The journey into Hungary wasn’t so bad. Once I’d managed to check in that is! That took over an hour as there was only one check in desk for my airline. Hey, I wasn’t about to allow that to spoil my holiday….
We arrived early into Budapest but I had to wait for my luggage for almost an hour. I was really surprised as it wasn’t just my uncle who turned up but my ten year old niece and my not so young 91 year old grandma! That was a big surprise! She was so happy to see me and didn’t want to let me go.
Each year I come to visit she says “I’m so happy to see you but this’ll probably be the last time.” She said the same thing in the car on the way back and I gave my standard “Don’t talk like that. You said the same thing last year grandma!” She expects it and always laughs. It still feels a bit weird though.
She a typical, sturdy old Hungarian women. She hadn’t had an illness in her life until she hit 89 and then the weight poured off her. Even though she now looks life a yodafied version of her previous self, the same determination to be independent is strong in her. She walks with a zimmer-frame but refuses to allow anyone to help her when she is going up stairs. She has developed her own unique technique and just gets on with it. She’s quite an inspiration.
We arrived in Ujszasz, my uncle’s home town (which literally means new hundred) and I was amazed how much my God-son Gabriel (who was just 6 months old when I last saw him 18 months ago) has grown. I know it’s a cliché how when we were growing up, we all used to have people who didn’t see us very often come up to us and say “My, how you’ve grown!” but now I finally understand. They’re always a lot of kids around my aunt and uncle’s house and I thought that he was someone else’s child!
They had a ton of food prepared for dinner. Unfortunately it’s always more than I or any ordinary person could ever hope to eat. They did the same last year. I have a feeling that they stick all the left-overs in the freezer and eat them when I’ve gone!
Hungarian food also involves eating everything with bread, so I was quite full by the time I’d finished.
Then straight after dinner they said, “We’ve been invited over to Marti’s house (he’s my uncle’s best friend) for a something called a “xxx”. I put xxx because I had no idea what they were talking about. It was a word in Hungarian that I had never heard before. But in the spirit of things I said okay.
It turns out that we’d been invited to an open fire type of evening meal. Right after dinner! And more loads of bread! As the foreign guest I also got plied with the finest liquor that Hungary had to offer, which in this case is a drink called Palinka (basically strong peach schnapps) And then a few cans of beer to finish. Amazingly, if you eat enough bread, the drink doesn’t get to your head much so I actually didn’t get drunk.
However, I didn’t plan on eating this much every day!
The picture is of the sunset over Ujszasz.
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