We're famous!

Exciting news! Daniel and I made it into the county newspaper this week.

Our school is hosting an Open Day for prospective parents of new students tomorrow and the newspaper article gives all the relevant details.

I don't understand much of the article, but I am a little worried that it seems to refer to me as a tart....

Anyway, as part of tomorrow's Open Day, Daniel and I will have a bunch of parents sitting in on one of our Grade 2 English classes. This is a pretty big deal for the school and so we have spent a bit of time over the last few days finetuning our lesson plan. Now we just need to hope that the kids can behave themselves!

- Amanda

It's snowing snow

All week people were telling us that it was going to snow in Máriapócs this weekend. Monday and Tuesday were pretty darn cold and it seemed certain that the snow would eventuate as predicted. By midweek, however, the sun had reappeared and I had resigned myself to a snow-free weekend.

So I was quite exited this morning when I looked out the back window and saw snowflakes falling in our backyard. Daniel, Iago and I immediately rushed outside to check it out. Sure, there wasn't a lot of snow falling and it didn't last very long, but still....it snowed. Woo hoo!

I've attached a picture of Iago covered in a few tiny snowflakes as proof of this momentous occasion. And here is a picture of Daniel in his new snow hat.

We're all looking forward to more snow falling over the coming weeks.

- Amanda

Wedding Video

Well, I finally got organised and put together some of the photos, videos and music from the wedding. I tried to keep it as short as possible, but it still ended up as 12 minutes or so.

I know we said this a lot during the wedding, but we want to send a big thanks to everyone for coming and helping to make the day special. You are all awesome.

- Daniel and Amanda

Mogoso

Yesterday, we went with the choir on a journey into Transylvania, Romania. It was really nice of them to invite us, as I'd basically only been to one or two practice sessions, but they were more than happy to have us come along. It's strange that even though I can communicate only a few words to a number of them, and not at all to the rest, they are really very nice people.

So anyway, we woke ourselves up at 6am on Saturday morning, dragged ourselves into the car, threw Iago a bone to keep him happy for the day, then got arrived at Nyirbator by 7am. We were expecting to have to wait around for a bit while everyone got organised, but Amanda was pleasantly surprised to see us leave basically on the dot. So by 7:07am we were well on our way out of Nyirbator and heading off at great speeds towards the border.

We've discovered that when you travel with Hungarians, you must be aware of a few factors. The first is that they don't travel lightly. Every man, woman and child brought a number of coats, bags and of course food and drink. So by the time we'd left Nyirbator, there were already bags of pogácsa, biscuits and homemade cakes being passed around. We'd brought a sandwich each for the journey, but we found that we were seriously under prepared as most people had eaten their first sandwich before we hit Máteszalka. The other thing we were unprepared for was the drinking. Choir tradition dictated that everyone down a cup of pálinka to start off the journey. Amanda didn't want hers, so by the time we hit the border at 8am, I'd had two shots of pálinka and a glass of wine. Nothing like starting the day early.

We had a bit of an extra delay at the border, as the guards had to check out my passport (read: take it off me, then disappear off the bus without explaining what they were doing). Everyone with a Hungarian passport was okay, so we were basically just sitting around waiting for me. Soon enough though, the passport was being passed back down the aisle (inspected by the curious along the way) and we celebrated our crossing the of border with a few more pogácsa and more home-made pálinka.

By the third stop of the day (a toilet stop in Satu Mare) my head was starting to reel but I was in good spirits. Soon enough we were off again and by 11:15am we'd made it all the way to Mogosa. Mogosa is a ski resort high in the Carpathians which must be absolutely amazing in Winter, because it was pretty bloody beautiful when we arrived.

The lake was crystal clear and after a quick song, a photo and a snack, we jumped onto the chairlifts to head up the mountain. It went up, and up, and up, and up. The whole ride took about 20 minutes or so, up across a mountain trail, a few running streams and endless forestry. It ran the length of three ski fields, each of varying difficulty and length. It was a wonderful experience. After around 15 minutes of being on the chair, we started to ascend into the clouds, to the point where you could see the chairs in front of you disappear. Once on the mountain, there was an awesome view, albeit a little cold, so a number of us had another sandwich and I shared the last of a bottle of vodka with a new friend. Here's a video of going up the chairlift, and Amanda attempting to remount the thing for the trip down. Please also note the most awesome dog in the world (sorry Iago), this little puli cross met us at the bottom of the chairlift, then ran up the mountain and met us up the top, then raced back down with us. Each time, beating us significantly.

From here, a few of us were feeling hungry, so a few of the others had some more sandwiches and pálinka (this is where Amanda and I had our first sandwich of the day). The bus lead us back into Baia Mare, where we went to visit a 200 year old church, had a quick tour, then the choir sang a few songs in front of the chapel. I really needed to pee at this stage, but even in my pain I was able to enjoy what was a truly beautiful performance. They asked me to come to the front and join them but I didn't really know the songs yet and besides, I wanted to keep my legs crossed. Concert finished, we made a quick pee stop, then back on the bus.

From here, we made a longish trip to the house of Sándor Petőfi esteemed poet, novelist and revolutionary of the 19th century. The choir sang a few songs, laid a wreath, visited the museum and I assume that a few people snuck away to have a bit more to eat and drink. The interesting thing that we noticed through this entire trip is how much Hungarian pride there is in Transylvania. Our troupe had no issues finding anyone that spoke Hungarian. There were a number of Hungarian flags, road signs and icons to be seen throughout the trip. Methinks that Transylvania is not a happy Romanian county.

After leaving Petőfi, we went to get dinner, which was a modest meal of steak, schnitzel, rice and gerkins. And of course, wine, beer etc etc. It was only a quick 30 minute hop back over the border to arrive back in Nyirbator at almost exactly the ETA. Amanda was pleased. I leave you with a picture of a happy Amanda on a chairlift.

- Daniel

Elvisz

I went along to a local choir tonight just to have a go. When they saw all the troubles I was having with the Russian, Latin, Polish, and Hungarian, they decided to sing an English song which they kindly had translated into phonetic Hungarian. See if you can figure out the song.

Vájz men széj onli fúlz ras in

bat áj kent help fólling in lav vid ju

Sell áj sztéj? Vud it bi ö szin

íf áj kent help fólling in lav vid ju

Lájk dö rivör floz súrli tu dö szí

dárling szo it góz

szamzingz ár ment tu bí

Ték máj hend ték máj hól ídjk tu

for áj kent help fólling in láv vid ju

- Daniel.

Mysterious Mounds

Several weeks ago Daniel and I noticed some strange mounds of dirt in our backyard. At first we thought that Iago had been digging in the garden (as he sometimes does), but then we started seeing these dirt piles in other parts of Máriapócs too. We also noticed that the mounds usually form a sort of pattern, making it easy to imagine a pathway connecting them under the surface. We now believe that some kind of mole or badger is responsible.

I've attached a couple of photos of some of the mounds in our backyard, including a shot with Iago so that you can see just how big some of these things are.

I'd be interested to know if anyone has any alternative theories about what could be responsible for these mounds....and should we be worried about them?

- Amanda

The Goose Festival

Apologies for the lack of recent posts. Daniel and I went back to work this week and we've both been run ragged. The kids returned to school on Monday with their batteries completely recharged and a lot of learning from before the break completely forgotten. Aargh!

Anyway, in spite of feeling utterly exhausted this morning, we both woke up early and made our way to Nyíregyháza to attend the famous "Goose Festival". As far as I understand, the Goose Festival is celebrated across much of Europe at this time of year and is historically intertwined with the Feast of Saint Martin (November 11).

According to legend, in the year 371 (or 372, nobody is quite sure) Saint Martin was in hiding from a bunch of people who wanted to make him a bishop. Unfortunately, for reasons I have been unable to Google, Saint Martin decided to hide out with some geese and his disingeneous hiding position was quickly revealed when they started to honk. Not only was the reclusive Saint Martin forced to take up the position that he had been hoping to avoid, but he became forever linked to the traitorous birds that had caused his downfall when he was later made the Patron Saint of Geese.

In addition to its links with the Feast of Saint Martin, the Goose Festival is also important for other reasons. Firstly, the Festival marks the end of the harvest season and is the time of year when animals are traditionally slaughtered and the new wine is ready for tasting. The Goose Festival also marks the unofficial beginning of Winter, and it is said that the conditions on Saint Martin's Day can be used to predict what sort of Winter will follow, hence the expression "If the geese at Martin’s Day stand on ice, they will walk in mud at Christmas."

As far as I can remember, there wasn't much ice around on Thursday so it looks like we're in for a mud-free Christmas. Yippee!

The Nyíregyháza Goose Festival was held in the Sóstói Múzeumfalu. This is a sort of Old Town where a traditional Hungarian village has been recreated. There are lots of little shops where people make items such as barrels, wheels, shoes, hats, gingerbread, etc much like they would have done hundreds of years ago. There are also houses, pubs, a fire station, a millery, a well and lots of other buildings that we weren't able to identify. It's a pretty cool place.

At today's Goose Festival the centre of the Old Town had been turned into a bustling stage and marketplace. There were lots of handmade items and foodstuffs to sample and buy. Daniel and I chowed down on yummy lángos and hot mulled wine while we watched a lot of weirdness unfold on the stage. Probably the strangest sight was the goose beauty contest where owners had dressed their geese up in colourful costumes in the hope of winning a prize. The competition was eventually won by a bandana-wearing goose named Lady Gaga.

After the beauty contest, we watched a bunch of old people push their grandchildren around an obstacle course in wheelbarrows. This was even more scary than it sounds as the wheelbarrow appeared to made out of sticks and the children were unable to hold on to it as they had to clutch a life-sized goose statue instead! It was quite impressive stuff and all of the oldies and most of the kids seemed to be having the time of their lives.

All in all, the Goose Festival was a lot of fun.

- Amanda

Eger not Egér

For a couple of weeks now, I've been reading the historical Hungarian epic Eclipse of the Crescent Moon by Géza Gárdonyi, which is "based on the real events of..." the siege of Eger (the town, not Egér the mouse) in 1552. I was especially interested in this story because it portrays a Hungarian victory. Amanda and I are getting very well versed in Hungarian tragedies, slaughters, repressions and rebellions, but this promised to be a rip-roaring tale of Hungarian triumph (and it was if you ignore the fact that many of the major heroes were later killed in a variety of tragedies, slaughters, repressions and/or rebellions).

The book tells, and the castle shows, the story of Dobó István, Gergely Bornemissza and almost 2000 other brave Hungarians who stood against the Ottoman army which counted in at around the 80,000 armed soldiers and 70,000 in support (150,000 combined). Dobó stood against these massive odds with only 6 large cannons and 12 smaller cannons, against the Ottoman's 16 awfully large cannons and 150 smaller cannons.

The drive to Eger was around 2 hours from Mariápócs, which was quickly passed by doing some Hungarian language practice, and chatting about this and other books that we are reading at the moment. We arrived in Eger at around 1pm, and after finding a park went to have lunch at a local restaurant (which was rather nice). The main square is now called Dobó square and has a large rather impressive statue of him and his comrades standing in the middle. Dobó is quite a figure of folk legend in these parts, and along with Eger itself, has become the national figure of Hungarian defence. Which is ironic considering how he died.

After lunch, we walked our way up to the castle, which is pretty impressive with all it's thick walls and large cannons. It was strange to stand up on the castle walls, and imagine 150 thousand people surrounding you, swearing at you, throwing things at you, enticing you with fantastic rewards to open the gates, cursing you with the horrendous consequences of your inevitable defeat.

It's hard, but impressive to think of the 150 odd cannons blasting all day for 39 days, their horrid noise echoing off the nearby hillside. Then every night you would try to repair the damage done during the day, before getting blasted once more. At the end of the 39th day, the survivors counted the cannon balls (excluding those that got lodged on the walls) and almost 12,000 cannon balls landed inside the castle walls. That is over 300 cannonballs a day would crash into your living area. Amanda and I captured the imagery pretty well by giving our impersonation of these heroic soldiers (I was a Turk, she was a Hungarian).

Over the 39 days, the Hungarians repelled the Turks with a combination of Gergley's ingeniously vicious explosives (i.e. bombs inside bombs: BOOM! ... ... ... "Okay, I think it's fine to charge ag... BOOM!, or his bombs and guns attached to a milling wheel then sent rolling down towards the enemy BOOM, BANG, KAPOW! KAPOW!), Dobó's strong leadership, the strength of the Hungarian will and the fact that winter was coming and the Ottoman soldiers had already been on the march for almost eight months prior. By the time the Ottoman army withdrew they had lost over a third of their ranks.

This is where the book cheerfully ended.

We know of course, that the turks returned not too soon afterwards, took Eger quite easily and hanged Gergely from a post. Dobó was long since gone at this point having been accused of treason and died in captivity in modern day Bratislavia. The Hungarian tradition is thus maintained.

The Turks held Eger for the next 91 or so years and built this rather impressive minaret not to far from the castle walls. It's over 40 meters tall with ninety seven steps to the lookout. So for two hundred forents (about $1 AUD), I climbed all the way to the top and held on for dear life. I'm not usually afraid of heights but the combination of the tight spiral staircase that was just a bit tighter than my shoulder width, and the rusty lookout at the top overlooking the town really unnerved me. Still, it was a pretty awesome thing.

- Daniel.