Visitors from Hungary to Georgia

Dr. Judith Kádar and her son Péti are visiting this weekend from Milledgeville, where she's on a short visiting professorship .  She's a lecturer of American Studies in Eger, and invited us to her house for delicious food many times. She even taught me to make gombóc (I think!), dumplings stuffed with túró (curd cheese). We had a great time cooking BBQ, and went to Wild Adventures for some waterpark fun--no rides, though!

On Sunday, we took them back to "Millivilli", as they call it! The distance between Valdosta and there, is about the N-S width of Hungary!

Reflection: Fun

FUN

Most of the blog postings labeled as FUN were in relation to going on side trips, entertaining visitors, or looking at an element of culture in a weird way (like a shark in downtown Budapest). I couldn’t label all postings as fun, of course, since this was a professional, academic experience, documented in a professional, academic blog. But pssst…it was all FUN! And if we remember that teaching, learning, and culture can all provide us with FUN, we’re in good shape!

Fun: Swimming Pools and Pools and Pools

When our friends Dennis and Luana came to Eger, they had a plan--they would concentrate on spa and wine culture while revisiting the campus and town they'd enjoyed as the first VSU - EKF faculty exchange in 1995. We certainly weren't going to get in the way of that excellent plan.

They stayed a few days at the Hotel Flora, adjacent to the Eger Thermal Baths. I'd been there a few times during the cold months, enjoying the relaxing and therapeutic qualities of the hot steamy mineral baths. But I hadn't been to the baths complex since 'summer' had begun, although I observed the large numbers of children and adults swimming in the multiple pools as I walked by each day. Little did I realize what a huge and interesting complex it was!

The Strand is a large grassy park with all kinds of pools and fountains, ranging from hot thermal baths to an Olympic size pool with lanes to pools with slides, mushroom showers, and river currents. There's something for everyone. For one small admission fee, you go in and can soak in a mineral pool, eat at a cafe or restaurant, swim for exercise, meet friends, go to the wellness center, look at flowers and lily ponds, and spend the day with the family, making everybody happy. Here's a slide show that gives you a taste of this great park, right in the middle of Eger.

Eger Thermal Baths in Summer

Learning: Through the Eyes of Visitors

It's hard to decide how to classify this blog--through our various visitors while we were in Hungary, I learned, I taught, I experienced and conveyed culture, and I definitely had fun. Let me just use this blog to thank Susan, Catherine, Dennis, Luana, Robert and Elsie for coming to Hungary. It makes such a big difference to have others here in the U.S. (and in Scotland) who can share with us..."remember when we were in Eger...?"

Culture: Szépasszonyvölgy Picnic

Earlier in this blog I went on a lot about the arrival of Spring--the arrival of May was momentous, too, because it was finally (supposed to be) warm enough for a picnic at the Rector and Vice Rector's wine cellar. We were invited to come to the Valley of Beautiful Women (or reasonably pretty women, as one of my colleagues translates it) around 2PM for the start of cooking process that was almost as good to observe as the result was to eat.

Outdoor cooking culture, and wine making and tasting cultures were also on full view during this wonderful day sponsored by our host and chef, Rector Hauser. English speaking predominated with visitors Dennis Bogyo and Luana Goodwin from Georgia, Paul Swann and Lisa Manheim from Pennsylvania, and folks from International Programs, the administrative offices, and the Institute for Media Informatics.

But oral explanations in any language would not have substituted for watching the many steps of cooking (including a stirring technique that required very strong arms!). The fire was welcome, too, because the warm picnic weather didn't exactly materialize. We warmed up by palinka and wine, feasted on Hungarian bacon and pork chops (no American equivalent!) and bread, and got out of the wind in the (also cool) adjacent cellars. The Hauser guided tour of the wine cellars, through showroom, entertainment area, and barrel and bottle storage showed us just why Magister wine tastes so good. Dr. Hauser also showed us the spiritual side of wine-making by inviting us to be generous to all loved ones who were no longer alive--any extra sips should be tossed on the cellar walls to go back to the earth.

Share this day in May with us by watching the embedded slideshow at the end of this blog entry, or, for a larger view with captions, click here. And, for a culinary lesson in gulyás, watch Dr. Hauser in the "stirring video" below!

Guylás and Wine Picnic

Fun: Too Busy to Blog

The past two weeks have been very busy here, with visitors, farewell events, report-writing, visitors, farewell events, article editing, and more farewell events. This entry will be a placeholder, illustrated with only a funny photo I took in Vienna. This photo should remind me to smile for the wonderful time I've had here, and to labor to keep a 'stiff upper lip' when saying Viszonlátásra to the city and people I've grown to care so much about.

Fun: Ascent to my Office

It's been fun to lead visitors to "my" temporary office (thank you, Lajos), up in the tower of the Lyceum. I'm sure the 192 steps have contributed to my fitness this semester, making it possible to eat all the good food and drink all the good wine.

Arrival at the gate signaled the last part of the journey up into the tower, and if the gate was locked (from either side, each night) a call to security was necessary.





The floor plan to the right shows the tower--my office is on the bottom area shown, so the number of steps to the top is really high!

So, here is the tour for those of you who were not able to make it to see me in Hungary this Spring! Youtube Virtual Tour!

Fun: Aggteleki Nemzeti Park

Planning a wedding? A party? A concert? Any special occasion that requires a large and naturally beautiful setting, with seating for hundreds, marvelous acoustics, and special mood lighting will find a home in the Baradla Cave. Stalagmites and stalactites in rich colors of red, orange, pink, and brown are reflected in pools of still water. The quiet is only interrupted by occasional drops falling from the dripstones, and a distant sound of running water far below. Be sure to dress appropriately for the cave is cool all year round, and waterproof partywear would be recommended. Plan your special day in a special place today!

Our visit to Aggtelek National Park, including an hour guided walk through Baradla Cave was great. They really do have weddings and concerts there, and our tour included a sample of the acoustics of the part of the cave they call the Concert Hall, when "Chariots of Fire" rolled in (could have been worse--they could have played the theme from "Rocky"). The park is very large, and includes the largest dripstone cave system in Europe. We only saw a small part of the cave, and a small part of the aboveground park, which extends into Slovakia. There's much more to see, so be sure to invite us to your special occasion!

Culture: Hollókö

Hollókö (Raven Rock) is a preserved Paloc village, and one of the UNESCO world heritage sites.

On the way there we saw a pottery studio, and started the process of collecting treasures from Hungary to take home. I bought a palinka bottle and cups, decorated with the fruits that palinka is usually made from (plum, apricot, cherry, and pear). The big disappointment will be that we won't be able to buy the palinka to fill the bottle once we're back in Georgia! I think there's a big import opportunity for an entrepreneur to introduce this wonderful brandy to our part of the world.

The first surprise in Hollókö was the size and the prominence of the vár (castle). The reconstruction is very well done, and the views are wonderful. Down below is the preserved village, preserved at least since the early 20th Century. There have been many fires and other disasters that have destroyed the town, but it has been rebuilt in an authentic manner. People live in the village, so it doesn't have the 'Disney' or museum aspect at all.


There are some people dressed in traditional Palocs clothing, and, of course, are asked to pose for many pictures. There was a wine festival going on on the day we were there, and many, but not too many, visitors.


The real highlight of the visit for me was found in a small shop that had BEAUTIFUL pottery. The quality was high, and the designs and colors excellent. It was hard to decide which pieces should be 'relocated' to Georgia, but I found several. Thank you, Hollókö (and I even learned to say the name somewhat properly!)

For more photos of Hollókö, see the Picasa slide show linked from the Fun: Auto Outing blog posted earlier.

Fun: Auto Outing

We had a great weekend driving around northeastern Hungary with friends. Unfortunately, I can't write about it right now--I've got to review final projects and get grades in. However, here are some pictures to bridge the gap...

Auto Outing

Culture: Joke

A man walks up to a woman in a restaurant in Eger, Hungary. The woman is dressed in a rather formal looking black jacket since it's a cool and windy evening. She and her husband have just finished a wonderful meal and are preparing to leave the restaurant.

The man, in advance of his wife and two children, speaks pleasantly to the woman, obviously asking a question. The woman, not understanding (and obviously not LISTENING), says in Hungarian, "Nem ertem" (I don't understand). The man shifts from GERMAN to English, asking in English, "Do you speak English?" The American woman, happy to be able to help, says "Yes, I speak English." The man asks, "Do you have a table for four available?"

The American woman (me) breaks up, and tells the German family that the restaurant is wonderful and that the HUNGARIAN waiter (who probably speaks English and German as well) will be with them shortly. So much for Amerikai communication! Bert tells me I need to have some German so I can at least say 'I don't understand' in an appropriate language!

And, yes, this fish is from that restaurant!

Fun: Best Bükk Yet!

Bukk Day Trip: Spring Arrived

Thanks to our friend László, a knowledgeable and enthusiastic hiker of the Bükk, we've had the opportunity to walk through the woods again, this time as a part of a party of four adults and four children. The previous outing was in late March, when we were still waiting for Spring, and finding small signs in early flowers under brown leaves.

Now, in late April, the woods are a completely different sight. We went by bus to a fairly high point, then began a 20 kilometer hike up to the top of the rocky ridges, and through newly green forests. The views were wonderful; the weather perfect.

Sometimes the trail was a bit steep, but if the four boys could make it (one only 7), we surely could. We ended our walk in Bélapatfalva, where the train from Szilvásvárad just happened to be arriving shortly. We took the train back to Eger--a really wonderful Sunday outing. Enjoy the contrast in the seasons here, and take in the Bukk Day Trip: Spring Arrived Picasa slide show for a look at one part of one of Hungary's most beautiful national parks.

Fun: Wien (Vienna) and Szeged

We got back yesterday from a wonderful Easter trip. The weather does make all the difference, and with perfect Spring temperatures, blue skies, and flowers everywhere, it's hard not to have a good time. After the Eger to Budapest train (always get to go through Budapest to get anywhere), we had about the same time to Vienna, about 2.5 hours.

Vienna was not crowded, and we had a very nice little room in a very nice little hotel (7 rooms), very close to the center of the city. As usual we walked everywhere, and spent much of our time in art museums (Leopold, Kunsthistorisches), and eating/drinking establishments (mostly outdoors--every place has sidewalk cafes). We went to Mass on Easter at the Jesuit Church--it was a High Mass with a full orchestra, pipe organ, and choir. Due to standing room only on a very cold hard floor, we didn't make the whole service, but it was a special experience.

We had a wonderful Easter Monday in the park (Vienna is ringed with beautifully designed green spaces). We rode the giant Reisenrad (ferris wheel) featured in the movie The Third Man (Orson Welles), and ate at the famous Schweizerhaus beer garden with 700 of our closest Austrian friends. The featured food, Hintere Schweinsstelze (roasted pork hock) was gargantuan. Waiters somehow carried four or five of these chunks of meat along with an equal number of steins of draught Budvar (the Czech Bud) overhead without incident.

Four days and nights ate up a lot of Euros, and filled up a lot of digital photo space on my computer. Here are a few of the photos.

Vienna

On the next part of the trip we shifted from being tourists to being academics, heading for a professional conference in Szeged, Hungary, in the southern central part of the country. We left Vienna on the train back to Budapest (of course) on Tuesday morning. In Budapest, we had to change train stations, and so decided to walk through a part of the city we hadn't seen. Somewhat scruffy, but interesting. The old Nyugati train station makes the Keleti look modern and clean! But the Intercity train we took to Szeged (named "Paprika") was fine. Another three hours and we were in the land of paprika and Pick Sausage fame.

We had a pleasant evening, staying at the old, rather grand Hotel Tisza. Szeged is a very pretty city, on the large Tisza River, with lots of Art Nouveau and Secessionist buildings, wide boulevards, squares with flower beds and many sculptures and fountains. Again, Spring added to the appeal.

The reason for being in Szeged was the NETWORKSHOP Conference--someone at EKF had the idea to invite me to participate and get on the program back in the Fall. The conference is a combination of computer networking technicians, academic library people in the technology area, and e-learning people from the various colleges and universities. My Eger colleagues arrived around noon on Wednesday. They came by mini-bus with Vice Rector Kis-Tóth driving--a very "high level driver" as one of my colleagues noted.

Right away, in the "Alice in Wonderland" fashion we've come to know and love, the conference organizers rounded everyone up (200+ people) and put them on buses for a long transport to who knows where for a slightly weird lunch consisting of an apple, noodle soup, and a schnitzel with spaghetti in a lunchroom. Everyone was wondering why we went so far for that! We were eventually herded back on the buses for the return trip and I think everyone was wary after that of any forced transport!

We did get back for presentations beginning at 2:00. Following Lajos, Gabor, Csaba, and Bert, I was the only 'international' presenter, and felt a bit strange presenting in English. Of course, I muffed the few Hungarian words I tried to say due to nervousness! People were, of course, nice and told me I did a good job. After an afternoon of listening to Hungarian presentations, I was a bit tired (I was told by a colleague to remain unnamed that I was lucky because I could imagine that the presentations were more interesting than they really were!). We got goodie bags for presenting, including a delicious Pick Salami--that's unique!

The opening reception was in the evening, and we all decided to troop back to the hotel to get rid of our conference bags, etc. I found it so interesting that this whole group of academics would leave the mini-van at the hotel, walk to the conference center on the University of Szeged campus (probably at least a mile), walk back to the hotel, walk back to the conference center, and then walk back to the hotel--all in one day. You never find American conference goers walking a block if they don't have to! That has to be why the Hungarians can get away with eating sweets, sausage and sour cream!

The reception was purely Hungarian, but like any other conference as well--just with more wine and much more and better food. A good time was had by all, and we didn't have any trouble walking one more time, one more mile, to the hotel.

Two of the EKF faculty had presentations on Thursday late morning, so Jack and I stayed around the hotel, walked along the Tisza River, went to a time-honored cukraszda (sweet shop) for coffee and pastries, and joined back up with the group around noon.

Lajos took us all to a famous restaurant on the river where the famous Szeged halászlé vegyes halbó (paprika-spiced fish soup) was served. The setting was just like any 'catfish house', with outdoor tables, a river view, and lots of excellent food. The soup was great--really spicy--and we just HAD TO have the traditional follow-up to the soup. Nothing like a full plate of homemade noodles with bacon fat cracklings and sour cream to top things off. Delicious but totally unneeded and overwhelming, even for the Hungarians! One of the slides in the slideshow below shows that the restaurant suffers from flooding sometimes--with a 2006 high water mark far up on the wall. The flooding in Valdosta is far more rare, but more recent.

A three hour mini-bus ride back to Eger, with a stop to drop Bert off at home. It was good to be 'home' and Spring had exploded even more while we'd been gone. Our back yard is now leafy and lush, and the shedding blossoms of fruit trees account for the 'snow' on the ground. Lots to do ahead, but no more out of country travel plans, I don't think.

I hope you enjoy the slide show of Vienna above, and of Szeged below!

Happy Easter and Spring to everyone!

Szeged

Fun: Spring in the Park

I wasn't kidding about Spring!

Fun: Design Despair

A friend from home recently wrote to say she had done 'home improvements'--to a house I always think looks great! We've also gotten links to Picasa photo album updates from another friend, showing us the painstaking efforts to get just the right color combinations on their remodeling project. I laughed, knowing that if either of these two friends, with their artistic eyes, saw our daily environment, they would be aghast!

Although our apartment is cozy, convenient, host-provided, and has a wonderful landlady (nice, and a great and generous cook!) the colors aren't exactly complementary and the patterns are engaged in a serious and ongoing conflict. The textures in the living room alone range from a shiny quilted pink ruffled sateen spread on a kingsize 'bed' to napless hunter green and brown flowered carpet to bumpy mint green walls to floor-to-ceiling rose damask and white lace curtains to olive green/brown velveteen chairs/couch, to pink, brown, and white patchwork throws over the chairs/couch to a jungle corner of dusty plants hanging from 70's macrame to a red and tan oriental style throw rug. All is lit overhead by hanging lamps that throw strange and overlapping geometric shapes on the ceiling. There's no bringing it together.

We just confound the problem by bringing the powder blue and navy flowered duveted comforters and pillows in from the bedroom to cuddle up and keep warm while we watch International CNN play the same 'news' for the upteenth time, or the TCM movie of the evening (the Cartoon Network switches at 9PM from Hungarian dubbed cartoons to English language movie), or the many bad/good old series (Magnum, P.I., The Saint, Dallas, Northern Exposure) dubbed in Hungarian, to the haunting FilmMüzeum channel that's nothing but old European road, bridges, cities, harbors, gardens with sometimes enchanting classical music in the background, and sometimes techno-pop.

I thought it might be fun to try to document this environment in a patchwork collage--here goes!

Fun: Back to the Bükk

Just a quick blog--I'll do more when we return from a trip to Prague. We've had visitors this week, and one day trip was a return to Szilvásvárad with my sister, this time. We both like horses, and wanted to see the Lippizaner Horse Museum--unfortunately, it was closed. But the Lippizaner Stud Farm was open and we got to see the 1 and 2 year olds (black ones below), who will turn white by the time they are 3. We also saw beautiful carriages and sleighs on display. Wish we could be there for the big horse exhibition in July!

We also hiked to the Fatyol Falls, and, on the way, saw the wood carved statue above. Help me, Hungarian friends, who is he and what's the story? I didn't take my Hungarian dictionary in my backpack!