ENGLAND 25 July - 26 July 2011 *Gatwick to Dover*

G'Day,
We flew back to England to buy our van on the 25 July 2011!! We flew into Gatwick Airport and Aussie Ben met us at the airport to show us his van after making the meeting over email. We drove to the nearest McDonalds and had a chat about the Ford Transit, our prospective new home. We went for a test drive and it ran really nice, after a good look over it we made an offer and made the purchase. We spent 2 hours trying to get the money out of ATM's as our bank back home wouldn't cooperate with a bank transfer. The poor bloke had a handful of 10 & 20 pound notes, luckily his brother lived there and had a bank account lol!! After doing the paperwork we organised the tax (drama drama drama) we were on the road. We drove to Dover on the coast and organised our ferry ticket to Calais in France!! We spent the night in Dover, a sleepy little fishing town on the South East Coast of the UK. We had some beers and dinner on the wharf and used the facilities at the pub then slept in the van for the first time in a car park near the ferry :) It was a real experience, there was like 50 vans parked in the same area! We got the ferry to Calais at 4am, driving through the customs area and the French official just waved us straight through without even a glance lol! We arrived in Calais about 6:30am and met Tomo and Kate at the McDonalds there. Our adventure begins!!!

EJ with his Rig

The Whitecliffs that Dover is renowned for..

'Thundie' as he is now known :)
EJnRHE xx

HUNGARY 19 July - 25 July 2011 *Budapest*

Hi Again,
After returning from Soko Banja we all had a bit of gastro lol, Rhe got fairly bad so had two IV drips in hospital the night before we left for Hungary. We made the 6 hour train ride from Novi Sad (SERBIA) to Budapest (HUNGARY) on Monday 19 June and have spent 7 days in Budapest now with Sue and Ernie. We stayed with Laci (Sue's cousin) in Erd, about 20 minutes from Budapest. We have thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip, Budapest is such a beautiful and historically rich city! We spent a couple of days visiting Sue's family in the country, spending a night in the 5 star wine region of Tarcal. We really enjoyed being with Sue during this trip as it is the first time she has been to her home country and it was very special for her to meet her extended family, visit the town's where her family grew up and walk in the steps her mum and dad took so many years ago. We were very surprised to learn that there are about fifty-one 1st and 2nd cousins that we didn't even know existed! Each family we met greeted us with homemade wine/palinka, kolbas (sausage) and hand made embroided linens. We ate about 14 meals in one day as every new relative we met wanted to feed us! We are so thankful to Laci for his hospitality and for taking us to the country regions in his car, we are very grateful that he was able to accomodate us and show us around so much :) We spent the last two nights on our own (after teary good byes to Sue and Ernie) and fly to London 25 July to find our van! We have been spoilt for choice in this city, glady jumping on the hop-on, hop-off tour that takes you to all the wonderful sites. We also did a river cruise dinner with Sue and Ernie which was fantastic! We would love to come back here one day, EJ has really treasured seeing and learning about his history and we have met a few more Nagy's!! We will post another blog once we get our new wheels in London hahaha!!! Look out Europe!!

Ern and Sue on the Train (Ern hadn't been on this train route for 4 decades!)

Budapest Restaurant

 Me, mum and Dad in front of Laci's house :)

Laci with his pride and joy, yup, it goes just as fast as it looks! lol

 St Stephen's Basilica (Szent Istvan)

View from the Basilica

 Front View..

 Bullet Holes from the 25 October 1956 revolution (Bloody Thursday, 152 people were gunned down while protesting) EJ's Grandad was apart of this revolution, that is why they had to escape the country - he was a wanted man.

The flame has been burning since the 1956 Revolution of Hungary

 More bullet holes and reminders of the revolution

 Panoramic shot from the Pest side of the Danube.

 Parliament Building

 Catholic Church at Sunset (This was built over a Mosque years ago)

 Panoramic of Buda and Pest with the flag :)

 Sunset over Buda

 Dinner of the River cruise, delicious!

 City lights

 Castle at Night

Chain Bridge at Night

Mum's dad side of the family

 This is where mum's dad's parents are laid to rest (Sue's Grandparents)

 This is where mum's great grandma is buried (Maria Nagy) She gave my mum a little card when she was little that she still has to this day.

 Sue's cousin with home made kolbas (she was devastated when we told her we can't take this home!)

 This is where mum's mum's parents are laid to rest (Sue's mums parents) and 5 other family menbers.

 5 Star Accomodation in Tokaji (moments after finding out Thunder had passed away)

 Mum's mum's sister (Purple Apron) and he cousins :)

 Garden at the Castle on the Buda side

 Beatiful water fountain

 The Chain Bridge after it was bombed in WWII

Heroes Square (The top four statues mean Love, War, Peace, Science/Glory and the middle statue is Angel Gabriel holding the Hungarian Crown)

 The Heroes Square where EJ found a King NAGY LAJOS (1342-1382) He knew he had royalty in the family ;) haha

 Prominent Heroes in Hungarian History

Vajdahunyad Castle

 Imre Nagy, Decorated Politician, Head of Hungarian Workers Party, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister during his life, was executed in 1958 for his political views.

Be back Soon!!
EJnRHE xx