Bleckede

Where sun and wind play on a ring of bright water,
that's where my heartland will be.
The deer on the hill in the first snow of winter,
the gull in the sky winging free.

I wandered away from the dark crowded city,
leaving my old life behind;
and came to a place where a ring of bright water
dazzled the care from my mind.
So, I live with the wonder of the sky and the sea,
and I'll always remember who revealed them to me.

/Val Doonican: Ring of Bright Water/

The Rooftops of Lunenburg

The Hansestadt Lüneburg (Hanseatic Town of Lunenburg) is well-known for its ancient gabled and half-timbered houses. Turn your head up to the sky to get a full view of them.

The Journey Begins

During the college years, I did my industrial placement in Nuremberg and now, I had the chance to pass by this lovely city again. It was great to see how little it had changed during these 12 years and how wonderful the Franconian cuisine still tastes. We had everything from Nürnberger Bratwurst and Sauerkraut to Kartoffelklösse (potato dumplings) and Haxe (grilled pork knuckle). I daresay, it tastes the best with a glass of Radler (shandy). An Guadn!

Farewell to Pécs

The M6/M60 motorway between Pécs and Budapest was opened to traffic on 31st March, 2010 and my assignment also ended at the construction company last Friday. I got a 2-week long paid holiday and I am all excited about the new direction my life will now take. Good-bye, Pécs and thank you for this lovely time I'll never forget.

Happy Easter

At Easter in Hungary, spring is just exploding:
the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming.
Most of the folks eat cooked ham with a slice of sweetbread,
some horseradish and cooked eggs whose shell they've painted red.

Then, on Easter Monday, boys visit the girls they know,
recite a short poem and sprinkle them with cologne.
In return, they get an egg that is kept for a while,
this is an old folk custom followed since a long time.

Easter bread-types all around the world:
Austria Osterpinze
Croatia Uskrsna pogača
Finland Paasiaisleipa
Greece Tsoureki
Hungary, Upper Franconia Hefezopf
Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia Paska
Russia, Serbia Kulich
Spain Bollo de hornazo

Too Sweet To Bear

There are 39 brown bears and 20 European grey wolves in the bear sanctuary of Veresegyház, a one of a kind establishment in Central Europe. Both the bear and wolf enclosures can be walked around in approximately half an hour and one can feed the voracious bears with honey through the wire mesh fence with a huge wooden spoon. At the end of the procedure, both the bears and me were covered with sticky mess…

Easter Fair

The Easter Fair on Vörösmarty Square is organized as part of the Budapest Spring Festival. Throughout the weeks before Easter, one can enjoy craft and produce stalls, performances and dance lessons. I purchased all the Eater cards there from the Budapest-based Bomo Art and had a "light" lunch of pompos (Hungarian pizza) and a mug of mulled wine. Well, the extra energy is absolutely needed when the clocks are advanced an hour ahead at the beginning of the Daylight Saving Time (here it is 28th March) and an hour of precious sleep is lost, right?