Eggstravaganza

Ok, we're going backwards now, which is not the most logical way to do this, but stick with me. At the end of the trip, after Staff conf. and Staff visits, I had planned to spend a few days in Baden, Austria, with our family friends, the Buchholz family. But due to some health issues, they ended up going to a health spa during the time that I would have been there. Thankfully, I had also been invited to stay with the Elwoods in Budapest, who serve with SHARE, a ministry partner of IM, so I went there. Those who've been reading this for a while might remember that I made a visa trip to Budapest back in 2011, and spent a week with Mike & Nancy, after meeting them not through IM, but through them visiting my home church in Charlotte the exact Sunday that I was home visiting and spoke in the service. Ah, coincidences. :-) You've also seen other pictures with Mike & Nancy here in Charlotte, b/c every time they come through now, we meet up. They're genuinely lovely people and I really enjoy spending time with them. They come to all of our IM Staff Conferences, so they were at this year's conference in Slovakia, also, but I'll talk about that later. Anywho, after going to Budapest from spending time with IM staff, I went to church with Mike and Nancy, relaxed Sunday evening, and then took a quick 24 hr. trip over to Vienna. It's only 2 1/2 hrs. away by train, so off I went to see something I've always wanted to see: the famous Easter Markets of Vienna. Well, really the Christmas Markets are the most famous, but beggars can't be choosy. If you remember my Christmas Tree from this past year(decorated with marbles and Ukrainian and Polish eggs), you know that I like eggs. So I was quite excited to go to the Easter Market, where I had heard there were tons of absolutely beautiful eggs. It pretty much rained the entire time I was there(with just a couple of short reprieves), and being the super packer that I am, I hadn't brought clothes to change into(other than my running clothes), so I was rather wet and cold, but it was worth it! I found two of the three main Easter Markets and the eggs far surpassed my eggspectations(sorry, couldn't resist). Here are some of my favorites!

I love this photo, but it doesn't do the mass of eggs justice. There were far, far more than this and the artwork was just amazing!

These were probably my favorites, but they were also some of the most expensive. I wasn't quite willing to spend $40 on an egg that might break on the return trip home. I got to watch one of the artists doing this type of egg, and I understand why they cost so much.

Old world maps on eggs

Modern Japanese art

And here are the ones I ended up with. The red one is glass from Hungary. The back left is more traditional Romanian style and the jade one is shallaced. All but the red one are real eggs, though, and I was happy that they made it safely home.

 

Eggs: another small thing that makes me happy. :-)