Concerts, geocaching and two more medals

The concert at the Opera was quite interesting. Robert's free tickets were for a reasonably nice place down in the stalls where I haven't sat for years. My subscription tickets are up in the gods, as they are cheap and due to the superb accoustics of the building just as nice to enjoy the opera from as anywhere else.

Tuesday arrived with a pleasant temperature and promising no rain. Met Andor at the prearranged place and we started with the arboretum just up the road. Then came a nice slow walk down to the 'Bottomless Lake' which was surrounded by a nice park and where - unfortunately - I managed to slip on a ramp and bump my pelvis.  Not a happy start to the day, but I managed to forget about it quickly. Next stop was Andor alma mater, the Technological University where the cache was easy, but we both got told off for taking pictures inside.  Still, the central hall, with its grandiose style, was quite impressive.

Next stop was the Infopark which is surrounded by quite a few large modern university buildings. One security guard came over and asked what we were doing, but thankfully accepted our explanation. Once we bagged that one we walked along the river to a lovely place, which I heard about, but had never seen before. In the South of the city  there was a winter port which got quite derelict by the 1960's and 70's with only some boat houses and self-built shacks housing people, some livng there right through the year. Finally at the turn of the century they decided to clear out the rusty hulks of abandoned ships from the bay and bulldozed the shacks too. It is now a park with lovely walkways, cycle lanes, cafes and restaurants.  We had such a lovely time there and had lunch too.

After we walked back to civilisation we caught a bus to the terminus of the currently still being built 4th Metro line to get a virtual cache there.  Got friendly with a lovely old man who told us that they used to have a box some time ago, but now it's gone. We got the virtual version and then found where the metro is surfacing before the terminus.  Whether I will live long enough for them to finish building the damn thing is another matter entirely!

From the Metro terminus we walked to a nearby park which unfortunately was being restored with lots of diggers and workers about, but I still managed to take several pictures of the impressive bull statues in the centre. Apparently the story behind the hill the bulls are on is that a large truck carrying tons of concrete beams got stuck there and after several attempts to shift it, they gave up and buried it there and then.  It is still underneath, if you believe the story.

Next came a bus ride to the actual reason for this day, the location being a tiny little lake on the outskirts of the city where Andor grew up.  He managed to reminisce about swimming and fishing there, running away from policemen chasing them and even being cheeky enough to throw stones at the policemen.  Never knew Andor was such a hooligan in his youth!! :-) The cache was very cleverly hidden, but I found it straight away.

It was getting dark by now, so we settled for 8 caches for the day and will start with the 4 remaining ones next time. On Wednesday Klari dragged me to a fantastic concert where for a silly amount of money we heard some heavenly pieces on chello and piano from Schumann, Kodaly and Chopin.

And then the weekend with its three orienteering events arrived. Friday it was a street event in the Castle District and the weather was still really nice. I loved my course, enjoyed running around the tourists and managed to be second behind an Austrian lady who beat me by 31 seconds. I got a sweet little square shaped wooden medal to add to my collection.

Saturday/Sunday was a two day event in some glorious hilly woods near our friend Eszter who kindly offered accommodation which was gratefully accepted. Day one I plodded slowly round and was beaten by my good friend Ildi by 5 seconds.  A Slovakian lady was about 2 and half minutes behind me, with the rest of the field out of contention.

Day 2 was completed at a leisurely pace, mostly because I was pretty exhausted, but also because there was a fair amount of climb on steep and rocky hillsides, so running was out of the question even downhill. I don't heal very quickly in my dotage and as I value my knees, ankles and other joints I took it easy.  However, I did not make any mistakes and what happend is very typical of me.  Not winning either day (the Slovakian lady was fastest on Sunday and I caught Ildi between 6 and 7) but by being generally accurate and consistent I won overall. The rain did not start until the presentations which were held partly under canvas.  We brought Eszter into town and then got home in time to watch the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.  A good weekend overall! Tomorrow back to the village after some shopping.