VPN troubles, vaccinations and a full day of geocaching

Eventful week and a bit, since I posted last. First of all I had a hell of a lot of trouble with my VPN, which I was forced to change to because my old one has merged with this one. The initial fortnight went off like a dream, so the fool I am, has paid up front for a year for the 50% discount. Brrrrrrr!! Never again. It was as if it knew that I coughed up the money and immediately went belly up. And the funny thing is that it manages to go awry in a thousand different ways, depending on whether we are in town or in the village, which computer we are using and generally what side of the bed it got up in the morning.  Additionally, the help-line response times are getting worse, not better, so this is definitely going down into the annals as a real fuck-up.

Good question. My answer is: GRIEF!!

Having said all that, (and having given up on their "solutions"), I am now in the business of finding ways round the problems with persistence and patience and I am glad to say that occasionally I manage to sort it myself, without the "help" of the advisers on the net. Currently I am using two different laptops for two different countries and hoping that it should carry on working, although I am not holding my breath. Ahhhhh!! So, just in case you are thinking of subscribing to a VPN:  Le VPN is NOT to be recommended!!!

Belfry at Ordaspuszta, 500m from my cache

Last weekend went off great, although it took me a while to nag, cajole, threaten and generally nag Roy into coming with me. The main motivation on my part was to mend a couple of my caches awaiting maintenance/redesign, so that at least some of those chores should be got out of the way. We have been indoors, nursing our colds for so long that when the weather went spring-like and the sun shone brightly I couldn't stay indoors any more. Amazingly and finally, Roy decided to come and off we went on Saturday to replace the missing logbook in the one upcountry about 5 miles from the village.  This, of course, does not mean we only had to drive that distance, as that is only the over-the-hills route.  By car you have to drive all the way round the hills and that makes it about 15 miles.

Roy's Gypsy roast and my cabbage sztrapacska

Somebody's enjoying his food!

Roy stayed in the car and I hiked up the hill for about 500 metres and thankfully I had the foresight to take a spare box, as not only the logbook, but the entire box was gone.  Or at least I couldn't find it anywhere, so if it was still in the area, it was nowhere near the coordinate on the website. En route home we popped into one of our favourite country inns for lunch and arrived home happy.

On the Sunday the sun shone even brighter and I decided to venture even further afield. We drove to Slovakia, where one of my caches seemed to have fallen victim to someone or something that seemed to either dig it up and throw it under a distant bush or disappear with it completely. In the meantime our neighbours have also caught the good Hungarian disease of building look-out towers by the dozen, especially if the EU finances them and I thought I might combine the new version of that cache with an extension to the new look-out tower.

A lovely old rustic range exhibited at the inn

I have also been planning the approach from the North, rather than from the South, as we usually went there before, so we drove through the border and drove to the very pretty sylvan car park, where the approach is slightly shorter than it is from Hungary on foot, but a lot steeper, as the car park is in a deep valley. I had  a real shock when Roy told me that he was coming with me, in spite of the climb being considerable up to the top of the mountain. I suspect he was being the gentleman, as ever, considering I had to carry a heavy bird box for the new and hopefully safer hide than the one so far.

Pictorial map at the Slovakian car park

Right at the start he was huffing and puffing so much that I got a bit frightened and offered to take the bag, so I ended up carrying it up the mountain anyway, but at least I had company. The asphalt road down to the car park had traces of snow still on it, where the sun couldn't get to, but on the way up the mountainside there was no sign of it.  However, once we were at the plateau at the top, the snow was back with a vengeance. We slid about a bit, but it wasn't too bad.

A covered well en route up

The new look-out tower was pretty nice and the view from it magnificent. We erected the bird box on a nearby tree and put the old box in it, after a clean-up and some extra little presents and hopefully we should not have to rush out there yet again within a few months to replace it again. Just to be on the safe side we screwed a little plaque onto the new look-out tower with the password on it, so even if the box disappears again, at least replacing it would not be urgent.

The new look-out tower from a distance

En route home, this time we went to have lunch in a Slovakian eatery by the main North-South road, which has been recommended to us as a real good, very cheap place, close to the border on the Slovakian side. They make a really good traditional dish called "brindzove halusky" or strapacska in Hungarian, which consists of small dumplings, smothered in ewe's curds and sprinkled with scratchings. I know I am not supposed to eat meat, but this one I could not resist, it was so delicious. Roy had the same and we came hope happy.  The funny thing was that about 95% of the cars in the car park had Hungarian number plates, so the proximity of the border coupled with their excellent cooking and amazingly low prices obviously attracts customers from far and wide.

The tower from close-up

On Monday I had to rest, trying to recover from our weekend exertions, so I watched a bit of TV again.  I discovered that Endeavour is back, so I watched a couple of episodes with delight. The US serials are beginning to reappear again, so those were OK too and thankfully the VPN was behaving itself for once. After lunch we locked the house up and came into town for about a week or so, as there are lots of things to deal with and a couple of programs are planned as well.

The view from the tower looking South

We managed to remember to pick up the outstanding medicines which they didn't have the last time, but I paid for anyway. Roy went down and fetched them for me. I also rang the Rosenstein, where we were planning to go for my name day, but couldn't, so now we have a table booked for our 49th wedding anniversary and hopefully we should be able to make it. This is a well thought of Jewish restaurant and while their prices can be high, apparently the quality is so brilliant that it is worth it. We'll see!

Cute little steam locomotive at Cegléd railway station

Early on Tuesday morning we were on our way to the vaccination centre for our second lot of jabs that were due this week. The injections went off OK, but they suggested that the other one which has to be mixed with water and taken as a drink, we do at home.  So having parted with over £200 and worrying about a couple of boxes of powders in my bag, which need to be permanently refrigerated, we scarpered and got home quickly.  The drink was very sickly, but only I thought so, Roy drank it happily. I remember a similar situation when many years ago I had to drink a sickly liquid in preparation for a procedure and felt so sick that I was unable to swallow it all, but at least this time I only had to drink about a quarter of a pint, instead of half a gallon as then.

Memorial to border-less Europe in Cegléd

Wednesday and Thursday went off totally uneventfully, as we were resting up and trying not to catch an extra dose of the horrible coughing bug that is doing the rounds yet again.  Then on Friday the long-awaited full day geocaching trip arrived. Mariann and Gabi decided to go by train, while I drove and picked them up from Cegléd railway station. The weather forecast was not good, as Friday was billed as the only rainy day in the week, but we went regardless. It was slightly overcast, not unduly cold and in the morning no rain was detected.

A flowery road sign in a village

We did quite a few caches which required a 4-wheel drive vehicle, as the approach roads tended to be muddy, sandy and generally not suitable for low-hung cars. We were quite happily gathering cache after cache, but at one point when we have just got back to the car, the skies got suddenly dark.  Then it started raining a bit, but the most striking change was a strong wind and a catastrophic drop in temperature. By the time we had to get out of the car at the next cache, we were wearing all our clothing we brought with us and still feeling like we were braving the Arctic. I don't think I have ever seen such a quick deterioration of conditions in the countryside before.

A "marker" tree, which is even on the map

Unfortunately my camera developed a fault, so I had to start taking pictures with my telephone, which produces inferior quality photos, especially compared with my Lumix camera. Thankfully, once I was at home I realised that the fault was only temporary, due to the icy wind and low temperatures.

Thermal waters in the puszta

The total of our daily caches ended up as 10, which was not bad, considering that with the exception of Gabi, our little company was not very well or still recovering from accident/sickness. We ended up in Szolnok at the end and Mariann and Gabi treated me to a lovely cup of Sencha tea, while they were having fancy coffees in a Frei coffee house. I took them to the station and drove home happily.  I was indoors by 6:30pm, which was excellent.  The motorway pass we bought earlier in the month helped.

Old church in Abony

Abony town hall

Currently we are indoors again as Siberian weather has swept the country. There were even reports of major accidents caused by the wind, pushing trees on top of roads, cars and houses and causing flooding. Indoors is best in such weather and we will stay here until we depart to Pécs on Tuesday.

An ancient oak tree, planted in memory of the Empress Elisabeth of Austro-Hungary

The old oak close up