As Leanne made great "pun" of in her FB pix, Budapest is actually composed of "A Little Buda & A Little Pest..." as in there were once two separate cities and now there is one. Pretty neat. This isn't a new thing, btw, it happened LONG ago. We stayed in "old Pest" and visited "old Buda." To do so, one must cross one of the bridges separating the two. Here we are crossing a neat one.
We are crossing the Danube...
We decided to explore the Budapest history museum. I think I was "museumed out" by this point (or maybe just "trying to control the kids around all the old stuff-ed out") and didn't enjoy this one much. Langston & Barclay liked it, though.
My sweeties pose beside some stained glass. Doesn't Barclay look adorable with a money belt & a kid on each arm? Aw. The things one does for love. :)
And now, the Labrinith, which scared poor Langston to death. It was a dark, twisty, cave thingy, but I think that the tribal, heartbeat music & the strange smell got to him most. 
This is the way he looked most of the walk through. I carried him a lot. He cried a little. He & I ended up sort-up racing through, only pausing in the well-lit areas (but some of them were creepy)...
like this one. It had little heads with wine spitting out of their mouths. L. wasn't too happy w it.
So, we rushed through (singing songs from "The Sound of Music," no less...hey, whatever keeps him from feeling terrified).
I tried to get a few pix before L. got too scared. This one was of a painting done on the stone wall. There were a lot of them. I tried "no flash" first, but it turned out too blurry.
So I took the rest w the flash on. Better. There were all kinds of things down in that drippy-ness! Sculptures, half buried (I don't remember the "why," B. probably does), strange tunnels (some one could go in, some not), chains to pass through...all kinds of slightly spooky stuff. B. enjoyed it. I think I could've if not for being w a super frightened kid. Poor L. 
So, the next day (happy anniversary, to my parents! this is what we did on your 3oth!), we headed out to see some art. The Italian exhibit was great. We were engulfed in Madonna & child paintings. I think we all enjoyed them. Even tiny Zora liked seeing "baby De-sus," esp. the few that showed a chubby J.C. nursing. :) L. got a neat book that told a story & had him "fill in" some famous paintings that went along w this "story." (it had tiny reprints of said paintings in the back flap complete w their current location & a smidge of info about the artist). He also scored a feather pen. Yes, a feather pen. Zora got one, too, but she immediately teethed on hers & broke it. 
Then we ate lunch at Robinson's, which was grand. Yummy pumpkin soup (a must-eat when in Budapest, fyi). There were lots of ducks, geese & birds right outside on the pond/lake beside us. The kids had fun watching the birds.
We decided to make a LONG day of it (which we rarely do...I'm a stickler for getting Z's one nap in; and letting L. have some downtime) & went to the Circus! We actually stood in line for a while, then had to buy tickets for a while later, so we walked to the nearest "bath" (like a pool-hot tub kind of place). It looked a little too much like a place for "singles," not families to me, so we decided to do the other "bath" later. (Which we did & I didn't think was all that great. A big cool temp pool on one side & smaller warm one on the other. The building was lovely & if I had wanted fake nails or to be waxed somewhere in there I could've gotten hooked up, but that's not what we came for...I digress...)
So, back to the circus! The pic (see: 2 above) was the best pic of our fam there. Z. didn't like it at first (she waved her hand saying, "Don't whan et!" But the cotton candy we purchased soothed her. :) Also, by this point it was nap time, no doubt about it, but she stayed awake for MUCH longer than I expected. She finally passed out nursing near the end of the show. (Isn't that how it goes, parents?)
I had not been to a circus in years...one of the only things I remember about it was getting some kind of toy & playing w Dave. So, we all enjoyed the hoop-la. The clown was funny & got the audience "into" the action. B's fav was a gal who positioned herself a top a swing & then balanced on her head while twirling around. Crazy. I like the gymnast girls who contorted themselves on each other (see above...B's girl was swinging too fast for a good pic). Zora liked the animals & Langston loved the silly clown's acts. We all enjoyed ourselves.Speaking of enjoying oneself, please stay tuned for post 3 of our Christmas adventures. I'm sorry it's taking so long, but there is a lot to tell (our pals, the Gartlands visit, New Year's Eve, Heroes Square...) & darn Blogger--loading one pic at a time is so slow!
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