5 days in town on my own

On Wednesday I caught the 9:05am bus and arrived in the flat at 11.45am. This is about the earliest I got there and this is undoubtedly due to a new route I have recently started using. At the bus station I now catch the no. 75 trolleybus, insted of the Metro. This is good, as instead of a long walk up and down stairs, the trolleybus stop is about 20 metres from the drop off point in the bus station. Then, 3 stops later, I get off and change trolleybuses, but staying at the same stop, therefore walking 0 metres.  And when the no. 74 trolleybus comes I then go another 5 stops with the trolleybus stopping right outside (about 5 metres from) the front door of my block. This way is particularly appreciated when one carries heavy luggage, although the other way it is not as simple as this, due to one way streets, so instead of catching it outside the block, you have to either catch one stop on another trolleybus to the next street (which is one way the other way) or walk it.

Wednesday I went to a concert with Bozsa, and it was pretty good. Vadym Kholodenko, a young Ukranian pianist still in his twenties, entertained us with Schumann and Skryabin. He had a confident, proficient approach and his performance went down a treat.

Vadym Kholodenko

I was anxiously awaiting the weather forecast for Thursday, as I wanted to go out to do some geocaching in a town about an hour or so away by train.  It didn't look very warm or sunny in the morning, but it wasn't raining, so I got going.  And then I had a rather exhausting, but thoroughly enjoyable day in Esztergom.  It contains the equivalent of Canterbury Cathedral, as it has a Basilica that is the seat of the Primate of Hungary. On one side flows the Danube, the other side is providing glorious views of mountains. I ended up walking about 7 miles and saw most of what the town had to offer.

The Basilica

I started with a nice circular church, then walked up a hill to the end of 14 stages of the cross to see the Calvary Chapel. The next port of call was at the summer villa of a famous writer, which unfortunately was closed.  Still, the view from there was lovely. Then I went back down to the centre of town and started my big walk to pick up 9 different points of a multi cache. Thankfully, two more caches could be combined with the multi, as they were each quite close to one or other of the points of the multi.  Finally, I managed to collect 6 caches and with the sun making an appearance mid-afternoon, also took some amazing photos. Most of my joints and all of my bones and muscles were aching by the end but it was a very happy bunny who took the train home half-asleep.

The Maria Valeria bridge across to Slovakia

And then, muggins went geocaching all over again the following day, but this time in the hills and mountains above the same town. My friend Andor came with me on Friday, but due to aching joints from the day before, I paid for a taxi to take us up to the high look-out point above the town in the hills to start the hike from.  This saved about 2 miles and an hour's walking, which proved very useful at the other end of our day by getting us back in time for catching a bus home just before it got dark.

Andor photographing the panorama by the cross

The distance covered this day was 6 miles, but the climb was a bit more than on Thursday. The cache count was 6 again, including panoramic views all over the place, a couple of springs, a pretty set of lakes, and at the end a steep climb to the top of a rock wall to see an 19th century Christ on the cross. The views down to the river and across to Slovakia on the other side were breath taking from the cross. I got home feeling in even more pain, but happy as larry.

Tens of thousands in Parliament Square in the rain

Saturday dawned with torrential rain, which did not surprise me, as that day I was due at the big protest rally in front of Parliament about the state of education and a few issues beside. The turnout was spectacular, especially that the rain did not let up. Tens of thousands filled the square and all side streets beyond. The atmosphere was very good in the crowd and very angry on the platform. Speaker after speaker outlined the sorry state of our schools and the conditions of work the teachers have to endure. The government is not listening, so I expect the discontent will carry on. I am glad I went and supported an important movement. Let's hope their struggle is successful!
 
Sunday I had two places to go to and I found the choice a bit hard.  I could have gone to the Hash run, as it was Valentine's Day and they usually make a bit of an effort to set a good run.  On the other hand, my friend Zsuzsi wanted to go out into the hills, so I planned a hike to pick up a couple of hard caches en route, which needed a fair amount of walking. She brought her car to get us out into the hills and we hiked about 8 and half miles in what was an overcast, but dry day.  It did finally start raining, but thankfully by then we were on our way back and only 20 minutes from the car.

Zsuzsi and me in that glorious forest

 https://youtu.be/iqONR9NLplY
The hike was planned to be only about 6 miles, but due to the torrential rain of the day before, all streams and rivers were in spate and our final cache could be only reached by going round and adding a couple of extra miles to our hike. The actual crossing of a stream, which looked like a ford, and which normally is no hassle to cross, was such a torrent we didn't dare risk it. Damn annoying, as the cache was only about 400 yards on the other side.  We did get lucky on the detour round, that all streams that we had to cross had bridges over them. It was a really nice, enjoyable day in good company, and it looks as if we are doing it again next Sunday.

And finally, this morning I caught a bus to the nearby Tesco, where Roy awaited, we did our weekly shopping and arrived home in time for lunch.