Election results, some gardening, the next two springs and some geocaching (finally)

Sunday, 8th April will go down in infamy as the beginning of the end, or more like the end of the beginning, of burying bourgeois democracy in post-Stalinist Hungary. This article on the IDOM website tells you the what, where, how and why of the recent parliamentary elections in Hungary, probaby better than I could put it for you.
Hungarian Elections 2018

My herb garden

The weather suddenly got like spring and the sunshine improved not only the look of the garden, but also the mood of the people. I have done some gardening, consisting of planting ten new roses to replace those that died over the last two winters, plus some weeding and tidying in the herb garden.

The Pitnye spring in Csesztve

Then on Thursday I thought that the weather was good enough to go and place two more caches in the spring series and off we went to Balassagyarmat. The first cache was placed by a nice spring at the far end of a village up a valley. Apparently many people (mostly poor gypsies) who can't afford piped water use it for their water supply. One woman I got chatting to has assured me that it is very good water which is comletely safe to drink. I still didn't try it, as with my recent troubles in the digestion department I wasn't going to risk it.

A picturesque lake en route to the second spring

The other one was in a really pretty place, although it had a bit too much religion for my liking.  This, of course, doesn't mean that for the very same reason many people might not like it indeed. Roy bravely drove on the dirt road until the road became a path, so I had to walk in. It was no distance, about 300 yards, so no probs. This place was discovered by a monk and it really had lots of springs, not just one. Finding a hide in a fallen treetrunk was taking a long time, but finally I did find one suitable.

Weird bark on a lovely old tree by the lake

We were hoping to find a pub or restaurant en route home to have lunch, but this being the poorer end of Nógrád County, we didn't. The rest of that day and the next one was spent writing the two cache pages prior to submitting them for moderation. I decided that I would leave submitting them until the following week, as I was going to be very busy over the weekend and would have no time to play "yes sir, no sir, three bags full sir" with the moderators.

Along the stream towards a footbridge on Saturday

On Friday we came into town and I picked up the little box from my neighbour, which was left for me from a geocaching friend. Zoli is a lovely man and he sent me mostly caching paraphanalia, plus 2 little books of his poems he had published over the years. I love it, he is quite a good poet and the poems are quite insightful and true.

My friend Gyuri

Saturday was the day of the geocaching club's AGM and Gyuri came up to attend it with me and then we went caching together in and around BP.  Unfortunately, Judith, our would be companion managed to fall off a chair and hurt herself, so she cancelled.

The romantic church ruin

The AGM was a strange affair, initially it all went very nicely and I managed to meet some more cachers whom I have not seen in the flesh before, but the most obvious member attending was the elephant in the room that nobody seemed to want to talk about.  The leadership recently and under pressure backed down from a decision, which I personally thought was a good one, and so did many others.The problem was that the 5 who resigned in protest and then threatened to leave altogether, are very long-standing members who have much sway by just having been around for so long. Unfortunately, the origin of the problem was the fact that they have been around for that long and the system of elections favoured them as against any new members who might have wanted to seek election. But there was no discussion on this, as the President and the members of the Executive have not tabled any agenda items on it. Also, the members present were (to quote a Hungarian proverb) "lying flat in the long grass like rabbits".

Blossom

A beautiful old chateau, now a children's home

After the AGM the caching with Gyuri was fun. We only had time for 5 of them, but that was just enough to make it a lovely afternoon.  The first one was a three-parter, along a stream and bicycle route, the following ones were thankfully singletons, one on a wooded island in the Danube, a ruined church, the top of a small mountain (or big hill) and a lovely town forest in the Northern part of the city. Gyuri is always good company and the weather was reasonably dry and sunny.

In order to make up for a hiatus of at least 6 or 7 weeks in caching, I agreed to go geocaching again on the Sunday with a new friend who kindly offered to come with me. His name is Árpád and we went South East. Unfortunately, this part of the country is not too full of pretty places or views and we also had the misfortune of finding quite a few caches that were very old, not maintained and in one case nothing to see, because the lake that it was supposed to show got fenced off and a high embankment hid the entire lake from view.

Fishermen by the lake on Sunday

Still, we did find a few places which were pleasant and my favourite was an artifically created fishing lake where whoever built it had the brains to leave much of the original countryside intact. Many weeping willows had their branches  reach the water, giving very pretty views.

An old medieval bridge in the middle of nowhere

On Monday I went to see my doctor and I have got to go back next Monday for some investigations. I have had these before, but this time it is costing quite a lot of money.  Still, the conditions of some of the state hospitals (not only material but human too) gives you the incentive to find the money for private medicine. After the appointment I went caching in BP on my own and while it was a bit drizzly to start with, but it cheered up later. Two fairly new caches were my targets: one just above a railway tunnel, so you can stand there and watch the trains disappear under your feet, the other by the stages of the cross in Óbuda, which were quite pretty.

The Calvinist Church in Pesterzsébet

On Tuesday the weather was still nice and Roy showed some willingness to come with me caching, so we went to the Southern part of the city for a lovely walk along the river. There were two multies along there and it was very nice indeed. The third multi was in the CBD of that part of town, where along a lovely long traffic-free avenue we walked to see statues, a cleverly hidden cache in a postbox and an imposing Calvinist church at the end.  Poor Roy suddenly felt very tired, so I finished the last 2 locations on my own and then we came home on the bus. I think I walked about 5 miles, while Roy did 4 and half. Not bad for an old man in his seventies and less than 4 weeks after an operation.

The Danube

While all this was going on my last two spring caches, whose pages I have written last week, finally were submitted on the Monday. Amazingly most of the moderators were terse and just clicked OK. However, just to make sure that nothing ever goes without some hassle in this world, a woman, who has just joined the moderating body as a replacement for someone who has resigned at the AGM, produced a performance any new broom would be really proud of. She was making so many comments and requesting so many amendments that slowly, but surely, her submissions got longer  then my entire web page. Still, both went through with votes of 11 for and 1 against, so now I have only 6 left to find and do.

The Water Tower on Margaret Island

Wednesday was a slightly tiring, but brilliant day. It started with me hopping on a train to visit one of my caches that needed mending. The train journey took about 40 minutes and the cache was so close to the railway station that having done the improvements to the cache, I managed to catch the next train back to town. I then had about an hour of rest at home, before Roy and I went to one of our favourite nearby restaurants to meet a friend from Austria. She's a lovely girl, called Felicia, and I know her through my interest in politics.

Felicia by a 200+ year old tree

After lunch Roy went home (he doesn't like politics) and us girls went on a walkabout. She wanted to see Margaret Island and as there is a cache on there which is fairly new and I haven't yet got, I happily went along. To be honest, I can't remember now how long it is sice I visited the island in the spring.  We usually take our visitors there in the summer.  It was glorious. The 200 year old trees, the tulips, the lilac, the pansies, the blossom on some of the ornamental fruit trees and the silence which, of course, will not be there in the summer. The cache was very easy to find, now I only have two left on the island to look for sometime later.

My first selfie with the front facing camera in the pub with Roy and Feli

After the island we hopped on a tram and a trolleybus and went for a drink in a ruin pub. Roy joined us there and Felicia really enjoyed the atmosphere.  She said that she might come and study in Budapest and if that happens she would like to live in downtown VIIth district, where the ruin pubs are.

Tulips on Margaret Island

This gets us to today. My pre-procedure diet is in full swing: currently I can't have any seeds or nuts or muesli or anything that is difficult to digest. Quite to my surprise they listed mushrooms as difficult to digest. Why? Who knows?! In the last 24 hours I'll be on water, tea and perhaps clear soup. The last 4 hours - nothing. Oh what fun!!