Monday 20 July 1998

Slideshow 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.