Time Flies

The past month has been a blur. It seems like most of it was spent traveling or hosting people, and my bank account certainly shows it. But, the highlight of it all was my family’s visit, even if it was too short. My mother, brother and nephew arrived in Budapest on the 16^th. It had been over a year since I’d seen them. It was comforting to see that little has changed (except, of course, my nephew Evan had grown quite a bit. I’m proud of how brave he was and how well he handled the experience).

After their arrival, we hung out in Budapest for a day and a half, and were given a high-speed, super-condensed tour of the city by a local American ex-pat that happened to make Jack’s acquaintance. After Budapest, we took a train to Timisoara, went out to dinner with a few of the local PCVs and stayed the night. Next, it was on to Lugoj, our final destination. I introduced my family to some of my local friends (at least the ones who weren’t away on vacation). We were treated to typical Romanian hospitality (which is never short of amazing) and had several wonderful meals.

We spent a few days in Lugoj, cozily crammed into my apartment, after which we had to head back to Budapest. Their flight back home was on the 23^rd, so we went back to Budapest on the 22^nd, stayed the night and caught a little more sight-seeing in the morning with the same guy that had showed us around the first time. Then I went with them to the airport and said goodbye.

It’s too bad I didn’t get to show them more of Romania; they were here for such a brief visit. But, at least they did get to see the important parts—my stomping grounds, my everyday life. In any case, it was just nice spending time with them.