UK TOUR! and unplanned Budapest trip....

Thursday, June 5th was the day we were to leave for UK. The girls were staying home from school so that we could be ready to go at 12:00 pm. A great opportunity to sleep in a bit and rest up before a busy but wonderful weekend. OR NOT! At 6:00 am I was awoken by a bang. I thought one of the girls had fallen out of bed so I listened for tears. (Some people would get out of bed and check on their children but my bed was really cozy that day!) I heard no tears so I new the kids were okay. Suddenly I heard 2 more bangs followed quickly by a third which sounded farther in the distance. David came out of the bathroom, (I hadn't even noticed he was out of bed. I'm like a mole when I wake up, barely opening my eyes) and asked me what I was doing. Suddenly 5 or 6 more bangs from what sounded like right in front of our house.

"David go see what's going on!" I ordered him. He crawled into bed and said "okay..." Two seconds later he was snoring. Typical! So I ran down the stairs to look out the front window. I sounded like my house had been lifted up and placed in the middle of Iraq. Gun shot after gun shot, the noise was everywhere and yet I couldn't see anything. I did notice that people were walking down our street like nothing was strange or out of the ordinary though.
What the hell was going on?
I ran back up to our bedroom to meet David who was now getting concerned also. He walked to the end of the driveway and looked toward the gun shots. I, however, was back in bed hiding under my comfy duvet.

A crow cull! Too many crows, too many walkers getting pooped on so they had a crow cull at 6 am to 8 am on a Thursday morning. We had not gotten any letter in the mail saying "Hey, just wanted to let you know... or If you hear gun shots in your front lawn, don't worry! Just us, no need to duck and cover!"

This is a bizarre place!

The kids all slept until 8:30 am. I could have slept until 8:30 am!!!! URGH!!!!


So we were off for our long weekend in Northern England. I was so excited and so were the girls. We flew from Iasi (pronounced Yosh) to Budapest and had a 2 hour lay over. We toured the airport, shopped and had some Borsht and as we were leaving one of the gift stores David said,

"I would really like to come back here one day and experience this city. We should put this on our list of places to see before we leave Europe."

If our life were a movie, dark ominous music would be play right now. Thundering in our ears alerting us to something ironically unforeseen. But I'll get back to that later.

We were at the gates waiting to board the British Airways plane to London Heathrow, (more thunderous and ominous music) when Evelyn ran up to me excitedly with eyes bulging out of her head and Gabrielle close on her tail.

"Mommy, Mommy, I just heard someone speaking English," she said with a huge exhilerated smile. Bless her! When I told her and Gabrielle that everyone in England speak English they were thrilled. No more miming, signing, grunting and pretty much looking like an absolute idiot to get your point across. We were going to communicate in comfort for the next 4 days. Alleluhia!!

We rented a car in London and David drove up to Wetherby (near Leeds, Bradford) where we were to stay with David's cousin Simon and his family Julia and William. Long drive but unavoidable. David did very well driving on the other side but I was a terrible back seat driver. Gasping and pressing my foot to the floor in an effort to slow him down. "Stay left, stay left." I did relax eventually mind you, eventually.

Simon's house is beautiful and I felt a bit like I was at a bed and breakfast. How wonderful! The countryside was beautiful and serene. There were no wild dogs barking their heads off. No gun shots, no rooster telling me off for stepping into the backyard. Just loviness. Friday was a relaxed day where we caught up in sleep, toured Wetherby and visited David's Aunite Marjorie and Uncle Dereck for some fabulous tea and surprised our girls with their Grandma Carole. Very cute! Carole had arrived the day before and was coming back to Romania with us at the end of the weekend. It was a surprise for the girls. When we stepped into Auntie Marjorie's house I said "Let's go meet Auntie Marjorie!" My girls have never actually met Auntie Marjorie. As I turned the corner into the living room I saw Grandma Carole sitting there but no Auntie Marjorie. The girls walked in, looked at their Grandma then Evelyn turned to me and said,
"She looks a lot like Grandma?!"
"Yes," I said, "it is Grandma, SURPRISE!!!" The girls immediately realized the woman sitting in front of them was their real Grandma and not their Auntie Marjorie. How cute! The girls quickly lost interest in our reunion when they heard Auntie Marjorie had a dolls house. Not just any dolls house though, this was a hand made mansion that Auntie Marj had made herself as well as all the pieces inside. The lights light up! The music machine plays music! Gabrielle was in her glory. Makes our dolls house look a bit pitiful now though!

Saturday our UK tour began. We started out in Harrogate which is about as posh as you can get and so me! The shopping was phenominal as well as our very English lunch at Betty's. Yorkshire Rarebit served with you're own pot of hot tea. How english can you get?
The afternoon was spent in York which was fantastic! So old and rich in history. Everywhere I looked I would picture how life would have been in the 1500's. Laundry hanging from building to building. Children playing in the streets not even noticing that raw sewage is running down the street behind them. I guess I don't have it so bad in Romania.
I pictured knights riding on their horses up throught the gates of York. The towns people selling and buying in the streets. How wonderful to be walking in their footsteps! We lack this in Canada. It is amazing how so much has standed the test of time and war and is still standing today. As I walked around Yorkminster Cathedral which is dates back to the time of Constantine in the 380 AD time I am struck. I stand and stare and imagine and picture. No words. Just starring in amazement... then a pull on my sleeve,
"Mommy I have to pee"
Back to reality!

The next day we headed sea side to a lovely little town called Finley. Beautiful and just like I've seen on HGTV Location, Location! Lovely! The weather however was not. It was very windy and cold but that didn't stop a chubby couple from setting up their wind sheild, wrapping themselves in blankets and catching the odd ray of sun breaking through the clouds. Julia wanted me to take a picture and call it "Going to the Beach, Yorkshire Style." But I couldn't!
We did the fish and chips thing which came along with a dreadful, cigarette smoking, unhappy waitress. God she was awful and didn't appreciate us laughing and trying to change our orders! We then moved up the coast through Scarborough and stopped in Robin Hood's Bay. What beautiful little towns these are! Really! So colouful and cool! My girl Sue Bird would have done a much better job with the photos of these gorgeous towns but we tried to do it justice! We continued moved up along the coast again and stopped for some shopping and supper in Whitby. Apparently the Goth capital of the UK. Interesting things in these shops I must admit! We finished off the day driving back to Wetherby through the Yorkshire Moors which was a picturesque and positively lovely way end our tour of Yorkshire country. Thank you Simon, Julia and William for such a wonderful weekend!

We woke up at 2:00am and piled ourselves into the car to head towards London Heathrow. Our flight was at 8:45 am so even if we hit some traffic we should be fine. Right?! (Ominous music again.) All 3 girls and I dozed in the back while David and his Mom struggled to stay awake and find our way back to the car rental place. Well to make a long story short, the GPS failed us and lead us toward Gatwick Airport instead of Heathrow. Gatwick is on the other side of London. No where near Heathrow. By the time we had realized it we had to turn around and head directly back into London at prime traffic time on Monday morning. Then... parking lot! What was supposed to be a 3.5 hour drive turned into a 7 hour car ride. (The girls and I crammed illegally in the back all together) We arrived at the airport just as our flight had taken off. #@*&!
So we bought ourselves tickets to Budapest, Hungary, would stay overnight in Budapest and then catch the next days flight back to Romania. $$$$$$$$$$$$!

Budapest was actually a surprise and we decided instead to feel lucky about getting the chance to experience this beautiful city. It reminded me in many ways of Paris. There are sections of the city rich with culture, history and architecture (actually most of the city is) and then there is a section with fantastic shops, high end fashion, fine dining and cafes and a marvelous market! The city is split into 2 by the Danube River and connected by beautiful, old and intricate bridges. Very nice!

Tuesday we head back to Romania where we could hardly wait to introduce David's Mom to our new world!

But I'll save that for next time!

Miss you all!

Alison xxxxx