Szeged, Szolnok, geocaching and hiking

Nearly a fortnight has passed since I posted and honestly I did not have a second to spare. On the Sunday after I last posted we went to Budapest, therefore we couldn't see the Grand Prix. It was in Germany and when I watched it on the net later I had a fantastic surprise. Not that I have anything against Vettel, but whenever he has troubles with his car, that is always good news for Lewis. After all, Lewis has his troubles now and again, these things just about even out over the season.

My beloved Red 44

Vettel, Mercedes official, Lewis and Kimi

Lewis took the lead over again (for the 5th time this season) and we were celebrating. What was the most amazing thing was that Lewis started from almost the back and managed to win from there. He often made up lots of places and ended up on the podium after starting from the back, but never won from the back. Yippeeee!!!

I had my dental CT on Monday and a few days later I also had a phone call from Vivien, my dentist to tell me that my upper back molar on the left will have to go. The inflammation in the bone is too extensive, making it not worthwhile to try to save it. My appointment with the dental surgeon is in the morning after we arrive back from Hassocks, so that should be fun!

Thatched  cvircular rain shelter by a lake

And then on Tuesday we departed Southwards. We took in a few geocaches en route, including a couple in Kecskemét and arrived in Szeged so early that we did a couple of the ones listed for the day after. On the next day we actually geocached from about 8am to 9pm. In between we did have the occasional rest, time for eating our sandwiches and to go out to dinner in the evening. We were still caching when it got so dark that we had to stop.

A collection of Transylvanian gates in Szeged

In these three days the locations of our caches showed an unusually diverse character. They included|: locations to commemorate battles, revolutions, writers, poets, playwrights, internationally famous scientists, old abbeys, lakes and parks, walks round small and big towns, waterbird habitats, remnants of old transport over land, on rail, in the air and on foot, sporting facilities along a river, a massive big tree, oxbow lakes, a study route, an oil field, several Zoos, flood barriers and water control facilities, a beautiful new footbridge looking like a mayfly, lots of churches and a synagogue, a river port with old hulks of barges, a walk commemorating the large flood of the Tisza river in 1879, remnants of old castles, a lovely park built in memory of a homeopathic doctor, a massive air raid shelter, and many besides.

Muggins with a cache in Kecskemét

En route home we called in to the town of Szolnok, which I never thought it was that pretty. Admittedly, they have renovated a lot of it lately, but the walk in the 35 degree Celsius heat was at least 8km around its streets and even Roy came with me, which was brilliant. The final tally for the three days was 32, which is more than 10 per day on average and considering how hot it was and how we don't like to rush it, that was very good.

The Turkish well that will form the concluding part of my series of spring caches

An unexpected event happened on Friday evening.  I had a phone call from István Rottenhoffer, whom I have been pursuing for months to get him to show me a spring that could be the final cache of my spring series. Finally he rang and suggested that we went on Saturday morning. I got up really early and finally met up with the spring that eluded me for this long. It is in a bit of a jungle at the moment, as the vegetation round it is fierce. But it does look good and has plenty of lovely cold spring water. I took some photos and placed the geocache, so I could finish my series.

Bozsa in the forest

On Sunday, I went on a hike with my friends Bozsa and Árpi in the Pilis.  Needless to say we went caching as well as hiking and found 3 geocaches together. The occasion for the hike was my birthday, as they couldn't come to my hike then, we did a small one (about 7km) together this time.  The three caches were on the top of the mountain near the hikers' hostel, by a spring and in the middle of a big rocky ravine.

The hostel's tame raven

The hikers' hostel was a real revelation, as I never thought that there were any like this left.  Apparently they are the only ones in the country that work like a mountain shelter, i.e. if someone falls through the door in bad weather, they will feed, water and offer shelter to him/her regardless of ability to pay.  Marvellous young couple runs it and we even met a tame raven.

Some of the rocks on Kőhegy

Finally we came back to the village to catch up on things and then lock it up for about 4 weeks while we go travelling again. We are having a big family get-together in the UK where Alex and family will join Roy, me, Stephen and the boys for a few weeks, including also Sheila, Chris and Jo. While we are away Anna will have some guests at both the Bunkhouse and the Kotege, so let's hope everything will be fine.

This week we have to pack for the trip, see to the garden (mow the grass, deadhead and prune the roses, harvest remaining edible fruit etc). I also have a duty to do a translation for some friends. En route home we also mended a recently adopted cache of mine and then I finished the cache page for the final spring.  That was rather hard as there had to be some extra data entered for it to be the bonus cache after the previous 10 spring caches in the hills of the Cserhát.

Árpi and Bozsa at the edge of the ravine

I also had to extend the logs of those 32 caches I found down South with the extra stories of the trip and photographs. I love doing that, especially as that recalls the trip, which was really nice.  The highlight in my book was the fact that Roy walked round Szolnok with me in that heat. He was flagging at one point, but we found a pub where he put away some Coke and looked revived after that. Men are so bad at hydrating themselves, he really doesn't drink half as much as he should.

A gorgeous view across the valley to the next range

I have to stop here now. Next post will probably come from an Oxfordshire canal or a B&B with WiFi somewhere along a canal.

Too much birthday and even more dentist

Unfortunately this post is late again, due to "too much birthday". This was a quote from my friend Nata at the weekend, but more of that later.

Here goes the lateral cut

First of all, my dental appointment was postponed, due to some plumbing emergency at the surgery. We thought that was a good omen, as we needed to leave as soon as possible, due to the myriad of tasks that awaited us prior to my birthday weekend, so we left really early on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the patisserie that was doing my cake didn't open until 10am, but we managed to fill the time with picking up a moving cache en route.

Roy committing surgery on the cake

The cake was not too bad, about £60 and it looked a million dollars. They followed my design perfectly and I was hoping it tasted as good inside as it looked on the outside. (It did!) En route home I managed to place the moving cache, so there was no more hassle with it later.

Erzsi, Pityu, Hulk, Haggis, Colin and Nata in the pavilion

The next few days were spent cleaning, bed making, mowing, gardening etc., but come Friday it looked as if we were ready to receive our guests. Anna turned up and paid me for the one night her guests stayed in the Bunkhouse before we left and I bought 12 hiking maps online and paid for it online as well. A private mapmaker, whose brother I know well, was discounting many maps to get rid of some old stocks. They cost only about £3 each and included places where I have never been and therefore have no maps of. Who knows, I might go caching there one day and they might come in handy.

The walnut cake that Pityu made for me

By Friday Roy and I were in need of a rest, but knowing what my crowd is like, there was little chance of that. The first to arrive were Nata and Colin, quickly followed by the rest of them for a late tea. The numbers worked out perfectly, even though I did miscount and one bed was not made up as a result. Still, they solved the problem with a sleeping bag, so all was well. The visitors were:
Nata and Colin, hashing friends
Hulk and Haggis, hashing friends
Pityu, his daughter Sára, her daughter Ágota and Sára's partner Laci / friends I met through Hulk
Erzsike, Pityu's friend
Jutka, Zsuzsi and Ildi, orienteering friends

Zsuzsi and Ildi after tea

I received so many gorgeous presents and cards from my friends that I had to declare, even before the hike on Saturday, that this would probably be one of the best, if not THE best birthday I have ever had. Along with the usual booze and chocolates, I also had 3 roses in their pots, plus a winter jasmine plant, all of which we duly planted the day after the guests left. Only then, because on Sunday evening we both fell into bed literally comatose, that's how good the weekend was :-)

Fazék serving pieces of the cake to the cachers on the hike

Dinner on Friday evening was a big curry that Roy cooked and it went down well. I was pretty tired and retired early, so did Colin.  The rest of them - I was told - were up until 3am playing bridge. No way I was going to hike on Saturday on that amount of sleep. Having just said that, I only had about 3 or 4 hours of sleep anyway, as I had to taste every bit of cake and booze and other goodies that were given me as presents. It would have been churlish not to do so, even though I knew that eating so much sweet stuff and drinking so much alcohol, especially that late, would stop me sleeping.

Climbing down to the first cache near a cave

And then on Saturday all except Roy got going in the direction of the Mátra for the birthday hike. Roy managed to cut the birthday cake laterally on Friday, so we could all start eating the bottom bit, while the top bit with the special design in marzipan came with me and was dished out to the cachers/hikers before the start of the hike. All in all I think we numbered about 35 to 40 on the hike, although there were some people who left us after the lookout tower to take their own route going South, while a few actually turned back and returned on the same route to their own car at the bottom.

High up on the mountain, the first panoramic views

Many of those on the hike also brought me presents, which touched me dearly. Most of my caching friends I only see at caching events or accidentally while geocaching, so I really didn't expect so many presents. I was given a variety of lovely things, including booze, chocolates, a lovely wood carving of a dragon, some caching goodies and a fantastic hiking book in a big box which I am expected to use for one of my caches in the future. 

A strange looking tree on the way up

All of us, whether we did the entire hike or not, had an amazing journey, although even the early leavers managed to see the special places along the hike. These included a waterfall, a cave, a mountain top, but two main locations are worth a special mention.  First off all the big, stone-built lookout tower, which was amazing, considering it was built by a private individual for the benefit of hikers. It is always open, it also operates as a shelter, with firewood in the winter and big sofas which convert to beds and bivouacking opportunities all year round.  We even found big bottles of water, which I was told came from the spring further down and which is transported up to the top every day in the hot weather by somebody in a 4-wheel drive jeep.

Hulk and Haggis

The other special place was on a spur where para-gliders launch from and which had a near 360 degree panorama. That is where we took the group photo, which numbered about 30 and for which the light conditions were pretty good. Otherwise the air was a bit damp, so it was hazy and the much vaunted Tátra Mountains a hundred miles away were not visible.  You do need crystal clear air for that, but I have seen them once or twice in the past that is truly magical sight.

A clear(ish) view looking NW

Once we were back on the main road, most people made arrangements with friends (like we did) to have one car down there and those took other drivers, so they could come back for their passengers in no time at all.  In the meantime the bus came at around quarter to three, so everybody was away soon after 3pm. A few had so much energy left that they added an extra 5km by climbing up onto the mountain on the other side of the road and got an extra 2 caches. I have to say I wasn't among them.  My total was 8 caches for the day, including the moving cache which went with the event. A beautiful, very touching and successful hike, during which I chatted to lots of people, took very many photos, saw many panoramic views and one which I will never forget.

Misty distant hills from near the top

Back home we arrived just in time to eat Roy's and Pityu's cooking which filled everybody's belly to full capacity. I was so done in that I actually faded out on the sofa soon afterwards and never woke up until 11pm, when I realised that I missed a lot of fun in the meantime. Never mind, I thought, I watched a bit of TV, then sat with some of the guests playing bridge and retired to my bed to carry on sleeping. This was the occasion when Nata quoted I think Peanuts or some other TV character, who apparently once told someone that he must have had too much birthday.  That definitely applied to me at that moment.

Strange tree on the way up

On Sunday most guests just felt like vegging out and this was the time that Pityu's cooking really came into its own. He is one of those guys who no matter how many times you tell him not to bring anything, always arrives ready to feed an army. He brought two types of fish in breadcrumbs, as well as aubergines and other vegetables in breadcrumbs for the vegetarians. Many people brought extra birthday cakes as well as other cakes, there was a lot of salad, pickles, avocado cream and "kőrözött", which is a sandwich filler made of sheep's curds, butter, caraways seeds, salt, pepper, paprika and occasionally even garlic. So most people could hardly move after this meal as well.

Gerlach from our route in clear weather

Originally we planned to go and have Sunday lunch at the Mill, but inevitably there was so much food left over, that that we didn't want to waste it. In the hour before lunch some of us went on a little walk in the village, ending up at the Mill which everybody enjoyed. En route home I discovered several plum trees fully laden with ripe fruit, so even Roy got a present of a carrier bag full of ripe plums for his cefre.

The lookout tower on the top

By about 3pm all the guests were gone, although we did find a carrier bag with keys and documents, so quickly rang the owners and they had to turn round and come back for them. After that the house seemed awfully empty and quiet, but we were glad of the rest, which we definitely deserved. It was my idea to have this celebration, as I thought my 70th shouldn't go without at least a bit of fuss. We hardly ever celebrate anything and this felt right, even though I am still trying to recover from it nearly a week later. I don't have too many friends, but those that I have I love dearly.  They are all lovely people and I hope to enjoy their friendship for a while yet.

Jutka and Zsuzsi at the front

Talking of celebrations: I am having four more birthdays, one at the end of July and three more in September. These are the friends who couldn't make it this time, but insisted to have one later to make up for it. Needless to say that these gatherings will also involve a hike, although probably not as big as this one was.

The rest of my time since the weekend was taken up by attending my dentist and gastroenterologist in four separate appointments. It would have been only three, but just as our guests were leaving on Sunday my already slightly sensitive teeth started really hurting. So on top of the scheduled hygienist/dentist double appointment on Wednesday, I also had an emergency one with my dentist on Tuesday to see what the matter was.  She told me that one of my upper teeth is very inflamed and will probably have to come out later. The gastroenterologist guy turned out to be an absolute sweetie, which makes a change after how shoddily I was treated by this clinic before. This guy and I hit it off instantly, we sorted everything and now I have a date for the repeated procedure free of charge in September.

The group photo on the para-gliders' launch pad

On Wednesday I had the hygienist appointment (one hour) and the dental appointment finishing the root canal work on one of my bottom teeth (two hours) after which I was like a zombie. Roy was left behind, as he had a few things to do and didn't fancy going to town just for my appointments, so I departed at 4:40am on Tuesday and had nobody to support me in all my agony. Needless to say that I wasn't functioning very well on my own and managed to lose my folder with all my medical papers in, which still haven't turned up. But at least I can reprint them from the net, so that's not such a tragedy. The prescription the doctor gave me, however, is a bit more bother, but hopefully I can have that replaced as well.

The girls at the mill pond

Today I have made an appointment at the lab for an oral CT, which I will have next week before going away for 3 days to Szeged with Roy. This CT will decide whether that upper tooth has to come out or not. And this saga of my life goes on and on, so I think I will stop now, as I am getting tired just writing about the last 8 or 9 days. You can imagine that it was even more tiring getting through it.  And in spite of tooth trouble and being dog tired, I think these were among the happiest days of my life which will stay with me forever.

On the stage at the Mill

Next post probably after Szeged! Speak to you all soon!!

Erzsi and Sárika on the stage at the Mill

Erzsi, me, Haggis, Pityu and Nata at Sunday lunch

A happy Roy getting ready to blow that candles out on my cake

A caching trip, some more dental work and a chimney inspection

After 5 days in Bér, during which we did some more gardening, mowing, seeing the nurse for more prescriptions, visiting the pharmacy to get those prescriptions, listing the caches to be visited during our next trip South etc. we returned to town on Monday. Prior to that we had some guests from The Mill on Saturday night, who were really nice and quiet.

Kecskemét Lesiure lake

Once in town we had further visits to the pharmacy there for all those meds that the village pharmacy didn't have, followed by yet another visit to my dentist. This was the second root canal day and this time, amazingly I started hurting not in my teeth, but my neck, back and hip. The whole thing seemed a lot longer than last time, even though it wasn't, so perhaps I was either in a funny position or sickening for something. The good news this time were that the anesthetic has worn off quite quickly afterwards and there was no pain, unlike the week before. She says that one more go at the root canal work should suffice, after which I have to wait for weeks to see if the treatment worked or not.  In the meantime she will do some other, simpler filling work in other teeth and only return to put crowns on these two once she is sure there is no more work to be done on them.

Kecskemét Arboretum hibiscus

Wednesday was our day of departure South to visit our friends in Békéscsaba for a spot of geocaching as well as bagging a few en route down and back up on Friday. But before we could depart the chimney inspection squad had arrived and wouldn't start with us, even though we were in a hurry to leave. We left them to our friend Eva, who advised us later that this bunch came determined to find fault everywhere, including where there was none. Judging from the manner of the guy's response to me when I asked him to see us first, I was not surprised. On our return I saw the list of "faults" which are ridiculous and which are only calculated to generate income for them by putting the non-existent faults right. Last time we had the same problem, although with only about 2 or 3 "faults", rather than 6 or 7 as now, but I decided to do nothing about it and wait for them to turn up and complain, which I am glad to say they didn't.  So I think I'll stick with the same strategy and see if it works again.

The trip down on Wednesday was done in high heat and seemed long, but pleasant. We took in lots of different locations for caches in both the countryside and in towns. We managed to find 12 or so, perhaps the most memorable beng an arboretum, where I photographed some beautiful plants and flowers. Art Nouveau buildings in a city were also pretty and we discovered two new towns we have never been to and which pleased us no end. 

Hungarian Art Nouveau in Csongrád

Csongrád had a beautifully renovated central main square as well as a holiday area by an oxbow lake which in its atmosphere reminded me of my childhood summers by the Danube. Szentes also had a lovely main square, a very pretty big park and some lovely buildings. Somehow these towns on the plains had a laid back calm about them, with wide avenues, lots of trees and flowers and nice people that made them very liveable places.

Swimming in the oxbow lake

Once in Csaba we found our B&B, which was lovely and extremely cheap. Recently we have been staying in proper hotels using midweek special offers, so we got very comfortable and lazy having wellness suites, air conditioning etc. This place was more like the ones we used to use when I orienteered a lot and while the interiors were not nearly as posh as we have recently become used to, the atmosphere was very much to our liking.  Less impersonal, a lot friendlier and flexible than the big places.

In the Jewish Cemetery

On Thursday Roy stayed behind to find the Jewish Cemetery, as he has a friend in the US who has ancestors there. Unfortunately, the cemetery was unmanned, so he couldn't find anyone to look for the graves for him in the registers, but he still had a nice day out in Csaba and walked home along the canal finding a nice pub en route.

An estate chapel in a lovely park

Gyuri and I in the meantime did a  nice big circle from and to Csaba via a lot of lovely and interesting locations where geocaches were hidden.  The star event was the first one straight away, which provided me with my first red 1. These are very difficult to get because you have to be the first finder after it was published to get one. The rest of the day was spent visiting old ruined chateaux, parks, canals, various flood defences and waterworks, churches, big trees, memorials to now disused narrow gauged railways, and a few others besides.

Szarvas arboretum main gate

In the evening we took Gyuri and Eva out for dinner to a restaurant of their choice. It used to be an old roadside inn, which got renovated into a really posh establishment last year.  It was situated right next to one of the canals, so we stayed inside to avoid the heat and the mosquitoes. The food was first class, I had cucumber soup and trout, Roy had fruit soup and garlic pork, Gyuri had some local delicacy made from some weird bits of a pig and I can't remember now what Eva had. But we all thought it was quite delicious. The final punchline was the bill, which was £40 plus tip, which was amazing for the quality of food we had. I think I'll be back when next in that town.

Me, Eva, Gyuri and Roy in the pub

As it was still quite early we went to another canal-side place, this time a pub. The guys had beer and us girls had wine. I discovered a new light white which tasted heavenly. I managed to get the winery's name out of the barmaid, but that particular wine I haven't yet found on the net. The winery is called Frittmanns, but no bottles of DUETT for sale on the internet yet. I suspect that was a cuvee, i.e: a mixture of at least two different grapes, so it was probably Irsai Olivér and perhaps another light one with it. It tasted magical, even that it wasn't overcooled, which I liked too.

XVIIIth century Calvinist church

And then the following day we made our way back, but the bad news of the day (in fact of the previous day too) was that I somehow managed to damage my left foot, which gradually worked itself up from a slight twinge to agony by the late afternoon.  The following day, (the day of our return), when we were planning a bit more caching, the program had to be curtailed somewhat, as I was hobbling like a war veteran. Still, the weather was still good and I was swallowing paracetamol like there was no tomorrow, so we still had a good day.

Crossing the river on a little ferry boat

We found a new town which we have been through before but haven't yet stopped at, and we liked that one too. After that town and its two caches we decided to journey on to the next one via a ferry. The alternative route, which would have taken us via the nearest bridge, was 23km longer, so the choice was obvious.  The ferry was a cute old thing, which had a thick cable guiding it and as the river was not very wide we made the journey in about 5 or 6 minutes. Except just before we were to leave and cop boat came upriver and the ferrymen had to lower the cable while they were passing. So the trip ended up about 10 minutes long.

Roy at lunch en route home

The last town had the 47 degrees longitude through it, so that was quite interesting too. This was our last cache for the day and in the next bigger place we managed to find a lovely old roadside inn to have lunch in. Food was good again and even the group of about 40 high school kids who turned up were nice and behaving themselves.

Roadside Inn garden

We were at home by about half past four in the afternoon, put some money in the meter and tried to relax. We were both pretty much done in, so we had early nights and have not done much ever since. My time has been taken up by logging all my geocaching finds (about 35), uploading my photographs, catching up with e-mails and FB, while Roy had lots of family history messages and e-mails to catch up on. Hopefully we should be heading back to the village straight after my next dental appointment on Tuesday, this time via the cake shop to pick up my birthday cake.  News of my birthday weekend and the hike in next week's post.