest of the group went to. It is a fascinating collection that covers many years of art history throughout the world. We participated in a short tour in English of the Flemish and Netherlandish (their term) art housed in the museum, led by a lovely young lady named Holly from Austin. She volunteers at the museum, living in Budapest as a result of her husband's job. The museum has an amazing history - it's only about 100 years old, as are many of the landmarks here in Budapest. They were built around the turn of the century to commemorate the 1000th anniversary (yes, that is supposed to be thousand) of the establisment of the Hungarian state. It was used as a hospital during World War 2 and suffered a direct hit during the bombing of the city, which caved in the ceiling and damaged many of the works of art in the building. While it appears that the roof was repaired during the Soviet regime, not much else was apparently done to the building. The Soviets were not into repairing the national monuments of their occupied states... It is currently, though, under a new curator, who is working diligently to repair and restore the building, and you can see the results of the efforts all over the building.
We are all pretty exhausted; the prospect of a 4 a.m. trip to the airport is not very exciting for any of us, but we are anxious to get home. We have created many friendships, both in Ukraine and among our team, and are looking forward to the future development of those relationships. We will see you all very shortly!!
Hugs and kisses to all!!
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