Yawn :O

I'm tired now, so will leave the Hungary Daydream blogs to later on in the week....

Good night.... :)

Retrospective

I'm going to post date my holiday blog, just to make it less confusing for myself...

Back

Well, I'm back from my holiday in Hungary but absolutely knackered.
To bore anyone reading, they'll be a blow-by-blow account coming (probably) tomorrow, when I wake up....

The photo is of how sunflowers look when there is no sun (except the baby one)...
Taken on the way back to the airport in Budapest today...

Abandoned

Another action packed day. We had planned to go to Hungary’s highest point today but seeing as it’s cloudy, we didn’t see the point. Hoho. Instead, as the journey there is long and as it’s on the way, my godfather has said that we’ll go there on Sunday on the way back to the airport in Budapest. Phew, it’ll be a long day then!

Today, we went into town, to an abandoned factory, to pick up some sand to make cement from. It was a bit weird. We drove down these long lanes between what looked like bombed out factory buildings until we got to one where there was still some activity. My godfather paid a man there the equivalent of just over a pound and was told that he could take as much sand as he could carry. We only needed a large bucketful for some path repair work that my godmother was planning for the garden.

It was all quite surreptitious.

Ózd is part of what is termed Hungary’s ‘rust belt.’ There are a lot of run-down and abandoned industrial buildings all over the area. The other day we drove past a huge factory that I estimated was about 5km long. Only one small section of it appeared to still be in use.

Most of the houses in the area where my godparents live don’t have plumbing. You can see the out houses behind each as you go past. Thankfully my godparents house does, so we have a fully functional toilet and shower.

After the clandestine sand gathering we popped into a small key cutter/watch repair shop on the basement level of an estate block type building. It was no bigger than two metres by three and on every inch of wall were keys and watches of every colour you could imagine. The watchmaker looked about eighty and had massively thick panes of glass on his spectacles. If he were Asian he would have reminded me of the key maker in the Matrix. His box-sized shop was cool. I felt too self-conscious to take a photo though, afterwards, I wished I had.

To Dye For

Today was exciting. We went into town to do some shopping and I played with Freddi.
Ermmm, that was about it really!

I was so bored that here is an example of the type of thing I’ve been thinking about to pass the time:

Looking around here and the other parts of Hungary there appear to be a disproportionately large percentage of women and teenage girls with their hair dyed the same shade of red. I remember seeing the same thing last year so it’s not just a passing fad.

What’s driving the trend?!

Is there a large dyed red hair celebrity contingent in Hungary that women are trying to emulate?

It doesn’t even look good on most of the women that I’ve seen it done on here though but I guess that that could be a bit subjective.

Who knows? These are the kind of things I ponder on a quiet day like this.

The weather started to clear up too. I was so bored I even took a picture of a flower. Everything is really green after the rain of the past few days. You can see the hills in the background too. (Well, a hill)

Across The Border

This morning went slowly. We had a plan to visit the highest place in Hungary, a place called Kékestetö (literally blue top) but the overcast weather means that it would probably be pointless as we wouldn’t be able to see anything through the cloud cover. So I pottered around a bit, read a bit, played Ridge Racers on my PSP and generally wasted the morning doing nothing of consequence.

After lunch my godfather turned around and said "Let’s go to Kocise!"
"Where’s that?” I ask.
”In Slovakia across the border. I’ve never been there and I’m sure it’s not far.”

Two and a half hours later we’re leaving Kocise having taken over two hours to get there and realising after just 10 minutes that this wasn’t really a city with anything worth seeing from a visiting tourist perspective.

Scenery-wise the journey there was nice though there weren’t really any convenient places to stop and take photos as we were on a motorway. The few that I did take could do with a bit of contrast as the lack of good light has washed them out somewhat. I’ll just chalk it up as another country I can say that I’ve been to.

I did however have a laugh by taking a picture of my godfather having a smoke on one of our stops. My godmother doesn’t allow him to and he always smokes when she’s not around. I now have blackmail material! Hehe!

Descent Into Darkness

It rained on and off yesterday and there have been floods across Hungary, Germany and Switzerland. In search of something to do we drove off to a place called Lillafüred. It was about ninety minutes drive. It’s interesting to drive through Hungary just because the countryside is beautiful and the towns different from anything I am used to in England. However as soon as we set off it absolutely poured down and didn’t stop until later in the day when we were heading back. My trusty umbrella got well used again today.

Apart from a beautiful setting, Lillafüred doesn’t have much else to offer other than a lake, huge Bavarian-style hotel and three sets of caves. It’s probably a nice place to go camping for a long weekend, though not in today’s weather!

We had a wander through two sets of the caves (where at least we could stay dry) and got some snaps of some waterfalls in the area. The stagatites and stalagmites were quite interesting though I’d seen better in Hungary and China last year and you can only see so many in a lifetime without being blasé.

My ’godfather’ had come well prepared to go into the cold 10ºC caves with just sandles and a cardigan which was quite funny. He insisted that he wasn’t cold though.

We had lunch when we got back (yesterday’s leftovers) and then I had a nap. This fresh air seems to be having the effect of leaving me tired without really having done much. That perhaps, or the lack of things to do?

When I woke up 2 hours later my godparents were having supper.
I said, "But we only ate lunch 2 hours ago!"
They replied, "We always eat supper at this time."
I guess that they are a bit set in their ways! *sigh* I declined and had my cold supper much later. (Hungarians generally make lunch the main meal of the day and just have a cold supper, which inevitable, in my case anyway, involves bread!)

We have had a lot of thunder rolling across the hills this afternoon. Our poor old hound Freddi is terrified. He ran and hid in the garage earlier and later was lying in the patio shivering away. We tried to cheer him up and make him feel safe with us but he just wouldn’t stop shaking. I managed to coax him out of his kennel later and played with him for a while which I’m quite pleased to do as it’s the only kind of exercise I’m likely to get here..

I have my company medical next month so know I’m not going to do too well on the weight front. If I can get off my arse then lots of jogging when I get back!

Elevation

I wake up and head out into the garden for some fresh high elevation air. My godmother’s place is 200m above sea level and is on a road that sees barely a handful of cars each day. The only sounds that I can hear are dogs barking in the distance. No cars whatsoever.

No wait. Damn…Off in the distance is the sound of a plane. It’s probably miles away but being so quiet I can hear its distant rumble spoil my paradise.

My godparents have no plans for us to go anywhere today so we talk a lot and play with their four-year-old hound dog, Freddi. They along with my uncle have one thing in common. First topic of conversation…

They ask “Why haven’t you got married yet?” *sigh*

My uncle even suggested he would arrange for me to join a Hungarian dating agency to find myself a nice Hungarian girl. Apparently, having a degree and a good job, makes me a highly eligible bachelor.

I’m told, “You should have no problem finding a woman in Hungary.”

Who knows, maybe one day?

My godmother and her husband (who likes me to call him godfather even though I still have one of those back in London) are a highly practical couple. They are both in the sixties and moved here six years ago and have pretty much redesigned the interior and exterior of the house in a way that any ‘Changing Rooms’ type programme would be envious of.

The house is immaculately looked after inside and the garden which runs down a slope is laid out in rows of fruit and veg and they have even built their own outside gazebo with a place to cook food in the centre.

Today we made use of the outdoor cooking facilities and had a delicious meat stew with, yes, lots of bread!

Run for the hills!

My godmother was down in Ujszasz (as she still has family here) for the national holiday and had arranged with my uncle to pick me up at 9am. My uncle hurriedly drove off to return just before nine with a bottle of Hungarian Tokaji wine for me.

My godmother had, however, arrived early so it was a bit of a rush to leave. My grandmother didn’t turn up though, so I’m a bit upset that I never got to say goodbye to her properly. I do hope that yesterday wasn’t the last time I’ll see her.

We stopped off at the local (1 hours drive) Tesco on the way back to my godmother’s house in Ózd. It’s set within a big mall and is larger than any that I have been to in the UK. Tesco seem to be all over the place in Hungary. Their only competition here seems to be German supermarkets.

Unfortunately there is a bit of history between my godmother and uncle. I have no idea of what has caused bad feelings but my uncle suggested that next year I stay with him for 10 days and my godmother for the remainder. When I got to my godmother’s place, she suggested that I stay there for two weeks and no time at my uncle’s!

I stay non-committal throughout the whole thing. In terms of things to do, my uncle has the upper-hand. My godmother lives up in the Northern Hungarian hills just south of the Slovak border. The area is beautiful with national parks all around but is still basically in the middle of nowhere with an hour’s journey to get anywhere. The weather forecast, however, is not good for this week so I worry that our options may become even more limited :(

St. Stephen's Day

We got back pretty late from Budapest but nevertheless had to get up reasonably early to head off to the town fair. St Stephen’s Day is the foremost national holiday in Hungary and most Hungarians that I know do something to commemorate the day.


The fair is held in an area of park land next to the secondary school where my nephew is going to start going in September and is firmly aimed at the younger end of the market. There are mainly stalls selling sweets and toys along with small amusement rides, dodgems etc. At 10 am the place was already packed with kids and their parents.

It was my God son’s first visit as he was too young to go the previous year. He sat on my lap and we went round in the dodgems, me trying hard not to crash into anyone else. We did well for a few laps and then he saw his dad waiting off to one side and tried climbing out whilst we were racing past. I had a good hold off him, so all was okay but I had to finish off the ride on my own. The same happened on the next ride he went on with his sister, so I guess that perhaps he isn’t showing natural signs, just yet, of a love of speed, like his dad!

As it was my last day with my uncle my nephew and I headed off into town for a last bit of bowling. My uncle wasn’t around so we ended up taking a train for the 15 minute journey into town (just 1 pound return).

Obviously he has the bowling bug now as he managed to beat me in the first three games before I trounced him royally in the fourth. We had a great time. He’ll probably now start going back with his friends and get even better before I next return. *damn*

The train we got back was made up off two sets of train carriages linked together. The set at the front was old stock, the set at the back new. We sat at the back as the seats were nicer but realised when the train halted at the stop before ours that it was unlikely that our carriages would make it to the platform at our stop as it was so long. We had to race down through the train and just made it in time as the train drew alongside our station! Sure enough the doors of the new carriages at the back didn’t open as the platform wasn’t long enough to accommodate them. Phew!

My last night with my uncle and his family felt weird. My grandmother came along and I don’t think that we wanted things to end for this year as we all stayed up beyond midnight finding excuses for things to do, playing computer games, watching late night rubbish TV etc,


My god-son fell asleep and somehow ended up half on half off the bed.

My niece bandaged up my hand after having given me a pretend injection with a cocktail stick as she played at being a doctor, so I decided it was time to go to bed before I got bandaged up completely!

Budapest

I got up mega-early at 6am. Well, early for a holiday like this anyway. We had a 07:05 train to catch to Budapest. My uncle has been having some trouble with his car since yesterday so I had a nightmare vision that we would break down on the way to the train station and miss the train but my worries were for nought and we got there in plenty of time. The cost of a train ticket for what turned out to be about a 90-minute journey was about four pounds, there and back. I wish that we could have those kinds of prices back here!


We emerged out in one of the main train stations of Pest called the Keleti station (which literally means “East Station.”) The interior reminds me a bit of Waterloo or Paddington stations back home in that it has a huge arched interior. There were noticeably a lot of tourists gathered in groups here too with large rucksacks a plenty. So I wasn’t alone!

We planned to use the excellent metro system to get around town but hit a stumbling block straight away as the line that we were planning to use a lot had construction work going on. *sigh* I guess that some things are just like back home!

I bought a Budapest Card, a tourist device which was probably not as good value as it could have been but did made a nice souvenir. It allows you free travel for two days and discounts or free entrance to a number of attractions around the city. I struggled to find a lot of these however. Sure enough it saved me a pound in one place and then gave me free entrance to another but more often than not it wasn’t really useful. Some places had signs with the Budapest card crossed out to make it obvious in any language that it wasn’t accepted.

My nephew made do with buying separate tickets for buses, metro and trams as we went along which, though a hassle, was definitely the better value for money option in our case.

As it was we ended up catching a shuttle-bus which was acting as a metro-replacement service. I got to know the locals up close and personal as it was packed! Another parallel with London.

I’d bought myself a pocket sized AA-guide to Budapest for under six pounds just before I came to Hungary on the off chance that I might get a chance to come to Budapest and it really worked out well. It was published this year, has a good top ten recommendation section, great summaries of all the sights to see around Buda and Pest (the Buda part of Budapest is on the Western bank of the Danube, Pest on the East) and great maps of the city along with a clear colour metro and bus route planner (looking very much similar to a London underground map.) So, excellent value for money for a day or two stay. Hmmm, just reading that bit back to myself, it sounds like I got paid to say that. Hehe.

We worked our way around the city pretty well. The day turned out to be near perfect with mostly blue skies throughout. The Budapest metro is quite cool. One of the lines had just small tiled platforms with short three carriage trains. Another line had long multi carriage trains that were a bit run down and looked like something out of old New York. Some of the stations are almost classically sculpted but we didn’t really have time to admire too much as we rushed around from place to place.

We managed to do Heroes Square first thing but this was already filling with tourists hopping off their tour buses, then onto the opera house (closed so early in the morning but interesting architecturally outside nonetheless.) A Spielberg movie was being filmed in the streets behind it. Needless to say, we couldn't get close.

Next, a walk down to the Basilica. A huge St Paul-like dome at its centre. The guide speaking to me in English (I was wearing a tee-shirt that I’d bought in Sydney) laughed when I spoke back to her in Hungarian and told her that I understood what she was saying but it was okay to speak in Hungarian too.


We climbed the steps to the top and got great views over the city. That’s when we discovered that there was a lift on the other side that we could have taken instead of puffing our way up the 330 odd steps! On reflection, I think that that was perhaps what the guide was trying to tell me earlier. Maybe she was laughing as we had taken the ‘more challenging’ route?

We also saw the, sacred to Hungarians, right hand of Saint Stephen which is kept in a sealed glass box and will be paraded around on his feast day. You pay 100 forints (30p) to have a light shine on it so you can take a picture!

After this onto the Parliament building over looking the Danube. It’s beautiful and looks a lot like the UK Parliament (but in a more picturesque setting.) It turned out that Red Bull were promoting their air race the next day and that planes were whizzing up and down the Danube trailing coloured smoke rehearsing for it. Unfortunately the queue for Parliament was truly gargantuan so we had to make do with pictures outside. I’d been the year before but was disappointed for my nephew who’d only been there when he was too young to appreciate it.

We were getting a bit Hungary (ooops, hungry) by now so we managed to hunt down a Pizza Hut (sad, eh?!) and stuffed our faces. The waiter couldn’t understand what I was saying in Hungarian though, which was a bit annoying, as everyone else so far had been fine. A Pepperoni pizza is called an Italian style salami pizza and there are a lot of Hungarian dishes in addition to the ones I’m familiar with at a London Pizza Hut but otherwise it was pretty much the same.

With full stomachs, we headed off to the Buda side of the city. The main bridge across (Lanchid – literally chain bridge, designed by the same guy who did London's Hammersmith bridge) was closed to pedestrian traffic as they were preparing the fireworks for the following day’s St Stephen festivities, so it was back onto another packed bus just to get across the bridge and then off on the other side.

We needed to walk off our lunch so climbed a lot of steps (argh!) to get up to the old Buda town that looks down over the Danube and Pest. There were loads of things to see here and I even managed to get my only free entry to a place (the Mattias church) with my Budapest card. To make up for all the walking that we were getting through we sat down outside a restaurant and had a nice ice cream. My nephew giggled as the waitress insisted in speaking to me in English with me answering back in Hungarian. It turns out that she was learning English so she said that she needed the practice. I said “me too but the other way around!”

All in all we managed to see pretty much all that we had set out to with just a few things missed to add, perhaps, to next year’s trip.

Goats???

We went on an afternoon trip to a town called Kecskemét. Kecske in Hungarian means goat. I didn’t see any other than the one on the town’s emblem.

The Rough Guide says that “…is one of the most attractive towns on the plain”
Okay, so fair enough, it was an interesting enough town and a nice way to use up an afternoon. My uncle let my niece come with him and I this time on account of the fact that my nephew would be coming on a trip with me to Budapest tomorrow.


When asked, my nephew and niece say that they are 14 and 10 respectively. I know that they are 13 and 9 but apparently according to both of them “You can add on a year once you are halfway there”!

I’ve been spending a bit of time in Hungary metaphorically walking into lamp-posts. The women have something about them that my Hungarian blood obviously agrees with and I’m finding myself distracted all the time. Hey, I can’t help it! I’m just enjoying my time here! Today, I even managed to flirt with a girl selling melons on the roadside unbeknownst to my travelling companions. We gave each other wistful looks as I was driven off into the sunset after having bought some of her juicy melons. (*groan* Sorry I couldn’t resist than pun!)

We visited the Cifra palota (literally "fancy palace") that is now an art museum with weird decorative outer walls and strange blue chimneys, a few "fancy" churches and saw a walking-talking tea pot. Honest... See!



Otherwise the day was pretty much spent loafing around not doing much. I went along to the local supermarket, (there aren’t as lot to choose from), to help my nephew with the shopping. There are a lot of western goods in the shops so you can pretty much buy the usual stuff if you want to. A poster of David Beckham adorns the wall as you walk into the shop.

I was worried actually that my uncle would be angry or at least annoyed by my turning down the opportunity to drive a train but things appear normal today. I also found out that my god-mother (who I’m staying with next week up in the Hungarian hills) is coming down for the big national holiday on Saturday (St Stephen of Hungary) so it’ll make more sense to go back with her on the Sunday rather than taking a train and then an hour journey by car on Monday.

It makes sense but I wish I could stay longer. It’s hard, as I don’t want to hurt her feelings, so I’ll go a day early. We are getting on so well that my niece cried when she heard the news.

I've Got A Ticket To Ride...But I Don't Care

My uncle and nephew enjoyed the bowling so much that we decided to head back in to town again today and give it another go.

The original itinerary, however, was a bit different.

My uncle is an overland train driver and he’d arranged for us to hitch rides both ways from the town in the driver’s cabin and to drive the trains for a bit. Now I know that it’s a stupid thing to say, perhaps, that I didn’t want to do this but he just didn’t seem to consider the fact that this was a dangerous proposition. The boy in me would love to do it but I’m far too law-abiding in a foreign country to know that I should be doing anything like this.

“Don’t worry” he said,
“They only have inspectors check the drivers once every five years, so you won’t get caught”

*sigh* “That’s not the point” I thought.

Anyway, we headed into town instead for a spell of bowling and movie number 43 for me, “The Longest Yard.” The Hungarian translation is “The Bone Crunchers” which is probably a catchier title.

It’s a remake of the American football in a prison movie, “The Mean Streak” and Burt Reynolds who was the star of the original has a more than cameo role in this too.

To be honest, I expected the movie to be in Hungarian but it turned out that it was in English with Hungarian subtitles. Apparently only the “big” movies get the full dub treatment. The film was okay but utterly by the numbers predictable. Let’s just say that it won’t win any Oscars but fans of other Adam Sandler films will like it. Plus atmosphere-wise the cinema just had a dozen people in it, so was a bit too quiet for a film where you want a bit of audience reaction to add to the effect.

Bowling wise we had a great time though. Perhaps I’m a bit biased as I actually finally managed to beat my uncle with his weird hurling technique J
I was all set to get my highest score ever and we ran out of time and the game reset!

Argh! Oh well, there’s always next time!

Nostaglia

I went to visit a couple, Veronica & Pista (Stephen) today who are old friends of the family. ‘Auntie’ Veronica was my mum’s best friend from the age of about 5. She’s 69 now and she and her husband have pretty much lived in the same house for the last 50 years. It’s a really nice place just across from where my grandparent’s house was. They have a large garden surrounding the house with grape vines all over and a huge field behind the house along with what used to be hundreds of chickens but is just 30 or so now.

The house was one of the first to get plumbing, so when I was little, along with my parents, I used to come across from my grandparents house so that we could have a proper bath. Otherwise it was a process of fill a bucket with cold water from a tap in the garden or from the water pump in the street, warm it up over a hot stove and use that to fill a metal tub to wash in. Plus it was nice to use a civilised toilet other than the stinky out house that my grandparents had.

They always do a lot of reminiscing and have a lot of good stories about when my mum was small and I always find out something that I didn’t know.

My mum used to help them with their annual cull of the chickens. It’s the reason that I don’t eat chicken. I saw them wringing the chickens necks and plucking them one year when we were over on holiday and haven’t been able to stomach chicken ever since!

Unfortunately they always insist that I try out a few cups of the local ‘Palinka’, this time washed down with a bottle of local red wine! I had to eat loads to keep myself sober else I’d be useless for the rest of the day.

As it was the rest of the day was ‘washed out’ literally as another huge storm moved in and we got rain and the loudest thunder that I’ve ever heard. It sounded like a massive explosion right over the house.

Bowling For Ujszasz

I still get woken up early by the sound of the local church bells. I've noticed that they ring them every half hour or so. It seems to me to be random though, as sometimes they do and other times they don't and they're rarely on the half hour mark exactly, rather they're a few minutes early or late each time. Weird!

Today was a bit more relaxing. Clouds have moved in to replace the blue skies and the sun only peeks through every so often. I mucked about with my niece and nephew not really doing anything special. My niece loves my PSP and that keeps her occupied most of the time.

Plus funnily enough watching my little god-son running around and how he reacts and learns from things and people around him is fascinating. Hours fly by this way!

In the evening we planned on driving down to the main large town, Szolnok. It's about half an hour's normal drive though my uncle doesn't really know what normal driving is so we got there in 15 minutes!

Unfortunately the film that we wanted to see wasn't on. My nephew look so downcast.

To try and salvage the evening I suggested bowling as I'd spotted a small (6 lane) bowling alley in the same mall as the cinema.

My uncle and nephew didn't think so though. Neither had ever been bowling before and to be honest I've only been a few times in my life but my nephew was so disappointed about the film that I managed to persuade them to give it a try.

And guess what....?! We had a brilliant time!

Okay our scores weren't important as with a truly bizarre technique of using the lightest ball and half flinging it down the lane, my uncle seemed to get strikes or spares a lot more than he should have!

Anyway, we had such a good time that we plan on going back either tomorrow or later in the week.

The weather was lovely when we headed back!
Gale force winds, pouring rain as a huge thunderstorm hit the area.

I discovered that my uncle's old Alfa-Romeo had a few leaks so was glad when we made it back to the house no more than a little damp. Any longer though and we may as well have been outside!