Johan's paperwork in Pásztó and lunch with him in the Éden, the birthday caching trip to the East and South, and the "Teddy Bear Museum".

So much happened in the last 7 days that I have to warn you, this is going to be a long post. As promised, Johan, our Dutch friend and neighbour in Bér, on Wednesday last, we have journeyed to Pásztó to sort out his admin relating to his services: water, electricity and gas. As I asked him last year, when he was in Bér last to bring them, he brought lots of documents with him, so we had his purchasing contract and deeds to his house and lots of bits of bills from the past relating to the services. I looked up the location of the offices we had to go to and found that gas and electricity are now together in the Pásztó Post Office. I suppose this should make sense, as they are both owned by MVM and billed by the same system.

Pásztó Post Office

We parked up not too far from the Post Office and found the counter,  behind which sat a lovely lady. She took all our papers and filled out all the forms for us, which we would have had to do ourselves, should we have gone for doing it online. The whole thing took an hour and a quarter, but it was done and she was so nice with it. I am still always in favour of doing things in person, which might take more effort to travel and queue etc., but you cannot beat the personal touch. Mind you, it could have been someone unhelpful and officious, but I am glad to confirm that ladies in Pásztó offices are still the best in the world: kind, smiley, helpful, patient and a joy to work with.

The form Johan will have to fill in

We also went to the Council to enquire about acquiring an address card and an ID card for Johan. The lady there confirmed, what I have already suspected, that Johan will first have to go to the Immigration office in Balassagyarmat to get registered, and then the address card could be issued by the Council. The ID card also, though that is yet another process, but Johan, quite rightly said, that he is not bothered with those yet. I did tell him, that if he wants to open a bank account, he will need an address card, but he is not bothering with that either at this stage. Finally, we went to sort the water supply and we didn't know that they have moved. Thankfully, we only went about 300 yards further up on the Main Street, so we sorted that quickly as well.

John in the Eden

On our way back to Bér, Johan invited Roy and myself to lunch the following day, and we gladly accepted. He was really grateful for my help, and I assured him that I am an expert at this game, having helped a large number of Dutch neighbours along the way. He came for us in his Mercedes promptly the following day and we went to the Eden along Route 21 for lunch. Gyula, the owner, was there and greeted us with joy. He even offered us coffees on the house after our lunch. Johan has really enjoyed his lunch and we all got home together with a full tummy.

The courtyard with roses

On Friday we did a few gardening jobs prior to our departure on Saturday: watering the trees, pruning the roses in the courtyard, picking up some plums for the mash and cutting back the vines over the patio. I also filled the medicine boxes and then started packing for an early departure. We promised Johan that we would be back on Tuesday and parted on very good terms. The packing was done very quickly, and with the exception of those things that have to be packed the last minute, all was ready for an early Saturday start.

An ancient and beautiful oak tree with its own cache

Our first day on the trip started towards the East, with a few finds still reasonably close to the village and then onto the motorway to get down in the direction of the Tisza-lake.  I have found most caches in that area, but this time we had some new ones to find, which have been put out since our last visit. There is a campaign to find the largest, or oldest or tallest old tree in each county. I have already found 9 of them and the target this time was for finding another 6. Obviously, there were others en route, which were also planned to be found.

A cute little chapel in the middle of the puszta

The first day went off without too many disasters. The only whinge I can offer is about the weather. The promised cold front has failed to materialise, and we had mid-thirties by the afternoon, which even with the air conditioning in the car was not easy to put up with. Still, we proceeded on our way, heading towards Debrecen, where we were planning to stay two nights in an apartment in the centre of the city. Unfortunately, I have not realised that the centre of Debrecen has been made traffic-free and parking was very difficult to find in walking distance of the apartment. Thankfully, the parking during the weekend was easier to find than it would have been during the week and was free from 2 pm on Saturday.

The Great Church in Debrecen

The walk with all our gear took us more than half an hour, in spite of the fact that it was only about 600 yards. Still, it mostly lead along the main drag, with the glorious Big Church at the end of it and along it there were many pubs and restaurants. As it was traffic-free, the terraces reached into the road and a lovely buzz gave the city a pleasant atmosphere. It was also the promenade, so it was full of benches, where we could sit for a rest now and again. 

A gorgeous old Atlantic pine tree

The apartment was on the third floor, but thankfully there was a lift in the building. On arrival we spotted that there was a mobile air condition unit in the flat, so we put it on straight away. Unfortunately, there was no structure to put the exhaust pipe through the wall in, so we had to have the window open all the time. This, needless to say, lessened the otherwise quite effective AC unit's cooling of the apartment, but on the whole it was bearable to sleep in. The flat was a conversion from a large room into a tiny flat, with miniature kitchen and bathroom, but the bed was comfortable and Roy could watch the World Cup on the large flat screen TV. On balance, we thought that the apartment was reasonable value for money. We paid only 49.000 forints (£120), plus a few hundred in tourist tax for two nights. However, the flooding shower, which the owner promised to pop in and fix, was not fixed, so I don't think we'll stay there again.

A view through to the puszta

While Debrecen is a magnificent city, with lots of history, fancy architecture and lovely, laid back people, plus the centre has a delightful buzz and good atmosphere, we did have a shock on Sunday evening. Most restaurants do not open on Sunday and those that do close by 6 pm. We picked a lovely looking restaurant on the previous day to have dinner in on Sunday, but it has just closed as we got there. We were, unfortunately, left with only one place, which was still open, and that had very substandard service and food. To finish this on a high note, though, on Saturday we did find a Guri bar, which is part of a chain that Roy uses in BP and had a couple of pints of Stahanov beer, our favourite.

The only look-out tower this time

The days of caching around Debrecen were great, we did find quite a few, although we suffered in the late afternoon heat a lot. The list of large trees  was getting longer and thankfully none of the caches needed too much walking to in the heat. They were either drive in, including some in the middle of the forest or the puszta, as in the drought all the dirt lanes were driveable. I did have some longer walks, but those were done either first thing in the morning or in the forests, which were much cooler all day. We fulfilled our quota and happily moved on towards Gyula, our final destination on the third day.

A really ancient oak tree from the bottom up

That day included some travelling around in Romania, which in spite the deep seated prejudice of Hungarians about the condition of their roads, was most comfortably travelled. I think they have spent some money since we last travelled there on their roads, obviously mostly financed by the EU, but wherever it came from, it was most welcome. The only downside of the caches on the other side of the border was that some of the caches were very neglected by their owners, either in bad condition, missing or the locations were closed up and impossible to access. Still, we had help and we did find a few.

A nice little manor house in a village

Our arrival in Gyula was reasonably early, although we have had a very long day, or it seemed like it in the heat. This accommodation, and all things relating to the town of Gyula, had finally given us a few excellent impressions and experiences, so Roy announced that all he had seen, used, eaten and communicated with had cheered him up and saved his little holiday. I agreed with him, as in comparison with Debrecen, almost everything was superior to our previous time. The apartment looked brand new, clean, modern and extremely well air conditioned. The fridge was enormous and looking clean and large, and all in all the service was better too. We had to go to their hotel for the keys and the little woman on reception was very friendly and helpful. Breakfast the following morning looked like a 5-star hotel breakfast, with choices so many I didn't know where to start. The town itself  was pristine, well kept and even the caches were great.

Me looking happy in the Gyula apartment

And then, on the last day we had a leisurely pootle back home, although we did decide to rest up in BP for a few days before returning to Bér. I wrote to Johan, apologising for not seeing him before he departs for home, but it is not impossible that he will still be there when we get back on Friday, as he had car troubles and now, having stubbed his big toe on his dining table, might have to put off his departure while nursing his aching toe. Either way, we will be OK, it will be nice to see him again before he goes home, although if his toe has improved sufficiently to drive, then we wish him a good journey home after his month away from his wife.

By the water in Gyula in a lovely restaurant

The last day's caching took us to an interesting place in Rákóczifalva, a village South of Szolnok, and where the so called "Teddy bear museum" can be found. This is the life's work of a delightful man, who is a maniac of collecting anything that preserves the past, be it teddy bears, furniture, memorial plaques, weapons, kitchen boxes, photos, pictures, statues, ancient remains of destroyed buildings etc., etc. I couldn't list all of it here without taking weeks. He led me round, told me the story of many things and I did see lots of teddy bears, but in spite of its name, the museum was about a lot more than bears. Unfortunately, Roy didn't want to come in, but I am sure, that when I next go past the place, I will drag him in. It was full of old things that Roy loves and he would have been enjoying to see, had he come in with me. I logged the geocache to go with the museum, of course, but honestly, I have forgotten about that as soon as my guide started his tour round his thousands of exhibits.

A few teddy bears in the museum

We took the M4 back to BP and were at home in no time at all. We are having a couple of days of recuperation and then get back to Bér on Friday. While in the car en route home I did a certain amount of paperwork, so as to use the time and save me facing the dreaded admin in town. I got rid of hundreds of superfluous e-mails, did some caching admin and spent some time on the phone discussing further caching trips coming up. Unfortunately, Csilla had to cancel our Pilis hikes, so I contacted my new geocaching friend, István, just in case he fancied doing the hikes with me. Amazingly, he said yes, so I am now planning those two hikes with him.

István Mák, my new geocaching friend

The weather is slightly cooler today, but for once we will not be going out, there is so much indoors work to be done before we return to the country. So, with this note I will return to my office work and hope to come back with some more news this time next Wednesday. 💖