Good morning, on Saturday. Today we are going to take the bus to the “tv tower” which is up in the “hills” (mountains, by MO standards) to see the view, cloudy as it will undoubtedly be. On the way down, we are stopping at a restaurant where Laszlo recommends the trout. Yum.
Meanwhile, Aggie (a friend Dotty has met here) is making us dinner – lecho (sp?) a national dish which Aggie described as ‘greasy’ and ‘you start by frying onions in lard’. It has tomatoes and paprika in it also, which is actually the pepper, not the spice derived from its seeds. Aggie also pointed out that both of those are out of season. Nonetheless, Dotty had wondered about it, and Aggie, being warm and thoughtful, texted us this morning and told us we are eating dinner at her house tonight. She is also making chicken paprikash. Sometimes, though, greasy is just what the doc ordered, so I will give it a try, and put the lard detail out of my mind.
The 3 of us went to a concert last night – as luck would have it, the Balkan World Music Festival is here this week. It was Gypsy music last night, 3 very different bands. The last one played what sounded to me like one polka after another, although the instrumentation was interesting – a saxophone played by a man who had to be 6’8”, and a square piano-like thing, played by a middle Eastern fellow (not saying that the instrument was middle Eastern necessarily) played with xylophone- type sticks. We left midway through that – a little polka goes a long way. I enjoyed the first two bands - the first had a woman vocalist with an ethereal voice, and the second, very animated guitarists and violinists – entertaining to watch. At one point I think I heard a lick from that song that Pulp Fiction made famous, with that very fast guitar. Who knew it was an Hungarian folk song – no kidding.
Time to go – more later.
Ok, we’re back from our trek to the mountaintop. As it turned out, there was enough fog to make a good setting for shooting a horror movie, where you can’t see your fingers at the end of your arm and the creature comes snarling out of the woods.. We laughed and laughed and took photographs of all 4 views (n,s,e,w), all of which looked exactly the same. Then, as we had two hours till the bus returned, we camped in the restaurant in the tower, had too much coffee and discovered that fried pancake is actually a croquette. A surreal interlude: in a 360 degree panoramic restaurant, windows all around, can’t see a thing, a waiter that doesn’t speak any English at all, interior decoration along the lines of a Sound of Music diner (floral tablecloths, carved furniture, dried flowers on the table), and the soundtrack from Grease playing on the radio.
Thinking the bus left at 12:05, we paid the bill and went outside (Cold. Damp.) and realized that the bus didn’t actually return till 12:35. More hysterical giggling. But we discovered a small bar at the foot of the tower, met two Budapest architecture students, (both outgoing and able to speak English), and had a cup of hot mulled wine. We thought that quite a stroke of luck.
We skipped the trout restaurant, having killed our appetite with deep fried pancake, so we went and bought our train tickets for Budapest (we are leaving Pesc tomorrow morning – I am ready -this is really just a 2000 year old college town - population about 160,000). Dotty will be returning Tuesday afternoon, which will leave me Tuesday evening in Budapest on my own – an opera or symphony concert perhaps? Then Wed morning I take the train to the airport and begin the trek home.
Dotty and I are getting along fine – we really did break into hysterical laughter upon realizing that we had traveled up the mountain to view the fog.
I think that might be all to report for now. We are heading to McDs to send this (I do it in Word first), grab a snack, I hoping a nap at some point, and head to Aggie’s for Chicken Paprikash and the infamous Lecho at 6. We had talked about either a jazz concert tonight or the Michael Jackson movie (no kidding) but not sure either will materialize since we are leaving earlyish in the morning. Will pack tonight and catch the train at 9. I’ve been on a Pecs bus – tomorrow a 3 hour train trip – am looking forward to it – maybe some nice rural scenary – hopefully visible through the fog..
Hmm, wondering why the offspring hasn't had time to write to me since Wednesday....
Not sure about emailing opportunities in Budapest – we shall see – Dotty is not bringing her laptop with her.
Xos/mom
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