Sat 6/24/2006

I've been remiss...too much on my mind or something.

Thur 6/22 This was a day. We got going late, or, I got going late. We went into Tiszafured so the kids could go swimming. It was, apparantly, delightful, except for some troubles...

I dropped them off, intending to go to the internet cafe and do some work. I did not make it until much much later, and did not get online. I decided it would be fun to explore. And it was, with a few pictures of a delightful drive along a one lane road next to the swollen and overflown banks of the Tisza River.

And then, well, no two ways to put it, mistakes were made. I came to a junction, given the clever waypoint name 'jct.' I wanted to explore all three directions. I figured that the river was to the left, so there would be the least amount to explore in that direction, so I started there.

I passed some wooden row boats tied to the bank, then saw some mud on the road. I thought I should perhaps stop, but then remembered the other day when the mud had been on top of the pavement. I felt vindicated as I rounded the corner to a beautiful view of the river. Then I realized that everything ahead of me was mud, nothing but mud, and I panicked. I had some thought that I needed to use my momentum so I would not get stuck.

That was a mistake. If I had calmly stopped, and then backed up, I would have been fine. The pavement continued, just with more mud on top. Unfortunately, the area to the side of the pavement was not paved. That was a problem. That was a problem that caused me a great deal of consternation for the next two hours.

I made some progress, backing further and further into drier ground, but not actually onto the road. Then I was able to move forward, slightly, with my wheels turned toward the road. A bit of progess was made. I made several hikes back up the road, way up the road it seemed, to where there were rocks and broken pieces of asphalt to be found. I thought perhaps putting these under the tires would provide some bit of traction.

I also found a piece of yellow foam, once the inner part of a bicycle seat, which I used as a knee pad, during the part of the adventure that I was still attempting to be fastidious about my contact with the mud. The fastitidious portion of the adventure was a small part of the whole.

Most of the adventure involved groveling in the mud, clawing at mud and grass packed under the tires, or pushed into towering cliffs hemming my tires in ruts of painful proportion.

I was finally rescued, as it where, when a fleet of bathing suit wearing Hungarian women on bicycles came upon me. They were on a pleasent jaunt, looking for a nice place to swim. That was not it. Four of them helped me. Kati, and Kati, and two others. Maybe only three helped. One drove, two helped me to push. I started at the rear, found some progress, then unrolled the rear window on the driver's side. From there I could see the tire, and feel the rocking of the car.

It took just a few helpful pushes, maybe a couple more than a few, but not many, and a couple of facefuls of mud (as I was in line with the tire, when it was turned slightly, as it was), and I was free.

I drove back to the pool, not sure how to progress. Exhausted, parched, hungry (no food or water was in the car!). Heather and the kids saw me. They had left the pool a little bit before, not that long, because some gypsy boys had been harassing Molly and Leah. Seriously harassing them.

Heather asked what had happened, and then she started to laugh. She said something about my Uncle Carlton, and my being a slow, or a non-learner. And did I mention the laughter?

Molly and Leah were walking to the Internet Cafe, the Flamingo. We caught up with them before they got there. And continued on. Drinks were purchased, and Heather bought a pair of shoes which she had previously eyed.

After a bit we went towards home. Molly wanted to see if the cherry shop was open, it wasn't, but I bought another beverage in porozlo.

I helped Molly install her new bike computer, that we had bought in her town, and later I Watched part of some choir movie, and all of shrek 2 with Molly and Leah.

Fri 6/23

Molly begged off, she was feeling overwhelmed by her whole family. She ended up cleaning the house and going on a 45 kilometer bike ride.

We went to Eger with Leah. We toured the Astronomy museum, and the science room which was cool (see pictures), and climbed to the very top to see the Camera Obscura. Then we were over done.

I spent $20 on dried fruits, candy, and expensive pretzels at a stand on the pedestrian mall, then we spent $8 at the market and bought lots of drinks, and fruit, and the things which we actually ate (we did eat a bit of the first batch of stuff, but mostly not). I was just done...

It took a long time and then I felt okay. Heather bought Spencer (and Oscar) wooden swords, and Maddy got a hungarian dress. Then we ambled down and took a picture of spencer with his sword attackign a Lego dragon. Then devil sticks were purchased, and the second most beautiful baroque churge in hungary was visited.

(it occurs to me that we are not following the Rick Steve's advice of not burning out on the 'secondary' sites).

And then we climbed up and toured Eger Castle. This was cool.

There was a fun playground at the top, rocking horses, and rocking carriages and the like. There have been cool playgrounds in Hungary, all over.

Then the storm rolled in...we made it to the car in the rain, but the hard rain held off until we were in the car. The fellow in the car next to ours was not so lucky. He came running up, and got in, soaking. We exchanged sympathetic glances, sharing in the human experience of the absurdity of being soaking wet.

We drove home...in massive massive rain. Torrential rivers. We stopped at a market, got a lot of supplies, but not the ground beef that we needed for meat loaf.

Finally got home. I offered to drive into tiszafured to get ground meat. And carrots. Molly and Leah came with me.

Because I am a non-learner I took them out to see where I got stuck. We did not get stuck again, but they both became totally mudded, and Leah fell and hurt her wounded leg (she fell off of a bicycle a few weeks ago). We explored a new way to Tiszafured, stopping first at one of the pumps in a small town so they could wash the mud off...

We were so late...we stopped at the Spar market in Tiszafured. There was no hamburger, but I saw a meat grinder. We were able to convey what we wanted. We got to pick the meat that we wanted ground, and we did.

I was then quite for most of the drive home, anticipating Heather's reaction.

Fortunately there was no negative. We made omlettes and other stuff for the kids, and they held out for meat loaf as well at 9:30 or later.

Sat 6/24

Another adventure day. Today we went way the heck north to the caves.

We drove up through Miskolc and stopped at the Tesco. This is a mega store, I guess. Spencer and I attended to filling the car with gas and running it through the AutoMoso. spencer played games about the great big monster eating us...all fun.

The caves were, well, caves. Very cool caves. We entered, and toured through, and then we started hearing music. And we came upon the concert hall. Literally.

A bunch of chairs set up, a full orchestra playing, two people singing. And our tour group spread into the chairs, barely filling a fraction of the available seating capacity, and we listened. Enthralled, as the Orchestra and the singers rehearsed.

The music came to a crescendo and I felt actual shivers, peak experience shivers went through my body.

Then the music stopped and the musicians broke up, quickly. A few groups of conversation, but mostly they had places to go. One fellow was wheeling his cased bass along the paths. A bunch of them started one way, only to run into a gate, they turned, and I assume most of them made it out of the cave.

We had more good experiences, pretty scenery, very cool. spencer took the camera and took pictures. I did an audio recording of the whole excursion. then we exited.

I was with Molly and Spencer. They said that if you turned right you would enter Slovakia, so don't do that. Obviously we did. It was a large field in which Northern Hungary and Southern Slovkia were indistingquishable.

We then made our way back to the entrance. Molly had us go one way. There was betting going on. Spencer said it was the wrong way, Molly was convinced it was right. I still think Molly and I owe Spencer a dollar, but Molly denies it.

We got our picnic supplies and had a nice picnic on the grass. Then the little kids played on the funky playground, I didn't get a picture, but all the equipment was made of natural shaped logs and trees. We left Molly and Leah in charge and then we went to Slovakia for 1/2 hour. We crossed the border, which required a small amount of passport checking and stamping, and then the great gate started up. We drove to the nearest town, Kecovo/Kecso, and drove around a bit. Waved at people, took pictures.

The people we saw smiled more than the people in Hungary. Interesting thing that.

Then we came back. There was unpleasentness. We sort of tried to do the two hour tour of the other cave-beautiful visitors center, but that wasn't going to happen. We toured the cute little village, a bit, then made our way home as quick as we could-sadly not quick enough!

We drove through Szin, and stopped in Miskolc so Molly could try to contact drew. I took pictures of ugly apartments...

The kids did a melt down. I don't actually remember what else happened.