lockers!!

Well, not lockers really but padlockers!!

A local tradition is, when marrying, to engrave both your names onto a padlock and fix it onto a fence in the town centre as a public declaration of commitment. Then, throw the key away…… tied together for life.

There are now two areas of these padlocks and a third is starting at a café wall (which was suitably railed) nearby – for the younger more trendy café goers. Wonder what the divorce rate is here???? Or dare they not ? Fun though, whatever !

I actually got this information from the campsite owner as we had wondered what it was all about: life, death, children ….? He seemed quite surprised that I had to ask what it all meant as if it was something commonplace in every country; perhaps it should be. 

Now that we know all about this padlocking lark we are very observant and noticed a few on a bridge here on the lake front walk  at Riva del Garda!! The custom is spreading or at least the Hungarians are spreading maybe is more the case.  There were only about a dozen but they were there.....aaaahhhh . 

shopping

Market day in Hungary was an interesting affair – a mixture of ancient handcrafted goods and modern ice cream and doughnut stalls!

This old chap sat the whole day just making basket after basket. I think he was using hazel twigs as they seemed too pale for willow. He invariably had a crowd of interested onlookers  but was totally focused on his work.  We walked past at the end of the day and his stock was quite depleted so a successful day for him.

I learnt a certain amount of basket making from my father,  part of his occupation therapy while in the sanitariums was weaving and together we made a tray and an upright picnic basket (mainly for flasks and bottles going by the shape of it).  The canes had to be soaked to make them pliable and then worked while damp. I remember it being fun but then so is everything to a 10 year old!! I think we kept the basket in the garage but the tray was long gone!! There were also some red plastic canes which we inserted to add colour and to bind the handles. Funny what you remember as time goes on….

Did you notice the name of the modern shopping centre in the background ? Konsum – a licence to shop or what??!! Seemed a bit overt to our tastes. Never went inside so didn’t see what there was to be ‘consumed’.  I suppose that after the years of Communist non-consumption a shop like this was a bit of retail heaven.  Like London comes to Pecs!! Sad really though.

Re the jumble sales – I’ve since discovered that prices of goods vary from day to day – Monday is prime – goods from Uk arrive over the weekend and so Monday is best choice and the price reflects this.  So, by the end of the week, as each day goes on and stock depletes and price goes down accordingly.  A daily sale so to speak! The knowing shopper heads off with her basket on Monday morning bright and early and gets the pick of the cherries!! Can you imagine that happening in TKMAXX – wow, there’d be a riot.

Sculptures

Have made  a little list of things which catch my attention now and then, and top was Sculptures ?!

Pecs, in Hungary, was chockablock with them – and even Komlo which was really a small, poor mining town had loads.  Is this something from the Communist time – the trying to educate the workers by momunental works of art?  Reverence for the workers seemed to be a common theme, and also protection offered by the state – or am I just reading too much into what I saw?

There was one even in the campsite, but I found it very distressing.  It was of a female form in a kneeling submissive head-down posture with one lower arm missing and the other arm folded in almost in grief. Quite what it was doing there in a place of holiday goodness knows.  I almost shuddered everytime I walked past her and could feel her sadness, almost hopelessness. Maybe that was the desired effect, count your blessings while you have them and can enjoy them for you never know what’s ahead ?

One of the strongest for me at least was a simple marble pillar with gunshot holes up it and a blasted bit out near the base.  A memorial to the dead in war, some were lucky, some were not.  Simple but very moving. Did try putting in the photo, but it wasn't clear enough sadly.

 

The cathedral had some wonderful more modern gate sculptures, quite beautiful. They were again of a monumental scale and really quite intricate. This photo is only one little corner of the whole!

Turtles

Back from my joglet this morning, have brunched n washed up both dishes and running clothes and am now sort of killing time till it’s swimming time (half day ticket at the spa starts at 2.30pm so shall be there promptly)!  Dad is going adventuring in the deepest darkest forest he can find nearby!! So, here goes…

While walking round the lake one day we noticed what looked like the ribs of a sunken boat across the waters, but when we eventually got nearby we saw to our delight that these were in fact just old tree trunks but the interesting bit is that on practically each was perched a turtle (we reckon about a foot long) and sometimes a young one too! They were perfectly still and just looked like they were sunning themselves, most had their left back leg stretched out behind/sideways as if flexing the muscles!! They looked very ancient and timeless or do I just mean from another time?

We only saw one swimming and because of the colouring (or rather, lack of it) and he/she disappeared pretty fast in the murky lake water – and spent what seemed to be an age underwater – wonder how often they have to come up for breath? First time I’ve seen wild turtles, live ones at least. Sadly, in Turtle Bay in eastern Australia we did see loads of baby turtles on the sandy beach but they were all dead as if they hadn’t reached the sea in time and just expired from exhaustion or dehydration.  In olden days the Aboriginals would come to the beach and feast on both the turtles and eggs – a feast courtesy of the seas but that is being very strongly discouraged now.

Haven’t seem an amazing amount of wildlife as yet, dogs seems to be the most prolific animal in this area –  guard dogs? Last night we were woken by an alarm going off somewhere nearby and that seemed to have set off every dog for miles – the yowling/howling was almost musical, didn’t stop me getting back to sleep thank goodness.

Time for a cuppa….x

Discoveries

Forgot to say that we made the oddest discovery the other day – noticed on our peregrinations round the old city that one of the shop windows was plastered in Union Jack flags and so correctly we assumed it was something or other to do with Britain!! Well, being the nosy parkers that we are we popped inside and it was a jumble sale of the old variety !! boxes full of ‘british’ garments, all with labels like M & S, Next, Laura Ashley etc etc.  We had a good browse and I bought some ‘Reef’ flipflops  to wear in the local pool (shoes obligatory), white summer trousers, a Monsoon caftan, 2 strappy Bravissimo tops with bra built in, Crag Hopper navy shorts and dad bought 2 pairs of M & S shorts – all good stuff – but guess how they worked out the price ???!! by weight!!  Each item was weighed individually on a kitchen scale and then totted up and we had to pay 18,000 HF which was £6 ! amazing. How cool is that?

We found another one later (minus the Union Jacks tho) and dad bought himself a beautiful hat – German made, brand new – this time the lady just said 300 HF - £1. Happy bunny, and he actually wore it all day too! I reckon Ben will take a fancy to that one tho!

Since then, we have noticed a few of these ‘pop-up’ shops but have not ventured inside – there is only so much clothing you can carry in the caravan and we have enough – can’t believe I just wrote that!! Well, what I mean to say is that dad says we have enough of course!!! Men ?.....

Thought I'd add a piccie of yours truly in her 'old hat' courtesy of Help the Aged in Cirencester and perfect for the Hungarian sunny days. This was taken in a delightful street cafe which served delicious cakes at excellent prices - been back a couple of times!

An epic epistle

Hello to all,

Sitting in the caravan, nice and early, having a deliciously healthy breakfast – local redcurrants, banana, yoghurt and a tiny sprinkling of quite decadent crunchy muesli!! Today we are having another of those strange Hungarian weather days – it is warm, but the strong gusty wind has a cool edge to it – hence having brekkies indoors!!

I had a chat with the site owner (who looks like a combination of a young Omar Sharrif and George Clooney!!) about the weather – and he did say that in the last few years  it has definitely become more extreme!! When it rains here (not so often apparently) it is like a torrential downpour with very strong winds (almost a short sharp storm in fact) and not at all like the gentle British heavy rain.  Here everyone runs about madly looking for shelter from both wind and rain!!! The word tempestuous comes to mind…..The caravan had a good buffeting again last night…more tempesting??

We have had a busy couple of days, having gone into Pecs to register for the WMOC on Wed and spent the morning and early afternoon sightseeing with dad making me walk almost every street and back alleyway (recce?) and despite having my sensible walking sandals on had hot throbbing feet by the end of the day!! Had them up on the dashboard almost all the way back to the caravan – this always works wonders.

The city centre is quite lovely. The old part of the town, mainly inside the old city walls, or the remains of, is mainly pedestrianized so very civil!! Must admit though that people in general drive at a fairly sedate pace here, especially when compared to Switzerland where overtaking everywhere seems almost obligatory!! Dad says also that cycling here is a pleasure as the roads are so so quiet!!

During our city centre rambling we came upon a fabulous cake shop – and if there is one thing in the world that dad cannot walk by it is one of those!! So we stopped, had a coffee n cake! Unbelievably cheap esp compared to France.  Cakes varied from about 70p to £1.25 for gateaux type concoctions.  Mine was a coconut roulade type with a cream cheese filling and dad’s an Esterhazy walnut gateaux – heavenly.  So for the princely price of £4.50 we get two coffees and two cakes… will be doing this again I think.  Dad intends to stock up for the weekend’s running with brownies from there – monster chunks of goo….good running fuel.

We think that because Pecs was a cultural capital of Europe in 2010 the city centre has had a makeover?  It all seemed incredibly clean, almost sanitized, and freshly painted – esp when compared to London. The whole place seemed to have a good vibe though, lots going on and lots of people just hanging out in cafes ec.  The pace of life is def a lot gentler here which I just love.  Could quite happily come back for longer. 

Yesterday dad went for a run in the forest south of Orfu – and I stayed on a strand (man-made) by the larger lake.  Like Italy, one has to pay for life’s little luxuries here and even though I was only going to be there an hour and half had to pay £3 for a half day ticket!! Ah well, I sat in the shade of a walnut tree  watching various parties of school children at play – one of which was having boxing lessons under the direction of the most tattoed man I’ve ever seen. A sort of gentle giant as his voice and manner was very soft with the children despite being almost as wide as tall !?! He seemed to be teaching them how to protect their faces from the blows. The youngsters all showed him great respect and called him  ‘Meistr’, in fact all the children we’ve seen (and that’s a lot) seem very well behaved – there is often only one teacher in charge of 20 or so!! In Britain you’d have almost as many staff as children – or is that just health n Safety gone mad ?

We stopped at the end of the lake to take some photos and discovered to our great delight that there was a fruit tree, well loads in fact - they were sort of a cherry plum (we actually had one at the entrance to our drive though not planted by us – a bird offering ?) and the red ones were delicious so we’ll have to go back for another few handfuls as they ripen. Cherry trees are absolutely everywhere too.  Drove into a cracking storm on the way back……clouds black as hell….

We spent the afternoon at the local spa hotel (again!) keeping an eye on the storm clouds above us and rumbling thunder as we sped up and down the lanes in the outdoor pool (have now decided it is 35m in length) – dad to ease his weary legs and me just to enjoy the swim/sauna etc……the sauna here is 94 degrees whereas in Ringwood it was 84 ! quite a difference. Every time we have been there we have had to pay a different amount and received a different deposit at the end!! There seems no rhyme or reason to their thinking or is it just incompetence??? Whatever, we love the place and don’t quibble about their pricing, much!! Dad is flummoxed by it all….I just think it’s cheap as chips and am thankful it’s so near. I’m sure Bath Spa is a lot heftier in price and wouldn’t offer the magnificent surroundings.

Anyway, today is housework day – washing, changing beds, clearing car etc so got to go.

Ages!!

wow, seemsto have taken ages to set up all this!! will have to edit background as not what I though it was going to be...... serene or what tho?

Beginnings!

Hello ! 

am so excited bout starting a blog at last - updates as often as I can manage!!