Our Time in Hungary

Thanksgiving Dinner

2008-12-01T23:43:00.014+01:00

So many folks have asked about how we celebrated Thanksgiving that I decided I had better add a blog entry about our day.

I’m sorry we don’t have more and better pictures, but we were so busy preparing and then eating that we forgot about our cameras.

We decided on a pot luck menu and each student signed up for a dish that they wanted to contribute.

I agreed to do the turkey, gravy, and pies. The students signed up for stuffing, squash, corn, bread, wine, pumpkin bread, fresh hot applesauce, and don’t forget the green bean casserole. There may have been more things that I'm missing. We had a lot of food and it was all yummy.

The student wing of the dorm has three kitchens. The only things that work in the first kitchen are the sink and the fridge!

This is the 2nd kitchen in the boys’ apartment in cleaner days at the beginning of the semester. It is the best equipped with a working electric stove, sink and fridge (in the background) along with fairly adequate counter space.

Here's an earlier photo of the 3rd kitchen eating area. You can just see the counter with the burners and sink in the background. There are two sets of burners built into the counter top and a sink and two large refrigerators, but no oven. This arrangement caused challenges.

In the 2nd kitchen we had the turkey breasts—four of them—in the oven with two per pan on two "racks". A visiting family brought sage to make the turkey taste just right.

I should mention that this oven, just like the one in our apartment and the ones on the higher floors of the dorm, has just one rack and then if you are careful you can make the broiler pan stay in the holders along the sides of the oven to make a second rack. They can hold nothing much larger than a 9 X 13 pan.

The 2nd kitchen was also the scene of a great deal of pealing! The students pealed an unknown quantity of kilograms of apples and potatoes. Then they had large pots of applesauce and potatoes cooking on the top of the stove.

Meanwhile the ingredients for the stuffing were being carefully chopped on the table of the 3rd kitchen in the girls’ apartment.

It smelled wonderful—onions, mushrooms, celery, etc. Salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning were added to this and the dry bread crumbs along with bouillon. All that went into 3 flat pans. Now we had to search for more ovens!

We found out that there were two gas ovens each on the 2nd and 3rd floor of the dorm that we could use. They didn’t all work, though! But we did manage to light 3 of them.

We put one pan of stuffing into one of the ovens of the 3rd floor and the other two pans into the 2nd oven in the 3rd floor kitchen. These ovens had no numbers on the thermostats, but straight up seemed like a good choice.

A pan of seasoned potato wedges went into the one oven that worked on the 2nd floor for the roasted potatoes.

The traditional green bean casserole had been made earlier that afternoon and the squash had also been roasted earlier. There were two kinds of squash—plain and another wondeful pan with honey and brown sugar. They were warmed again. I know the corn was cooked, but I have no recollection of where!

While all this was going on, the tables were arranged and set in our 3rd floor classroom. We had to use disposable plates and glasses because there were not enough of the washable type. But we did manage to pool our resources for enough regular forks. You just can’t use plastic forks on Thanksgiving. There were 11 Calvin students, plus one friend from Dordt, our Hungarian teacher, three Hungarian students and Corwin and me. That's a total of 18.

The rest of the Calvin students were traveling that weekend and other Hungarians that we had invited were not able to attend.

Then the gravy was made, pictures taken and we were ready to eat! It was just past 5pm.

Food and wine was passed and passed. When we began the large blue pot was about 2/3 full of mashed potatoes and the smaller white one was quite full of hot applesauce.

Seconds were available.

The mashed potatoes tasted like home.

We had a lot of good conversation to go with the good food.

Our Hungarian teacher remarked that this was a true 'pot luck' with the pots right on the table. We have almost no serving dishes.

The plate of pumpkin bread was gone quickly.

I don’t have any pictures of the pies, but we had several.

Another visiting family brought us canned pumpkin for pies. It was then that I realized I had never seen evaporated or canned milk of any sort in Hungary. Thank goodness for the Internet! I found a recipe that used melted vanilla ice cream instead of evaporated milk. Everyone thought they tasted just fine.

We had to have a sour cream raisin pie for Corwin (his favorite). It looked funny with no meringue but since we had no mixer, meringue was out of the question. Fortunately, they do sell aerosol cans of whipped cream, so we used that instead.

Hungarians don’t really make pie. There was one Pyrex casserole lid in our apartment that I could use as a pie pan, but I had to buy new ones for the pumpkin pies. I found one store that sold them.

For the last ‘pie’ I made my Mom’s apple squares in a lasagna pan. This pan was huge and I think the recipe was tripled! But they were gone before Friday I was told.

The middle two students in this picture are Vera and Melinda. They will be coming to Calvin for the January 2009 interim.

Our last pictures are of us toasting with small glasses of palinka, a spirit native to Hungary, distilled from fruit grown on the great Hungarian plain. It's very potent stuff. We’re toasting here with our Hungarian friends, Vera, Melinda and Istvan (Steven).

Here you can see how very little was left from that huge pot of mashed potatoes.

It was a great Thanksgiving.

The Christmas Market

2008-11-22T16:54:00.019+01:00

I am so excited because the Christmas Market opened yesterday in Varosmarty Ter. That's the square where the high-priced fashion stores are located as well as the Gerbeaud Chocolate Company's shop.

We went for the first time last night which was the first day it was open. But it was raining and since we live here, Corwin talked me into coming back when the weather was nicer. Today it was not raining, but snowing! It was fairly cold in the mid-30s.

So we went back today to have lunch and look around. Boy was it fun. It's like the folk art market they had at the Castle last August, but now it's cold and snowing and not 90 degrees! I much prefer today's weather but I can't say the same for Corwin. However he warmed up to the idea when we found the hot mulled wine booth. Later we learned that there are many of these spots. You can just see the wine crock pots in the lower, middle right of this picture and the sausages cooking in the very lower right corner.

You get a mug full of hot, mulled wine for about $5.50--$2.50 for the mug and $3 for the wine. You can return the mug for a refill or refund--your choice. Corwin chose 3 refills and felt a whole lot better about shopping. In fact he thought he prefered this to sitting at a football game in similar weather. Hot, mulled wine would do a lot for football.

They were also cooking all over the market. Here you see sausages, but they also had stuffed cabbage, pork cutlets, thin fried beef steaks, shish-ka-bob, french fries, breads, rolls, pickles, slaw, pastries--you name it.

All over the market, whether you were shopping or sitting down to eat, you could hear the singing and music from the stage. The people changed every 30 minutes or so, but each group presented traditional Hungarian music.

Then we walked closer to the large tree. It's covered with ornaments that are about 10"-12" in diameter. They don't look that big here, but they are. It's a big tree. The boots and hearts are cut out of a vinyl fabric and stuffed.

There are several creches around the square, but this one, under the tree, is my favorite. It's all made of felt. The sheep are the best, but the wooly shephard's coat is neat too. This creche is about 3'-4' tall.

One booth had the traditional pastry that looks a lot like a really large (8"-10" long) creme horn or creme curl. First the lady in the booth next door rolls the dough.

Then she cuts it in a patern so that it will wrap around the mold.

Then she winds it around the mold.

Then she rolls it so the seams seal themselves. These are handed to the people in the next booth with the charcoal fire.

They spin them as they bake. You can see the ones at the top are more brown and almost ready to eat. When they are done, they slide off the mold. There was a long line waiting every time I came near this booth.

I could barely get close enough to take the pictures because there were so many people in line to buy the pastries. I haven't tried one of these yet, but I plan to when the line isn't so long.
Note: We went back again today, Sunday, November 23 and had one of these. They taste like really good sweet dinner rolls. They are brushed with oil or butter before they put them over the coals and then sprinkle them heavily with either sugar, cinnamon, or walnuts. It was delicious!

There were so many booths it's hard to describe them all, but here you see baskets,

carved trays from the burl of the wood,

sweaters, sox, slippers,

knitted hats and scarves,

pottery,

more pottery,

mistletoe which grows wild in the trees,

marionettes,

lavendar and herbs,

felted hats and other items,

more felted hats,

These trays were carved in the shapes of deer, cows, sheep, horses, and pigs. We were trying to figure out if we could get one of these home. They are about 24"-30" long.

It wasn't too crowded today, but still busy.

By the time I left it was almost 4pm which is when the sun sets here and it was getting dark. Corwin was in the metro station where he had been for a while. It's much warmer down there!

I'll be back again and probably several times before Christmas eve day when the market closes.

We plan to go to Barcelona for a weekend in early December. They have a Christmas market too! Stay tuned....

Anniversary of October 23, 1956 Hungarian Revolution

2008-10-27T12:33:00.012+01:00

Hungarians visit and decorate the graves of their loved ones around November 1st, All Soul’s Day. Many Hungarians visit the Municipal Cemetery in Budapest on or about October 23rd since that day is the national holiday in Hungary that commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

To get to this cemetery we took tram #28 to the end of its route. Forming a solid line along the tram route for several blocks as we approached the stop we saw lots of tombstone and monument dealers.

After the gravestone and monument dealers there were lots of flower stalls. These flower stalls also stretched for several blocks before the cemetery gate.

People use mostly fresh flowers but you see a few silk flowers here and there.

Businesses such as these surround the entrances of every cemetery in the city and since this is the largest cemetery in Budapest, this one is no exception.

In this picture you can see the cemetery entrance in the background.

We went through the gate with the many others who were there that day. (We visited on Saturday, October 25th.)

We had to walk to the very back of the cemetery to view the 1956 revolution graves and memorials. We passed many graves in this large cemetery.

As we walked we noticed that nearly every grave in this very large cemetery was decorated. Most of them had fresh flowers on them.

We saw many visitors taking away wilted or dead flowers, sweeping or raking the area around the grave or just sitting quietly near a grave.

It seemed that the majority of the visitors drove to the cemetery and there was considerable traffic as cars waited for an opening to turn into or out of the main stream of traffic.

The guide books were accurate with their estimate of a 30-minute walk to the back of the cemetery to the plots where the 1956 revolutionaries were buried.

To get to plots 300 and 301, the plots where the 1956 victims were buried, we certainly noticed that these plots were in the very farthest corner where the government officials thought they would not be detected.

We were happy to see any signs for plots 300 & 301 since the road became very quiet and secluded. There were occasional cars and a few folks walking along with us.

Many thousands died during the revolution and thousands more were arrested, tortured and later executed.

The bodies of the leaders of the uprising were buried in secret mass graves at the very back of the Budapest Municipal Cemetery on the southeastern edge of the city.

Of these thousands, some are honored with their pictures displayed at the cemetery.

Hungarians began placing flowers at this remote spot in the 1970’s.

In 1990 after the fall of Communism, the bodies were reburied with a state ceremonial funeral and memorial markers were placed to mark the site.

Notable is the grave of Imre Nagy, who was the prime minister of Hungary in 1956. He was arrested, tortured and shot to death after a bogus political trial in 1958.

We had seen videos on TV of the current Hungarian prime minister and his wife bringing flowers to his grave on October 23rd.

Most of the victims who were not killed during the revolution were arrested, tortured and executed later and have a 1958 date of death listed on their tombstones.

We couldn’t help but notice that there were several women and young people among those whose pictures were displayed at the cemetery.

Student Living

2008-10-16T20:25:00.008+02:00

The dormitory where the students live is located on Temesvar utca on the Buda side of the Danube and a little south of the center of the city. It's operated by Karoly Gaspar University and is named for the Hungarian Bethlan Gabor. Everything in Budapest has bars and locks and so does the dorm. We need to enter a code into the pad near the door in the gate.

The restaurant across the street is the Saint Florian, named for the patron saint of firefighters. There is also a coffee shop a few doors away, but most of the street is a quiet spot. The dorm is in the middle of the block with a tram stop on the nearest corner.

The yard inside the fence is large and full of trees. As you face the dorm the classroom where we had the Hungarian classes and where the Calvin classes are held is on the top floor above the entrance. The student rooms are on a dedicated hallway to the left of the front door on the ground floor.

This is the coffee shop that is just down the street. It is a favorite spot for the students.

This is one of two of the four-person rooms that half of the girls live in. They are very large with closet space, a bedside stand and a desk for each person. The kitchen and bathrooms (with a washing machine) are across the hall.

The guys have a separate apartment with a kitchen, laundry room, bathroom (with shower) and a large bedroom for the three of them. They enjoy their own kitchen, washing machine and space.

Then the remaining eight girls live in the girls' apartment at the end of the hall. There are two bedrooms (one with four beds and one with two beds) with doors and an alcove where two more students sleep. It also has bathrooms, shower, a washing machine and a living area. The living area has three extra beds that are used as couches to relax on while studying, desks, bookcases, and a TV.

These students are sitting in the opposite end of the common living area of the apartment. There is wireless Internet. We've had some difficulty with the strength of the signal and adding routers has helped a little. However, the programs that are most often used today take a lot of band width and the service seems slow.

The kitchen in the girls apartment is the largest with two refrigerators, tables, stove and cupboards. Both apartments as well as the interior of the four-bed rooms have been newly remodeled. The hallway, however, remains poorly lit and reminiscent of the Communist era.

The students are welcome at our apartment every Wednesday night. We usually have soup and bread. It always turns out to be a nice time to visit and relax.

Here's Paul at the stove checking out the soup. I think it has his approval. Everyone brings a hearty appetite and sometimes there are leftovers to take back to the dorm.

For the first three to four weeks the students attended a compressed Hungarian language class. The class met for several hours most days of each of those weeks. Here we are with our language teacher, Ms. Kati Fugedi. This picture was taken at the last class in late September. Kati has the white jacket on. It was amazing just how much Hungarian we all learned. It turned out to be very helpful in Budapest.

One of the English speaking churches that the students have attended is St. Columba's Scottish Presbyterian Church. This congregation is jointly sponsored by the Presbyterians and the Hungarian Reformed Church. One pastor is Scottish and one is Hungarian. You can check it out at www.scotskirkhungary.com

This church has a practice of serving lunch to anyone who wants to stay after church. At one of these lunches several of the Calvin students volunteered to prepare the lunch for the next week.

These students were very hot that September Sunday. The kitchen area is very small and the stove could have been faster!

The reports were that the lunch was very good and much appreciated.

Parking

2008-10-16T18:13:00.004+02:00

Hungary seems to be trying to accommodate cars that are much larger than the streets were originally designed for.

It is interesting to see how the parking spaces are painted onto the sidewalk.

Went streets don't have painted spaces, drivers seem to adapt by parking wherever there is room.

In addition, they do not appear to have rules about parking near a fire hydrant.

Students at the Market

2008-09-17T10:21:00.011+02:00

I have been very delinquent in posting to this blog. I started this one in September and now it is nearly one month later. I have also heard from many of you that the more photos that I can include, the better. I want to tell you about our first outing connected with our Hungarian class--our trip to the market. It was a fun time at the market that happened at the end of the students' first week here on August 28. We had all learned the Hungarian words for vegetables, fruit, 'how much does it cost?' and had learned how to count so that we could purchase items and make change.

This market is just a quick ride from the students' dorm on tram #18 on Fehervarti ut.

It is a very modern building and when you enter you can either go down a few steps to the lower level that has several sections or up an escalator to the main sales floor.

This picture shows the top two levels of the market. The top level sells ready made foods that you can have for breakfast, coffee or lunch. On the middle level you will find all sorts of fresh produce, poultry, meat and fish.

On the lower level there are two separate grocery stores and many meat, vegetable and pastry vendors and are open longer hours than the stalls on the second floor that close about 3pm or 4pm.

These shops are more permanent and seem to be thought of as lower quality or less fresh than those on the middle level. But still, if you arrive at the market after 4pm, you can still find a great variety of produce, eggs, cheese, etc.

You go up an escalator to the middle level which is full of all sorts of vendor stalls and shops--vegetables, slaw, flour, meal, nuts, honey, fruit, paprika, chicken, duck, goose, fish, etc. Everything you can think of is there.

The second floor is a feast for the eyes and the appetite. The center section has mostly fruits and vegetables. Also available are beans, nuts, honey, eggs, and paprika. You can see the meat shops along the side.

You can often find vegetables packaged ready for soup making--carrots, parsley root, onions, celery root, etc all in one package.

The parsley root is the long white vegetable in this package and is commonly used in soups and stews. It looks and tastes similar to what we would call a wild carrot in the US.

This is another vegetable that is commonly used in Hungarian cooking--the celery bulb. I think it's very interesting that one culture uses the bottom of a vegetable and another one uses the top!

Here are celery root and parsley root together.

These students are deciding what to buy. Their assignment was to speak only in Hungarian to make their purchase.

You can also buy flowers and paprika from many vendors. That's paprika in those large plastic bags. Hungarians use a great deal of paprika. Many times the red color in a dish is due to the paprika instead of tomatoes.

Along the side, near the meat cases, are shops that sell slaw and pickled items. Somethings on menus you will see "winter picklings" listed as a salad or appetiser choice.

Now to the meat! The pork is really the best. They have lots of it and it dominates most restaurant menus. It is beautiful and fairly inexpensive, as food goes, and comes in the same cuts as in the US.

The cuts of beef are more of a mystery and make you wonder exactly where this meet came from! Also the beef that I have purchased has been so tough that now I just use pork in any recipe where meat is needed.

While I love fish, the fish in Hungary is not all that attractive. The only way I have found that it really tastes good is if it is fried. And I rarely order it since fried fish here tastes just like fried fish anywhere. It's good, but there is so much else to enjoy that I won't be able to have back home.

This is carp. You can see how it is scored to allow it to be cooked with the bone left in it. Again, I haven't been too eager to try carp.

Here is Corwin's favorite food. He especially likes the way the chickens still have their feet. In addition, there are all sorts of extra parts available--liver, heart, gizzards, etc.

Then on the upper level (another escalator) is an area of shops selling ready made foods for lunch or snacks. Here you can buy soup, goulash, fried fish, desserts.

Our last assignment was to order (in Hungarian) and taste some typical Hungarian foods. These students are eating langos (pronounced langosh). Langos are a bit like elephant ears--big pieces of fried dough. They can be ordered with any number of toppings--cheese, ham or sweet toppings like strawberries.

The seating is at long tables with benches. Everyone sits together--wherever you can find a seat. Here are some more of us eating langos and palancinta. Palancinta are crepe-like ultra thin pancakes. They fill them with all varieties of fruit filling, jam, or turos (similar to ricotta cheese or cheesecake like filling) and roll them up for easy and delicious eating. Our Hungarian teacher, Ms. Kati Fugedi (in the black striped top), is expressing her approval of our choices and use of the Hungarian language.

Food or Why I'm Not Thin

2008-09-15T15:01:00.009+02:00

This will just be a listing of great foods we have been enjoying. This place has terrific food! This first one is a beef soup that Corwin ordered. You often get the broth and noodles in the bowl and vegetables and meat on another plate. This picture was taken after Corwin had already moved most of the meat and the carrot from the plate and added them to the broth. That leaves a large potato, 2 slices of dumpling and some more of the beef meat on the side plate. The bones were vertebrae, so it was probably neck meat. Then you add all of it together.

This soup was served with just the meat in the bowl and a plate to the side holding the vegetables and a pitcher of broth. This is what it looked like when Corwin put it all together. This one included sour cream. Bread always comes with soup. At one restaurant we saw many other folks having a bowl with a large dumpling in it and a large pitcher of broth on the side.

This is a fried smoked cheese I had. It had toast and a great fresh salad with it. All the salads have lots of cucumber and yellow peppers along with tomatoes and lettuce. Dressings are usually made of yogurt or mayonnaise. Always good--but remember my motto "I've never met a carbohydrate I didn't like."

This tongue sandwich was good as well. Just a little culinary trip down memory lane. I think my Mom's tongue sandwiches had thicker meat and thinner bread, but this one was still good. The salad was in a basket affair made of some sort of cheese flavored dough.

Here's another favorite food--gizzard goulash! It was served with some very interesting round pasta--almost like risotto, but not.

This was a great one. It was a grilled chicken breast covered with tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella cheese. It came with fried potatoes and some salad and we ordered a side cucumber salad. Yum! At the top is Corwin's plate with some slaw and a pickle showing.

We've taken trains five hours to the south and four hours to the east and have not seen one hog in a field. We did see some sheep and a few cows, but no pigs. And the great majority of the restaurant menus and the meat in the stores is PORK. Where does it come from? We need to travel west. Maybe that is the Hungarian Iowa.
Anyway, this is one of the many pork dishes we've enjoyed--pork chops with onion rings, sliced fried potatoes and pureed peas.

This was one of my favorites--pork medallions with mushrooms and dumplings. I love these dumplings and you can buy them dry in a bag like we buy pasta. Wonderful! I plan to bring several bags home. The mushrooms are also wonderful--all kinds! They have the kind like we have in the US and all the other weird looking floppy ones. They have all been so good. Again we ordered a side cucumber salad. This one came with sour cream.

This is pork again. It's a cutlet, sort of rolled up and stuffed with cheese and sausage and it's sitting on some mashed potatoes and red cabbage.

This is a catfish goulash. It wasn't my favorite, but it was worth a try. The best part was the square noodles that came with it. They were covered with cottage cheese which was very tasty.

This is another pork cutlet that Corwin ordered with red cabbage, slaw and french fries. Also very good.

Now we come to desserts. They are wonderful as well. This is ONE serving of an apple strudel with a vanilla sauce.

And this is a vanilla pudding with dried fruit in it swimming in a raspberry sauce with a chocolate wafer.

We quite often have to eat only soup so that we have enough room for dessert or eat a regular meal at noon and then have just dessert and coffee at night.

Bon appetit or eet smakelek or happy eating!

Timisoara, Romania

2008-09-05T10:41:00.020+02:00

Last weekend we took the train to a city in Romania that is close to the Hungarian border. In fact, in years past the region was part of Hungary. Historically this area was called Transylvania and is today part of Romania. The train trip took 5 hours. It was very hot. I’m still puzzled as to why we didn’t get 1st class tickets (air-conditioned), but we didn’t. Corwin looks quite comfortable here, but this was after the seats around us were vacated. We started out with a full train, and little by little, it emptied out. We both had plenty to read and our CD for learning Hungarian to listen to, so the trip passed quite quickly.

When we arrived in Timisoara it was about 9:30pm and dark. As we were leaving the train station Corwin mentioned that he had not map-quested the walk to the hotel. He really didn't know the way, nor how far away it was! He had been in Timisoara in 2005 and we had a reservation at the same hotel that he had stayed in then. He remembered it as not being very far from the train station.

We didn’t see an ATM in the train station which left a lot to be desired. So we had no Romanian lei (money) either. Well, it was a long walk--about a mile and a half--but what made it seem even longer was that it was dark and Corwin was uncertain of the way! He kept saying things like “I think this looks right”. We walked for about forty minutes just following the signs for "Centru" and it was after about twenty minutes that Corwin became sure of the way. At least it was warm and not raining. The Hotel Continental is very nice and we were very glad to see it!

In the morning after a great breakfast at the hotel we began to explore the town. We had our questions answered in the Tourist Information Office near the very beautiful central plaza, called Victory Square. The Opera House is at one end and the Metropolitan Cathedral (Romanian Orthodox) at the other. It is at least four blocks long and is lined with stores and restaurants and filled with fountains, beautiful sculptured gardens, and benches to enjoy the area.

The Romanian Orthodox Cathedral at the southern end is a huge imposing structure. It was built in 1936-1946 in a style that combined Byzantine and Romanian Moldovian architecture.

Some of you may know that the protests against Ceausescu in Romania began in Timisoara. This is the site of the revolution that took place from December 16th to 22nd in 1989. Beginning on December 16th the people gathered in this square to protest the mandatory moving of a Hungarian Reformed minister. As more and more people gathered, they began to chant “Down with Ceausescu”. We took this picture of a poster showing all the people in the square at that time. The communist authorities opened fire on the people in the plaza, killing and wounding many of the citizens.

Every day that week large numbers of people gathered in this square. During the last days they faced the cathedral and prayed for freedom. The picture is a poster that we saw at the memorial. It shows the people facing the cathedral during that time.

Timisoara was declared free on December 20th, Ceausescu left the country on the 22nd, was executed very soon after that and the rest of Romania was declared free from Communism. By the time the fighting ended in Timisoara (on December 20th) and Bucharest (on December 22nd), there were 1,104 people killed and 3,352 people wounded.

We also visited the Memorial of the Revolution. It didn't look very impressive from the street, but after you go through the doorway, you enter a courtyard in the center of the building. There was a chapel on the first floor and exhibits and a film on the second floor. This was a very impressive memorial to all those who died in the revolution. The curator took us through the museum. He had been shot in the leg during the revolution.

We went next to Unity Square. It’s unusual for European towns to have two major squares, but Timisoara does. They are a few blocks apart. Unity Square is less commercial, smaller and surrounded by more national landmarks--the Roman Catholic Domed cathedral (yellow in color) is the top picture, the Serbian Orthodox Church (middle picture), which is built with its backside on the square, and the gigantic Baroque Palace which is now the art museum.

After lunch back again in Victory Square, we wanted to visit the Orthodox Cathedral. It was Saturday and the cathedral was holding weddings about every thirty minutes—I have no idea how many there were, but we saw at least three bridal parties come and go in the time we were there. Two people in the wedding party, who usually looked as if they were the maid of honor and best man, each carried a large candle that was about four feet tall. The only good picture we could get with the wedding party and the candles is this one where the priest is holding a candle, but that was not the typical arrangement. All afternoon there were decorated cars, with horns honking, driving through the town.

Victory Square had the most beautiful sculptured gardens. Most of the color came from using different foliage of begonias, dusty miller, ageratum and some other lighter green plant which may have been a type of herb (it didn’t have a flower). It appeared that these were pruned to maintain the patterns. Don't get any ideas about seeing something similar next summer at our house!

The square had a lovely fountain and lots of pigeons!

There was also a statue given to the town by Italian officials in 1926. It’s a copy of the 5th century Roman statue of Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf.

When we were touring the National History Museum, there were two students there who spoke English and were sort of guiding us. Finally, one of them asked Corwin if he had been in Timisoara before. When Corwin said that he had taught a short course there in 2005, the student said, “I know. I was in that class.” Talk about a small world. These two students are nearly finished with their studies in political science, and we enjoyed a great conversation with them.

The train trip back was also interesting. We sat near a man who spoke Romanian, Hungarian, English, and German. He talked with us off and on during the five-hour trip about conditions in Romania today. He was on his way to Germany where his mother lived and where he planned to buy a used car. Apparently used cars are much cheaper and more readily available in Germany. One of his friends makes a trip or two a year to buy several cars. He trucks them back and then sells them in Romania. We had noticed many fields of cars along the border. This man explained that if you bring more than one car across the border, cars are kept there until the authorities can determine that they are legally owned and appropriate to bring into the country.

It was a good weekend and it seemed good to get back to Budapest where we are beginning to feel more familiar.

Getting Around in Budapest

2008-08-26T11:19:00.011+02:00

We are becoming more adept at using the transportation system. Budapest has, as do most cities of this size, a fantastic matrix of subways, trams and buses. The monthly pass that we have is good on all of these systems. The closest stop to us is Blaha Lujza which is about 2 blocks away. At that stop there are trams, buses and the subway, so we have very easy access.

Our favorite trams are the #4 or #6 because they are brand new and air-conditioned. Budapest has ring roads that form concentric semi-circles around the city. Trams 4/6 run on the middle ring road and provide great intersecting points with the other trams, buses and the subway. Up to this point we never wait long for one to come—maybe 3-5 minutes. But starting in September, the government has announced that the number of trains running will be fewer and therefore come less often. They predict waiting 5-10 minutes. This is because the trams, buses and subways are often occupied at less than their capacity and the goal is for the system to be more cost-effective while still providing good service. We will see these changes in a couple of weeks.

We’ve had some interesting experiences so far while riding. To enter the subway you first go down some steps and then show your pass and then get on a very fast moving escalator. Some of the stations have very long escalators like the ones in Washington, DC. The first picture is looking down the escalator and the second one is looking up. You can see that it's a long way either way!

Last week when we were riding the escalator back up to the street level it stopped! We had to climb the rest of the way. We counted the steps and it was nearly as many as the four flights to our apartment which is 88. That day I decided to count those steps as my apartment climb quota, but when we got back home, our elevator was not working and we had to climb those steps too!

To ride the subway, you go down the escalator and then pick which way you want to go. One end of the line/direction is to the right and the other to the left. The platforms are clean, well-lit and feel very safe. If fact all of Budapest feels very safe. There is a comfortable, up-beat feeling here. This is a picture of people waiting for the next subway to come. There is usually a clock nearby that tells either how it has been since the last train or counts down to the time the next one is due. They are very efficient. I don't know what time they start in the morning, but they stop running just before mid-night. There are some buses that run later than mid-night.

This photo is of the inside of a subway car. Budapest was the first city in Europe to have a subway. That was the yellow line. It's cars are small and look rather antique compared to the red and blue lines (pictured) which are newer and look about like the subway cars in Washington, DC. All the stops are plainly posted on the walls of the platfrom where you wait and inside of all of the subway cars and trams and buses.

Another interesting situation happened this past Tuesday. We were riding on tram #18, one of the older style trams, going north alongside the Danube where the street narrowed. It looks just like the #2 tram in the picture. A car and the tram ahead of us crunched together and pushed into another car as well. Everyone on both trams had to get off. We walked for about 1-2 blocks to the next bus stop. No trams could run north since those two were blocking the tracks. We got on a bus and then the bus got stuck in the festival traffic! It was real grid lock. The driver just turned off the engine. After moving about a block in thirty minutes, we got off and walked a mile (yes, I map-quested it!) to the subway station. It was hot and crowded with people lining the Danube to watch the qualifying airplane races.

If we had been thinking, we could have gotten on any tram going the opposite way (south) since they were still running. That would have taken us to tram 4/6 and the ring road that stops at Blaha Lujza! We’re slowly learning how to maneuver and learn more every day! Jan DeVries, the wife of another Calvin professor who was the faculty program director in Budapest in 2005, told me that she just always remembered that with a monthly pass, the worst thing that could happen if she took the wrong bus, tram or subway was to get off and get back on another one going the other way. And that is so true. They come often and unless you’re on a tight schedule it’s not a problem to wait for another one.

This picture shows the inside of tram #18. The lady with the shopping basket is very typical. Everyone here brings a basket or an empty shopping bag to the stores. The grocery stores are a lot like Aldi is at home. You have to have your own bags and some use the coin-in-the-cart system too.

The older style tram is also the type that goes to the dormitory where the students live. We take the #4 to it's last stop and then get on a #18 tram to Temesvar Utca. The dorm is about 4-5 houses down the street. The entire trip takes about 30 minutes from our apartment.

There is a high fence around the dormitory and we all have memorized the code to enter. You just push the numbers into the key pad to the right of the gate and it opens. To get out there is another button by the dumpster that you push and the gate can be opened to get out. The gate we use is the smaller one on the left. The center double one is only opened for delivery vehicles.

The students live on the first floor just to the left as you face the building. You can't see that side because of all the trees, but it's as long as the other side that is just visible over the trees on the right. They have that whole corridor to themselves. There are lots of other students from Hungary and other countries living on other floors of the same dorm. As you look at the dorm, the computer room is right above the front doors and the "club" where they have their Hungarian class and the class Corwin teaches is also in the center, but on the 3rd level (top).

There are a couple of other types of transportation too. This is a trolley bus. It has tires but connects to wires up above. I think this is the type of bus that Grand Rapids is going to have running from downtown to M-6.

This last picture is of a regular style bus that also stops at Blaha Lujza (which is pronounced like Louisa). There is a website that lists all these type of transportation systems and includes the names of the stops along with maps.

www.bkv.hu/english/home/index.html

You may have to copy it and paste it into your browser. But it's a very helpful thing!

Flickr: Your Photostream

2008-08-21T00:52:00.000+02:00

Flickr: Your Photostream

Festival of Folk Arts

2008-08-20T23:29:00.014+02:00

There has been a Festival of Folk Arts going on here in Budapest for the last few days. The festival ends today, August 20th, the birthday of St. Stephen, the king who Christianized Hungary just after 1000AD. (His Hungarian name is Istvan I.) The festival is like the 4th of July, a state fair, the Rose Bowl parade and the most amazing craft show all put together. The banks and stores were closed, even the grocery stores.

They have lots of food, concerts, parades and children’s activities and probably a lot more that we didn’t understand. Today the entire center city area was closed to traffic and they were having airplane races down the Danube. They have giant buoys set in the river at different spots and the people line the entire river bank for several miles.

These planes swoop down and fly between the markers on the river, then go straight up and make a fantastic loop—a twist followed by a dive—and fly back to where they came from. It looked as if they were 15-20 feet from the water when they flew between the buoys. This took up most of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Each plane made their pass and was timed. The times were announced in Hungarian and English over some giant loudspeakers that were placed about every block. There were lots of planes and lots of people. Redbull was one of the major sponsors of the event. Maybe this would catch on in Grand Rapids? I wasn't quick enough with the camera, but you can see the jet trail between the buoys. The plane is behind the trees.

I'm getting so high tech, I don't know what to do with myself. When I was setting up the Flickr slideshow I found these photos of the same plane race taken today by someone else here in Budapest. They are so much better than I am shamelessly using them.

The main site for the folk art show was at the Castle which is high on a hill on the Buda side. We took a tram and a bus to get to the area thank goodness, since it was 86 and more humid than usual. It is so clear here that when it is warm it seems quite intense since there are no clouds. We stood in a long line to get on the bus to take us to Castle Hill. Our turn came on the 3rd bus. These buses are smaller to accommodate the tiny streets inside the castle walls.

Then when we got to the Castle area we had to stand in another long line to pay about $7.50 to get in.

Once we were in we saw the most amazing array of tents selling everything you could imagine—straw weaving, painted cookies, pottery, wood carving, baskets, straw hats, wool embroidered jackets, handmade lace, felted wool items, hand wrought iron, handmade shoes and leather items, embroidered table clothes, jewelry, hats, etc.

Then the food—jam, honey, pretzels, bread, pizza, elephant ears, ice cream, beer, wine, roasted sausage, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, slaw, roast pork, some sort of pastry that looked a lot like a cream curl! It was all unbelievable. The bad part was it was hot and very crowded. You were sort of carried along with the crowd. We took a lot of pictures of these tents, so I’m taking Cory's advice and adding a Flickr album, whatever that is. But you should see a link somewhere nearby to click on for more photos. Hope it works. The man sewing the large hat was a promotion for the hat stand that was nearby. He just kept adding more and more rounds to that huge hat. I wonder what he does with it after the fair?

One item we noticed which seems to be popular in many countries is a sort of ceramic bird. (One of our friends bought one when we were in Turkey in 2006.) If you have ever seen them you will know. They look a bit like a pipe and you put water in them and when you blow into the stem they whistle like a bird. A whole bunch of kids had them and the place sounded like a bird sanctuary. What a lot of fun they were having.

The parades were in one area of the central city and more tents with more food and exhibits were in the square in front of the parliment building. There they had entertainers on stilts and more music and kid's activities.

This all ended tonight with a fantastic fireworks display. The internet said it would last twenty minutes for the twentieth of August and it did. But the entire twenty minutes was like the finale of our fireworks in the US. They shot off fireworks constantly from four different spots on all sides. The internet also estimated that about one million people would be lining the river and watching. But the area is so spread out that our spot didn't seem all that crowded. Just at the end we decided to try to take some pictures. This one isn't the best, but I think you can get the idea. We walked home--about a mile. The streets were blocked from cars and it was a nice night. The people all seemed to really enjoy the day.

Doing the Wash

2008-08-15T19:03:00.007+02:00

Today it was 97 degrees. Most of you probably know how I hate hot days. I had plans to go out and do some things, but because of the heat decided instead to go to the grocery store, buy laundry soap and do the wash. We had accumulated enough dirty clothes by now to fill the washer twice. It says it holds 4.5KG which is about 10 pounds or a little less than half of what my washer at home holds.

Monika was kind enough to write the directions for the washer in English. She wrote out the type of clothes for each program or number on the washer dial.
white cotton and flax - 1
dirty white cotton - 2
Colourfast cotton - 3
soft cotton, quick wash - 4
colourfast synthetics - 3
soft synthetics - 5
soft synthetics with no pre-wash - 6
quick wash-36 minutes - 7
wool and silk - 8
rinse & long spin drying normal cloth - A
quick spin drying for soft cloth - B
long spin drying - C
quick spin drying for soft cloth - D

I chose #3 and never did figure out what to do with the letter setting. The wash was quite dry when I took it out. The soap goes in a kind of drawer on the front at the top left. The "drawer" has three sections--softener, regular wash and pre-wash. We think the washer took about 1 1/2 hours to cycle.

Then I got out the drying rack which was folded up and stored in the closet. I could have easily put it in the back bedroom, but I put it here so I could photograph it more easily.

I hung Corwin's shirts on hangers, but everything else fit on the rack. Even though it's hot here today, the humidity is only 35% according to the internet. It must be right because everything dried very quickly.

There are also some nifty rods on the bathroom ceiling that you can lower, hang the clothes on them and raise them again for drying. The first picture shows them down with the towels. And on the picture below that one you can see how high the clothes are when you raise the rod. Because of the high ceilings they are above Corwin's head.

The gizmo that controls the cords that are connected to the rods is on the wall just to the left on the next picture. It has knots in it to regulate how high you can put the rods. This seems to be a pretty good way to keep the wash out of the way. It is also good for indoor drying in the winter.

There are water gauges and shut-off knobs right by every thing that uses water--the washer, the kitchen sink, and each bathroom. Every month the landlord will come to read those meters. He will also read the electric meter that is inside a cupboard near the door to the apartment (bottom picture). They get a bill with this on it too, but it seemed very important for them to also read and record the meter readings. I don't think I've ever read my meter at home.

Our Apartment

2008-08-14T11:51:00.011+02:00

Several of you have asked for more detail about where we live. As I mentioned, we are staying in the apartment where the Calvin professors have lived for the past three or four years. This picture shows our living room. The inside of the apartment is lovely, but I need to show you the outside and entry first to really appreciate the interior.

From the outside it looks quite gray and unattractive. This is largely due to the dark dust that seems to settle on everything. I imagine it comes from the use of diesel fuel, but who knows?

The outside door is barred as all others are. You have to use our key or enter a push button code to unlock the door. On either side of our door you find a men's clothing store, a manicure place, and a grocery store. There are restaurants on the corners to the left and the right. It is a typical urban area with lots of shops on the street level and apartments up above. In the apartment next to us is a dentist. Apparently it is his office as well as his home.

Once inside, the lobby shows the wear of many years. The building appears to have been built some years ago--we can't tell the date. The floor is marble tiled set in a quilt-type pattern, but with some tiles missing.

It may be that our 'common fee' provides only enough for the garbage pick up and basic repairs, since the walls in the lobby and most of the stairway have not been painted or repaired for some time. The plaster has a lot of holes in it. I keep reminding myself that cosmetics here do not have the same priority as they would in the States. Sections of the walls in the stairway have been repainted and look very nice.

The lift is to the left as you enter and as you can see in the picture above, the open stairs to the floors above are straight ahead. There are light sensors that turn the lights on just as you think they are not about to. When you go down the stairs in the dark you need to push a light switch (really it's a push button) every couple of floors or you'll be in the dark.

The lift says it has room for 4 persons, but that is a very tight fit. So we always take the stairs down and even take them up sometimes! I make sure to climb them at least once a day. I know you're shocked! We did use the lift for our luggage and we use it for bringing bags of groceries home.

The building is a sort of U with a courtyard in the middle. People hang their wash out on the railings to dry and also put drying racks out. The folks at the bottom have a nice spot for flowers. Our door is to the right at the end with one more apartment next to us. The dentist's door is just before ours. It's the one with the mat and you can just see a ceramic name plaque on the wall to the right.

It's a very spacious place with large rooms and very high ceilings (about 10-12 feet). The apartment has been remodeled in the last ten years or so, since it has new-looking ceramic tile floors in the kitchen, living room and bathrooms. The floors in the study and the bedrooms appear to be the original oak parquet--all in a herring bone pattern.

There is no air-conditioning but there are windows on three sides that keep us very comfortable along with two fans. There are no screens and no bugs. Amazing!

There is a modern automatic clothes washer in the pantry and we have a microwave. There is no dishwasher, but so far washing the few dishes we use hasn't been a problem.

The language teacher for the students will be coming to our apartment soon. She and Corwin will plan the Hungarian classes for the students. They have these early on to help them adjust in Budapest. I get to attend also, so hopefully I'll learn something.

Our Second Week

2008-08-12T13:22:00.003+02:00

Now that I finally have this blog created, I need to try to remember what has happened since we arrived. Wow, time does fly! It seems like we're always doing something, but it's hard to keep track of what and when. We have been sleeping a lot!

One day last week we went to the bank where Calvin has an account. They put dollars into it and we can take Hungarian Forints out over here. We have to pay the rent and most other charges in cash, although we do have a Calvin American Express card as well for some types of expenses when we travel later with the students.

We were a bit apprehensive about the bank trip since the professor who was here last year was unable to withdraw money for the first several weeks after he arrived. He had to use his own money until it got straightened out. We were not eager for that to happen to us. When Corwin was here last December he visited the bank and signed different forms so that the account would be all set now. Apparently that worked because we had no difficulty withdrawing about $2,500 that we needed to pay for two months rent, common fee for the apartment, our transportation costs from the airport and our first month's worth of subway/tram passes. We felt a little funny carrying around that much cash, but that is what we have to do and it worked out fine.

The money takes some getting used to since it has a lot of zeros. The common denominations that you get from an ATM machine seem to be 20000 ($125) and 10000 ($63) bills. They also have 5000, 2000, 1000, 500, 200 and 100 bills as well as 100, 50, 20, 5, and 2 ($0.01) forint coins that we have seen so far. We have to be careful when paying so that we're sure of how many zeros the bills have! They don't say 10,000 just 10000, so a 10000 can look a lot like a 1000.

We also went to the northern train station (there are 3 main train stations in Budapest) to check on trains to Romania. I was delighted to see the West End Shopping Mall there. It is two floors, air-conditioned and looks much like Rivertown Mall. I have to go back without Corwin.

On Saturday we went to Deak Ter, one of the main squares in Budapest, to visit the bookstore where Corwin needed to order the textbooks for the course he is teaching this semester. On the way we stopped at St. Stephen's Basilica. There was a wedding just ending. It appears that Hungarian weddings are much like ours. Differences that I noticed were that the bride and groom walked out arm in arm with the priest in between them (the groom also wore white), then the flower girls, then the parents. We didn't see any bridesmaids or groomsmen. They had a receiving line outside and a limo waiting. St. Stephen's is an amazing building and we plan to go back again when there is no wedding and we can see it better. The bookstore was closeby. Corwin was able to order the books he needed and I bought some Hungarian cookbooks.

We've been having fun at the grocery store. First we have to learn where everything is and then try to figure out what things are in English. Last week we needed toilet paper and came home with paper towels! They look a lot alike over here, since the toilet paper is about the texture of paper towels. It's a good thing that the grocery store is only 1 1/2 blocks away.

Sunday we went to St. Columba's Church. It's an English-speaking Scottish Presbyterian Church. There were only about 50 people there Sunday because people go away on vacation in August. We still enjoyed the service and plan to go back again.

After Church we went to the Gellert Hotel for brunch. The Gellert is one of Budapest's oldest hotels. We stayed there in 2005 when we were here last. The brunch was wonderful, of course. It was a great way to sample lots of Hungarian foods. They had cream of garlic soup, herring, salmon shaped into roses and several salads for starters. For entrees they were carving turkey and pork with your choice of sauces. There were chaffing dishes of pasta, vegetables, duck, fish and potatoes as well as two more with meat dishes that I already cannot remember. The last one I do remember, it was pullet with tomato and mozzarella cheese. Corwin really should learn to like poultry more.

There was another table with various breads and cheeses and then the dessert table! It had various pastries and glasses with fresh strawberries and strawberry mouse; chocolate mouse, a dessert made with a chestnut puree (I didn't try that.) There were several tortes and mango and vanilla soup (sweet & cold) that you could float a small meringue on top. There was also gelato and a fruit tray, but I don't think anyone even touched the fruit. It was a splurge, but a wonderful one.

After that we took the tram to Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube. It seemed to be the place to go on a Sunday with lots of folks walking, biking, skate boarding, swimming, picnicking, etc.

Yesterday, we went to Statue Park which is about 20-30 minutes outside of Budapest. You take the tram and then another bus to get there. This park contains many of the Communist statues that used to be in Budapest.

Instead of destroying them like the people in Iraq destroyed that big statue of Sadaam, they were all brought to this park as reminders of the way of life under the Communist rule. All that remains of one large statue of Stalin is the boots. It was very interesting to see.

This one is huge and was supposed to inspire the people to join with the Communist Party.
It has been warm here in the high 80's, but not terribly humid. We were going to go to Timisoara, Romania this coming weekend, but the forecast there is for 97 degrees. Now we're investigating some other cooler cities to visit!
I think I'm caught up on our activities and 'talked' out for now.
More later.
Marilyn

Arrival & Getting Oriented

2008-08-12T12:32:00.003+02:00

We left Grand Rapids on Monday, August 4th, at 5pm and Detroit at 9pm as scheduled. Each of our four bags was just under the allowed 50# limit. The 5th and smallest is Corwin's carry-on which was also quite heavy since it was full of books and paper. Luckily they don't yet weigh carry-ons.

We had enough time in Amsterdam to go through the EU customs and stop for some coffee. Then we caught our two hour flight to Budapest. All the flights were very nice, smooth and on-time. In Budapest we watched as the luggage came by on the conveyor belt. But our luggage did not arrive--not even one of the four. So then we stood in a fairly long line with many others whose luggage also did not come. It seems that Amsterdam's luggage sorting equipment is not working. I had heard that a city in the US had that problem last week too and all luggage had to be sorted by hand!

Then we took a taxi to the apartment, which we were told was as economical for two people as the minibus (airport shuttle). The landlord and his wife (who do not speak English) were waiting for us at the apartment. They wondered where our luggage was but with the language barrier, I'm not sure what they thought. At any rate, all four of us managed to fit into the tiny elevator (lift) for the ride to the 3rd floor.
I should explain that our apartment is 5 flights up, but the first floor is labeled F (foundation?), then EF (I have no idea what that means), then 1, 2, and 3. There are two more floors above us. We push the button for 3 in the lift, but if you walk it, it's on what would be the 5th floor in the States.

Moni (Monika), the landlord's grand daughter who speaks fluent English, has been our contact. She has also been the contact for the last three Calvin professors who lived in this same apartment. Her grandfather and grandmother, who are the owners of the apartment, were the folks who met our cab. Who knows how long they waited there, since we were delayed in the lost luggage line and had no way to contact Moni?
They showed us the apartment. That was a fun time, since we didn't speak the same language, but still got the idea of how to lock and unlock the door, use the microwave, washing machine, coffee maker, clotheslines, TV, etc.

Moni came to see us at 5pm after she got out of work. She explained everything again in English. She also called the number for the lost luggage at the airport. She was able to tell them in Hungarian where to deliver it and give them our local phone number. She gave them her number as well.

Since we had to stay awake to learn about our luggage, we took a walk and found a restaurant close by. Moni called about 10pm and said our luggage was on it's way and all 4 bags arrived about 11pm. You can imagine how glad we were to see it!
The time difference is 6 hours. So at 11pm on Tuesday (5pm in the States), we had been awake and traveling for 24 hours.

Wednesday, Corwin slept until noon and he woke me up at 1pm since he was just sure I wouldn't be able to sleep that night if I slept any longer. I was sure that would not be a problem!

We had quite a time with the internet, but finally it started to allow us access on Thursday. I still don't know exactly how/why. We have a cable internet connection. I think what did the trick was figuring out how to disable the wireless connection on the laptop. Basically, I just clicked on every spot I could find! The internet is such an amazing help with everything, I'm so glad that it is working now.

We've been eating out every night in nearby restaurants--just like at home! We live very close to the center of the city and there are small restaurants everywhere. Food is a bit pricier than three years ago when we were here, but still not too bad. It sure would be nice if the US$ got a little stronger! There are about 148 Hungarian Forints to one US dollar now. When Corwin was here last December there were 175HF/US $1

We went to the grocery store and bought bread, butter, and coffee on Wednesday, but our refrigerator did not work when we got here so we didn't buy anything that needed to be refrigerated. Monica's father and grand father came with a new fridge on Thursday. A man also came to fix the cable, so now have CNN, BBC, Animal Planet and Turner Classic Movies in English. So we are all set--TV, internet, luggage, food, an apartment close to the center city and oriented mostly.

Yesterday we got our monthly subway passes and went over to the Buda side to the dormitory where the students will be living. There are some items that Calvin stores over there from year to year. We had quite a time communicating with the desk clerk. But finally with the aid of some students, he understood that we were American and that we wanted to look at storage bin #3. It was down in the basement that had to be accessed through a door outside the dormitory. Corwin brought back some course materials and we had a fun exercise with using the subway, trams and buses.

We just watched the Olympic opening activities--quite exciting! Next week we hope to go to Timisoara, Romania for a few days. The students come about August 22nd.