Monday 20 July 1998
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Pictures
Drove into town and asked for directions to the hotel from a lady walking on the
street. She was Portuguese didn’t speak Hungarian nor English. Asked another
passer-by and found the hotel just around the corner. Checked in at the Marilyn
hotel at 5:15 p.m. and were given a room on the opposite side of the street from
the reception area. The curved stairway leading up to our room was absolutely
dangerous, because of the narrow steps.
Very hot day, no air-conditioning in the room but only $42 CAN. including
breakfast. Nice hotel, not a bad deal. Rachel bought a bathing suit in a
bathing-suit store right beside the hotel. Walked around the town.
Rachel saw a
Nike store with a pair of sandals in the window that she wanted. The store was
closed so we decided to return the next morning. Went back to the hotel and had
beer and coke on the patio. Then back to our room for some buck a liter wine. We
were doing our best but we still had about three liters of wine left.
Tuesday 21 July 1998
I woke up early and went looking for an ATM. The vendors were just beginning to
set up their wares in the market on the sidewalk. Asked one of them where an
ATM. was and he directed me to a shopping center across the street. The machine
wouldn’t accept the card. Walked around and found a bank that was just opening.
Asked the lady who was opening the bank whether their ATM. was a Plus machine.
She said it wasn’t but directed me to the ATM. that I had no luck with a few
minutes ago. Found a free standing ATM., kind of like a telephone booth on the
corner it wouldn’t accept my card either. Did the Hungarians finally figure
out that we didn’t have any money?
Went back to the first machine that hadn’t accept the card and this time it
worked. Went back to the hotel. Rachel was still sleeping and Rita was
making-up, so decided to go to the bar and have a coffee. The waitress asked
me where I was from, and said that she was in Vancouver several times when she
worked on a cruise ship which went to Alaska. The owner of the hotel, who was
also there, had made an excursion to Vancouver when he was in Los Angeles.
Rita and Rachel came down later on and we had breakfast on the patio.
After breakfast we went back to the Nike store, Rachel had picked out the night
before, and she was disappointed. They didn’t have her size in the sandals that
she wanted. But she did end up buying a pair of Fila sandals. On our way back to
the hotel we stopped and looked at the produce (Rita was interested in the egg prices)
at the sidewalk market. Went back to the hotel, packed, and were off to Pécs. I
was wrong. It wasn’t the Tokaj hotel that was the cheapest. It was the Marilyn.
Kalocsa, Hungary
On our way we had decided to stop in Kalocsa and restock our hand painted china
set, which Rita had bought at a Hungarian festival in Vancouver. We were missing
a few pieces that had broken over the years. We stopped for refreshments at a
roadside cafe and asked where the factory that made the china was. Nobody seemed
to know even though the china is very famous.
They suggested a gift shop at the
end of the street. Beside the cafe was a Nike store. We went inside and I
bought a pair of swim trunks. The ladies exercised self restraint.
We drove to the gift shop, which was located in a beautiful square, but didn’t
find what we were after.
However they were able to direct us towards the
factory. We drove back but didn’t see the factory. Asked for directions from a
man and his son who were just leaving a store and he told us to follow him. We
drove behind him and he took us to the factory.
The factory is in an old rundown building. The doors were closed but there was a
sign to ring the doorbell for service. We did, and were just about ready to
leave when a lady opened the door. She led us inside and took us to their stock
room. Here Rita lost self control. We had intended, as was earlier mentioned, to
replace one cup and one saucer. We ended up with: six napkin rings, six
demitasse with saucers, one napkin holder, one Pálinka set with six shot cups
and tray, one butter dish. It came to 14000 forints about $80 CAN. In Canada it
would have cost about four or five times that amount. The lady wrapped the
articles very carefully. After she had finished wrapping she gave us a tour of
the factory. Ladies were hand painting china in one room in another the china
was ready to be fired, it was very interesting.
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