Magical white Budapest

A short night. Late last night I received several text messages about my journey being on the late NOS News, followed by messages early this morning from Peter and Sabine Visvader, offering to bring the caravan towards the Hungarian border. I was very happy with their offer, as it has proven extremely difficult to get a lift from a city center to a motorway. I had to hurry to get the caravan ready to go and ultimately left Austria without breakfast. Obviously I have not had enough time to enjoy Vienna to the max. I have only been able to take a quick glance at its beauty.

Peter Visvader is in the middle of a very special project, reconstructing a historical Danube vessel. His fresh aspiration is to get his ship into the water before the end of May this year, but first he needs to get his financing completed. I have been invited to have a concert during a cultural Danube cruise on board the historical ship this summer, so I now have a good excuse to return to Austria at some point.

On our way to the border we had an interesting conversation about the strange fact that much of our food ‘traverses the globe’ several times before ending on our plates. Peter mentioned the example of pigs that are transported to Hungary from all over Europe to be slaughtered in order to be sold all over Europe as the famous Hungarian Pepperoni. An advantage of this long conversation was that we ended up at a petrol station in Györ, well beyond the Hungarian border.

This is my first visit to Hungary ever, so everything is new to me. The language, which I now know is extremely complicated, the landscape, the houses and even the currency. Forints instead of Euro’s. It feels kind of free to order something, then pay with a debit card without having a clue of the actual cost.

It quickly became clear that Hungarians are a very friendly people when the third person I approached hooked the caravan to a car. Again we first had to repack a lot of luggage from the back of the car into the caravan, but soon I found myself sitting in the car with Sandor (Alex), Gjöngyi Herba’ly and their two daughters Blanka and Bettina, going towards Budapest. Dachs was also happy as he was stroked by two pairs of soft girl’s hands for about two hours straight. We drove right through the heart of the city, crossing the Danube river from Buda to the gracious Hero Square in Pest. We canned two beautiful fresh aspirations: Gjöngyi will learn the German language and Alex will soon launch his new digital information system.

Later that evening fresh snow is falling around the traditional Hungarian Bath House. Outside, at the large patio, surrounded by old stone roof domes, is an enormous bath. The water temperature is a comfortable 38 degrees with snow gently falling in the water. Surrounded by steam clouds I watch a colorful display of different floating characters. A boy is playing with a jet of water, two ladies are engaged in a serious conversation, lovers are kissing, a young woman comforts her friend, an older gentleman carries his flower-bathcapped wife on his back, young lads tumble through the snow, a tired man sleeps on the wide steps towards the bath. Everything is covered in dim light and surrounded by steam. A magical mix of human beauty at this winter evening in Budapest!