Jewish or Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Tours of Budapest

For specialized tours of the city which focus on a particular area of interest, it is essential to have a guide who knows that aspect of the city intimately.

This tour company provides two specialized types of  Budapest City Tours: Jewish Budapest and  Gay and Lesbian aspects of Budapest. We had taken the Gay and Lesbian Tour when it was offered during the European Union Pink month of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender diversity celebrations. Our guide was excellent. She not only provided the specific tour related highlights as we walked, but also included much of the generalized tour information.

What was most impressive is that she highlighted buildings or monuments that we had passed hundreds of times, but never knew there was a historical gay, lesbian, or bisexual story associated with it.

Visit their Facebook page here to send them a message regarding their tours.

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There Goes the Neighborhood

I walk through Vörösmarty tér each time that I go to the gym, (five days a week if you are wondering), but today there was something more alarming than usual.

Generally, during the ‘summer’ months, if this year the weather ever syncs with the calendar to call it summertime, there have been numerous food vendors that spring up on the square. They generally have a tendency to clutter the pedestrian flow of traffic. I have never been a fan of these addition obstacle courses with the exceptions of seasonal markets like Christmas and Easter.

Today, when I came out of the metro, I was greeted with the cacophony that carpentry tools are responsible for creating. This is what I witnessed. Like a bad rash, they are spreading throughout the square and down Váci. Although I am curious about seeing what commerce engages these little metal huts, I genuinely despise their littering an otherwise beautiful square.



A couple of blocks away, on Deák Ferenc tér, near the Lutheran Church, there is a photo exhibit. Since none of the photo captions are in English, from the words I can decipher combined with a splash of  logic, my best guess is that these are photos of the Hungarian troops who are or were in Afghanistan.

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Not Exactly the Wheel of Fortune

No, it is not a remaking of Ferris Bueller's Day Off. This Ferris wheel appeared in Erzsébet Park, where it will live until later in the summer when it moves to the Sziget Festival. Apparently there was a smaller one at the festival last year which was a major hit. Since size matters for so many, they opted for the next larger size this year. While it is waiting to be moved, it is collecting the moola from those who want to eye Budapest like a bird.

The London Eye it is not, but it will do.

Follow Ferris's example, take a day, ride the Ferris wheel and then sit back and watch the classic movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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Decisions, Decisions!

Are these university students who now realize they will have to repay the cost of their education if they decide to leave the country upon graduation? Are they weighing their options? Or is this just another strange Budapest sighting caught on camera?

You first and we will follow right behind you.

I changed my mind. Who moved the ladder?

Yo! Taxi!! Help me outta here.

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BudaBaB - The Movie

We just had this professional video created to show off our

BudaBaB B and B. Enjoy!
To check on availability, go here. 

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What’s Cookening, Goodlookin?

We have a friend, Hunter, who loves to play chef. She has a way of romancing a saucepan and Cuisinart with outcomes that will titillate the taste buds. Her kitchen is smaller than our pantry, but she magically whips out soup to dessert with enough platters between them that heads of state would be impressed. As visuals are just as pertinent to a meal as the savory sumptuous blending of the meals, here again Hunter surpasses most others with her table ware spread. Going to her place for dinner is better than a fancy restaurant.

At one point, she had mentioned having dinner parties for a fee. The concept being that people would pay a set fee, with a limited number of seats available, and guests would savor a lavish dinner that would be the talk of the city for many meals after. When we discussed it, I hadn’t given it much thought other than the means to advertise such events and basically pooh-poohed the idea.
 
Recently, we had a guest here who is traveling the world over a year’s time. His most recent adventure was in Buenos Aires, Argentina and happened to mention that he went to ‘hidden dinners’. He explained that these were dinners at peoples’ homes that were advertised by word of mouth. You contact the host, make a reservation, and pay a set fee when you arrive. He was enthralled by the cultural experiences he was immersed in that would not have been possible had he not heard of these.
 
Today, in one of my computer newsletters, there was an article on Cookening, a website started by a Frenchman. The concept is simple. You sign up to either become a host or a guest. As a host, you create a ‘table’ on the site, which you format to your liking and include the financial contribution you would like from guests. Spice up your table with a few pictures of the potential dishes you might offer and then publish it on the site. His ‘table’ gets verified by the site administrators.
 
A potential guest who is interested in culture, food, and meeting new people finds your ‘table’ on Cookening. You send the host a booking request. The host then accepts it, declines it or continues to dialogue with the potential guest to refine the request. All of this is through the site at the onset.
 
When the host accepts the booking request, the guest then pays the host’s contribution and Cookening fees online confirming the request. Contact information is then shared.
 
The only downside at the moment is that the cities and countries are limited. Yet this is a young company with hopefully a bright future and it will grow exponentially over the years. Here is hoping.

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Someone Left the Door Open

Wouldn’t it be incredible if Hungary has to be maintained by non-Hungarians? What would that do to nationalism? Would all of you Hungarian ex-pats return to the homeland to hold the support poles in place? 

According to a Hungarian news report that was translated into English, “Around 72,000 Hungarians left the country in 2012… According to the latest Eurostat figures, 230,000 Hungarians live in different European countries - in officially registered status.” The article continues to fill in the blanks lest anyone should forget that there are worldwide destinations besides Europe. 

Just as I was reading this article a second time, I received an e-mail from a former student who has been living in Canada for the last two years and is not planning on returning to Hungary other than for a family visit. Last week, I received two e-mails from two former students who were sending me their updates on their life in the USA. 

Athough the article clearly states that the return statistics are difficult to master. There are no reliable sources for colleting this data; but what they are finding is that the nation sending the most immigrants to Hungary is Germany. The older Germans have some affinity to the country and culture. Probably country living makes the retirement euro go farther too. 

If you want to read the whole article brimming with numbers Google Will Hungary become a country of migrants? May 23, 2013

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Guess! Can You?

I was coming back from the gym the other day and has a woman approach me wearing a shirt like this one. Before she could say anything, I said 
“Okay, let me guess. One you are way too old to be wearing that t-shirt, but with your make-up and high heels I would guess you think you can get 20,000 Huf for a half hour. Well, guess again, honey.”

Guess what happened next. 

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Peace Corps Allows Gay Couples

The Peace Corps announced they are now accepting applications from gay couples for the program. A pity this is 10+ years too late. This is something that I had thought of back when we were still in CA. Ron was willing and I had always had it in the back of my mind. There is a short article here.

Lillian Carter was 68 years old when she applied and was accepted. I am not near there yet, but Ron has passed it as an age and as an interest. 

It should be a fantastic opportunity for other young gay couples though, so I applaud the change. Boy Scouts has changed their position on gay scouts, so there is social justice momentum in the US. When they allow gay scout leaders, it will be a real success.

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Budget Ways to See the World

I love it when I come across some information that I not only find useful for myself, but can be shared further with others. Included in one of the newsletters that appear in my mailbox daily, there was an article on cheap travel. Well with a moniker Budget Nomad, how could I resist reading it?

I loved the tidbits it included. I believe some items in the story are not well known so I will include a short examination of them here.

WorkAway – Don’t be confused by the URL. The suffix is .info, not .com. This remarkable website is a collective of places where one can either look for volunteer work as an exchange for room and board or, one can post their work opportunity with the room and board that is provided. The article claims the site's database has more than 4,500 participants from 115 countries. However, when I looked at the dropdown list, I certainly did not see that many countries listed. Supposedly, you are able to search by job and/or country, but when I put in ‘teaching’ I received results that did not include the word ‘teaching’ in the descriptions. Generally, the work week is four to five days with time to travel or explore the city.
 
On the flip side, you can choose to be a host and post a job with the accommodation. I posted our small room for 3-4 nights in exchange for someone knowledgeable in online marketing and current SEO trends. That was only a few days ago, but no bites yet.

Cost: There is only a sign-up fee for those who want to travel. The membership cost is 22 Euros for two years (minimum time frame) or 29 Euros for either a couple or two friends for the same two year period.
There is no fee for signing up as a host.
 
WWOOF is the acronym for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It is similar to WorkAway, but is restricted to being an exchange program to pair volunteers with hosts who are organic farmers in different parts of the world. A typical day will have the guest working 4-6 hours, giving you additional time to travel the rest of the day and days off.
 
Cost: This is a pricey option. There are two different categories. If a country has a National WWOOF organization, you need to join the country group. If you want to do an extended stay on a continent, but not necessarily in one country, the memberships could run you some big bucks or pounds. For example, Germany has an online membership for 18 Euros; Greece is 15 Euros while Argentina and Brazil are $30 for each country. Hungary is a bargain as membership is free.
 
If a country does not have a country wide organization, hope is not lost. There is a category within WWOOF for “Independents”. The cost of membership is £15 (British pounds) to register as a WWOOF volunteer or £25 for two people travelling together. Membership gives access to the WWOOF Independents host list for one year.
 
HelpX is similar to the two above, but includes bed and breakfasts, ranches, and hostels in their list of opportunities. 

Cost: There are two levels of membership for volunteers. The free membership offers listings while the premier upgrade costs 20 euros and lasts for 2 years worldwide for both single and twin memberships. Hosts only receive the free membership.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

For many years,  we have been involved with the Fulbright awardees who arrive to Hungary for a semester or a full year. Depending on their needs, wants, and desires, we have become friendly with those who choose. 

One such person was Nicole Fiore. She was here half time as a Fulbright counselor for potential US recipients as well as those who wanted to study in the US with the rest of her time working at Central European University. The reason I mention her now is because she sent me the note below. This just so happened to come in at an optimal time allowing me to connect it with something else.

Hi Ryan,

I saw your latest blog posting and just wanted to let you know that if you ever want to give some property away I would be more than happy to take it off your hands!! Just kidding!

I hope you and Ron are well and enjoying some much deserved time off from teaching.

I love reading your blog postings as they come into my inbox. I imagine you telling the stories at the kitchen table as we are all drinking wine and playing apples to apples. The thought puts a big smile on my face.

Have a great time traveling this summer and be safe.

Nichole

Nicole imagines me telling these stories at the kitchen table. Well, in the same batch of e-mails, there was an article about a program called Podcastomatic that will convert blog posts into podcasts. Instead of reading them, you can listen to them. You can find the online program here; there is nothing to download. I tested it out and can say it is marvelous for the short-term or perfect for those with vision issues. So you don't miss a thing, it shows:
“New episodes added since this page was loaded: 9 (please reload this page to show the new episodes)”
 
Actually, the voice sounds somewhat like me if I had a cocktail of Thorazine mixed with a touch of Ativan before recording. Regardless, it is worthy of checking out. There may be other blogs you want to hear.

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When the Spirit Hits

Today is Pentecost Monday, which is strange that it is a double day holiday over Sunday and today as all current researchers show that Hungary is Catholic just about in name only. Well some are “Hey, any excuse for a party!” while some countries are “Hey, any excuse for a holiday!” When I was in elementary school, I asked my mother if we were Jewish; the Jewish kids had more school holidays than the rest of us. When she said no, I asked about conversion procedures.

Well, this has been a productive time here at the homestead. After joining the gym at the Marriott Hotel, my mind has been surprising my body by actually getting there five times a week. After walking the treadmill at 3.5 miles per hour, I complete 10-25 repetitions on 7 different machines. There is only one machine that actually shows miles rather than kilometers per hour. I didn’t realize this at first. I had been using the other machines cranking it up to 6.8 kph.

When I first started on the other machine, the speed almost sent me into the Nautilus hip adduction machine, hip first. It took a couple of seconds to realize why I was moving faster than a thoroughbred in training, when the sign stating the obvious was visible. Although I am fairly adept at speed reading, reading at high speeds is a different story.

A gym work-out takes a real chunk of time out of the day. It takes me a solid twenty minutes to get there, at least an hour and a half exercising, twenty minutes in the Jacuzzi, and then another twenty minutes rewarding myself at Starbucks when I finish. 

There was a book publisher that offered to have me send in a proposal for a book they wanted to have rewritten and updated. They were graceful enough to wait patiently until the semester was over before I turned something in for their evaluation. Finally, it was sent off today. If it is approved, it is something that can be completed over the summer.

With that in mind, there has been another block of my time spent working on a new professional website that should debut in another week or so. Details will follow as things progress. The other irons in the fire including marketing the Feri apartment, updating my CV, and making travel plans.

We will be going to Florence for a week next month. Ron’s great niece is getting married in Tuscany. She and her beau rented an entire villa for the wedding, but we will only stay 2 nights and the rest of the time in Florence. We have both been to Florence in the past, but one cannot tire of Florence.

At the end of August, we are returning to Italy, but traveling through to make our way to San Marino, to spend a couple of nights. Planning ahead, we booked our tickets to Panama for our December/January get-away with a side trip to Nicaragua.

Holiday or not, I spoke with a lawyer in the US today about making out a will. It is complicated since we have a bank account and Ron’s retirement in CA, a property in FL, we are registered voters in NJ, and my credit card goes to NM. When we finally whittled it down, the attorney asked who would get the property if something happened to both of us. That hit me like a trick question. I hadn’t thought about it, and we certainly hadn’t discussed it. I guess we will just donate it to the Tea Party! Joking!

On Facebook, someone had posted a link to a local videographer company called ICandyFilm. Some of the samples were fabulous, so I sent them a note saying as much. One thing led to another and they are coming over to discuss filming the apartment. It will be great adverting and if we ever decide to sell, it will be ideal.

It hasn’t even been a week since I finished school and already there has been so much accomplished. If this momentum continues, mountains will be moved.

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I See Dead People

Yesterday, as I was walking from the metro to my private student's home; the street was blocked off by 2 ambulances at weird angles. There were no police cars, which was confusing as to what was happening. As I walked down the sidewalk, I saw the corpse on the ground almost to the point where I had to walk around him.

How could I be certain it was a dead body? How could I be certain it was him and not her? The body was wrapped in black plastic and taped up with masking tape like a poorly wrapped oversized Christmas gift. The ankles and feet donned with boots were sticking out at the bottom. They were undoubtedly male. Now unless they wrap up sick people like this for transporting to a hospital, this guy was dead.

The question remains as to why there were no police on the scene. This street corner is visible from my student’s 5th floor apartment window. He mentioned he could see the ambulances, but was uncertain what was happening.

This is not my first dead person experience in Budapest. A few years ago, I was getting acupuncture treatments in Buda. Rather than wait for the tram after a treatment, I decided to walk to the metro. As I was passing a sliver of a park, there were ambulance workers fitting another male person into a body bag. Then, it was a regular “as seen on TV” body bag, not some Hefty bag from the local market.

Seeing dead people is not new for me. I spent 16 years as a medical social worker, so I have seen my share of people who have left this plane. Still each time, it still has a gripping effect.

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It Is Over When the Timer Rings

I had a countdown calendar on my laptop desktop; it was set to the end of the semester. More accurately it was set to the last minute of my last class. When students noticed it as I frequently use my computer to project their tasks, magazines, blogs, and websites on the wall, I did not comment on the reason for having the calendar there. I did acknowledged its existence, but since they never asked other questions, I did not offer addition responses.

The calendar on my school laptop, a computer I bought myself to use for school, was as a visual reminder for them. It meant to say the semester is ending, time is running out to pad your grade with participation points by speaking out, write the best essay since it is your last one, spend extra time with the final creative writing a short story, or add something spectacular to the blog for the blogging class which would truly impress me and others.

They didn’t seem to get that subliminal message. What they did not know is that I had the same counter on my home computer’s desktop. This was for me and only for me. It reminded me that there is relief to this burnout I was feeling. As the minutes ticked away, I knew the pages of editing I would have to do were decreasing. I know that there were hours, minutes, and seconds of passing by that I no longer had to try to make students understand that I only want what is best for them that my being a taskmaster is for their good, not for my own jollies.

When the time finally arrived to say good-bye, when the countdown clock alarm sounded, I reminded them that the only time I would see them in the future is when they sign up for their internship, but contact would be minimal. Some rushed out the door as the words were fading from the air after I spoke them. Others stayed to present me with a lovely tin of 72 teabags, consisting of smaller packages of eight in different flavors. I love tea, so this is a perfect gift for me.
As I gushed with appreciation and enthusiasm, I mentioned that if any of them want to practice their English over the summer, I am more than willing to meet up for a coffee. I added that I knew some fabulous coffee shops.

It was later that I realized what I had said. Here I was, getting mushy over getting the tea, but then suggesting we meet for a coffee. Just according to the old instruction manual - Open mouth, insert foot! Then I thought about it realistically. Quite honestly, I do love tea, but I love drinking it at home. When I am out, I never order tea, I order coffee variations. There is something about the coffee at home, regardless of the brand we buy; I am never satiated by the flavor. Tea never lets me down when home brewed. Hence, to get my coffee fix, I need an outside expert to prepare it for me. 

At least now, I have 72 reasons to stay home and enjoy a cup of tea and remember the students who thought enough to give me the gift while I renew my batteries.

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Hungarians in Duquense, PA Video

Our nephew came across this video and shared it with us. He lives in Pittsburgh and was here to visit with his new wife on their honeymoon trip.
This is a short video of Hungarians who went to PA to work in the steel mills. When they interview people, it is in Hungarian, but the English narrator does give an overview.

From YouTube " This documentary, Krisztus Vándorai, filmed in the United States by Debrecen Televízió, aired in Hungary in 2009. It recalled the Hungarians' plight within their own country from which they fled for a better life, leaving their native homes of Northeast pre-Trianon Hungary (present-day Slovakia and Romania).

This 10-minute excerpt from the four-hour-long production, documents the congregation of my home church, the Hungarian Reformed Church of Duquense, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh), for which I am the Assistant Chief Elder. Appearing in this portion of the film are Rev. Dr. József Posta, Marian Balázs Nagy (1920-2010), Olga Balázs Darnay, and Julius Nagy.

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