Sunday, July 29

Hello everyone from home! Today we spent our last day in Slovakia! I have to say that all of us (or maybe just me) woke up content and rested. We didn’t have to be at Pastor Ivan’s house until 11:30am because Pastor Ivan preaches at 3 different services each Sunday and today we attended his late service that started at 12pm. J We had to drive to a neighboring village and I’m always excited for those semi-long drives because the scenery is so beautiful!  The service was held outside under a restaurant enclosure. It was inspiring to see how people made the church service happen out of the resources that they had. The attendees brought out a keyboard, wine for communion, and the thirty-nine of us in church that morning worshiped God under a canopy while rain was pouring down. We actually used the common cup at this service and the wine inside was very strong! After the church service, we ate at the restaurant where we were graciously given some powder sugar donuts, sugar cookies, soda and some classic Slovak food. We tried 2 types of cheese, bryzne and halushki, both of them are sheep cheese that had bee smoked. I think all of us thought they were quite… interesting. After our nice lunch, we went back to our Slovakian homes and got ready to leave for Budapest!! We said our goodbyes to all of the people who were so kind to us this week and it was weird to think that we will probably never see them again! I hate goodbyes, L but the time we shared together was so fun! We headed through the beautiful Slovakian countryside and villages on our way to Budapest, Hungary where a hotel reservation awaited us. Luckily, Erica, Roxanne, Kyle, Jake, Jim and I were in Pastor Ivan’s car with AC and windows, but the rest of the kids got stuck in the big, blue, Mercedes van with no ac or windows… that seemed to be the bad thing of the day… When we arrived in the city of Budapest, it took us a little while to find our hotel, but the city here is beautiful with a mix between new and old buildings, museums and of course the high end stores like Gucci and Louis Vouitton ;D. Kyle kept reminding all of us that when we arrived in Budapest, the second service at church hadn’t even started yet! We arrived at the hotel and it began to pour and storm while we said our goodbyes to Pastor Ivan and gave him a piece of our sending cloth. As soon as we were settled into our rooms, we got ready to go out to dinner and take a short walk in the wind and rain. We all arrived at a small bar/restaurant and were able to watch some fencing and the Olympics. The most ordered dish at our table was pizza, but we also had some yummy spaghetti, sesame chicken, steak, and the “exotically flavored potatoes”, all of our dishes were delicious! We headed back to the hotel for devotions and I have to say that our cloth is looking pretty great right now ! Maddie, Erica and I got ready for Brandon’s fun birthday surprise at 12am and were able to get matches from the lobby to light the 18 candles on top of our small donut birthday dessert for the big 18 year old! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON. It was a good time with kazoos and birthday masks J Tomorrow we are looking forward to some sightseeing on a tour bus to see and hear all about Budapest ! Until tomorrow, much love from Budapest!

-Alana

Mom: Since this is a blog.. I don’t really know what secrets to share, especially in such a public setting but I love you and pet kitty for me! Don’t leave Kyle and I at the airport :p See you and Papa on Tuesday!! :D