First week with the kids and one last hurrah on Fáklya

On Friday we took a train at 7:30 am and were in Siófok well before 9:00 am. The family and Valéria turned up around 10:15 am, which didn't bother us as we sat around in the little park in front of the station and had a good time. We decided to go to brunch in a nearby cafe, which produced quite nice food and with the exception of Xander, who didn't like his French toast, we all cleared our plates. During the wait for them, we bought the return seat tickets for the train, so we had to be back by 12:30 pm. This allowed us to go up in the old water tower, which has been renovated and turned into a lookout tower/exhibition place. The views were great, in spite of the fact that is was quite misty over the Balaton.

Elian, Stephen, Valeria and Xander on the water tower

The trip home was pretty eventless and after we turned away a couple of people from our booked seats, nothing significant happened. We got off at Kelenföld station, took Metro 4 and were home by 3:15 pm. Saturday was an absolutely brilliant day. I found a place online which seemed quite interesting and while it promised to be fun, it was also educational. Bravely, we decided to take the kids there, even though it was almost outside Budapest.

Xander and I in the labyrinth

We caught the trolley bus outside the house, then the no. 6 tram to the Metro in Blaha Lujza square, and finally the local railway to Csillaghegy in the 3rd district in the North of the city. After a 10 minute walk we arrived at CSOPA, the Csodák Palotája, which roughly translated is The Palace of Miracles. It was a sort of amalgam of a science museum with a massive playhouse. The building had 3 floors and we visited and spent what seemed like hours in all of its rooms.

Elian and Roy in the chemistry lab

The first one was about magnetism, then we went to the sentient beings room, followed by the Universe and its planets, then electricity, gadgets to do with hearing, sight and touch, a fantastic labyrinth with mirrors, the power of compressed air and even a bed of nails. Other exhibits included structural engineering, reflections, vortex, centrifugal force, illusions, chemistry in a laboratory, various aspects of physics and a few others.

Xander on a bed of nails

 

We couldn't get them away from the place, we finally left after 3 and half hours, because everybody got very hungry and none of us fancied the buffet there. Lunch was had at MacDonalds, which was also a great success. Roy and I are usually quite hopeless at ordering on those computers that offer you a thousand variants and which we usually get lost in. Not so the kids: they navigated their way through all of it at lightning speed and we chose to sit down, so they even delivered the food to our table.

Xander with his beloved burger

Once at home, I decided to risk buying three tickets for the balloon, as the Sunday forecast seemed promising. As it happened, the weather got a bit worse, but we still went to City Park. Although I only found out that they put the afternoon onto the "risky" category, late morning, so we had to hurry. Unfortunately so did hundreds of others, so we very nearly missed it. Still, during the waiting around we made some good friends and we got into the third lot of people going up in the balloon after arrival.

Elian and Xander up in the balloon

Due to the strengthening wind they reduced the capacity to 15 from 20. The kids seemed excited to get on board and it was really fascinating. The rise is so gradual that you hardly notice it. Although it was obvious that the wind got up, as we wobbled quite a lot. The views from the top were fascinating, if a bit hazy and a good time was had by all. Unfortunately on the way home Xander got really obnoxious to Elian, which really upset me. I scrapped all plans to eat out and we got home, hoping that things would improve.

See if you can find Roy (enlargement would help)

They did, but by then I was in a strop and refused to go anywhere, just in case he starts again. It was a shame to have such an unpleasant end to what was otherwise a great outing. I was hoping that with his football summer camp starting on the Monday, he would get into a better frame of mind. And he did. He went to bed without any complaint on Sunday night, refused to chat with his mates online, saying that he had to get up early and he really did. Phewww, I thought, that was quite an escape, as I wouldn't have known what else to do with him, had he stayed in that bad frame of mind.

Killing time while not playing

 

Monday was really successful, and I am hoping the rest of the week will be the same. We arrived quite early, registered, I paid the balance, handed over the registration sheet and he changed for the camp. Before I left, he was already playing table tennis with another boy and hardly said good bye. I went to try to to do a multi-cache in a part of BP near the river, but my telephone refused to let me into the geocaching website, so I gave up. 

Elian and dim sum

I came home and we all went to the nearby dim sum place for lunch. That was quite a find, and even Elian enjoyed himself. He, unfortunately, is suffering with various allergies and didn't really want to do anything. Neither of us blamed him and let him relax all day, which did him a great deal of good. Especially, having a day without his brother was a relief for him. 

Roy and his dim sum

At 3 pm I went back to fetch him from camp and he had a good day. I think he probably was a bit disappointed by not having football matches all day, but finally got used to other activities and seemed happy at the end of the day. On the way home he was really chatty on the bus and told me all about his Russian friend, who speaks very good English. I took him to MacDonalds again and we had some food together. He had another large coke, not only because he likes the stuff, but because they are giving away glasses with coke at the moment. He already has two, I hope his dad will not mind taking them home on the airplane.

My lovely plate of dim sum

And finally I must tell you all about Fáklya again. This happened at the beginning of this week, but as it is minimal in importance against the family, I left it to last. Márkó, who is my only contact with Fáklya now, after having been removed from their Discord server, told me that there has been a takeover in the organisation by Noor and Dani. They have elected Márkó too to the executive, but anything he objects to or proposes gets voted down by the other two. Silly boy, instead of staying and fighting back in a political way, which both Jack and I suggested to him, he resigned and asked for a disciplinary panel to clear this up. I presume he expects a fair hearing, where he can plead his case, but I can't see that happening.

Jack, my good comrade

He is very, very silly, but there is not a lot either Jack or I can do about that. He is a good lad, but he, along with the rest of them, still has no idea what a bolshevik, revolutionary communist group should be like. He is still stuck with old structures and is unable to assert himself sufficiently to get at least one supporter, with whom he could put forward the right ideas and methods. I spoke with Jack and we agreed that Fáklya is as good as finished, although hope dies last, so we would stay in touch with Márkó, but without any expectations. 

One of the guys why I remain a Marxist

 

Sad end to a very promising group, but petty bourgeois leftism and identity politics are sheer poison and not even Márkó had the guts and ideas to fight against it. Correction: we gave him the ideas, but he couldn't or wouldn't use them. Jack told me a very good quote from Francesco from the International Centre, a guy whom I have known in the past and much respected. He said: "A good nothing is better than a bad something." Absolutely true, and we are pretty much at the end of the bad something, developing into the good nothing.