The seventythird week of the pandemic

Apologies for the delay in posting, but hectic would not even start to describe my last few days. I actually started writing this 4 days ago, but fate intervened. Let us start with the weekend before last!

Joop and Margreet

On the Friday we had a gorgeous farewell lunch with 4 Dutch friends at the Mill. Joop and Margreet came over for a fortnight to have a holiday and Manet with Heino were already here. In fact they went home after a month straight after the lunch. Since then they arrived home safely with no troubles en route, so their plan to travel mostly overnight was a very good one.

Roy, Joop and Margreet at lunch

 

The lunch was gorgeous, their company a hoot, so a very good time was had by all. The only great shame relating to that lunch was that my slowly dying camera chip chose that particular day to expire. So all photos taken at the Mill were lost. Initially it looked like everything was for the dustbin, the camera included, but since then I managed to reformat the chip, so all's well for a while in the photographic world. In fact, I have decided that once the camera is kaput, I'll never buy another one. My phone takes such good pictures, that for the sake of the 30x zoom, the only feature the phone doesn't do, I am not going to spend that much money ever again. And, to be honest, the phone takes better pictures, as its software manipulates the raw photo so well, that it looks a million dollars.

Joop is such a lovely man, it was great to see him

En route home from the Mill, Joop and Margreet invited us for a visit to their house sometime the following week, as they were going home on the Friday, and we were planning to spend about 10 days in BP, starting on the Wednesday. So we went for 11am on Tuesday and never returned home until about 3pm. We ended up having lunch with them, which was delicious, I have forgotten what a brilliant cook Margreet is. Her courgette soup was heavenly. They are still as good company as ever. I have a feeling they will not be back for a while, but it was nice to spend this extra time with them.

Lewis with a small Hollóháza pot for 3rd place

 

Sunday was the day of the Hungarian Grand Prix. It was a weird race, which I have only seen the last 50 minutes of. My VPN is dying again, so I am not likely to renew the subscription when it comes up in the autumn, that's for sure. Apparently, it was full of accidents and various other cock-ups. Poor old Lewis was the victim, yet again, of a cock-up by his team, so he ended up 3rd. He is now leading the Championship again, as in the initial crashes, where Lewis was OK, his main rival's car was so badly damaged, that he struggled to keep up with the rest of the field and scored only one point. They are now all on furlough until the Belgian GP at the end of August, but I hope Lewis has a good rest, as he is now suspected of having long Covid, which is not good news.

On Monday I had a medical appointment in BP, so I thought that as I had to travel in, I'll spend some time on both travelling in and back home, geocaching. I was most successful, and got 3 North of town and 3 South of town. The appointment went quite well, this new doctor lady was even nicer than the previous one and said that there is unlikely to be further complications, which was good news. She still wants to see me in 3 months' time with the results of an ultrasound of some glands, which is fair enough. I managed to book an appointment to see her, but there were none in the book yet for the ultrasound, so I must try and remember booking that this week.

Where they took our blood samples

On Wednesday we departed towards town, en route visiting a surgery where both of us gave blood for a Covid antibody test. The results are due in about 5 days, let us hope we are still protected. As I had a couple of caches in and around the Buda Hills still outstanding, we decided that a little drive in that direction would make us spend the time more enjoyably, than sitting in the flat and paying through the nose for parking.

Muggins in the Buda Hills on her own

The first cache was a really lovely one, which Roy enjoyed sitting out, in a lovely suburb of posh villas, right next to the car, in a camping chair, dropping off occasionally. I, on the other hand, was walking about 500 metres up into a nice wood, where a memorial event cache, popularising the Rotary Club of the area was hidden. I found it  easily and enjoyed my 1km hike tremendously. It was hot, but the woods were cool and very empty. I imagined that the forest is all mine and loved every minute of it.

János Drapál memorial by his house

The second one was about 10 miles out of town, in a nice commuter village and it was dedicated to a Hungarian world champion motorcycling competitor who died tragically while racing some 30-odd years ago. There were two parts to it, one outside his house where he lived, the other one in the cemetery, where the community declared him an honoured citizen of the village and erected a lovely memorial over his grave.

... and his grave in the village cemetery

The star event this week happened the following day, which consisted of something that was potentially very stressful, but I am happy to report that it was pretty easy and devoid of stress. We had to visit the Immigration, Nationality and Aliens' Control Office to kick start Roy's application of permanent settlement in Hungary. All this is courtesy of the corrupt criminals, aka the UK government, who with their lies and other crimes made sure that enough of the suggestible idiots who have very few grey cells between their ears, voted for Brexit 5 years ago.

The Aliens' Policing building, Budafoki út 60

Well, I am not very often complimentary about officialdom in Hungary, but I have to admit, this office was ace. We arrived roughly at 8:15am, the lovely young man with perfect and fluent English on reception asked how he could help us, we said we were British and came with all our documents, cards and an application form fully filled in and a photograph attached, at which point he gave us a number and told us to sit down somewhere. No sooner that our behinds hit the chairs, our number was up, followed by a lovely young lady doing the efficient paperwork, with helpful suggestions, what to add and/or correct on the form, then took Roy's fingerprints and photograph, and we were out of there in less than an hour.

I think this is a record and I have to be completely and utterly grateful to Ros and Ian, for the suggestion that this is how it should be done. Back in May, soon after they arrived, and as soon as they were allowed out of quarantine, they went there and had the equally fast, courteous and efficient service as we did. Now we are waiting for Roy's Settlement Permit which could arrive in anything between a couple of weeks and 3 and half months. I am on 3 FB expat groups and reading those proves to me that there is no such thing as a "standard" procedure. Some even had police snoop around their flat or house, asking their neighbours etc. just like in the communist days. Unfortunately these bad habits die hard. Ros and Ian had their letter of approval in 4 weeks and the cards in another 2, so we're hopeful.

Muggins at the Hanger Bistro

5 Danube bridges in the distance

We were going to have a little outing with Ros and Ian before they go home this Thursday, straight after the visit to the Immigration Department, but the skies opened and we postponed it to Friday. It was absolutely brilliant, even though we have not seen each other for a full year, we fell into banter instantly, as if we last went out together the week before. We had a drink and lunch at the Hanger Bistro on top of Hármashatár-hegy, (Tri-border Mountain), followed by a short walk to the recently built lookout tower on top of that mountain. The views were magnificent all over the city, although it was hazy in the distance for totally sharp photography.

Roy, Ros and Ian on the lookout tower

Roy, me and Ian on the lookout tower

After departing we went home, packed and got ready for another set of friends we haven't seen, this time for 18 months, Bozsa and Árpi in Csobánka. You probably didn't believe me when I wrote last time that we will try to squeeze 3 months' activity into 10 days, but we were and still are trying to do just that.

4 lovely old towers quite a few km's away

The lookout tower

 

We were spending the whole weekend with Bozsa and Árpi and their kind, clever, well behaved and beautiful border collie, Glenn, aka Nyunyi. We usually eat and drink a lot, some at their home with them, some going out to restaurants, then we go for a bit of hiking, or in my case, geocaching. All of this was in the program this weekend as well, especially the eating and drinking, so I think I'll have to starve for a week to get back into my clothes again.

Roy, Bozsa and Árpi at the Schieszl

The 300 year old cellar at the Schieszl

 

We arrived at their place around 10am on Saturday. We sat drinking, munching nuts, fruits and chocolates and chatting on their terrace, which has a million dollar view over several large mountains, which encircle their village. Then we departed in the direction of Budakalász to a restaurant we have never been to. It is called Schieszl and it was a truly sensational revelation indeed. The Schieszl family have arrived in Hungary 300 years ago, when Maria Teresa, the Hapsburg Empress invited a lot of ethnic Germans to come and improve the state of the country with their knowledge of industry, commerce, growing vines, making wine etc. This family has been here for all those years, and even managed to evade deportation back to Germany after the Second World War, as well as the loss of their property in the communist days.

Árpi's duck leg

... and Roy's fillet of pork

They have 3 large vineyards, in three significant wine regions of Hungary: one in the Balaton Highlands, one around Gyöngyös, near Eger in the North, where Bull's Blood is made and in the South,. near Villány, which is  a famous area for quality red grapes. They make 60,000 bottles of all kinds of wines a year, but sell only in relation to their restaurant or privately to customers on the estate. I am grateful for having discovered this place, it was such a fantastic lunch.

A lovingly renovated meat slicer

... and the current owner of the winery

I had a salad with bits of duck breast, Roy had fillet of pork and Árpi had duck leg. I apologise, but I can't remember what Bozsa had, but we all stuffed ourselves silly and cleared our plates. As none of us is yet prepared to eat indoors with strangers, we booked a table outside, in an enormous marquee, they erected in the place of the car park, which was in the courtyard, and which was perfectly well ventilated, while protecting you from the occasional shower. Roy and I are sure we are going to go there for lunch sometime in the future, as it is a first rate place, with fantastic food and drink, elegant, pleasant environment and super service.

The Clock Tower under repair

A cold tea in the evening on the terrace

After lunch we had a little rest at home and around 6pm, when the heat subsided a bit, Árpi and I went up the Oszoly Mountain, one of those visible from their garden, to find an interesting new geocache up on some rocks. Árpi was leading, so we got lost, of course. Still, I love going with him into dangerous places, as without him I wouldn't dare. We first went up to the rock climbing wall of about 50 metres in height. We even exchanged a few words with a guy climbing, but the path we were on suddenly ended. So we had to backtrack a bit, and then descend on some really steep, rocky, slippery forest ground to the famous "Clock Tower Rock", where the cache was. It wasn't easy, but finding a cache in an environment like this was ten fold more exciting and satisfying than anywhere else.

The upper opening of the cave

On Sunday, we got up quite late, after a lovely and cool night's sleep. Had breakfast and this time we only left Roy behind, the three of us went on a short hike to another cache. Roy found himself a lovely shady spot in the garden, and went to sleep in a comfortable lounger. Árpi, Bozsa and I headed up the valley to Pilisszentkereszt, where we even encroached a bit into the forest where we parked. The walk was uphill, but not particularly steep, definitely nothing like on Saturday. The cave, where the cache was, looked amazing. It is literally a vertical cave, although it did have some side bits, which could, if you can, be explored on foot. All the rest is usually done dangling on a rope. For this reason, you need permission to explore it and professional cavers for guides. We peered in, but that was all.

Glenn, aka Nyunyi

A lovely shelter in the woods

On both walks, the dog was with us and even though she is now 11 years old and a bit arthritic, she was ahead most of the time. She is such a beautiful creature, I love her and it was amazing to see, how she remembered both of us, after all this time. I dread to think the time might come when she will not be with us any more. Árpi said that border collies live 15 years on average and that is not far.

Gorgeous flora in the forest

On Sunday afternoon we got home extremely quickly. It was about half an hour, which is unheard of in this city for such a journey. I think everybody is still on holiday somewhere else, otherwise the traffic would not have been this clear and fast. Today is Monday and I am trying to catch myself up with e-mails, messages, FB and such like. I also have to prepare the list for the next geocaching trip; which will either be with Zsuzsi or Feri and co. Or perhaps just Roy and me on Szentendre Island, if the others can't make it.

Szentendre Island map

 

PS: Brigi had a nasty accident, and therefore Feri is not caching for a while, and the weather is in the high 30's Celsius again, so Zsuzsi has cried off our hike. Therefore, either tomorrow or the day after we are off to Szentendre Island to find some caches and perhaps visit one or two pubs or restaurants. Next post sometime at the end of the week, hopefully by then back in Bér.