A Hungarian village

Hello again,

Looking through my photos this morning and thought I’d write up a few comments about one particular village we travelled through in Hungary a few times and found fascinating. It was called Magyarherztelend and the reason we liked it so much was that it vaguely reminded us of French villages, especially the ones in northern France.

There was a scattering of modern houses but even these were individually designed and not at all uniform. Mainly it was little cottages, some seemed almost derelict but were still lived in incredibly, and the funny thing was that they often had a bristle of sky/satellite dishes so it was a combination of almost mediaeval and modern. We noticed this especially in Morrocco, the Bedouin whose tent we stayed in in the Sahara was lounging against his camel and staring into the duney distance wearing an ipod and had a mobile phone in his pocket! Almost like jumping centuries.

The village was a jumble of farmhouses, barns and an awful lot of wooden structures and sculptures. Even the bus stop shelter was a beautiful wooden building, it would be a pleasure to hang around and wait a while in there. Rustic and solid, really quite a delight and the best we’ve seen so far on our modest travels.

The sculptures were gigantic pieces, roughly hewn and by the colour of the wood made from all different variety of trees.  I’m sure Simon and Tony could have told us which? Whether these carvings were part of the local industry we never found out but I would imagine so as there were so many around the village.

Phil fell in love with the old tractor and trailer. The lady on the farm, who was really very dark skinned and so probably a Romany in origin and had the obligatory swarm of children around her,  couldn’t believe her ears when he asked if he could photograph it! 

I couldn’t believe that a family actually lived in the semi-ruin of a house. The place actually had a For Sale sign out the front but it was almost a wreck and would have been a major major undertaking for anybody interested. Would imagine the land would be worth more.

The palatial house next door was amazing and stood out in the village as a rich man’s abode, even having full working modern gigantic sheds/barns at the back.  We reckoned he must have won the lottery! World is full of contrasts.