Europe Trip: Debrecen with Friends

Right now I want to take you back to one of the most fun and relaxing parts of our summer European adventure. We touched on some of our escapades (here and here) with our lovely friends Csilla and Péter already but our real fun with them started when we went to stay with them at their home for a few days. Just like Dédi’s house, Péter and Csilla’s home is one of our favorite places in all of Hungary. They live in Debrecen which is the second largest city in Hungary (behind Budapest) and rests at the center of Hungary’s Northern Great Plain Region near the famous Hortobágy National Park. Here is a fun fact about Debrecen for all the design buffs out there… It was the birthplace of famed architect Paul László.

Back to Péter and Csilla. The problem that one often runs into when you are with people whose company you seriously enjoy is that you can forget to document the occasion. That’s not to say that you don’t take pictures when you’re having fun, it’s just that sometimes when you’re spending time with people that you truly love you are so enjoying your time with them that the thought of taking a picture simply does not cross your mind. This happens a lot when we are with Péter and Csilla, enjoying breakfast outside on the patio or sinking into the sofa to watch a good movie (or Grey’s Anatomy dubbed in Hungarian). Whatever we do with Péter and Csilla, three things are certain: there will be much laughter, delightful conversation and fabulously delicious food.

Péter and Csilla have a great yard for the kids (big and small) to play in and they have a plethora of animals to keep the kids occupied. Aside from their wonderful dog and several cats (they even had a litter of kittens when we were there), they live next door to people with a variety of chickens that small children always find immensely amusing (okay, I totally do too). Between the animals, the attention they received from their godbrothers (in Hungary when your parents are someone’s godparents, those people become your godsiblings – a relationship that is akin to being cousins) and the hammock set up in the back yard I knew that the boys would never want to leave.

When Péter surprised them with traditional Hungarian bows the boys were really ready to stay forever (this is a big reason that they are now enrolled in archery lessons). We returned from our trip months ago and they still haven’t stopped talking about their time with Péter and Csilla.

Another highlight from our stay was when Big Guy had us all make funny faces into his mirror image app on the iPad. We all laughed so hard that our sides hurt! They say that people with symmetrical faces are the most attractive, but I think these photos suggest otherwise.