Train from Budapest to Debrecen

Gyors translates directly as "fast". So I thought I was being clever when I bought a ticket for the fast train. Apparently, this is the slow train compared to the intercity train, which is probably something completely different in Hungarian. There is a slower train so at least I didn't take that one. I'm not in a big hurry, but I do want to attend the Bahai 19 day Feast which should be tonight. (The Baha'i calender has 19 days and we celebrate at the beginning of each new month.)

 It's a compartment train and I chose a compartment which is not crowded. I sat across from a teenage girl who was writing in a journal. Shortly after the train started moving, she slammed it closed and started talking to me, high speed, in Hungarian. The only tidbit I understood was "a boy". I was eventually able to stop her and say I'm not Hungarian. She was pretty embarrassed but switched to rough English and slowly, with great effort explained her boy troubles. I listened patiently, although I was desperately tired, and gave her the best advice I could muster (not to give up, but to fight for him - have I been corrupted by Disney movies?!) We swapped names and said we should friend each other on facebook. Her name is common in Hungary, but I didn't realize how common until my search later came up with 673 Dóra Hórváths.

 The Hungarian Puszta countryside is flat and plain and pretty much featureless, yet I really like it. The strange thing is that I've crossed the entire country now, and other than one small herd of sheep, I haven't seen a single cow or pig or barn. How can this be possible for a population who cannot eat a single meat-free meal? In Canada, where we rely far less on meat, I would have seen several thousands of cows by now. A creepy mystery. Soylent green is people?!

back through Budapest

Oh what a stunning city! Every single building on every single street is so soul-satisfyingly ornamented. Wrought iron or marble balconies. Statues on every corner or building. Sculpted pillars galore. What looks at first like an alley opens up into a colossal courtyard with floor after floor of iron wrought by hundreds of hands painstakingly over what must have taken years. And these are accentuated by potted plants hanging thousands of flowers dangling over the edges. Every random alley I explored was like this, and almost every one had a fountain or statue at the centre. I felt my soul feeling more at home, felt it rising to the surface, slowly freeing itself from the oppression of ugly surroundings created with only practicality, efficiency, and frugality in mind.

A moment of silence in the majestic Hero square, for a bygone era, when beauty was a priority. I'm pondering the labour that went into all of this. A time before television. I know that passivity is bred by the forces of society, but here there are forces that are swelling up a passion in me to create, explore, achieve, learn, and aspire to certain victory. And oddly, I'm not sad to leave. Three hours of power walking through this grandly decorated city has recharged me, and I'm eager for new adventures as I board a train to cross this flat land on my way to Debrecen, Hungary's second largest city, at it's eastern end near Transylvania.

some final thoughts about Vecsés

I've been trying to think about why this funny little town, half an hour from Budapest, is so charming and interesting.  Well, there's the cabbage festival, that's pretty unique.

What I really love about Vecsés is how there's a church in the middle, with a street around it, and all the other streets fan straight out from it (maybe a bit like Goderich, but I don't remember if it has a church in the middle.)  All the houses are pastel colours of salmon, yellow, orange, ya, that's about it, mostly those three colours in slightly varying shades.  There are hundreds of dogs!  Everyone has a fenced and gated yard, with the fence pressed right against the sidewalk.  When walking, I've had the óü+!/%+ű scared out of me several times when a giant, unbelievably loud dog suddenly lurches out of nowhere up against the fence.

And the roofs, they're the best.  All made out of some type of thick clay tiles.  Yikes, Csaba is here, my ride to the train station.  Sziasztok!

some Hungary pics, Budapest and Vecses

 McCafe!!!

KING CUCCOK?  Yummy? 

 view from the one hotel, the one night, in Budapest

 my grandfather's grave: Lazlo Ujfalussy, in Vecsés

 singers at the cabbage festival!

 my new kaposzta friends

 cooking the cabbage (and the pork...)

 just like Sasquatch!

 my distant relatives in Vecsés

some pictures finally! (let's start with Munich)

A Nazi meeting point

(this one speaks for itself!)

 notice the lowenbrau lion in the middle

oktoberfest at night

it really is a cabbage festival

I don't think I'd believe it if I didn't see it for myself.  A cabbage festival.  It sounds like a schmenge brothers joke.  It was actually a lot of fun!  Oh, I wish I could upload my pics.  I may be able to in a few days.  There were giant vats of cabbage.  A cabbage pyramid.  Cabbage people.  Is this where cabbage patch kids came from perhaps?

Kaposztafeszt is pronounced something like: kah-posta-fest.  Cabbage fest, yay!

I tried a few things.  In a can that looked like a cola, I enjoyed a fizzy apple drink (that actually still tasted quite a bit like a cola.)  I had a sweet treat that I thought was named after a flute, since it was flute shaped, but I just looked up the word for flute and I don't recognize it.  It was pretty good, fresh baked, but a bit too sickly sweet, covered in rock sugar.  Of course, I had to try the cabbage!  I had something like a roti, with white paste spread on it, fresh red onions on top, and cabbage from a big vat.  With great effort, I explained that I wanted it without meat - "hús nélkül".  They normally put a sausage or diced pork in it.  It wasn't too bad, but I think it really counts on the pork for its flavour.

Music is a big part of the festival, that's for sure.  There were a few bands playing in different areas, some of them large orchestras, like highschool bands but they looked older and sounded better.  On the main stage they had big choirs in traditional clothes, and then a band playing all of the Hungarian favourites.  I didn't recognize anything except for LaBamba, which didn't excite the crowd much.  They later played some folk song which made dozens scream in excitement when it started, and had most of the hundreds there singing along and dancing passionately.

It was also a bit like a country fair back home.  There were booths with new machines for slicing, smashing, and doing I'm not sure what to cabbages.  No animals though, except for those that were getting cooked.

One thing I'm realizing more and more that I took for-granted about Canada is that you never have to pay to use a toilet.  In public places here, you always have to.  And despite paying for them directly here, they're usually a lot more run-down, dirty, and smelly.  I'm drinking a lot less than I used to...

At the home where I'm staying, my host made a big deal out of her creation of a big bean soup (bab leves) for me.  This was before I found out about the kaposzta-feszt.  So I missed her soup due to the festival, and had cabbage there.  Of course, I felt so bad when I came back and she said "what about my bean soup?"  I pretended to still be hungry and she gave me a big salty bowl of bean soup. I'm dealing with a bit of acid indigestion currently.  Cabbage and beans for dinner - I hope I don't light the couch on fire or blow-up the house tonight!

Cabbage Festival!

www.vecsesikaposztafeszt.hu/

Vecsés

I'm now at my grandmother's sister's daughter's house.  My great cousin?  My second cousin?  She's really sweet and is taking very good care of me.  I was so excited to see they have internet here (I'm not even sure they had a phone last time I was here!)  But the internet is super slow.  And I was excited about a keyboard, but it pretty different than at home (there's a Z where the Y is normallz, and all the punctuation marks are in different places''')

Zaz'  Paragraph breaks!  So Vecsés is prettz melow.  It's busy todaz with the kaposzta (cabbage) festival!  Ok, I'm gonna send this to test it.  Gotta go anzwaz, Dharlene is trzing to call!

reconnected: my mobile phone

Sitting in a mobile phone shop. Apparently it won't cost me anything to receive calls when we get this gadget fired up. So if anyone wants to call, I'll post my cell # here. It's a tiny little shop, sunk deep inside one of these old charming buildings, typical Budapest style. Passed through another amazing courtyard to get to it. This tiny shop is suddenly getting very crowded; lunchtime rush? / / / So in an emergency, you can call me at the following number, but it may be expensive for you: 00-36-30-872-7862

cute hotel

The concept of staying in a hotel last night hadn't crossed my mind; well, perhaps it very briefly crossed it, but the notion was quickly rejected. I'm really trying to travel frugally. But when I finally reached Dharlene (after a frustrating 45 min in a phone booth!) she convinced me to get a hotel since I haven't slept more than a few minutes in a row in the last few days and it was getting late to venture out to the small village of Vecses in search of my distant relatives. // // Let's try that, for paragraph breaks. I apologize for the stream-of-consciousness style posts so far. So my hotel is great. I'm in the tiny lobby now, listening to every culture, especially Russians, trying to communicate with the reception. I wish I could upload photos. All the rooms surround a huge, very pretty courtyard with a fountain in the middle, up several floors with intricately worked wrought iron decking it out all the way up. $80 CND per night on this special occasion of a good night's sleep, wifi in the lobby, free toilet use, and a hot shower, was worth it. // // Unfortunately, it came with a TV and a remote. I could try to justify its use as a tool for learning Hungarian, but that's a stretch! Although everything IS dubbed into Hungarian. I saw an ad for some fashion show a couple of times with Mary Ruston's son Adam, dubbed into Hungarian! Either his voice really dropped in the last few months or they just didn't bother trying to match it. // // So much for shedding the lethargy though, sprawled out on a king-sized bed with a remote, slipping in and out of consciousness through dubbed fishing shows and adds for sex help books. // // Time to wander the city for an hour, with luggage in storage, yay! Then off to Vecses to see my, um, second cousin?

the elusive zebra

In my haste to exit the train station, I never found a storage locker so carted my luggage all over this end of Budapest today. The buildings are so intricately ornamented here, every small street offers an eyeful of beauty. I was on a mission to find a particular mobile phone dealer: telenor. On the google map I downloaded at McHurls it didn't look that far. Dragging my luggage started to become a burden, especially when I arrived and found out the whole square was under construction and the telenor was closed. I passed several mobile phone shops that went out of business; it looks like that bubble really burst. So for now I decided to get a phone card. I promised Dharlene I'd call her by now. Well, that quest turned out to be a real wild goose chase, which I wouldn't mind in such a well adorned city were I not lugging my luggage everywhere. A big reason for being perpetually lost was a reliance on a "zebra" (same word in Hungarian) by the train station. All the directions I received were in relation to this zebra. Go past the zebra. Turn right at the zebra. You should know that I'm not good at directions even in my home city and my native language. I sure tested the wheels on my new luggage, rolling it for several miles over course cobblestone streets. In any case, I couldn't find this darned zebra! Eventually, back at the train station, a young girl and guy working the tourist info booth, who both spoke excellent English, were being extremely helpful until they too referred to this zebra. I told them I struggled and gave up looking for such a statue. They had a really good long laugh and explained that it's the term to describe the striped crosswalks! So these cuties sold me a phone card and gave me a map, and booked me a great, inexpensive room (only about 20% more expensive than a youth hostel) in what has turned out to be a lovely hotel around the corner. I'm off to the free breakfast now!

paragraph breaks?

Okay, when I finally previewed my blog just now on Safari, on my iPod, each entry was ONE giant paragraph. Is it like that just for me, hopefully? Need paragraph breaks. Want them. Please comment on what YOU see.

Hungary, finally

A couple of hours after the drunk boys missed their stop to connect to Prague and leapt off the train at the next stop in a panic, I awoke to a gorgeous misty sunrise, alone now in my car. Behold the plains of Hungary, called the Puszta. A few ancient looking homes with red ceramic roofs whiz by near the tracks, with fence lots and sometimes big long-haired horses with heads bowed to their furry front hooves. They seem to be mimicking a pervasive sadness that I remember seemed to plague a lot of the Hungarians. And now this Puszta is scattered with clusters of majestic wind turbines, turning calmly in sync, stealing the wind's kinetic energy and converting it into useful electrical energy. Hungary, I recall, is one of the very few countries to accomplish it's Kyoto reduction goals, although that probably has more to do with their subsequent economic crash. This ticket guy was short, with a big grey moustache, and was soft-spoken and polite. He looked so typically Hungarian that I was thrown into a warm fuzzy spin of sentimentality. Plus I was extremely tired. The train station, one of four, is more spectacular than Munich's. But on the platform, offers for taxis and accommodation, coupled with an almost paralyzing disorientation, prompted me to leave in a hurry, without even knowing where to. No map, no Hungarian money (the Forint) - why aren't they using the Euro yet? As if switching from English to German and now to Hungarian wasn't tough enough on my brain; three Italian tourists implored my help with their train travel, in both Italian and Spanish. My modest efforts to absorb some Spanish in the past were so distant and inaccessible now. Did trying hopefully push off alzheimers for a few months. (I don't remember how to spell it; is that a sign?) Then a Hungarian woman asked me for directions. Why does it look to anyone like I may know anything?! I bad at directions around my own home, sheesh. My offline map app is useless. Do I need to go back in there to buy a map or exchange some money for another Burger Thing event? I couldn't find lockers while inside, so with all my luggage, I strolled around a Budapest block. Lots of underground shops (in the literal sense) beckoned me to buy, I'm not sure what. There's the Burger Thing, but what?! No wifi? But, here's a weak signal from McHurls. 7/8 of the way around the block from there I found a bank machine that allowed withdrawal from my Canadian account. Wish I'd gone the 1/8 of the way in the other direction instead! So now I'm horsing out on egg mcmuffins, charging with the only outlet in the place, downloading new maps of Budapest, and uploading my blog. My plan, perhaps, is to take the metro, with my hefty luggage, to the Baha'i Centre and see if I can leave some luggage there and get advice about purchasing a phone. Wish me luck, please!

Wed night train ride

Had a brief moment of charging my iPod in the train corridor until a drunk teenage boy almost sheared off my charger with his luggage. Then two other drunk american boys joined my six seat cubby, erroneously, but I don't want to provoke them since they're also overtired and frustrated with their alcohol induced incompetence. I really really hope they don't hurl. For added volatility, a grumpy, large and solid looking businessman just joined our booth. The train hasn't even started moving yet and everyone is completely out cold, except for this blogger. I forgot to mention that, of the two sweaters I brought, I've been wearing the white one. On my first day of this journey I already blobbed tomato sauce on it and didn't notice until way later when it had already cured to the consistency of concrete. Oh my. It's one hour into the trip and the ticket guy is here. He's so patient. He has asked the drunk boys about a dozen times for their tickets, each time again after they would shuffle their papers and fall asleep again! Then, of all people, the well dressed business guy lost his! The checker said he'll return later to give him a chance for a thorough search. Then, after a brief patting of pockets (revealing to me an Oktoberfest arm band) he too fell asleep again. Why are the lights back on? A sleeping mask would have been a wise and easy item to pack. Ugh, these seats don't recline AT ALL. I'm doomed to a lousy sleep again. I wonder where I am? Austria probably? He found it! It's a miracle. And I found the light switch. It's 1 am here and all I see outside are occasional lights that whiz by from small train stations. Digging in my iPod for a map of Budapest, I found some info on the various train stations there. Arg! Now I'll stress about the next confusing leg of this trip: trying to find my relatives in a small village called Vecses, about an hour from Budapest, but probably not accessible from whatever station I'm heading to! I got a $0.99 app called "Hungary" which bragged about it's maps. It seems to have one blurry blob, non-zoomable, as a country map. Regarding the train stations in Budapest, the app says: "The main railway stations (pályaudvar) are Keleti pályaudvar (Eastern Railway Station), Déli pályaudvar (Southern Railway Station) and Nyugati pályaudvar (Western Railway Station). The stations are not named for their geographic location in the city, nor for the direction of the destinations served by each (trains to Vienna, for example, leave from Keleti)." We just stopped in Teisendorf. Ya, it's unfamiliar to me too. Can't see or hear anyone getting on or off, platform looks abandoned. The engineer blew his whistle a couple times and now we're rolling again. It's a pretty smooth ride at least. Sorry for all the lengthy unimportant and unimpressive details. I'm just really bored; but my battery's almost dead again, which is a bummer since music may help... WOW, a very bright white and orange lighted train just flew past in the other direction. Trippy! It looked and felt like the last scene from 2001 a Space Odyssey. Aww, the two drunk boys are snoring and snuggling together like two of my cats do (the farm boys we call them: Squid and Diqi.) But I don't think these two are brothers? Should I take a picture to show them when they sober up? Sure hope I can find wifi later this morn in Budapest so that I can pos this. I also want to buy a phone. Unbelievable. The wacky ticket search routine keeps repeating itself like a bad comedy every time the ticket guy comes. It's a new guy and he said he'd return to check the business guy's ticket. Immediately after he left, the business guy fell asleep and when he returned, he almost kicked him off the train! I think he should consider putting his ticket in one of his eight pockets that he always checks first, instead of his ticket eating wallet. Ok, no power... shutting up now!

Oktoberfest and Burger Thing

Well, at least I got to -charge- my iPod at that cafe. But there's no wifi anywhere to allow me to upload these blog entries. Yuk, Burger King, or as Dharlene calls it "Burger Thing." Of all the amazing places in Munich, I'm in BT, just use their free wifi while I justify my presence with a medium fries and mayo. And ME, a vegetarian. Burger smells are assaulting my brain. On my way out of the main Oktoberfest park area, I thought I'd just follow the crowd. Wouldn't a massive crowd be very likely heading to the main train station? Wow, did that ever not work. Ended up the BUS station, then pretty lost after that. Found my way eventually and bought an overnight train ticket to Budapest. Hope I can sleep this time, it's quite a sleep deprivation marathon for me so far. Eventually I wandered back to the fair for the late afternoon. So many people! I'm sitting on a steep grassy hill, under an enormous woman warrior and her lion, framed in monstrous pillars on three sides. She's probably famous, nut I don't know her. Both of us - and dozens of others, some serious photographers but most recovering drunks - are overlooking the Oktoberfest area, as it starts to glow and glimmer and as the full moon begins to take over for the lazy sun now only able to pinken some whispy clouds. The overlapping distorted sounds of rides, screams, bands, CDs, and obnoxious drunks, combined with the moon sneaking through those whispy pink clouds, creates an overall effect that is more eerie than festive. Huh. Stretching and doing yoga on a grassy knoll at Oktoberfest are good ways to make friends. Korean friends anyway. Who knew?

Munich and Oktoberfest

5 euros (approx. $7 CND) for a locker?! Ouch. Worth it? Irrelevant, since I've got no choice, really. What's all this commotion? Yay, it's a washroom! But wait, a line and it costs 1 euro to enter! Travel is definitely not always glamorous. Crazy streets arrangements here. So this was the inspiration for Kitchener's wacky omni-directional streets. Everyone seems so smart in another language. Most of their conversations may be just as superficial and inane as those in Canada, but I struggle to follow them so their geniuses. Yikes! Almost got ran down when I wandered foolishly onto a high speed bike lane. That's so easy to do here! Stunning architecture and breath-taking large pedestrian squares at almost every turn. This city is a beauty. But the history makes it ominous. I just strolled through Nazi central. Hitler amassed thousands of supporters here. Knowing that seems to infuse the majesty of the area with an underlying diabolical vibe. Never seen so much lederhosen and pretty, colorful dresses that seem to most commonly emphasize cleavage rather than hide it. I'm sitting in a Turkish styled cafe, just me and a waitress dressed in that ubiquitous festive Bavarian Oktoberfest dress (yes, there's that cleavage again.) I can't believe she's smoking. No bylaw? Or, since there's just me to deal with, can she somehow tell that I won't complain? European coffee has a weird taste that makes me think it's spiked.

the flight

While in line for boarding, some Munich expats told me that there will be 14 tents holding 10000 people each! Small wonder that all the couch surfing couches are occupied! On the plane I met a very nice retired Dutch couple heading to Munich not for Oktoberfest, but rather to see a "Passion play" which seems to involve the re-enactment of Christ's life up to and including His resurrection. I've been taught that portraying a Messenger of God is a bad idea, so imagining this play freaked me out a bit (okay, even though I myself once posed as Christ, but that doesn't count since I didn't know that until after!) It was nice discussing religion with them, uniting on many fronts, except for the concept of being born in sin. What a dark cloud to begin your life under! I prefer the Baha'i concept of all men having been created noble. Got my veggie meal first, then heavy turbulence hit, leaving everyone but me fasting for another hour. Why is salad dressing larger by volume than my actual salad? What? The pilot announced that it's six celsius in Munich. No fair, it was 26 when I left Canada! Okay, up to 12 degrees at 9 am as we approach the runway. Sigh. I'm wiped out. Barely napped. Caught fragments of Letters to Julia and then Ironman2 between Faith talk. Touchdown! The pilot is a master, we could barely feel it; that deserves an applause. Thanks for not killing us all!

Airports

I'm watching hundreds of diverse peoples flowing through these gates and terminals, all on a mission, but some of them looking somewhat confused about how to accomplish it. Sad people, grieving the exit of a friend or family member. Travelers staring at screens or out huge windows, with excitement, an some with trepidation. I think I love airports. Brings some together and tearing others apart. Multicultural. Emotional. Potent with potential for discovery, tragedy. Without the screens barking advertisements and the expensive shops I'll never frequent, they'd be perfect. Time to board...

At the airport

I can see my airplane out the window. Boarding is in half an hour. After a frantic search on couchsurfing.org, I began to realize that Munich is packed full due to Oktoberfest, and accommodation will be very hard to find. I wonder if this cultural event will go beyond beer and sausage in Bavaria, it's region of origin. So I may just hop on a train and leave Germany behind for Austria. Salzburg perhaps? I'll have an 8 hour flight time to ponder this, but without much info or pre-planning to help. How could I forget about Oktoberfest, especially when Chris Lamb texted me about it last week? The reality of my departure is sinking in, finally. Dharlene cried so much when Mr. Talebi picked me up. Why am I so calm? How is it possible that I slept so well last night? Detachment? Numbness induced by an absurdly material world? I said goodbye to each of my four cats. But I see all over my carry-on luggage that they're all partially with me. Will all the cat hair wear off my clothes after a four month span feline free?

shaving before I go!

iPod entry

Aha! I'm just testing my new free app which apparently allows me to edit my blog via iPod touch. Sweet. This may be the only choice I'll often have for entries, so they'll have to be short and sweet...

packing and prep

There's only three days to go until I fly on Tuesday.  I'm starting to feel the time crunch, compounded by a period of intensified activity in the Baha'i community in Kitchener.  Tonight I attended a gathering for tutors of Baha'i study circles.  As we reflected together on our experiences, I felt distant and detached, ever mindful that I'd be leaving in a few days.  But I now realize that I'll no doubt be called to serve as a tutor in Hungary to help the community there train the human resources they need to continue and expand the work of the Baha'i Faith in the land 'Abdu'l-Baha called the link between the East and the West.

I've been finishing a lot of work around the house too: handy things, like wiring and painting, as well as domestic chores, like vacuuming and laundry.  Dharlene calls this "nesting", and claims it's attractive; but I'm not entirely convinced the hard work is appreciated.

It's also starting to sink in that this will be the longest period of time that Dharlene and I have ever been separated!  I'll be in Europe for three months before she meets me in Istanbul.  We've lived apart in the past, for example when she did her Master's at McGill, but we still saw each other every couple weeks.  For those short stretches, we found absence did indeed make the heart grow fonder.  Loneliness and longing can kindle the fire of love.

"When the fire of love is ablaze, it burneth to ashes the harvest of reason."  Baha'u'llah (The Seven Valleys)

starting a list

There was no time to prepare for my trip today.  It's been a very full day of laundry, some wiring in the kitchen, a reflection meeting, and now an Assembly meeting to the late hours of the evening.

I did start a list for my trip though.  First up: how will I charge my iPod?  Hungary uses 240 V and the wall sockets have two round holes.  On the list: buy an adapter and a step-down transformer.

counting down the days...

Well, I'll have to start by thanking my friend Sara who gave me a little prod and made me lose my balance, falling headlong into the world of blogging.  I previewed her assignment instructions of about creating a blog for a college class (good instructions Sara, they seem to be working!)

In about a week I'll be flying to Munich and then somehow making my way to Hungary on my first short-term pioneering adventure.  It's going to be a four month trip, culminating in a pilgrimage to the Baha'i spiritual and administrative centre in Haifa Israel, the pinnacle of my trip!

So geht die Zeit forbei!  Viszlat.