Someone explain this to me please:

Here in Germany, the legal drinking age is 16.  The legal driving age is 18.  So, apparently, they believe that young people are more able to make responsible choices about drinking than driving.  

Whatever.

But, this is what really surprised me this week. 

  Jessica went shoe shopping with her friend and picked out these shoes.  Yes, they are a little hoochy-mama, but they are just shoes.  The salesperson told Jess that she wasn't allowed to purchase these shoes without a parent present because she is under age.  Under age for what?  For wearing high heels?  This is a first for me.

So, I guess here in Germany, where children can drink and watch pornography in their own living rooms (which is broadcast on TV after 10 p.m.), they are not allowed to own high heels.  Heaven forbid they turn an ankle or something.

(PS - Even though the salesperson initially refused to let Jessica purchase these shoes, obviously she relented when Jess and her friend argued for a bit.  So much for protecting our children.)

(PPS - Jessica insists that I acknowledge that these shoes do NOT go with the outfit she is wearing.  I made her put on the shoes so I could take a picture and rant about it on my blog.)

Laundry day.

The fun is officially over.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

In order to ease the pain of ending our fabulous girls' weekend, Susanne invited us to her house to make consolation cupcakes.

Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. . . I think I'm in love.

(Wanna try the peanut butter icing ?  Yes, you do.  Here is the recipe.)

Our trusty guide from Friday's tour had recommended this cafe, so we went there at about 11:00 for breakfast.

By the time we were seated and the waitress came to take our order, it was past 11:30, so we couldn't order from the breakfast menu.  

 

Our disappointment lasted until they brought us these amazing hot chocolates.

One sip from these babies and all was forgiven.

We ordered sandwiches, which were out-of-this-world, and then some of us were still able to gobble up a slice of cake.  I think the waiter was a little blown away by our ability to enjoy the food.

But, everything about this place was scrumptious!

After eating, we rolled ourselves onto the subway and headed to the city park, where we strolled around a cool bath house and continued the random goofiness of a Girls' Weekend.

This castle was built in 1896 for Hungary's millennial celebration.  It shows the different architectural styles of Hungary's most famous buildings, which we don't know anything about, but it was just fun to walk through and take pictures.

Legend has it that touching this guy's pen will make you a better writer.  So, if I suddenly start writing Shakespearean blog posts, you'll know why.

Near the park, in Hero's Square, we saw these awesome statues of King Mathias and his men.  

Tons of kids were climbing all over them, so we thought we should do that, too.

The four of us climbing up there wasn't pretty.

But, we made it, boo-boos and all!

After walking down a street full of diplomatic mansions, we caught the subway back to our hotel to pack up and head to the airport.

We had to take photos of the subway.  Budapest is very proud to have had the first subway system on the European continent (London's was first, but they don't count because they aren't technically on the continent), so they have gone to great lengths to preserve the stations exactly as they were in the 1890's. 

Bye bye, Budapest.  You treated us well and we will miss you!

Our tour guide from yesterday gave us lots of good suggestions for things to see and do in Budapest, one of which was this indoor market.

There were lots of places to buy souvenirs as well as try out the Hungarian pastries.

After a super healthy (?) breakfast/lunch, we met Rachel and Wendy, who flew out to join us for the last two days.

Budapest is known for its natural hot springs and super old, super fancy mineral baths.  So, we went to this Turkish bath that has been around since the 1600's.

Yeah, it was cool.  We stayed and soaked until we were thoroughly raisiny.  Besides the baths, there were also some saunas where you could sit and sweat, then pour bucketfuls of cold water on yourself, but Susanne was the only one who liked that.  The rest of us preferred to sit in the warm water and watch the nearly naked people kiss.

Those baths really did their job relaxing us, because at dinner we all sat around the table like zombies.  But, after an hour or so of free refills (!), we jazzed up again.

Dreamy, dreamy Mozart.

Back at the hotel, we broke out the Bananagrams.  Delightful!

Our first full day in Budapest began with us spending the morning wandering around the city and doing a little shopping.

In the afternoon, we took a walking tour of Budapest and saw lots of cool things while freezing our hineys off.

After a yummy dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, where we partook most heartily of the free refills, we finished off the evening with games and much girl talk in the hotel.

Budapest, Baby!

Today, I flew to Budapest, Hungary with Susanne, Denise, and Shawna for a Girls' Weekend.

We started with a dinner cruise on the Danube. . .

. . .where we ate fu-fu food like this. . .

. . .and floated by views like this.

It was AWESOME!!