TGIF

It's Friday and I am starting to realize just how time can fly. I can tell this summer is going to be over in a blink! I better start getting out and seeing this beautiful city!

Last night, Peter and I went to the gym...I think it was the latest I have ever gone to the gym in my entire life. We didn't get there until close to 11pm! On the drive home, we drove down Andrasi Ut, a famous and beautiful street on the Pest side...It is a glorious, tree-lined boulevard that has a feeling of Paris, New York and, well, Budapest, I guess. Then we drove across the chain bridge, the oldest bridge in the city, and the night skyline, under the bursting full moon, was amazing! The library was lit up in all its grandeur; the castle, too. And the river...long and shiny. What a vision it was! And Peter was beaming with such pride to show it to me...he loves it here so much, and he is so happy to show me things that will make me love it, too.

Meeting The Family...
Tomorrow I meet the family...literally, the entire family. We are going to Peter's cousin's 18th birthday party here in Budapest and everyone and their mother is coming. Well, Arielle made a good point when she said that at least I won't know if they are talking about me or what they are saying! Last night Peter told me a few of them speak English. We'll see.

This weekend, in addition to being the dutiful American girlfriend, I plan to be the obnoxious American tourist. I want to go to the Budapest highlights and see what most people who come to visit come here to see. I want to go to a Turkish bath and I want to go to the largest synagogue in Europe (kind of ironic that this place with such an anti-Semitic past and a below-the-surface anti-Semitic present should boast the continent's largest synagogue! but that is a testament to my people, I guess...it's like they said, "oh, so you think that by killing 400,000 of the 600,000 of us Hungarian Jews is going to keep us away? Think again, Magyar!). I want to go see the castle, too, and the Parliament. I want to go to Margit Sziget, the island in the middle of the river. And, unfortunately for Peter, I want to do it all THIS WEEKEND!! Poor guy!