The hundred and twentysecond week of the pandemic

When I last posted we both thought that we would stay in Bér until we go East for a couple of days. And then I received a letter from the Post Office that I have a parcel that needs to be assessed for customs duty and would I provide them with the following documents: 1. A declaration from Linda, the sender, that it is a present, its value and a variety of other bits of information in there about herself etc. 2. A request for the Post Office to do the customs assessment, (rather than the Tax Office),

Muggins at the top of the mountain

and that included all manner of stuff about me etc.

I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. The "parcel" was actually a large envelope with all my post for the last few months, 2 photographs and a small bag Linda had sown. I was totally lost what was required, due to the arcane and very obtuse language Hungarian officialdom loves using, but finally I spotted that I can phone them, so I did.

Near the mountain top

 

Spoke to a bloke who was helpful, but a bit vague and then to a woman who was extremely helpful, but just as we got onto how to get to the forms on the website, the internet went. And that was that. Without internet in a back of beyond small village with no facilities, one cannot survive very long, especially, when one has to sort out something as ridiculous as this. I had to be able to access the net to stand the vaguest of chances of sorting it successfully. So I tried and finally after hanging on the line for hours, got through to our internet provider, who tried this and tried that, without success and agreed to send an engineer on Monday afternoon. That was on Thursday.

The Danube from the top of the fort

So, we decided to decamp to BP, where we have two desktop computers and hopefully an internet connection. When we arrived, we were so tired and brainless, that we couldn't really cope, but once I got on the net, I noticed that the lovely young woman had actually sent me the required documents attached to an e-mail and with the net available, I decided to work out how to fill them in myself. In the meantime I realised that there are some details about Linda I didn't know, so I had to contact her as well for those.

The aerial walkway in the Gerecse Mountains

 

To make some use of this time in BP, we also decided to go geocaching and on a geocache maintenance trip West of the city, which has been on the books for ages. That we did on Friday, the following day. The trip was pretty useful, and even Roy was very nice and didn't grumble too much about having to sit in the car a lot, while I climbed mountains and repaired damaged caches.

Roy in his favourite pub

 

The count at the end of that day, both from updating/repairing 2 of my own caches and then finding and logging another 3 in the area was 5. The two maintenance job was first on the British War Cemetery in Solymár and the remembrance cache of Nagybaczoni Nagy Vilmos in Klotildliget. The other three took me back to a place I went to a couple of months ago, when I gave up on it. That one included a steep climb to the top of a wooded mountain, the next one was inside an old fort, and the last one on an aerial walkway in dense forest. The weather held, so I only got a bit wet in the last couple of minutes at the end.

A collage of our last week

One interesting happening that day was getting a phonecall half way up that forested mountain from the internet provider, telling me, that after all the shenanigans on Thursday over the phone, when they said the trouble was not with them, it turned out since that it was their fault and they have now fixed it. I told her, that I am a bit miffed and to be honest, I will not believe her without checking it, and as I am currently climbing a mountain 60 miles from Bér, I cannot do that. Therefore, I insisted that she doesn't cancel the engineer, although promised that should we find on our return that the internet is working I will ring and cancel the visit at once. 

British  Military Cemetery in Solymár, Hungary

On Saturday we journeyed to a newly discovered fruit and veg market in Buda, where we purchased 5kg of apricots to make jam out of. Budapest's public transport is up the spout, to put it politely, everything is either redirected or you have to get off and take something else, before a few stops down the line you have to get off again and get back on the normal tram or bus or whatever. We played around with this, but finally got back to the flat and with a great deal of happiness proceeded to make 17 little jars of glorious apricot jam.

The apricot jam

On Sunday, finally, we went home to Bér, shopping at Lidl in Aszód. Unfortunately, the populace is so stressed after nearly 3 years of the pandemic, and all that meant for them, that we nearly got lynched at the checkout, because we had the audacity to pack our shopping into bags, rather than just throwing it into the trolley and sorting it later. Being nearly 74 and 80, we were a tad slower than ideal, but when the checkout girl took the side of the impatient crown behind us, we were beginning to fear for our safety. One thing is sure, that was the last trip to that particular Lidl, no matter how convenient that shop is en route to home or BP.

A rocket from the tank battle in WW2

As soon as we were indoors, I turned the computer on and miracle of miracles, there  was the internet, so the woman on the phone on Friday was correct. As I promised I immediately rang them up and cancelled the engineer for Monday, which the guy who picked the phone up thanked me for. This is unfortunately a country where many people have the habit of not bothering to cancel anything. They just don't turn up. Thank goodness we are not like that. 

Little old tram in Nyíregyháza

On Monday I finished reading the Post Office website, filled in both forms and uploaded them. And all this for an envelope, containing nothing of commercial value and mostly my own letters. All those Brexiteers, especially those that are now chasing after the PM's post, pretending that after all they weren't in the Leave camp, need a serious flogging and some years down a mine or in a quarry, methinks. Monday was also spent with getting ready for our trip East to celebrate my 74th birthday. 

Old fire tender in Nyíregyháza Fire Station

Then on Tuesday we departed in an Easterly direction very fast on the M3. We got there in time to get our first cache around 10am. This cache was in memory of a tank battle in WW2. It was an extremely enjoyable day of geocaching, where we cleared up all the pesky multi-caches in Nyíregyháza, which are usually a pain. Some were quite interesting, others not so much. But altogether it was a busy and productive day with a total of 9 caches bagged.

Ancient weeping willow by the lake

The themes of these geocaches were pretty varied: flying little planes, old trains and trams, the Fire Service, famous people, one family especially, who had a brickworks in the 19th and 20th century and left a good few pretty lakes (old clay pits that filled up with rainwater) as a legacy. We also visited some old water towers, which I always like. It was fun and we arrived at our flat around 4:30pm.

Pretty bush in Nyíregyháza

We actually ran into the guy who owns the flat, as he has just been there to check it over. He showed us everything and seemed a very nice guy. The flat was approximately 40 square metres, (about the same as our flat in BP), with a jacuzzi and sauna, which is quite rare. It cost appr. £50 for the night and we were very happy with it. It also had fierce air conditioning, so fierce that I had to get up in the middle of the night to turn it off. The flat was very clean, comfortable and we both loved it. The one downside, which unfortunately might stop us using it again, that it was situated on the 4th floor without  a lift.

Pork with garlic and beer

When booking it, I asked the owner for a suggestion for a restaurant and he sent the name of two. We rang one to book a table and they didn't pick up, so we rang the other and that seemed a perfect choice. It was in downtown, but we arrived just before 6pm, after which the parking is free. No hassle getting a parking place as there were plenty of them available. We parked right outside the restaurant and went in.

Muggins with her Cesar salad

Fairly modern decor awaited us which was elegant and not too much in our face. The service was very good, although they didn't have English menus. Roy declared that it being my birthday, I should choose for both of us. So he had pork with garlic and I had a Cesar salad with chicken breast strips. Both were delicious and we had to go round the centre of town for a walk, to aid our digestion. In fact the food there was not just superb, it was gourmet fare. I sent my compliments to the chef, I hope it was passed on.

Fishsing lake: the cache was under the jetty

 

And then, on Wednesday, which was my actual birthday, we started caching fairly early, and the first one was just 5 minutes away by the Zoo. The last time I drove near that cache, I couldn't find anywhere to park, but this time Roy spotted a tiny layby and I got the cache in 5 minutes. Good beginning, we thought, and really most of the day was easy and pleasurable.

Zsindelyes gate cottage

We returned home a different way we arrived. We took to ordinary roads, namely route no. 4, which was heading South to the town of Debrecen. There were 6 caches quite close to that road and we picked them up one by one. There was a fishing lake and a lovely little renovated group of venacular buildings, accompanied by an inn. It was far too early for lunch, otherwise we would have stopped there to eat. This was followed by a local history museum and the local chateau in one village, which has been beautifully renovated in the last 5 years.

One of the renovated old houses

After this one we turned off route no. 4 and made a turn West. Our route took us through the puszta at Hortobágy, which is as flat as the proverbial pancake, full of cattle and their owner's homesteads. Here we visited a set of beautiful lakes, which had a study route and a narrow gauge railway through it. Unfortunately, the engine was away being repaired, so we couldn't travel on the littl train, but the environment was worth visiting.

Local history museum in Újfehértó

 

Just after three o'clock we finished with geocaching and turned for home. We got to the M3 quickly and were at Tesco in Hatvan in no time at all. There we did a quick shop, only to end up on checkout with a situation very similar to the trauma we suffered in Lidls and Aszód. Here the problem was not with our packing speed, but with Roy's card. The machine that accepts credit cards kept rejecting it. The cashier as well as the people behind us started making xenophobic comments, as the government propaganda in Hungary is specially designed to whip up hatred of foreigners at every opportunity.

Where's the fisherman?

Personally, I am sure there is nothing wrong with our cards and the trouble was probably with the system not working correctly, or more likely, the cashier girl being stupid and unable to handle a foreign credit card. After it rejected Roy's card 4 times, I tried to pay and it rejected mine as well. Then I tried to pay cash and discovered that I didn't have enough money with me. The only option left was to try and use my Barclaycard, which I don't use too much and miraculously that went through without a hitch.

Calvary crosses in Egyek's cemetery

 

Roy and I were laughing at each other, saying that we are fast running out of supermarkets we can go to shop at. I think the real truth is with the entire country getting so desperately stressed and  full of government brainwashing, that wherever you go now, tolerance of others is at zero and aggression is growing. Unfortunately, deliveries of groceries are only available in and in the close proximity of Budapest, so we will probably have to shop mostly in small shops and more often than we have been doing in the past. This way we can hopefully have not too many items in our basket and if necessary pay by cash.

Egyek's cemetery with the chapel

It was a shame that what was a brilliant geocaching birthday treat for me, ended like this, but thankfully Roy and I have a very well developed sense of humour, and laughed it off at the end. Since we got home from the trip we have been catching up online, logging my cache finds and waiting for my parcel to arrive. Once home I had an e-mail saying that the custom process has been completed and I have to pay VAT and a handling charge, but no customs duty. It came to £2.75, which has to be paid online, otherwise it will cost £3.15, payable on delivery. I did pay online, but it hasn't  arrived yet.

Flowers in a Nyíregyháza park

 

Tomorrow I am due to go on a hike with a friend near the Slovakian border. She is just arriving home from taking a bunch of kids on a camping holiday. I'm amazed she wants to go hiking with me after a week like that. I used to go to bed and sleep days after such an ordeal as many kids in tents that I was in charge of, but she must be made of sturdy Hungarian stock, with plenty of energy to spare.

Roy comfortable in our Nyíregyháza flat

Next post in about a week, although who knows where we will be by then? We had an invitation by some friends to join them by the Balaton next week and we are considering the offer. In the meantime, Omicron v. 4 and 5 are raging in Hungary too, so I might not want to go anywhere. We'll see. 💓