Szentendre's Skanzen - Ethnography on Display

As Don recounted earlier, Szentendre is a lovely artist’s colony about 8 kilometers outside of Budapest. In addition to its lovely “antique town” district, the area also houses the largest outdoor ethnographic museum in Europe called Skanzen about 3 kilometers outside Szentendre. Since we had to be in Latky, Slovakia that afternoon to visit Reni’s parents and pick up our luggage, we only had a few hours to spend there. The place is fascinating; the museum curators have arranged for old houses to be brought to this place and displays set up to give museum-goers the chance to observe how Hungarians actually lived from 1700 to 1900.

In this instance, a picture (and a good caption) is worth a thousand words. Another charming feature of this museum is that an old railroad car transports people in between the various points of the museum—and the conductor is dressed in period uniform—and his colleague has to jump out of the car and place the switch on the tracks. You get a sense of how glorious train travel was—and also how very slow!

The early 20th century Hungarians were very conscious of keeping their carbon footprint at a minimum

 A thatched-roof barn to hold thatch (and hay). The space in the middle was used as a garage - they drove their wagons in and pitched the hay into the mows on either side. This one was from about 1910.

The buildings were essentially log cabins with clay daub plastered between the chinks.

This is one of two rooms in the house - set here for a banquet to celebrate the marriage of the family's daughter.

Cooking and heating all in one - in this setting surrounded by the paraphernalia to squeeze grapes.

Guides and interpreters dressed in the clothing of the day tell the story of each cluster of buildings.

In many homes the men and women slept separately - this is where the men slept. Pat called it the 19th century man cave.

 We turned the car in with nary a scratch—which is pretty amazing when I tell you that Don drove 7, 515 MILES—that’s across the United States back and forth and more. We were very careful to observe the drinking and driving laws (zero tolerance especially in Hungary) and did our best to observe the speed limits. Now I’ll let Don tell you his story of bonding with the Slovakian Police (not to worry Mom, Dad, and Genny, we lived to tell the tale!) I am writing this in the airport at Frankfurt, Germany (our 13^th county but who’s counting) while waiting for our connection to Malta.

"Bonding?"

After successfully negotiating speed traps in 11 countries, I got nailed in Slovakia in what I consider to be a particularly underhanded fashion. Stash and Hans (I mean no disrespect - lol - they did not identify their names), the finest of a town whose name we can’t even remember (or pronounce) set up a radar gun on the outskirts of town – where there really is no town. The rule in Slovakia and Bulgaria, and Serbia is, 50 km/hour from the instant the car crosses the village line. That’s 90 km/hr to 50 in nothing flat. The penalty (in this case) is two weeks in the slammer unless I pay 30 euro on the spot. I was going a mere 64 km/hr – that’s about 40 mph. But Hans (or was it Stash) stuck his stick with a red circle out and waved me into a side street. I tried to give him 50 Kuna (Croatian money worth about $8), but he wouldn’t take it. He wanted 30 euro. So, luckily I had a 50 euro tucked in my passport case. He took it, had me sign a document saying I would be a good boy, and took out his wallet to make change. The 50 went right where the 20 had been. A good night for Stash and Hans. Not a good night for road warrior. Not only was I 30 euro poorer, I was doomed to admit that Pat was absolutely right. Double – no triple the pain. Maybe two weeks in the Slovak slammer might have been preferable. Note that this was the day before we turned in the car…. 

 

Relying on the Kindness of Strangers: Budapest revisited

We were last in Budapest in 1999 with Dan and Genny after Dan’s wedding. We remember it so well – swimming in the Gellert hot springs and wave pool, our visit to the fortress – we loved the city. So, as the Balkan portion of our trip began to wind down, we decided to come back.

As Pat said, we found a pension in Szentendre, Hungary, a northwest suburb of Budapest situated right on the Danube next to Szentrende Island, one of the more upscale suburbs. Easter Sunday afternoon, when we arrived, was cold but we managed to drive around taking a pretty good look at the area from the car and finding a bank machine to restock with Hungarian Florins – even their money sounds like a fairytale - but we couldn’t park the car because we lacked coins for the parking machines. We only had 10,000 fl notes (about $40). This would haunt us the next day when we were on our way to the city using public transportation.

As we waited at the bus stop Easter Monday morning - a holiday in Hungary and across Europe - we struck up a conversation with a 30ish guy named Zoltan who helped us figure out the public transport system – which seemed complicated to us When we climbed on the bus the driver sneered at our large bill and refused to change it – he didn’t have enough change. Zoltan paid our bus fare, - 700 fl or about $3.00 – and saved our butts. He was inquisitive, well travelled (he’s done an internship at U of Maryland in 1999 in Horticulture) and so kind. He walked us through the transfer from bus to metro that was necessary, sending us on our way still refusing the 700 fl. We promised to let him marry Genny…. Wouldn’t be a bad catch either.

Budapest is a city designed for tourists and well equipped to handle them. We opted for a “Hop-on; Hop-off” sightseeing bus that included a bowl of Goulash soup and a boat tour on the Danube. Pictures follow (and there are a lot!). 

Damn, I wish I knew the name of this building - it was magnificent

Parliament from the Danube - It's half a kilometer long

Another building we wish we knew the name of but it is beautiful

Liberty Monument, atop  Gellert Hill. This was where we had our free Goulash soup - more tomato-colored gruel with, count 'em, four small slivers of meat in a large bowl. Still, it was hot and the beer was cold and the view amazing.

Pat having warmed herself by holding her hands over the Goulash soup - it steamed up her glasses!

We think this was the art museum - but we're not sure because there was no Rocky statue here

The Square of Heroes commemorating those heroes of the 1956 uprising that so characterizes the spirit of Hungary. Pretty impressive stuff!

It was really cold – Pat bought me a 5 euro scarf that was a little femmie but warm. Still we froze until later in the afternoon when we sat in the sun alongside the river drinking beer. We then discovered a street fair with amazing street food. We sampled this cake thing that was dough wrapped around a wooden post and cooked over charcoal, covered with cinnamon and walnuts – to die for, seriously!

Making the cylinder cakes - tending the fire

They were piping hot when they came of the rollers.

Home to eat at our favorite Hungarian restaurant and our favorite waitress/bartender. And this was the other stranger who was kind to us. She took us under her wing, showing us the rabbits the restaurant had - petting rabbits on Easter is good luck in this part of the world, especially for the rabbits who avoid ending up on the table as an entree.Anyway, this girl also introduced us to the local Hungarian liquor, a fruit-based highly alcoholic drink that warmed us up. She also decided which of the many traditional Hungarian dishes we should eat and she was absolutely spot on in her choices. 


With such good Samaritans, we were well taken care of.


The adventure continues.... We'll tell you about the largest open-air ethnographic museum in Europe and Don's run-in with the constabulary of Slovakia in our next post. Stay tuned.

Subotica

Subotica-Our Last Stop in Serbia

Finding two nights in Belgrade almost enough time to spend in this lovely city, we regretfully got in the car to drive to our next destination—Subotica—which is a little town in northern Serbia near the Hungarian border which is known for its gingerbread town hall and proximity to Palic (a beautiful lake). It took about two hours in the car up the highway, and the roads were good. Our pension was one of the more Spartan accommodations we’ve booked, but it was sufficient. We checked in, and drove to the park situated alongside the lake and walked around and took pictures—and I found out that good things come to those who wait. First the pictures....

Lake Palic is adorned on its south side by an amazing collection of fairy-tale like buildings. This seems to be the central building with a massive arch focusing the attention on the lake.

Movie location people be aware - here is the spookiest, pigeon-covered, eerie structure with boarded up windows and crumbling walls any one has ever seen. Bates motel move over....

Another beach-front home, this one better cared for.

Who knows who these strange old women are.... My theory - their heads were shrunk while still attached to their bodies by the cannibals who life in the spooky house down the beach. I mean, who sees people this way?!

One of my disappointments with the monastery in Ohrid was that those peacocks didn’t open their tails for me! Well, as Don and I strolled along the streets behind the park (because most of you know that Don enjoys walking and driving through people’s backyards and taking the scenic route whenever possible), we saw about ten peacocks in someone’s backyard! They were all fenced in, but we waited quietly with our cameras ready to shoot. This one peacock saw us, slowly turned, and opened his tail preening absolutely exquisitely; he knew we were watching him! It was magical and totally unexpected. We even got shots of the back of the tail. The only thing marring the beautiful pictures is that you can see the fencing that we were shooting through, but as I’ve admitted to being afraid of birds, this was an okay tradeoff for me.

NBC, eat your heart out! We've got the real deal.

The sky darkened, and we had to hoof it to the car before the rain started—so we did find ourselves on Holy Saturday with some rain to contend with. We drove around for about an hour trying to find a place to have dinner (don’t Suboticans eat out we asked ourselves??), when at last we found a place. I think Don will tell you that he had one of the best steaks in his life for about $9 US, and I had Chinese for dinner—in Serbia. We concluded that although Serbians aren’t “foodies” so to speak, there is probably a lot here that foodies would enjoy—shout out to Keeley! We did get some nice night pictures of Subotica’s famous gingerbread town hall glistening in the rain, so we’ll post those. And here they are....

A statue with interesting lighting

Fairy-tale city hall

This was a city building of some sort. It was raining.

Easter Sunday in Serbia was quite amusing. Don is upstairs getting his stuff together, so I go downstairs to the hotel restaurant. There is a table of five men in their fifties/sixties, smoking and eating some breakfast. One asks if I am the “American,” and I fess up—yes, I am. They point to a table and tell me to sit there. I sit down, and this guy comes out with more cold cuts, cheese, and hard-boiled eggs than you would need to feed ten people! I tell him that this is too much food, and I move to the adjoining table—the five men immediately move to the table and descend on the food laid out for us like locusts—and the whole time they are inviting me to join them. Not being ready to communicate with five guys who don’t speak English before I’ve had my morning coffee, I politely decline and tell them I am waiting for my husband—what a good wife I am. I should have joined them and started drinking beer and brandy—because that’s what they do!! And it’s only 10:30 a.m. We have a more modest breakfast sans alcohol, and head for the Hungarian border—which takes us 1 1/2 hours to cross! This was our worst border crossing; we think it’s because it was Easter. The Serbian border moves pretty quickly, but it takes us longer to get into Hungary. Luckily we made it up on the highway. We are in a lovely pension in Szentendre, Hungary writing this blog entry and pre-gaming--finishing our wine before we go to the restaurant for dinner across the street—which is right on the Danube.

Shout out to Genny who starts her first official day of teaching in Korea tomorrow morning. We love you! Shout out to Eileen and Joe who are returning from Italy—glad you had a safe trip…

Belgrade - the real deal

For a devotee of the turn-of-the-century (19^th to 20^th that is) espionage writer E. Phillips Oppenheim, to walk the streets of Belgrade was a thrill. Most of Oppenheim’s World War I spy stories take place in major European cities, and Belgrade has been a favorite setting for his novels. One can almost feel the diplomatic intrigue and tension just by strolling in this city for one can see the beautiful art nouveau buildings bumping up against the joyless soviet-style cellblock architecture.

Kinda' tells its own story...

Don and I took the public bus into the city this morning. Our digs in Belgrade are actually in Zemun, a suburb of Belgrade about 15 minutes away (we have to have private parking for the car remember…). Even trying to buy the bus ticket is an adventure. Since it’s cheaper to buy it in the literally “corner store,” Don and I venture over there to get the tickets; you can buy them from the driver, but they are a little more expensive—anyhow, we want to try to be like a local and buy our tickets properly. Long story short, we go to three stores, people try to help us, but no one can explain what to do in English—so we give up and buy the tickets on the bus. Every time something like this happens when we’re traveling, I vow that I will really go out of my way if I see someone who isn’t American having a hard time figuring something “simple” out in our country—and most of the time Don and I do try and help people because we know how the easiest thing is a major production if you are a “foreigner.”

Dodging raindrops on the city pedestrian walk.

 

 

 

 

It was raining lightly today, but it didn’t really impact on our day except that our pictures are not set against the blue sky, but you can’t have it all. We walked down the main streets, strolled into a few churches, had a nice lunch at the 200-year-old “?” restaurant (yes the name is ?), and spent the majority of the day in the Kalemegdan Citadel, which is really a large and leafy green park that is very vibrant and had great views of the city. Interspersed between all of this, we stopped three times to have coffee at sidewalk cafes and people watch. We also stopped into a craft fair and found a lovely miniature oil painting of Belgrade that we’ll add to our collection of city scenes that we try and buy while traveling. We think one more day in Serbia, and then we’ll head into Hungary.

It is not unusual to have carved creatures peering from under windows and over doors. Cool....

Entrance to the 16th century Citadel

A remnent of the Serbo-Croatian war - we think. We decided not to go into the Military Museum so we don't know for sure.

"Which twin has the Toni?"

A Belgrade City ofice buiolding located within the citidal. Nice place to work where lunch will always be in a park....

Yet one more striking Serbian Orthodox church

Lunch at the "?." Pat seemed more interested in the English=language newspaper than my lamb brain sufflé.

The pedestrian mall in late morning - when it was still raining but before the poster exhibit was put up (see below).

Along the pedestrian mall was an exhibit of visual rhetoric - posters designed by design firms to advance the (often political) viewpoints of the clients. We found ourselves bristling somewhat at the less than flattering anti-American sentiments but this one we had little problem dealing with.

Springtime in Serbia - Nis and Belgrade

Nis, Serbia

Since deciding to book into Serbia rather than Romania, Don and I have to admit that we’ve discovered that the Serbians like to tuck it in in a big way—they like their meat, and they like it served big!!! Don is a happy camper.

A Serbian Orthodox Church that has been converted into an art gallery. The art would have to have been a little better to compete with the building that housed it.

Another day, another fortress - this one had been turned into a public park which offered teens a place to make out after school.... Ahhhh, spring!

Don and the dudes in the Nis town square - Don is the one in the middle....

We got on the super highway from Bulgaria and headed into Nis, the second largest city in Serbia. We checked out the fortress along the river, but mainly we noticed that like most European cities, it’s so important that there is a space to kick back and enjoy nature. This translates into public parks. Nis was a lovely city, full of large rolling public parks, and we explored it by walking the streets and walking through the park where a lot of young people were necking all over—I guess this is where they go for privacy—but no matter the city, it needs to have a park for people to enjoy nature—and all of them do.

The other thing about Eastern Europe that we’ve noticed is the distressing amount of graffiti everywhere. In our country graffiti generally signals that you are entering a bad neighborhood, but over here that is far from the case. The graffiti is everywhere, even in nice neighborhoods.

This building was in a very nice neighborhood near our apartment.

We are told by residents that, while it is seen as a problem, the penalty is a 50 Euro fine, too small a penalty for police even to pursue the spray-can toting artists. There are other, more serious issues for the police to focus on, such as harassing good-looking American drivers with 4-cylander Citrons that can barely do 50 miles an hour.

Our quarters in Nis were lovely, and this is the first apartment that greeted us with a lace-covered tray with coffee cups and Nescafe for us to enjoy. 

I find that it’s hard to drink water or soda when it costs as much for water as it does for a beer! Ordering water seems like such a waste  - luckily I am traveling with a man who agrees with me on this point…

I’m going to sidetrack and tell you that we have been trying to rent one-bedroom apartments rather than hotel rooms, so we can make coffee and tea and prepare our own breakfast. When you are on the road as long as we are, you need to take these economies J. We also find apartments roomier and with more personality than hotels or pensions. Although the location appears relatively straightforward on booking.com, when we book these places Don inevitably gets an email giving him directions on meeting someone somewhere who will direct us to the site. (“Go to the pizza place down the street from the Holiday inn and ask for Mr. Valdo.…”) The usual scenario is that we get into the town, and then Don (or me) gets out of the car, locates  someone who gets in the car and directs us to the “secured parking place” that is promised in the booking. They are always nice people, but let’s just say, that it’s not like pulling into the Holiday Inn and parking your car in the lot. This adds to the adventure and one gets the sense of the entrepreneurial spirit that inhabits this part of Europe, but it does cause drama every now and then—but Don is persistent, and we persevere….

Serbia is lovely. When we decided to come here, we were a bit worried—especially after going to Dubrovnik and viewing the exhibit about the Serbian attacks on Dubrovnik during the war, but we have found the people here to be very welcoming and open.

Belgrade, Serbia

We are staying in Zemun which is a suburb about 6 kilometers outside of Belgrade.

The amazing "Blue Danube." That's Belgrade downstream.

Tonight we had dinner at a nice fish restaurant on the Danube, and the owner introduced herself and said that she worked in the US when she was a college student. She wanted to make sure we had a nice dinner and enjoyed our stay. It turns out this place has music every night, so I think Don and I are going to go there tomorrow night after touring Belgrade—we had a really nice dinner and enjoyed looking out at the river—it was almost like being on the Delaware (shout out to Mom and Dad!!)

A view from our apartment into this residential neighborhood here in Zemun

It’s really springtime here, and the fruit trees are blooming everywhere. It was actually HOT today-- good time to be near the water even if it is only the treacherous Danube. We plan to explore Serbia for a few more days, and then head into Hungary and Slovakia before we take the flight to Malta.

Genny made it to Korea and seems to be settling in. We expect to hear more from her after she gets over the jet lag and settles into her apartment.

A picture of Genny when she was about 16 - guess who will kill us when she sees this.... but this is how we think she feels.

We hope Joe and Eileen are enjoying their Italy trip (Ciao, Baby!) and look forward to hearing from them.

Don and I have been listening to Jon Stewart on line—and we don’t feel so far away! Hope all is well with everyone who is following our travels.

Pat’s Travel Tips:

1)    If you like Sweet and Low and have run out of what you’ve packed, head to the nearest Starbucks and hock some; you can tell yourself (as I did), that you have certainly supported Starbucks enough to take a few packets of Sweet and Low…the barista in Sofia told us how much he missed California.

2)    Keep those portable shower caps that they give you in some hotels—I have used them to store food or wet small cloths (see Tip #3)

3)    If you haven’t traveled in Europe, then you don’t know that for some inexplicable reason, they don’t use washrags—you’ll get towels, but you won’t see washrags in most places—so pack your own—and when they are wet—wrap them in the disposable shower caps (see Tip #2)

That’s all for now folks!

Rocking in Bulgaria

When we last left you, Don and I were in Macedonia and planning to drive to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Intending to spend two nights, we ended up spending four and having such a great time that we were lax with our blogging responsibilities. I’ll try and make up for that now while Don is copying the pictures.

We'll begin with just a few pictures from Skopje, Macedonia--a town we found to be a mix between slightly tacky and classically beautiful.

A view from our apartment window which was on a pedestrian-only street right down from the main square.

The green sign at the top of the building names the beer we liked to drink in Macedonia - UMMMM, Good!

A lion spitting up.... Seriously!

Alexander the Great, Macedonia's first claim to fame, atop the lion-spitting-up fountain....

An early monarch of Macedonia - his name was in Cyrillic script.

We drove into Bulgaria after a three-hour drive over some pretty decent roads—and got stopped by the police doing random checks twice in about half an hour. I think being American and not being kids, they just smiled and left us alone—although the first cop told Don the speed limit was 50 kilometers in the villages—so of course I didn’t nag him about driving fast. (yeah, right....[Don]) 

We got into the city and walked the streets checking out the historical sites on the city map. Here's some of what we saw....

We think it was a socialist statue but probably not... Again, Cyrillic script. Sophia residents tend to get rid of anything (often with jackhammers) that reminds them of the Soviet era.

Doors to St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral, with one of a million icons that took our collective breaths away

A long-shot of St. Alexander Nevski Cathedral, The domes are reportedly plated with gold paid for by the Russians. When we walked in, it was Saturday night and a mass began highlighted by an amazing choir chanting in the choir loft and dozens of Sofians bowing and crossing themselves (backward) most dramatically. We were blown away.

Just one of hundreds of beautiful buildings. We're not quite sure what this is. And this time we cannot blame it on Cyrillic script

We lost an hour because the clocks changed again when we crossed the border into Bulgaria; it was an hour later here which meant that we had another hour of daylight to sightsee.

This time we booked another one-bedroom apartment which turned out to be above a beauty parlor, yoga studio, and spa. One of the features of staying here is free saunas—which we have taken advantage of twice.
 
Although the weather has been sunny and warm most days, Sunday, April 1 gave us a chance to relax. It was windy and raining in the morning—and then it snowed! We walked around the city and made jokes about it being April Fool’s Day. We went to the Ethnographic Museum which had an exhibition on wine-making (Don took some good notes) and met Bulgarian women who were teaching younger women the traditional crafts of tatting and making bobbin lace. We also walked through the sculpture gardens.

Traditional Bulgarian wedding costumes from about 1900.

Traditional American tourist costume circa 2012 on a cold, rainy/snowy day - the model refused to stand in the alcove behind her despite the photographer's imploring her to do so.

 Because we had the car in a secure parking place, we’ve walked all over the city, but we decided to visit another monastery in Rila which is quite famous. It’s the largest monastery in the Baltics, and the architecture is quite distinctive. It was interesting to see this monastery after seeing the one in Ohrid because they both promoted literacy and education.  

A view of the main church. Everything is painted, including the zebra-stripped arches and the American-flag stripped wall above the portico

The south gate leading into the monastery courtyard

A closeup of the painting above the entrance.

Looking up at the ceiling of the porch outside the church proper. Every surface that could be covered with painted decoration was! There are literally thousands of paintings, all more beautiful than the previous one.

It could be a fountain or a baptismal font but is was beautiful. Notice the golden bird perched on the statuary in the middle of the fountain and the bell behind it.

The Rila Monastery courtyard was full of snow, and these guys were loading it into a wheelbarrow and hauling it away. Later, when they got tired of hauling it, they just spread it out across the rest of the courtyard so it would melt in the sun.

Just too amazing not to be included.... Talk about telling a story!

The 120-kilometer drive to the town of Rila was also a great travel experience. The snow the day before was enough to enchant but not enough to cause any road problems. We drove several kilometers on a super highway with snow-covered mountains and lightly dusted trees that sparkled in the sunlight—and then we drove through the mountains on roads that definitely see cars—but if we passed 15 cars in an hour that was a lot. We did pass some guys riding horses and another with a donkey cart loaded with hay, and I could see why that would be the preferred method of transportation in that area!

The Rila Mountain range, south of Sofia, the highest mountains in Bulgaria and the sixth highest mountain range in Europe.

Snow in the mountains - beautiful and fragile. It was gone by the time we left the Monastery,

After such a lovely day, we noticed that the snow had totally melted from the trees on the way back—but the lovely snow-capped mountains retained their bit of the morning’s snow.

Today we went on the Free Sofia Tour which was a two-hour walking tour of the city. We should have done this first, but the weather was not cooperating or we didn’t feel like it, so today was our day. Our guide, Filip, took about 30 people on a tour, and it was obvious that we hit pay dirt. He knew a lot of history, tons of local lore, and had a great sense of humor. One story—a group of terrorists plotted to overthrow the government in 1924. They killed a general, and then planned to blow up everyone in the church at this guy’s funeral—including the King. At precisely 3 p.m. dynamite blew up the church. About 200 people died and 500 were injured; the King was not killed because of a Bulgarian "habit"—he was 15 minutes late!

After the tour, we went to lunch with the tour guide and five other people: a Canadian, a Brit, a Finn, and a couple from Australia. We had a fine lunch and several beers, solved all of the world’s problems, and declared that everyone should travel and expand their knowledge of other people’s cultures. Because it’s the off-season, there are not a lot of tourists, so this is the first chance we’ve had in a month to spend quite a bit of time with other people who are traveling like we are.

We’ve been on the road four weeks yesterday, and the time passes quickly. Our Genny left for Seoul, Korea this morning to teach English for a year. She just landed in San Francisco and is getting on the plane to Seoul right now, so keep her in your prayers. We are going to miss her so much! A shoutout to Eileen and Joe who are in Italy for ten days—we wish you a great trip.

We originally planned to go to Romania, but we have heard some horror stories about their roads and decided to go north into Serbia instead. We plan on driving through Serbia for the next three days and staying in Nis, Belgrade, and Subotica (a town near the Hungarian border). More later.