I Love Family Vacations

We’ve just got back from our summer vacation from Europe. I enjoyed every moment of it or maybe almost every moment of it. That’s because I don’t like to go thru or wait at airports.

This summer we went to Hungary. I like it since I was born there but my wife likes it too and she was born in New Jersey. My boys love it of course and it’s not only because the drinking age is 16 (for beer and wine) but also because they have lots of cousins to play with.

We spent most of the time in Budapest, where my family lives, on the Buda side in the suburbs. It is a very quiet and nice place, and there is no violence. Although people lock the front door all the time which usually has several safety locks. We stayed in a four bedroom apartment on the third floor. The only problem was that there was no elevator, but everything else was just perfect.

The weather was excellent warm, but not hot and without the humidity. Every day was sunny, nice and cool during the night which helped me to have deep sleeps.

We used public transportation which is very good in Budapest. The bus stop was right there where we stayed and we could be in the center city in just 20 minutes. We bought a weekly pass which was about $25 and it was good for all the public transportation within the city limits.

We spent one day at the Lake Balaton. We were lucky with the weather again. Lake Balaton is a fresh-water lake, about 77 km long and 3-12.5 km wide. It’s about 2 hours from Budapest.

I think the greatest thing in family vacations is that we do things together and all those great memories that nothing can erase. 

 

How I Help My Kids to Relief Stress

We all have stress, adults and children. I can see it on my kids every day. There are different sources of stress for adults and children but there similar ways to relax regardless of your age.

I think children are too innocent to understand the sources of stress. As an adult I pretty much know where do they come from and I deal with it as soon as I can. For me listening to music, reading, writing, exercising, having a nice conversation is very relaxing.

When you observe your children you should really make a note what they like, such as music, movies, TV shows, and video games. I strongly believe that what they like reflects how they feel.

When I start to see that my kids listen to the kind of music and watch TV shows that I don’t care about I take them out for hiking.

Hiking is great, it’s very relaxing and in the same time you exercise. We often go back to the same place, a 15 minute ride from my house. It’s in a state park and it’s not too popular, we often see only a half a dozen people who are looking for the same thing we do, the beauty of nature.

We go to the same place but every time it’s a little bit different. The change of the seasons is breathtaking. We park at the top of the hill and climb down to a creek where we spend most of the time. My kids are throwing rocks or hopping from rock to rock to cross the creek.

I usually just sit there and watch them and take some pictures which I use as my screen saver when we get back.