The Doctor & Cat Therapy

Our first full day in Budapest.

First...breakfast at the free buffet at our hotel. This wasn't a "buffet" of dry cereal, toast, eggs and a waffle maker with cups of batter...no this was something worth a picture to remember. Full bakery bread and pastry goodie selection, espresso machine, meats and cheeses and all kinds of fruit, oatmeal with all kinds of goodies to sprinkle on it, eggs cooked 4 different ways, and cereals galore. We're paying Holiday Inn prices for this room thanks to George's magic, but getting the royal treatment...

 
Then Daddy had to walk to the passport office with Rita to pick up Princess's Hungarian passport. When he got back and showed it to her she took out all of our passports and named them, and was so excited that she had one now too! She'll actually have two passports - we pick up her American passport on Tuesday, as she'll be a dual citizen of both countries. She is counting down the days until she gets to ride in an airplane still. 

Then the Dr. came to meet us at the hotel. She was a very nice, soft spoken woman who already knew Gianna as she has met with her once or twice before. She just checked her with a stethoscope and measured her, and filled out her final report. Then she took her vaccination book that was filled out in Magyar cursive (which means absolutely no chance of me trying to decipher it) and copied it into English so I'll have something to take to our Dr. Everything else went into a sealed envelope that we'll take to the American Consolate next week.

Now we had the rest of the day to ourselves...and all we needed to do was find a new swim suit for Princess because apparently I packed too well and can't find it anywhere. AND how about find the Cat Cafe!!??

If you haven't gathered this from the macskababa post, I'm a little crazy about cats...and anything little and furry in general. Several months ago I read about something called a "Cat Cafe" in Japan (apparently there are about 80 of them - read more here) and I was about to hop on a plane just to go to Japan to sit in a room and sip a latte and be surrounded by cats. Yes, I'm that crazy. So you can imagine my delight when I heard there is a Cat Cafe RIGHT HERE in Budapest, where I am actually AT right now!!

 
Daddy is a great sport, and let me drag the whole family to the trolley bus on the corner so we could hang on for dear life as the driver careened down the main road, and then walk about 9 blocks to the place where Google maps said the Cat Cafe was. Sure enough, we found it!

 When you walk in you are greeted by this little door man and he takes you to your seat. He's waiting for the next customer at the top of the stairs. :)

You pay a flat fee for unlimited time, unlimited drinks, and one dessert. And unlimited following around and petting of the cats. I think we paid $24 for an hour and a half of kitty therapy and about 3 drinks each. I call that quality time :)

 Mostly they slept and acted annoyed at being bothered...as you would expect.

 They were perched on all kinds of wall mounted baskets and shelves. This guy just had to get a peek, lol.

 I'm good now. I've had my 'kitty fix' for the day.

There was a whole shelf full of books and games to help you waste time until the cats woke up and came rubbing your legs. I didn't need to wait. I just went over and grabbed one out of his sleeping tent and woke him up.







OK, now that you really think I'm a crazy cat lady (I am)...on with the rest of the day, which isn't quite as enamoring as the cats, but oh well. 

Daddy and I were hungry now...except for once the kids were NOT hungry! We pumped them so full of free drinks their tummies we full. Ooops. But we stopped at a Gyro bar to grab a bite. We see these meat cones at all the gyro places we've seen in Europe - quite impressive! See how they are made here. They just shave some off onto your pita when you order it...and it's to die for. 

Then we walked past Heroes Square on the way to find the bus...

 Couldn't find the bus. Finally went to a hotel to ask how to get back and walked 5 more blocks to the stop...I really miss my car.