A busy, but very enjoyable week in town

I promised to post before we leave town, but ran out of time. As it happens, it is just as well, because life in the village is so much less demanding and relaxed, so I can concentrate on getting the story of last week together.  Mind you, there is still a fair amount of work here too, like starting up the big stove and covering the roses, but let's have a go at this post first!

Cache no.2, a Russian Chapel for Alexandra Pavlovna Romanova

I left my last post off with the intention of going to the baths to extend my discount card, but I found them most unco-operative in this matter.  Apparently, if you don't extend it by February the following year, they cancel it.  Earlier this year I knew I would not have a chance to use it much, so I didn't extend it for 2016, but thought, it should be OK to do so, once I need it again.  No such luck. So I didn't bother with booking any massage sessions either, because now I will have to apply for a new card, wait for it to arrive and then I can think of booking any massage to go with my visits to the baths.

The abandoned quarry

So on Thursday last week, Roy and I went to the central offices of the baths to apply for a new discount card. This transpired amazingly easily, we found a nearby and cheap parking space, there was very little waiting and the paperwork was done in about 5 minutes.  Now I have to wait a full month for the card to arrive, (correction: I will get an e-mail that it is available in the baths I indicated on my application form and then I can go and have some splish-splash in the lovely thermal waters!!). As that office was on the other end of town, I felt it would be quite fun to drive out of the city in a Westerly direction and do some geocaching. The real surprise, however, was Roy volunteering to accompany me and do the driving.  He doesn't offer too often, so I grabbed the chance of having a chauffeur and off we went.

A lovely modern church

The weather was a bit overcast, but it didn't rain (much). In a nearby commuting village we found a couple of interesting caches, then went into the woods for one near a spring, followed by an amazing abandoned quarry, then a lake, followed by a modern church and some interesting ruins on top of a hill. En route home we found a lovely restaurant where Roy had a superb piece of rare fillet steak and I had pike perch prepared with garlic and basil. Both were delicious, the service good and the environment, if somewhat Wild West(ish), very pleasant.

The restaurant with the Wild West theme

We got home in good time for me to have a rest and then prepare for a unique concert in the Main Synagogue. The BFO runs an outreach program, during which they take classical music to schools, old people's homes and especially into abandoned synagogues. A couple of years ago I have been to one about an hour's drive from the village, which used to be a furniture store and is now a synagogue again. So, this time (and due to the city's mayor cutting the BFO's subsidy) they had to start fundraising for their outreach program. The minimum donation was just under £10 and while they didn't promise a seat for your donation, I was hopeful that a building that can seat about 2500 people should be big enough for everyone.  And I was right.  The added sensation was the appearance of Daniel Barenboim, playing a Beethoven piano concerto and giving a lovely long encore as well. It was exceptional and a special treat for me, as I have never been on the second floor gallery of this synagogue, where my seat was and which provided an interesting vantage point to take photographs from.

The Synagogue from the second floor gallery

Friday was so full of activity, that I will have to curtail description of it, otherwise this post will end up an endless saga. The first place we went to was our computer repair guys, as the time has come to clear all our machines and reinstall their operating systems. We delivered three laptops to start with, repair of which set us back just over £40 and then departed to the other end of the city, where the Panasonic service centre was to have the old Lumix repaired. That is estimated to be about £50, but as speed is not their forte, I have no idea when it'll be done. The computers were done in 2 days, which is why I love those guys.

Daniel Barenboim at rehearsal

We managed to get home quite early for a little breather, before Ros and Ian arrived, so we could go out with them to the Ba Bar Bistro for lunch, followed by a visit to the Róth Miksa Museum of stained glass and Art Nouveau interior design. The lunch was super, which I was jolly glad about, as we have not been there for at least 5 years and chose it only as it was near both the flat and the museum. The quality of cooking was as good as 5 years before and the prices lower. Mind you, it could be that the average cost of a lunch is now so expensive that their high prices do not seem as high as they did to me all those years ago.

Ros, Ian, me and Roy at the Ba Bar Bistro

The Róth Miksa Museum was just as good, if not better, than the last time we were there.  The lady who showed us round spoke good English and was very knowledgeable. I bought a lovely book about Róth Miksa and we just started to leave when we noticed that the building across the courtyard was open. That is where Róth Miksa had his workshops and studio and we have never seen it open. We snuck in and talked with a lovely young woman who was organising the closing party for an exhibition of modern leaded, stained and painted glass art pieces. This building is not restored, although it had been secured, so it shouldn't fall down.  It is an eminently good space for exhibitions, conferences and courses, but it should be decorated a bit to make it more suitable for those type of activities.

One of Róth Miksa's glorious windows

We parted with Ros and Ian wishing them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, as we will not see them now until January, when they should be back for a week or two before departing to dim and distant lands at the end of January, chasing after cricket.

Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect

In the evening I went to the theatre and saw a stage version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  It was absolutely brilliant and brought back memories from so many years ago I don't care to contemplate. Jutka was with me and she enjoyed it too. Nowadays, it is only her and me at the theatre, as Zsuzsi is not well and Koxi is in an ever deepening, self-destructive and downward spiral as a result of her marriage breakdown. It is a crying shame that she doesn't let us help her, but we all think now that she is way beyond help by amateurs and unfortunately she refuses to seek professional help.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet

Saturday had two appointments in it, the first was an absolutely delightful lunch with Laci and Márti in a restaurant we have been in many-many years ago when it was called something completely different. Those two are such good company and the food, while it took a while to get to us, was absolutely delicious. We had a lovely chat with Laci and Márti and they are coming out to the village the weekend after next for a hike, a meal at the Mill and are staying overnight on Saturday.

After that we had a drink with Martin, aka Ten Minutes Late, who treated us to a drink (or two) in thanks for trying to help him with his insurance problems for his trip to the States this week. He has travelled extensively in all parts of the world and has not been resident in the UK for 35 years. He is one of those outraged citizens, who was disgusted by the fact that he wasnát allowed to vote in the Brexit referendum, even though its result is affecting him gravely. Such is life! I know Shakespeare said: "Kill all the lawyers!" (with which I agree, by the way), but I would prefer a XXIst century version which should be "Kill all the politicians!!"

Towards the first cache on Monday

Sunday brought one of the treats of the week in the person of Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Hamlet at the National. My sheer physical pleasure of watching him competed with the intellectual delight his performance meant, right through all of 3+ hours of it. He was interviewed before the play started and was asked what he felt after each performance of Hamlet? "Total exhaustion and raving hunger!" was the answer. I absolutely adore the bloke, not just for being a genious of an actor, but for being a lovely human being as well.

A gorgeous fallen tree in the Ócsa swampforest

Monday and Tuesday were spent geocaching in a variety of places and while the weather turned bitterly cold, the sun shone (mostly) and the places I went to were fascinating. On Monday I drove South of town and picked up caches in forests, on study trails, around ruined churches, ancient Kagan burial mounds, along the river and by an enormous ancient tree associated with a famous XIXth century poet. Tuesday, thankfully, I didn't have to drive, as we were within the city limits, where you could use public transport. We went up and down nice mountains, climbed lookout towers and ex-military vantage points etc.  The second day I had a companion in my friend Zsuzsi and the total number of caches bagged over the two days was 12 and the total no of km's covered approximately 15 -16 kilometres. At the end of Tuesday's caching we were both totally frozen, as the sun went early and the wind got up.  With the wind-chill effect it had to be well below zero.

Sunset by the Danube

Tuesday evening I had an opera performance to attend and it was an unusal one indeed. Francis Poulenc's The Carmelites was written and composed in the 1950's based on a story from the XVIIIth century. Apparently right at the end of the Jacobin terror, they guillotined 16 Carmelite nuns. The closing scene of the execution was dramatic and extremely well done.  I was slow getting into it, as I am not into overly religious themes and music, but the second act was much more lively and the singing excellent.

The nuns in The Carmelites

And then today we came down to the village via Tesco. Other than food, we also bought a microwave today, based on about 30 second's debate. I like to shop like that, not for me the long drawn out agonysing indecision of most shoppers that I know. It was about £50 which is reasonable and it looks quite nice in its place behind the table.

Must go now as Roy seemed to have thrown our tea together and is getting tetchy that it is going cold.  Speak to you all very soon sometime next week!