Day 5

We woke up early. We went swimming, which was insisted by Jack. We tried the pool but it was cold so we went to the spa pool. We stayed for a while and got going. After we had gotten dressed, we had breakfast. I had sausages, lots of them, and a croissant. Soon we went to the car with my dad’s uncle and aunt, and went off to Statue Park. It was a place that had statues of the Russian Communists like Lenin and Stalin that took Hungary over. They were put so far away from Budapest because they had made their lives more miserable and the Hungarians wanted them out of the main city. It was quite interesting. One statue of Stalin was chopped off at the feet as a symbol of hate that the Hungarians pulled down in 1956. We hopped back into the car and went to the villages that my grandparents grew up in. On the way we stopped at the construction of Europe’s longest bridge (it was 100 metres high) and saw Lake Boloton. We climbed up to a really high lookout and saw over the lake. We then drove first to my grandfather’s village and met my dad’s family and one of dad’s old friends and had lunch at his aunty’s house. After lunch we went to my grandmother’s village and saw the house that my grandmother and five other people lived in – it was smaller than my bedroom! We then went to a cemetery and saw some relatives and then off to see the Mura River. On the other side of the river was Croatia. After that we went back to dad’s aunty’s house and had some afternoon tea of strudel and pastries. Soon we saw dad’s uncle’s house. He had a large dog that was a bit ferocious and was tied up on a chain. After saying goodbye to everyone we and hopped back into the car to drive back to Budapest.