The hundred and twentyseventh week of the pandemic

Day 5 with Elian and Xander was spent near the Slovakian border, or in fact on the other side of the Slovakian border. After Trianon, the lovely old medieval ruin of Somoskő Castle found itself in Czechoslovakia and while the citizens of Somoskő village were only a few dozen metres from it, they had to travel 30 kilometres to the nearest crossing point to visit it.

Roy and the boys in the castle

These two were not the first in the family to visit this place, some years back we went there with Alex, Meaghan and Callum, and we hoped that Elian and Xander would find the place exciting too. I do remember that Alex and Stephen's first visit to Pevensey Castle many years ago managed to fire their imaginations and they not only climbed on everything, but imagined being knights and damsels in distress.

The conquerors of the castle

Well, this time round the first bit repeated itself, albeit only by Xander, who managed to frighten me to death by his mountain goat act on the basalt rocks outside the castle. He seemed to try to storm the castle in a medieval fashion, which he finally had to give up. Watching him descending on a rocky and grassy slope, I suddenly realised that there is nothing to worry about, as he is an expert at gauging the degree of difficulty and danger. 

One of the nooks they kept disappearing into

Inside the castle perhaps they got a bit bored after 20 minutes or so, but until then they looked into and down every hole, tried to climb out of a high window, (stopped by me) and were generally quite boisterous. En route home we visited a Macdonald's, which not only met with the kids' approval, but both Roy and I enjoyed it a lot. Roy and Xander had Big Macs, Elian and I a honey and chicken wrap. We also did some food shopping on the way home and arrived home quite happy.

Xander storming the castle

Sunday's roast chicken was great, although we didn't realise that Xander wished to eat half of it himself. He is not a big boy, but his appetite is that of a grown man. I managed to get them some ice creams and chocolate biscuits, so peace was restored after that.

My favourite squatter of my bed

Two quite distressing events in the country ruffled a few of our feathers, but eventually both had happy endings. The first one was Roy losing his car keys. We spent 48 hours looking for it, Roy not sleeping a wink on the first night, until finally he found it in one corner of the duvet cover on the inside. I am not making any accusations, but the fact that the boys seemed to invade both our beds and live in and on them all day, might have had something to do with it.

Ballon above City Park in BP

The other worry was a warning light on the dashboard of the Duster. It seemed to warn us about having arrived within 1500 kilometres of having to have an oil change. Roy panicked as usual, but thankfully, on Monday morning I managed to ring the garage and they assured us that it is an overcautious sensor that gives reminders this early. Finally, we decided that as the car is due for its yearly service next month, we'll bring it forward to next Thursday and they can do the oil change within the service as well as the seat alarm, for which the part has just arrived, then.

Waiting for food in the Kiosk Restaurant

 

The food arrived and was delicious

On Monday, the 15th August, we left the village and returned to BP. Hannah, Stephen's girlfriend arrived in the early hours of Saturday, and had already spent two nice days with Stephen, living in the flat, going to the Festival where Stephen's gig was apparently a great success and trying to see some nice parts of BP together on Sunday.

Roy's rose duck breast

My pike perch with asparagus

We arrived midday, they took the kids out to the park in the afternoon, while Roy and I had a rest, and we all had a delightful dinner in the Kiosk Restaurant near the Danube in the evening. The food was of gourmand quality, the terrace lovely and the service very good. This was a treat from Stephen, saying thanks for having them. We had a good time, afterwards we caught a no. 2 tram to our favourite funnel cake place, which most of us could only eat in small quantities, due to the big dinner we just had. A walk along the Danube, and some playing on a training circuit in a playground for the kids helped digestion all round. 

Xander, Hannah and Elian eating lángos in the market

Tuesday, being their last day, we went to see the Central Market, bought some lángos for lunch and did some shopping. Roy and I went home after that, as the heat and the crowds really made us tired. The rest of them went to a VR place, which they told us was great fun. Wednesday, their final day of returning home went past in a swish, the massive Mercedes V250d in elegant black arrived to take them to the airport, where as far as I could see, their flight departed late, but not too late and I just had the Messenger message that they landed safely at Gatwick. It was tremendous fun to have the kids, and not only the kids. Hannah's visit was short, but she was an absolute delight to have around. Hope she comes again sometime in the future.

Roy's udon noodles, prawns, veg in Thai sauce

My Pad Thai with prawns, veg, noodles and nuts

After they left the flat felt really quiet and empty, so we decided to go and have lunch in a Thai restaurant we fancied to go to for nearly a year. Originally, we discovered it while waiting for the arrival of Roy's whisky, which was the boys' present for him for his 80th birthday last September. We went to fetch it from the shop, and they told us to hang about until their delivery arrives from the warehouse. There was no point going home, only to turn round and come back again, so we walked about in the area, and there it was: Pad Thai Wokbar. 

Our two pints in the Rizmajer

Well it was delicious, Roy had udon noodles with Thai sauce, vegetables and prawns. I had rice noodles, veg, nuts and prawns. As we didn't order any drinks, we got up, took the bus to Blaha and walked to Rizmajer, which was a discovery last year when Feri was still talking to me, but the beer was gorgeous. We discovered, that to pander to the illiterate boozers of Hungary, they rewrote the funny names to be something more intelligible for morons. Still, the taste was just as good as last year and we both had a pint of a beer called Popcorn, which was dark, bitter and heavy. Just as I like it. They stuck the name IPA on it, but it wasn't an India Pale Ale, but it still tasted good.

A happy Roy in a nice pub

Tomorrow we are going to lunch with our old friend John in the Stadt Restaurant in Budakeszi, that we got to know with Vera and Gábor last year. Following that we are back to Bér, to pick up more plums, do the mowing,  water the plum trees and generally enjoy the peace and quiet after these hectic couple of weeks.