Last week was mostly spent still in Budapest, and our days alternated between spending it mostly indoors in the nice cool environment created by the air conditioner and going out in the heat for interesting outings. The first outing happened on Saturday, when we went to Esztergom, a really lovely old town about an hour by train, North of Budapest. This was a train safari - a la Adrian - and we had a good time.
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The international geocaching club - geocaching.com - held a gathering there and as this was the third time they held it, I thought it was about time I went. With both of us going, it turned out to be a really nice outing. We caught the 8:21am train from Nyugati railway station and were at the event, after some bus catching adventures at the Esztergom railway station, by bang on 10:00 am. The atmosphere was very friendly and I managed to find out where the Hungarian geocache was, as a result. I logged it, had some more chats with both people I knew and with some new ones.
Geocachers from all over the world at the event
As the weather started hotting up, we went and sat about on a bench in front of the Basilica in the shade and took some photos. Then we walked all the way round the Basilica, taking lots of lovely photos everywhere. Esztergom is really photogenic, but I never knew that they had lots of birdies too. I remembered to put the Merlin Bird ID app on, and would you believe it, I had a new bird, a Bank Swallow, to add to my life list. I have now 168 recorded birds in my life list on the app.
Later,
we also discovered some parts of the town we didn’t know, even though we
had been to Esztergom before.
After some more walking about, we returned to the event centre, to look
around again, see if we can find some more people to talk to, but it
seemed that everybody was either sight seeing or caching all over town.
We said good bye and left, walking downhill towards the river, in the
hope that we’ll find a place to eat at. While still in the vicinity of
the Basilica, all places were full, but when we found a dead,
cut-off bit of the Danube, we hit the jackpot. 
Bank Swallow
Esztergom Basilica on the hill
It was beautiful, cool, with dozens of 200-300 year old plane trees by the town swimming pool. Not that we wanted to go for a swim there, but we found that their buffet had an entrance from the avenue of plane trees too, so we went in and had a lovely lunch under some more ancient and enormous trees. Roy had chicken in breadcrumbs with chips and a salad, and I had some feta cheese, with chips and a salad. We both had some beer with it and finished it all off. Then we needed to find a not too exhausting way back to the railway station and this time Google did us proud and led us on a fast and cool way to a bus stop, where we only waited about 10 minutes, a bus came, we got on and then when it did get to the railway station, the BP train was in and due to leave in 5 minutes.
Roy supporting one of the ancient plane trees
Roy had a good sleep on the train again, and we were indoors by a few minutes after 3 pm. Air conditioning went on straight away and Roy had a third sleep for about another hour, while I started doing admin, re: birds, geocaches and FB albums. A very successful day, much enjoyed, with one new bird and one new cache and we found bits of Esztergom we have never seen before. And even the weather was reasonable with a slight breeze taking the edge of the heatwave off.
Roy having his lunch in Esztergom
Sunday was spent with some domestic chores, like washing and filling our medicine boxes for the next week. The Football World Cup was still on and while there were no more matches with England in them, some other high quality games were much enjoyed on the TV. We also watched some F1, which is beginning to interest me again, but I very much doubt that the old enthusiasm will ever return. Still, it was nice to see Hamilton doing reasonably well this year at Ferrari.
Then came Monday, 13th of July, which had two main events in it: 1. a scheduled 5-hour power cut in our apartment block; 2. my 78th birthday. The interaction between the two was quite fortunate, even though I wouldn't have thought so originally. We live in a flat that is in the darkest corner of a block of flats on the ground floor. Basically, we can never do anything in the flat without artificial lighting, it is that dark. So, what were we to do in a dark place with no lights, no TV and no internet? The only connection to the electronic world was my smart phone, and that was wholly inadequate.
Roy napping on the train
Champagne and fruit - my birthday breakfast
So, we got up quite early, treated each other to a champagne breakfast, containing half a bottle of champagne and a large amount of fresh fruit: apple, melon, peach, raspberries, grapes and blueberries. Afterwards, I had a couple of pieces of toast with 2 fried eggs and a bit of bacon, while Roy had a toasted bacon sandwich. As the switch off time was fast approaching, we had to decide what to do for the rest of the morning, while the flat was in the dark.
We decided to go out, but where? you may ask. I had no idea until the last minute, when I had some inspiration from somewhere. I suggested to Roy that we should go to the Buda Hills for a little outing, while I will have the Merlin app on, just in case we can find a new species of bird to record. He agreed, and off we went a few minutes after 8 am, when the electricity disappeared. 
Roy with chammpagne
We took the trolley bus to the Körút and the no. 6 tram over the river
and ended up using the cog-wheel railway up to Széchenyi hill. It was amazing to feel that with every meter travelling uphill in the forest, the temperature was plummeting. From the u[[er terminus we walked over to the Children’s Railway, but that was not coming for
another 40 minutes, so the final choice was for going on a short hike of
about 2.5 km, all the way down to the Farkasréti Cemetery. 
The cog-wheel railway at the terminus
The old TV tower on Széchenyi hill
The hike was really exciting. I got a bit worried about Roy towards the bottom, as the path got narrower and narrower, then got very uneven, slippery and steep. Still, we were very brave, hung onto as many trees as we could and made it down in one piece. Where we actually ended up on streets with houses around, we saw a bus stop, which was the terminus of the bus no. 53. We found out that it went down to the Metro and it came every 10 minutes. We were very lucky, as Roy’s legs were seriously complaining by then.
Once on the Metro 4, we went all the way to the Keleti Station and from
there with a trolley bus 76 to one of our favourite little restaurants.
Had a lovely lunch and by the time we got home around 1:30 pm, the
lights were on again and we could rest in peace. Roy had a
fairly long nap and I have looked at the endless number of birthday
greetings on FB and Messenger. It took practically the rest of the day to read and answer all of them. Still, I was really happy, as so many people thought of me on my birthday, that it looked like the numbers would outdo all previous years. At the end I counted them up and they numbered just over 60, which is great.
Roy on the hike
And then yesterday we packed up all our gear and came down to the village, as we needed to prepare my bike there for the trip to start on Saturday. We managed to buy the bike rack, but forgot about the adapter for 7-pin to 13-pin electrics between the car and the rack. Roy managed to buy one, but we didn't know if it would work. That we had to wait for until we got home. In the meantime, we had two chores, one was to ring the post lady and let her know that the parcel waiting for us could now be delivered, the other was our Dutch neighbour, Johan, who was back after nearly year and whom I promised to help with Hungarian bureaucracy.
End of the tarmac road on our hike
In the depth of the forest on our hike
After a fairly uneventful drive, including a food shop at Lidl, we arrived around 11:15 am and Johan, was on the phone almost immediately. He invited us to coffee and we agreed that we would be there around 4 pm in the afternoon. In the meantime I managed to sort out the circumstances around Stephen's visit in August, which basically will only be for 2 days, not 4. He arrives with Ruth on Sunday evening and leaves first thing on Wednesday. If you add that up, that is only 2 days, isn't it? Never mind, at least I now know the dates and times, and as we would very much like to see them, I later suggested via Messenger that we could go out in the afternoon of Tuesday, 25th August to Callas, a really posh cafe right next to the Hungarian National Opera House, for tea and cakes.
The visit to John in the afternoon took something like 3 and half hours, which made me rather tired and hot, as he has no air conditioning in the house, although a very powerful fan was on, which made it a tad more pleasant. Still, he has so many problems with that house of his, that it will take more like 3 and half years, than 3 and half hours to sort them. I offered to go with him to sort out several official jobs, like changing the electricity meter, gas meter, water meter, his ID and address card in the nearby town of Pásztó the following day, and he looked rather glad. It had to be this Wednesday, because most of those official places are only open twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, and after this Wednesday it could only be done next week, when on Monday we are not back from our trip yet, and by Wednesday he has most likely have departed back to the Netherlands. So, we are leaving at 7:30 am this morning and wish me luck!
Roy and ice cream in the Regős
Hopefully, we'll get back from our 4-day jaunt to the East and South East of the country by Tuesday, and that I will be not too knackered to write the next post on Wednesday, a week today. 
Callas cafe interior
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