Bearhugs Blog

We set off pretty early on Thursday morning to allow plenty of time to get to the ferry. But of course, best laid plans and all that… There had been an accident on the M1 (a lorry tried to cross the central reservation) and 2 lanes were closed. John was convinced we’d miss the ferry so we were not allowed to stop en route, Maria and I just had to cross our legs and hang on. As it was we made the ferry with a good 15mins to spare and had an easy crossing.
By about 7.00pm (local time) we were at the Ibis in Aalst. A cheap but clean hotel, fine for just somewhere to sleep. John made us go to bed early because we had a long way to go on Friday and he wanted an early start.
When he said early he meant the middle of the night! He and Maria were up at 5.30! That’s only 4.30 back home!!! What I couldn’t understand is why I had to be awake, they could have just transfered me to the car, it’s not as if they let me take a turn at driving.
Blimey, it’s a long way! By 9.00am we had covered 3 countries, Belgium, Holland and we were in Germany. Germany goes on and on and on…. Good job we had a lot of CDs with us, everything from Hungarian Folk Music to Queen and the Wurzels.
We made reasonable time, with Maria and John swopping every couple of hours, until we arrived to within a couple of kilometers of Hegyeshalom, the Hungarian border,when everything stopped. We waited for about ten minutes, starting to panic about whether we’d get there before the restaurant closed (10pm). John had just decided to phone the hotel when we started moving again. There had been an accident but it was quickly cleared away.
Maria was home! The motorway was great but once we got onto the small roads it got VERY dark, John didn’t enjoy the driving at all. I think he was pretty tired too. We got there at just before 9.00pm which was pretty good.
We are staying at the Villa Classica in Papa and our room is lovely.

It is on the second floor, so Maria whinges a bit, but I think it will do her good and we are only here for 3 night. Breakfast was great, all I remember HUngarian breakfasts being.

We said goodbye to the Hortobagy yesterday morning and set off on the hunt for dinye (watermelon) and peppers. The dinye was reasonably easy and we bought three nice big ones, but there was no sign of any roadside pepper sellers. So in the end we decided that since we were passing through Budapest anyway, we’d divert a little and go to the Grand Market where we knew there was good peppers to be had. Maria was not best pleased since she was driving at this point.

We have a running joke that she daren’t drive in Pest ‘cos they’ll shoot her. Well they didn’t try to shoot her but an idiot in a van certainly had a good go at killing us. He turned suddenly and sharply into the road in front of us from a side street, it had been raining so the road was slippery and he did a beautiful spin right in front of us, missing us by inches.

Once all our hearts had settled down we made our way to the market and found a place to park close by. We then went to our usual pepper seller and bought 20 kilos, Maria’s going to regret it when she’s chopping it all up. Since we were there we also topped up our palinka stores and bought 3 slices of cake. John didn’t want any, so Maria and I shared one piece in BUdapest, one in Austria and one in Germany. The weather was much nicer and so the journey was much more enjoyable. We eneded up at a small town hotel near Nurenberg, that John had found by trawling through the internet. It was lovely, very little English spoken or understood, so we ordered our tea by guesswork but it turned out deliscious.

This morning the weather was rather miserable, especially when Maria was driving, but we made it to Brussels without incidence. Thankfully we are staying at a Crowne Plaza rather than a Holiday Inn. There are still niggles but nothing major, Maria rather fancies the in room massage on offer, but only if they will guarantee it will be carried out by Sven (??)

After a quick wash and brush up we set off for the Grand Place and the Manniken Piss. It was one of John’s “it’s only a quick five minutes away” type walks. More like 20 mins and most of it on cobbles. I thought the name Manniken Piss sounded rather rude, and it was. Why would anyone want to erect a statue of a small boy peeing? And why would lots of people want to see it?

There are some lovely buildings around Brussels but lots of them are being worked on, we were rather taken by this painting up the blank wall of a building. Apparently the name Tin Tin should mean something?

Street theatre is alive and well, this Ompah band seemed particularly appropriate, what they lacked in skill they more than made up for in enthusiasm.

We made our way back the the Grand Place, buying Maria a scarf and all of us some chocolates and then it happened.

At the bridge fair John bought Maria a new handbag, very nice thick leather with a pretty safe looking fastener. It was pretty big but not big enough for me to ride in, so I was in John’s camera bag. We were walking along the side of Grand Place when Maria thought someone was pushing her bag, so she looked down as a man pushed past her and found the flap undone, her wallet was missing and she shouted to John but it was too late, the man had pushed past him as well and was off, presumably with her wallet. He must have walked along beside her in the crowd and worked the fastener loose, it was only because it was such thick leather that she felt the flap being lifted. He was kucky I wasn’t in the bag or I’d have bitten him!

This put rather a dampner on the day, luckily there weren’t too many cards in the wallet (we phoned up and cancelled all of them immediatelly) but there was £70 in cash, and it does leave Maria without any means of getting cash (other than John) for  a few days. It just leaves a nasty taste behind and makes you feel cross that there are people who seem to have no feelings for others. It’s lucky it happened right at the ened of the holiday rather than the beginning. We went to the police station and reported it, not that they will be able to do anything of course. And then we went to have a beer to cheer us up.

Tomorrow it’s back home. It will be nice to be back in familiar surroundings, although Claire has asked me if I fancy going to Wales for a couple of days. I’m considering it.

Last night we watched the fireworks from our patio, very pretty. They were rapidly followed by fireworks of a different kind. There was tremendous thunder and lightning followed by the heavens opening. The thunderstorm lasted for ages, John still managed to get to sleep and sleep through some of the loudest claps of thunder.
This morning dawned (wonder if Maria will continue to wake so early back at home, bet she won’t) bright and cool but with a promise of heat later. We decided to go back to the fair early, while it was cool and not too busy. We were parking before 8.45 but it was already starting to get busy.
There were some new stall holders and it was a great mix, including elderly gents who had made a few whips to sell (Maria still wouldn’t let me have one) and some ladies who had some antique pieces of weaving and embroidery.

Maria bought a couple of pieces, the prices were incredibly cheap, the ladies were apologising for how much they had to charge while we were feeling guilty about how much work had gone into the pieces and how little we were paying.
We did a bit more shopping, including a lucky horseshoe for me, which was just the right size to fit in my rucksack and which we watched being made, and some pottery for Maria from a potter we had tried to visit yesterday in Tiszafured, but found he was away (‘cos he was here of course). It was getting very busy by now and the heat was building up uncomfortably so we decided we’d had enough. We’d heard there were trips onto the puszta in horse drawn carts every couple of hours from 10 onwards. John decided he could cope if he was careful (he’s allergic to horses) so we decided to go for it.
I was lucky and got to sit up front with the driver.

It was very interesting; we had a long drive with pauses to see various animals etc. We saw a cart drawn by 6 white oxen,

tremendously strong; we later saw a herd of them.
The horsemen are very talented and agile. Standing on the back of 2 horses while controlling others with reins is a particular trick of theirs (the world record is for 24 horses!!).

They are also good at cracking their whips as they ride and the horses don’t flinch at all (bet I could do it if Maria let me have a whip),

There are some very isolated homesteads which look lovely at the moment but I beat it’s bleak in winter.

I love the characteristic wells.
We also saw some wild pigs, with rather cute piglets, and water buffaloes. A very enjoyable trip and John only wheezed for a while.
There is another storm forecast for tonight, in fact in some areas there have been enormous hailstones. Interesting weather,

We had a cool night, with the patio door open we even needed a cover on the bed. Bliss. We had breakfast out doors and even felt a little chilled, mind you the sun was trying to break through so the prospects were for things hotting up later.

Tomorrow is August 20th, St. Stephens day, he was the first Christian king who united Hungary over 1000 years ago, so basically it’s the countries birthday and a national holiday. We still had some shopping to do and since tomorrow everywhere would be closed and Tuesday we have 9 hours driving to do, today seemed our best chance. We thought we’d have a go at Debrecen, idealy we wanted one of those roadside pepper sellers or alternativelly a market. Things started well, the guide book said there was a market which was open on a Sunday 4.00am ’till 11.00am. We got there about 9.00ish to find they had pulled down the market hall recently and we had no idea what had happened to the market.

Things went rather down hill from there. The weather started to heat up and we all got rather snippy. We had to go and do our shopping in Tesco, a store we usually boycot due to their policy of selling live turtles in their Chinese supermarkets. So we all felt rather guilty, but at least we managed to get the cucumber slicers, paprika, vinegar, salami and some more wine(??). Their peppers were not too great and Maria was whining about how she’d had enough and was ready to go back home to England there and then, so we just bought a few and John said we could drive around for a bit. One, the car is air conditioned, two, we might come accross some roadside sellers and three, if worst comes to the worst we can always pop into another Tesco on our way on Tuesday.

A good idea, after a couple of hours in the car we all felt a lot better. No sign of any roadside stalls until we came to one village, where every other house seemed to have stalls. Mostly selling baskets, garden gnomes(?), watermelons and onions.We seem to be a bit early  for peppers, but we managed to find a few kilos of very nice ones, rather expensive (only half the price of those in England) but still.

The day was further improved when we found a lovely cukrazda and had cake and ice cream.

We’ve had a nice tea, outdoors, rather plaugued by wasps, and are now contemplating whether we want to watch the fireworks at the Bridge Fair in about an hour. Tomorrow is our last day and we think we might spend it at the fair again.

Moving on again. We packed up and said goodbye to Eger, although we did seem to be taking quite a lot of it (in the form of wine) with us.
The first place we were heading for was Tokay, a famous wine growing area (!!)
The journey was a rather pleasant one, we followed the river Tisza a fair bit of the way, passing some lovely fishing, boating and picnicking places.

At one point we had to cross the river on a ferry, well they called it a ferry but it seemed more like a raft someone had cobbled together in their back yard, still we made it across safely enough. We got to Tokay, rather an attractive little town, producing some very famous wines. We found our way to the cellar we were looking for and in a spirit of martyrdom Maria offered to do the rest of driving. This meant John could taste away to his hearts content. We left the place with our wine stock increased by a few bottles and some palinka added as well
Then back across the Tisza and on to Hortobagy. The temperature meanwhile was steadily rising and by the time we got there it was 35 degrees (in the shade). All we could do was collapse in a coolish room and wait for evening. We wanted to go to the bridge fair, so we did a quick recky trip to find out about the possibility of parking close by, the prospect of a walk in temperatures as high as 35 did not appeal.
We got up bright and early this morning, still warm but not unbearable and a little bit of cloud around. We set off promptly and so could park very close.
We took the day easy, stopping for a rest frequently and drinking plenty of water. It was very interesting, a real mix of things for sale, from complete rubbish to some beautifully crafted items.
Maria kept on hankering after a bogracs

( a cooking pot you use on an open fire outdoors) but as John said, how were we going to get it back and just how often does she need to make stew or soup for 40?
I really wanted a whip like some of the horsemen had, Maria claimed I’d only make a nuisance of myself with it. I disagreed and discussed it with a nice horseman called Attila,

who gave me his name and address and told me to look him up next time I was here and he’d organise some horsy activities for me.
 I got a kulacs (a sort of flask to carry drinks in) to keep me going, I just hope John will give me some decent palinka to put in it…
We did a bit more shopping and stayed until the end of the folk dancing

and then John said we’d better go back so he could check if Maria had bankrupted him yet.

(Written Thursday August 16th)
The weather has certainly turned hot, thank goodness for air conditioning in the car. We left Budapest without any incident, even the traffic wasn’t too bad, heading for Eger via the town of Mezokovesd.
This is a town famed for it’s folk art, embroidery, costume, painted furniture, pottery… if it’s possible to decorate it, they do.  We started at the Folk Museum and marvelled at some of the costumes in particular. There was a lady called Kis Janko Bori who was famous for her embroidery designs (she designed 100 different roses) and her little village house has been turned into a memorial to her work and life in her time.
In the houses around hers a small folk art community has grown up, so despite the heat of the mid day sun we went for a stroll.

John thought he was doing ok; we’d only bought a tablecloth and some honey cakes, when we came across a furniture painter. Apparently he was 4th generation; he learned furniture painting from his dad and egg painting from his mum. He obviously loved his work and it showed, the quality was superb. I think John did pretty well to get away with only 2 eggs, a little chest and a little stool, (mind you Maria did also get the web address). Luckily the doll maker was shut.
We made it to Eger safe and sound and found our hotel in the Valley of the Beautiful Woman, right in the middle of the wine cellars. The room is lovely, light airy, nicely furnished and with balcony overlooking the wine cellars. IT HAS NO PHONE? Also, although it is supposed to be in an internet Hotspot, that seems to be broken, however it does have fully functioning air conditioning. So we decided to take a siesta until the cool of the early evening and then explore the wine cellars.

We had a lovely time working our way along and sampling wines and eating bread and dripping (to clear the palate), I was a bit of a hit with some of the girls offering the wines. John made copious notes and we intend to come back tomorrow (with the car) and load up.
It will have to be in the afternoon ‘cos it’s harvest time and a lot of people are busy with the harvest in the mornings. We saw grapes being delivered by the skip load and being pressed.

The hotel has a lovely vine covered courtyard with a gipsy band, so we had a lovely leisurely meal before retiring for the night.
Breakfast on Thursday was lovely and then we headed off to Eger before it got too hot. We had a nice stroll round had a look at a church and the town centre streets,

stopped for some cake and drink at a cukrazda, then headed back to the hotel for a quick siesta.

I like this idea of spending the hottest part of the day snoozing under some vines with a nice cold glass of frocs (wine and soda). At the end of the afternoon we drove around our favourite cellars and picked up a few (!!?!!) litres of wine. We’re now looking forward to another nice meal (with wine) in the courtyard and then tomorrow it’s on to the Hortobagy (via Tokaj, apparently another wine area, in fact apparently the best and most famous wine area). Hopefully there’ll be internet access and I can post this.

Woke up to another beautiful morning. It’s lovely before it gets too hot, there’s something to be said for the European idea of getting up early in the morning, having a little siesta during the hottest part of the day and then out and about late afternoon and evening.
We were going out for the day to a village called Holloko, somewhere between here and Eger. Maria found out about it on the web, apparently it’s a World Heritage site for it’s preservation of folklore. None of us were sure exactly what to expect.
We had to drive out through Pest, an experience John did not enjoy, the Hungarian drivers are nuts, courteous with it but nuts, lane markings, traffic lights and rules of the road in general seem to be taken as for guidance only.
Once we were out of Budapest it was a pleasant drive and when we got to Holloko it was lovely. The weather was hot (27degrees) but not unbearable, and the village very attractive. A lovely old church

and some nice old cottages.

Maria went all dewy eyed. A lot of the houses have craftworkers living in them, woodworkers, potters, embroiderers, doll makers etc.

One of Maria’s highlights was the doll museum, full of dolls in costumes from various parts of Hungary. It was strange, it looked like the dolls were mass produced dolls acquired from where ever they could, the dolls were then dressed with tremendous care and accuracy, with very detailed and intricate embroidery etc. There are only a few doll makers left and Maria had a lot of difficulty choosing a doll to buy, she wanted about 3, John’s wallet is certainly taking a battering.

Maria drove us back into Pest, which she claimed was very brave.
 We decided to eat in the Brasserie tonight so we could say hello to Zolti, he was very pleased (and surprised) to see us. It seems that the hotel has a new manager (apparently English) who seems to be taking a new broom approach to the job. He has in Particular been getting rid of older staff, so Feri Bacsi (who was the head waiter in the restaurant) has been given early retirement (somewhat against his will) together with various others. General morale seems rather low, we hope this doesn’t mean the Gellert will lose its unique qualities and become just another Hilton or Crowne Plaza. We’ll have to wait and see.
Off to Eger via Mezokovesd tomorrow, hope the weather isn’t too hot.

Well, yesterday, we set off from Papa in good time and in rain. We were going to call in on Pannonhalma on the way, a priory with a superb library and monks who make and sell wine and liqueurs. It rained all the way, as we came in sight of the priory we realised how spectacular and imposing it would have looked in decent weather. It stood on top of a hill totally dominating the countryside around it. Shame it was wreathed in mist and cloud.
Visiting the priory and the winery would have involved an extended walk and since it was chucking it down, we decide to give it a miss and just go to the gift shop where John bought some drink and Maria bought some Christmas cards (a touch early I’d have thought). We then went to the café and tried the drinks John hadn’t bought and decided to go back and buy some of them. That’s when John discovered he was a credit card short. The last time he could remember using it was when we checked out of the hotel in Papa. So back we went to Papa. Hungarian drivers are appalling!! We were coming up to a bend in the road when round it came 2 vans and a car overtaking them, ON OUR SIDE OF THE ROAD. There was nowhere for us to go, John and I closed our eyes, luckily Maria (who was driving) didn’t. She pulled over as far as she could and braked, the van at the back did the same and luckily the car missed us. It did however hit the car following us. Y then everyone has slowed down sufficiently that while the cars were damaged there were no major injuries. It was however a close thing.
We made it back to Papa in one piece and found John had left his credit card there, so that was ok, and eventually we made it to Budapest. Back to the Gellert, our favourite hotel where we are known by all and sundry.
We have a nice room with a balcony, overlooking Gellert Hill and the Danube.

We unpacked and then we were off. We had tickets for a show of gipsy music and folk dancing. It was performed by the Rajko Ensemble, a group we had not seen before. They were very good but I think our favourite is still The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble.
 
We went back to the hotel restaurant for a meal and our favourite waiter wasn’t there!
Still the others know us as well and Maria had seen Zolti’s head from our balcony so we knew he hadn’t left
Today the weather had taken a definite turn for the better, too good if anything, the temperature was soaring. We planned to spend the day messing about in Budapest. First we visited another of Maria’s cousins, Ili. Apparently Maria and family used to stay with her on visits to Hungary in years gone by. She was looking well and very pleased to see us. She gave us a prezzie of some wine to take away with us, not I might say the first person to give us wine.

Then we moved onto a big book store Maria had found out about, the biggest in Budapest. John parked himself in the café while Maria had the staff running around finding her obscure books she remembered from her childhood.
They were very good to her, mind you she spent enough..

After that we traipsed around the Herend shops looking for this Matyo Madonna, Maria is so keen on. We only found a large one, so we’ve ordered one to pick up at Christmas, so I assume we’re coming back for the Christmas market. In the meantime of course, Maria had to have a small figurine to keep her going.
We were all wacked by now and grateful to stop at the Gerbeaux cukrazda for some well deserved refreshments.

 

It has been very hot, I feel truly sorry for the little old ladies in black begging on the streets, first because they’re begging and then because they must be so hot dressed all in black.

The gipsy band were playing during tea and they remembered us, which was nice. In fact we have our bedroom window open and we can hear them, which is lovely.
However we have had a disappointment. Zolti has transferred to the Brasserie (and they call him Zoli!!) so do we go and have our tea there and miss the band or do we stick with the restaurant and miss Zolti?? .

Pretty damp and chilly this morning, Maria even put a cardigan on, although John and I thought this was rather over the top.

We had decided to visit Herend today, a very famous porcelain factory, not my kind of thing but when you travel in a group you have to adapt. The journey was pleasant into the Bakony hills, with some nice scenery. John and Maria had been before, but many years ago,back in the communist era. Things have changed a lot. The factory is now owned mostly by the workers with the government owning 30%. There is an interesting visitor centre with a minifactory where you can see the manufacturing processes. Most of the making and decorating is done by hand, even when moulds are used there is a lot of hand finishing to be done.

One of the most famous patterns is the fishnet, and I was rather taken by this lion on display in the square.

We had a look in the shop. We loved some of the tea services, consisting of a tray, a teapot, sugar bowl, cream jug and 2 cups and saucers. However we felt we could not justify paying £3.000. We came very close to buying a figurine of a horseman (for a mere £200) but Maria said she would rather have a Matyo Madonna she’s seen before, they did not have one in this shop, but they have 3 more shops in Budapest, so we’ll have a look there.

By now we were all ready for some refreshment and visited our first cukrazda on this trip (and ate off Herend plates).

We then headed back to Papa, Maria particularly wanted to visit St Anne’s chapel (apparently she was baptised there) and John rather fancied the wine festival (Maria wasn’t so keen when she realised she’d have to walk.

The chapel was closed but we could peek in and Maria did a lot of – ‘Just think I was here when only a few days old, I can’t remember it at all’ – honestly!!

We then walked to the wine festival, Maria whinging all the way, we were rather early and things hadn’t really got going. We sampled a couple of wines and then started heading back, Maria still whinging. Then we found we were near the Blue Dyeing Museum, all of a sudden she wasn’t quite so desperate to get back.

Actually it was pretty interesting, we were lucky and 2 of the artists were there and were very informative. Maria and I were pretty interested in the patterns and designs. John was positivelly THRILLED with the old machinery, I think he made the guides day, he was so interested.

We’ve now made our way back to the hotel, a nice meal and then start packing ready to move on tomorrow. We’re off to Budapest (via Pannonhalma) and our favourite hotel, The Gellert.