Tag: Hungary/Romania 2008

The Open Air Museum! I loved this place. I could have spent three days here. What is an open air museum? We wondered that too. Eventually the appropriate translation was made. “Sort of like Colonial Williamsburg” was the consensus. Indeed. This museum recreated several regions of Hungary. And by “Hungary” they mean “the vast Hungarian Empire which we would like to have back, but which has been carved into many pieces leaving us with little of our original land.” Long memories, there. Not that I blame them.

So you can wander through all different kinds of villages in the style of, oh say, “Upper Market Town,” “Great Plains,” “Southern Transdaunbia,” etc. In each village is a church and few houses and barns, etc. They have people demonstrating how to make traditional food and do other traditional things. You can ride in a horse and buggy, which I loved, let me tell you. Each area tells you a little about the kind of family which might live in a particular style house and what might be going on. I looked in on one house of a grape grower and they were preparing for a baby christening, and had all the christening finery out on display.

They also have traditional Hungarian livestock. Above is a picture of the Hungarian Grey Cow. “White” one of us would usually correct upon seeing it. “No, Grey” we were told. Okay, they are sort of grey.

I include this picture not only so you can see the Hungarian Grey Cow yourself, but also because of Dana’s great picture of it. Later, after this day was over, on a day with a very long bus ride, Dana and I were looking at the pictures we had taken to pass the time. Not having laptops along with us, we were viewing our pictures on our cameras, which doesn’t necessarily make for the best viewing, the screens being so small and all. As we scrolled though her pictures of the Open Air Museum I wondered aloud if she had gotten a photo of the Grey Cow. “I did!” she said proudly. But when she scrolled to it, we both broke out into laughter because her picture of the gray cow only included the feet. How she managed to take that picture and not notice she was missing three-quarters of the cow I’m not sure, but it inspired much mirth on a very long, hot bus ride.

Also on our list of things to do today. A visit to Visegrad Fortress (which hadn’t changed much since I saw it in 2005. Click on that Visegrad link. It’s pretty cool.) A visit to Szentendre, where I bought a lovely painting of Fishermen’s Bastion, a boat ride down the Danube River to Budapest and a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant where Barnabas and his mother noticed a famous TV actress sitting behind us.

This was a great day with three distinct, equally wonderful parts, and it is very hard to choose a picture. So it may be a surprise that this blurry thing is my choice. But it is, and for a reason. This was taken in the library at Pannonhalma Archabbey . We pilgrims and our hosts traveled to this thousand year old monastery and had a tour of the grounds. The Abbey lost a lot of land during the communist period, but was able to survive because the monks ran a school. Today,
the site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We toured the grounds (beautiful) and the Chapel (breathtaking) and waved at the old-folks in the windows of the old-folks home section (friendly.) Then we were led into an incredible library, which is open to the public. It was filled with books, and light and art and beautiful woodwork. The group wandered about a bit, taking in the space and the light. Then some of us began to stand on the edge of a circle in the marble floors. More and more of our group joined, both Hungarians and Americans, until we filled every spot at the edge of the circle. Brittany came last, and was dismayed to find all the spaces were taken. “You can be in the center,” someone suggested helpfully. She took her place, and slowly began to spin around. For a few moments, we were all joined in that circle in that beautiful library, overlooking the Hungarian Plain, smiling and laughing. The moment ended, and we wandered to different corners.

Traveling with groups can be a challenge. So many different needs from so many different people can be a strain. But when you are traveling alone or with only one other person, you rarely get to experience becoming part of a whole.

After lunch at Pannonhalma, we swam in Lake Balaton, which was just what the doctor ordered, as far as I was concerned, and then went to a feast in Kornye, where we ate incredible food cooked by members of the church. It was one of the most memorable dinners of my lifetime, and included much wine, and then a moonlit tour of the wine cellar. My travel journal for the day says the following about the dinner: “There were appetizers and salads and I think I ate three kinds of meat. Then a dessert tray. There was also house wine and much chatting and talking.” The day’s recollections end with this observation: “Today is a day I am in love with the world.”

It was a pretty magical day.

On this day we attended church, where Dana gave a short sermon/talk, and we sat through all the Hungarian, (which was interesting, don’t get me wrong) then had a very delicious lunch at the church which included handmade donuts! Afterward, the group split up, some going to the Terrorhaza (museum of the secret police) with their hosts, while I went with the Beres family to an OMSI-like museum.

The two groups met at the church, and all of us from Oregon went on one of those sightseeing tour buses. This was great fun, as we had headphones and could scroll through the various languages, however, my camera died right after I took this picture from the castle grounds.

After our tour, we rejoined our host families and for dinner we had Italian food in the garden. It was lovely.

We did a lot this day: trip to Tata, delicious lunch, nap for the jet lagged traveler, tour of the city, tour of the Palace grounds by night. I put up a lot of pictures from the day last year, so it wasn’t so terribly hard to choose this one.

I. Love. Hungarian. Food. I could happily eat it for the rest of my life. I like cabbage, I like sausage, I love goulash, I love saucy things with various forms of meat on noodles. I like pork. Their food is delicious and was a highlight of my trip.

June 27 was that weird, arriving super jet-lagged day. There aren’t really pictures from that day. So this is today’s picture.
I’m not a world traveler. Before I went on the Hungary/Romania trip in 2005 the only foreign country I had visited was Canada. (Lovely place, by the way.) So for me, one of the most interesting things about traveling is to see what is different from my own home, especially familiar things. When I lived in South Boston, two friends from Idaho visited me and one of them was delighted to come with me to the grocery store because she was interested in the different brands/prices/displays. We had a grand time comparing and contrasting. Similarly, when my Aunts and I visited Lanai, Hawaii, one of my favorite things was visiting the cemetery. The grave decorations were very different from any cemetery I’ve ever visited.

So toilets. I hadn’t ever thought that they might not be the exact same as the porcelain thrones we use here in the USA. Of course, I had heard tales of holes that you squatted above, and not-good plumbing and such, but I figured any culture that had a plumbing setup similar to the US would have the exact same toilets.

But they are different in Hungary and, I have to say, I like the design better. As the picture above shows, the hole in which everything exits the bowl is in the front of the bowl, not in the rear like our setup. Also, note that there is only a tiny bit of water in the toilet bowl itself. This eliminates the whole splash back thing that I think everyone probably experiences and no one talks about. Then, when you flush the toilet, man what a reaction! All the water in the tank comes rushing down with a very loud noise, and whoosh! everything is gone.

So toilets. Different. Better. I could write a whole different section about light switches (square, large toggle) but I’m staying true to my one picture per day.

I never got the blog posts done last year for the trip to Hungary and Romania I took with the YRUU youth last year. So this year, I am posting one picture from each day of the trip. It isn’t the full travelogue, but it is better than nothing. Pictures might be a spectacular photo, or a not-so-spectacular one that encapsulates one aspect of the trip for me.

Today’s selection:

We flew out on June 26 and arrived in Budapest sometime on June 27? I don’t know, the length of travel time, plus the time zone change has me confused. So this picture isn’t really from June 26, but it was kind of like June 26 because we had magically crossed many time zones over many hours. At any rate, upon arrival, we were tired. We were so tired that Eric and Christine fell asleep on the bus from the airport to the church. I was so tired that when I met my host family, and they asked me what I wanted to do, my answer was, “Eat and then sleep.” Because they were such a gracious host family, we did exactly that.

My hosts continued to be wonderful hosts. After lunch, we drove back to Budapest and rested for a bit before heading out to see Budapest by night.

Our first stop was the Church of St. Elizabeth of the House of Arpad. Gyorgy told me the legend of St. Elizabeth–that she was taking bread to the poor in secret and her husband asked her what she had. She opened her cloak and roses tumbled out. There is a rose garden planted at the base of her statue and the square is known as the square of roses.

Our next stop was the Dohany Street Synagogue. It is the second largest synagogue in the world. The link has a lot of interesting information about it, which I will let you read on your own if you are interested.
The front.
The Holocaust memorial.
There are many squares in Budapest and each corner of the square has a building like this. They are very grand.
On this street the buildings bent to meet the street.

I enjoy their crosswalk signs because the man walking in them is wearing a suit and hat.
We then went to the Opera House.
And posed at the sphinx statue out front.
Fancy light posts outside the Opera House.
One of my favorite parts of Budapest is the random decoration on seemingly normal buildings. I have no idea how a child and two dogs were carved above the lintel, but it is a delight to come across it on a side street.
Dedicated bike lanes!
St. Stephen’s Basilica can be spied between buildings.
We approached St. Stephen’s from the rear.
The bell tower.
The frieze.
I got a nice shot of the basically as we were walking away.
Decorated man hole cover.
Wrought iron gate on the side entrance to the Four Seasons Hotel.
Sunset view from the Chain Bridge which is closed to traffic and has a festival on it on weekends during the summer. It was the first bridge to cross the Danube and unite the hills of Buda with the flatlands of Pest. Like almost everything in Budapest, it was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt.