Friday:
Breakfast is earlier than our usual 8:00 start time so we can hit the road and beat the traffic. More of Vera's fab poppy seed and apple muffins. (There isn't a chance in hell of my passing a drug test at the moment.) That said, we still managed to take until about 8:30 to get moving. The best laid plans...
With Uncle Dave again at the wheel of the mighty Opel, we hit a few back roads and then made it to Hungary's version of the Autobahn. Whoo Hooo! I still don't get to do the whole experience until we go to Keyra's in Germany next week, but I did enjoy my 140 kph commute. All Autobahns in Hungary lead to Budapest, so we traveled to the city burbs and then caught another road south into the Puszta.
Our agenda today includes traveling to the Hungary National Historic Park in Opusztaszer (that's Oh-
pooz-tah-sir if you are Hungarian, or Opus-Tazer if you are a smart alec tourist from the US). All kids of big historical things are rumored to have happened at this site, and excavations are underway to unearth remnants. Because the rumors of all this history have existed in Hungarian writing for years, in 1886, on the anniversary of the founding of the current state, a large monument was built here. This is our first stop in the park.
The monument is a large marble structure with a large staircase. In a circle, arranged in front of the structure are busts of the important folks in Hungarian history. First up is Árpád, leader of the armies that settled this area in the 800's or so. Following him are the "Seven Heros," the leaders of each of the tribes that followed Árpád. Peter claims that they are misnamed. He feels they should be called the "Seven Morons." His argument: "had they just traveled another 500 kilometers west, things would have been a lot different." Hard to argue with that. The Hero's are followed by other kings and leaders, many of which we will meet farther down the post.
The real reason for our trip to this place is to visit the Panarama. This painting was finished in 1894. It is housed in a huge circular building to house the 15 meter highth and 120 meter length. The subject of the painting is the Hungarian Tribes arriving in the Carpathian Basin. The entrance leads you to start at the back of the painting. Árpád and the Seven Heros sit at the top of a hillside. To his right, in the center of the back, his bride arrives in a wagon drawn by four large oxen. Moving around to the right you see women being carried off and riders in the valley looking for a place to camp. At the front of the painting a Taltos, or Shaman is preparing to sacrifice a white horse while women dance about the fire throwing in magic grasses. Continuing around the right are the Hungarian hords, leading you back to Árpád. There is a sound scape that follows you as you move around, bring the painting to life in sound. You find yourself walking around again and again. Every cycle leads to new discoveries of details that you missed the first time. The best place to dig this piece from, though, is in the exact center. As you turn, the motion moves past you. It is as if someone froze a moment in time and allowed you to stand in the middle of it and observe it. Trés cool! Our half hour in the room ended way too soon.
Shooed out the door, we visited the museum that surrounds the panorama building. Statues, period art work, 19th century period clothing, and a nice retrospective on the creation of the park and museum give a nice perspective of the history of the site and Hungary in general.
We left the building and rented a golf cart to tour the grounds, to spare Peter's legs; a necessity he insisted he did not need. We worked our way around the park, visiting a working windmill, several houses from differing periods in Hungary that were carefuly torn down and reassembled here, and a Timber Industry display, carefuly hidden as several traditional Yurts. What is it about these timber industy guys and their monuments to themselves. I guess the best PR is the stuff you create yourself.
Back to the car and back up the Autobahn to Kecskemét. We are guesting with Kazi-Basci and Zsusza-Neni. If you haven't met them yet, I invite you to refer back to the earlier Kecskemét entry.
We were greeted with enthusiasm by this fun loving couple - and shots of Metaxa, followed by shots of paint thinner... I mean Palincka, and then settling into beer. Kis-Kazi and Gabor arrived shortly after we did, and the merriment commenced. My notes are not real legible for some reason this evening. I can tell you that most of the amusement of the evening was caused by reading the Lonely Planet Hungarian Prasebook. The locals find English really silly, and it seems whom ever put together the phrase book did not exactly make the best choices in translation. In between we argued about the American presidential election, Hungarian food and fashion, and generally had a good time.
A Holstein beer, quickly purchased by Gabor before he left to attend a concert with friends and then opened by Kis-Kazi and placed infront of me were my last thought of the evening. Off to bed at Gabor's.
Saturday:
Z and I were up early (7:00, I know, but we're on
vacation) and ready to face the world. Only one problem, we were locked into Fortress Gabor, and, based on the fact that I heard the shower running around 5:00 a.m., we were probably not going to be seeing him for a little bit. Z and I hung out on his back deck until we were able to roust him and get him to unlock the front gate so we could head over to Kazi and Zsuzsa's for breakfast. He told us to let his folks know he was "just beautifying himself," and he would be right over.
We found our way back and sat down for the traditional Hungarian breakfast of cold cuts and cheeses, peppers and tomatoes with coffee while recliening on the deck. The best part of a visit to Hungary is the amount of time you spend hanging out on the deck chatting and eating. Good thing, too. We finally saw Gabor about an hour later. In the meantime I perused the brochure for the local Kodaly Music Festival. Seems we had just missed by to days the production of Sound of Music in Hungarian (in case you were wondering, it's
A Muzsika Hangja. Don't ask me how
Lonely Goatherd goes, it wasn't in the brochure.)
Gabor eventually pulled himself together, and we were off to the races. Vera and Peter traveled with Kazi and Zsuzsa and Z and I traveled with Gabor in his Skoda. Guess what? They don't run on coal anymore. Gabor didn't get a ticket all day. Could have suprised me - that thing is fast! The idea was that Gabor, who really speaks pretty good English (contrary to his belief) would be my tour guide. This was a job he filled with his aplomb. "This is the Shell Station." He was quick to point out the "rest area" and the "football stadium" (that's soccer, folks). Stopped by a traffic light by a topless bar, he made sure we understood that it was a bar that held "cultural folk dance expositions."
Our tour began at the top of Gellért Hill at the site of the old prison. Standing at the edge of the view point and looking down on the Danube and buildings the difference between world class cities and, oh, say Portland, or the 'Couve are that world class cities are willing to drop some cash on art and architecture. It trite to talk about "breathtaking views" and "stunningly beautiful buildings" and all, but views this beautiful leave you that speachless. The epic views of the Danube winding through the castles and churches - each view grander and more splendorous than the last - I can't find the words to descibe it, but I will be happy for the rest of my days that I was allowed to see it.
The top of the hill has the famous Freedom Monument. This
huge statue was carved by the father of one of Peter's neighbors. Her mother, as she reminds Peter five or six times a week, was the model. As I gather it, Peter is a little less than impressed. The statue is very impressive and can be seen pretty much everywhere in the city. Along either side, placed at "common man" level are two Soviet era "common man" statues. This is assuming that the common man in the statues lives in the gym 6 hours every day (come on, don't you do that?). Not quite so impressive.
From here we traveled to the Buda end of the famous Chain Bridge (Budapest is devided into three parts. Buda and Óbuda on the west band and Pest on the East). The Chain Bridge was the first bridge accross the Danube in Budapest, and was partially responsible for the unification of the two banks into one berg. The bridge was closed to automobile traffic today for a tourist market. Kazi, our head tour guide today, does not let us waste any time (or money), however, and flogs us ahead.
Near where we have parked the car is the "0 Killometer" monument. Budapest is the center of the hub of all Autobahns in Hungary. This point, theoretically, is the beginning of all of these roads, and the millage is measured accordingly. In other words, this is the center of the Hungarian Universe. Oooo.
From this point we took the funicular up to the top of Castle Hill. Our tour started with a quick walk around the "Palace" (now a museum) looking at the spectacular art, primarily statues of historical figures. In the back there was an amazing iron sculpture of a crow sitting on a gate, with a huge amount of detail. The artist was a genius. As we wandered down the street, Kazi pointed out a heavily scarred wall. It is a left over "monument" to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. If you look closely, you can see the bullet holes. Lots of them.
This day immersed in Hungarian history was interesting as much for what was shown as for what was not. The early history is everywhere, and Hungarians are particularly proud of their early past. Almost every house has some form of historical relic from this period on the walls or the bookshelves. You will see discussions of WWI, but mostly to bring up the injustuce of the reduction of "big" Hungary to the current borders, and their territory was "taken away" or "stolen" from them. I saw one public picture all day then even acknowledged that WWII ever existed in their country. The 1956 Revoulution is proudly displayed many places, other modern history, not so much. Like most places, Hungarians want to spin their history to show themselves in the best light (no suprise there).
Back down the funicular and a quick trip across to the Pest side of the river to see the Millenium Monument (that was the 1800's one, youngster). This monument sits in the middle of an open square of about 16 blocks in the middle of the Pest side of the river. Placed carefully towards the back, so that you can appreciate the scale of this large open space in the middle of the city (could this happen in america? Not a chance in hell...) is a large statue of Árád and the Seven Morons. Again, as in the other art we have seen today, the scale and attention to detail are overwhelming. Again, a trite description. But words fail me in the presence of art that is that in your face. Wow! Behind the Morons are statues of the great Hungarian kings and political figures. I guess you have to check in here to see if you did OK as a ruler.
From the monument we traveled high up and over the Buda hills to the communty of Visegrad, where the first order of buisness is lunch - at the Seagull Restaraunt (more likely Rivergulls). A killer salad bar of Hungarian traditional salads and an entre of fried cheese and steamed veggies for the vegetarian (believe it or not, that is a traditional dish in Hungary). Z had veal paprikas. The consensus was that the food was first rate - highly recommended.
Down the street in Visegrad is the King Mathias Museum and Castle Restoration. This is an old Gothic period castle, that Mathias remodeled in the early Renaissance period, so you have an opportunity to view artifacts of both periods. The ceramic stoves being restored here are pretty amazing.
We traveled up the hill from here intending to visit the upper fortress, but were running out of gas. Instead we went to a nearby hotel with a restaraunt overlooking the Danube Bend. The view from here is truely stunning (and the views by the pool below us were pretty stunning, too!). We has an iced coffee and enjoyed the view. One of my dreams is to someday sit in a café in central Vienna and commune with the great mids of our day by reading a paper and enjoying a kaffee mit schlag. Until that day comes, this was pretty darn close.
I have mentioned in these pages before the truck and bus drivers in this neck of the woods. The next level of hell lower from these psychopaths are motorcycle riders. On the trip down the twisty road from Visegrad, we had one of this "brain trust" attempting to pass us. As we were on a twisty road, he couldn't see far enough ahead to be sure he could pass. So for about three corners this rocket scientist rode his bike
right next to the front bumper of the car. Had a car come from the other direction he would have been toast. On the plus side, we would have improved the gene pool.
I am eternally greatful to Peter, Vera, Kazi, Zsuzsa, and Gabor for taking the gift of sharing their history and culture with me. The heartfelt connections that they feel for these symbols and their connections to recent events speak to me in a way that no history book or tour ever could. Thank you to you all!
××××××××××
Dinner this evening is again at Kazi-Basci and Zsuzsa-Neni's house. Our mighty band is joined by Kis-Kazi, his wife Zsuzsa and daughter Claudia. Claudia is wearing a beautiful folk costume this evening, given to her by and uncle who picked it up in Transylvania. Converstion this evening is spirited - and in Hungarian - leaving me with a lot of time to reflect and write in my journal. Zsuzsa shared some pictures of her trip to France and to Corsica with me. Gabor and Kis-Kazi have been using their English to give me a good natured ribbing. A favor that is soon shared by Gabor, as his mother and father, along with Peter and Vera, start singing Hungarian folk songs. Turns out they are all songs about marriage. There is nothing quite as swell as hanging out on the deck with a beer and trading songs and stories with family.
While Kyra was convalescing, Z was able to walk with us. We retraced out steps from earlier. At the C & A, she tried on several dirndls, but didn’t find anything that knocked her out. She did like a pair of lederhosen she made me try on, so I have another new set. (I’ll be the fashion plate of the Oktoberfest set!) And then we went to the Main Fest. Situated in the Römerberg, this is the most famous view in Frankfurt. Some very pretty buildings that house city government, and look like they have been here for years (but mostly exist since 2005 when the façade was restored), and provide a beautiful backdrop for a Volksfest. The Roemer (city hall) was mostly destroyed in bombing in WWII, and quickly restored after the war. It was rededicated in 1955. So, Jaden got her rides, Z got her Currywurst, and I got to try a new beer. Schöffelhofer Weiβe is a nice refreshing little wheat thing – not too aggressive with the natural yeasts, not too aggressive on the palate. Basically it is a not too aggressive, not too offensive, not too… well you get the idea. It was the perfect beer to enjoy with everything else going on. We were good, we only enjoyed a couple.
New shoes on, and Jaden and I took a walk while Z spent some time with Kyra. She is really not doing well – is in some serious pain. Kyra, like her mom, has a pretty high pain tolerance (Z once removed a broken tooth ( wisdom tooth to be exact.. ) from her own mouth using nothing more than brute force and a Leatherman), so if she is complaining about pain, you know it has to be pretty bad. She is making herself keep at the exercises, though. Jaden and I ate lunch and took a roundabout way back to look at churches and skyscrapers. Z joined us and we took one last crack at the festival. Jaden got a last ride, Z and I enjoyed a last beer and listened to the very fine brass band (you could get the tunes up a little faster, though, fellas). 
Grandpa Dave and grandaughter Jaden at Pilsner Urquell. Grandpa Dave enjoyed one of the best beers in his life. Jaden settled for Coke. Note the large vats behind them for creating beer! More in the next post...
