A little of this and that!

Let me back up a bit and add onto last week's blog update with pictures of our return to Hungary from Ukraine.  The ride home was quite interesting to Glenn and me!  Uneventful, meaning without problems, but interesting none-the-less.

Hungary actually used to be 3 times the size it is today.  In the aftermath of World War I,  according to Wikipedia, "four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, new ones formed, boundaries were redrawn, international organizations were established, and many new ideologies took a firm hold in people's minds."  There is a large portion of western Ukraine that used to be part of Hungary, and in certain sections, 50% of the population claim to be Hungarian by birth.  Much of the signage was in Hungarian and most people spoke both Hungarian and Ukrainian.  In this photo the building with the colored window frames is the National Hungarian Theatre, but sadly, it is located in the part that was deeded to Ukraine after the war!  

However, not all signs were in Hungarian!  This one was found in a gas station inside Ukraine, close to the Hungarian border.   I'm assuming this is in Ukrainian, so if anyone out there speaks Ukrainian and can tell me what HI and TAK mean, I'd be grateful.  I'd be even more grateful though if you could interpret the sign for me!   It looks like you're not supposed to vomit in the toilet, nor throw bombs into it, but you can sit on it and shake.   

I loved this one too.  We saw it on several bathroom doors in western Ukraine.  We think it is part of their effort to be "green", but we aren't sure.  (Joe R., any ideas?)

At that same gas station we decided to get some lunch because I was starving!  Unfortunately, the stretch of road leading to the Hungarian border was out in the country and there weren't any restaurants to be found, so gas station hot dogs were the best we could do.  They take a piece of baguette about 7 inches long, and with a long-bladed knife, they dig a hole in the bread and push an 8 inch hot dog down into it as far as it will go, leaving the last two inches sticking out.  It was our first experience with buying hot dogs at a gas station (it's not something we usually do in America either...) and actually, it was pretty good.  I was also very hungry so I wasn't going to be too picky at that point.

Just inside the Hungarian border we started seeing lots of apple orchards, mostly already picked clean, and then we came upon this apple processing plant.  We were hoping they would have a sales room where we could buy bags of apples, gallons of cider, yummy fried fritters and dried apple rings ... just like we used to do in Elijay every fall in Georgia.  No such luck!

So, we ended up stopping at one of the roadside vegetable stands and buying several bags of different kinds of apples.  See those big white bags?  Those are bags of shredded cabbage!  Hungarians love their cabbage, and Glenn and I do too-in moderation, but we didn't buy one because I don't know how to make sauerkraut and I DON'T want to learn.

With all those bags of apples and us getting ready to go to America for a month, we had to do something with all the apples, so that weekend we made a batch of apple fritters.  (Yes, Karin, only one recipe, cut in half.)

We then made more applesauce for the freezer.   It took us quite a long time to peel all those apples but we were able to put away about a gallon of applesauce for the winter months.  

With the left-over peelings, Glenn boiled them, added some spices and voila!  Hot apple tea!

A new holiday decoration to Hungary that came from America this year is jack-o-lanterns!  Glenn and I took a walk in our neighborhood this week and found 3 houses with lit pumpkins with faces carved in them!    I think it is sad that THIS is what comes over from America!

During that same walk in our neighborhood, we came across this sign on someone's fence.  Now, let me explain ... there are evidently no zoning laws here in Hungary because you can have a business in your house smack in the middle of a neighborhood.  There's a pub, bike repair shop, building company, and a tiny grocery store one street over.  Budafok Fitness is around the corner on another street, and offers so much: cosmetics, massage, solarium, pilates, haircuts, pedicures, nails, sauna, jacuzzi and tarot cards!   One stop does it all!

Glenn and I were shopping at Kika earlier this week and I got a good laugh at this duvet cover and pillow set.  Yea for  Gummi Bears!

On Wednesday, Glenn and I took my friend and walking partner to the hospital to have knee surgery.  Janet's doctor gave her very limited information about what to expect as far as the surgery and recovery period, but he did tell her to go to the 1st floor (which is the 2nd floor in America) and to "sit and wait on the blue couch".  Such detail!  As it turned out, there were pale blue sheets thrown over the blue couches.   I guess it was easier to buy blue sheets to throw over the worn or broken blue couches rather than change the instructions on how to find the doctor's office in the hospital.

Friday, Tena and I hosted a baby shower for Jo Ellen.  She's having a little girl, due in February.  Glenn and I are excited about welcoming a new baby into our team family.  (Technically, she and Scott are not on our team but since we work closely with them, we consider them part of our local team.)  :-)

Becoming an aunt is almost as much fun as becoming a grandmother!

It was a nice shower and it was good to get the ladies together to celebrate this beautiful little girls' arrival!  The games were fun (hard too!), the fellowship sweet, and the cake delicious!

The crowning touch was the lamb cake that Robin made.  It was not only delicious, but it was also beautiful and creative!  Robin didn't have a cake pan in the shape of a lamb (which is the theme of the baby's room) so she designed her own lamb using cup cakes.  Ingenious!  

Well, we're off again, headed to the land of the red, white and blue.  It may be tough to update for the next month because of our travel schedule, but I will be back asap.

Where does the time go?

Fall is definitely here.  The leaves are turning yellow and falling off the trees, and the Chrysanthums are in full bloom.  

It's turning cold, and in fact, we had our first "snow" of the year!  Pitiful, isn't it?  It only snowed for about an hour and then melted away.

With all that snow (smirk), it was too cold to go out for groceries so we ate popcorn for dinner.  Okay, we eat popcorn for dinner about 3 nights a week, but I just wanted to show you my Jiffy Pop popcorn that I got at the ladies retreat two weeks ago so that you could walk down memory lane with me!  How long has it been since you saw Jiffy Pop?

I was able to attend the Hungarian ladies meeting that started back again this fall.   Our craft for the day was a pumpkin made out of fall scrapbook paper.  I met a really nice lady named Andi and hope that we can get together again socially.

This past Monday, Glenn and I drove 3 hours into eastern Hungary to visit one of our families.  They have recently moved from Budapest to Debrecen but are already settled in nicely and meeting lots of friends.

Darrel and Kimberly took us to a nearby town where they make a special kind of pottery that is black.  And oh, so beautiful!  This type of pottery is several hundred years old, and has been passed down from father to son for many generations.  

The potter's name is Fazekas Istvan (remember, in Hungary, the last name goes first) and he had a great time showing the 7 of us all about the history of his familes' pottery, all the way from digging the clay to the inside of the oven where the soot gives it its' black color.

From Debrecen, we went another 3 hours into western Ukraine to visit with Clara and Emery.  They are Hungarian by birth but American by choice, having lived in America for about 15 years.   We were able to attend a Roma (Gypsy) Bible study group with them in a tiny 2 room house.  There were 14 in attendance, all in a room that couldn't have been larger than 12' x 10'!

Clara served us authentic Hungarian food with the exception of her butternut squash!  Wow!  I haven't had butternut squash in at least 6 years, and hers was delicious.   She brought the seeds from America and grew them in her own yard.  She doesn't know how much it meant that she shared something so special to us!

After we left Clara and Emery's town, we drove another 3 hours to visit with one more family.  We stayed in a small hotel (or a large pension house) for the night, which is always such an interesting experience for us.  We found a slip of paper on the back of the toilet that was 16 letters long.  We have NO IDEA what it said.  What do you think???

The remainder of the photos are various shots of things we saw on our travels.  The weather was overcast, the leaves were turning into a vibrant yellow, and the back roads were rough and winding.    

We've no idea what this sign says but we saw it many times along our route.   Can any of my readers understand this sign which is in either Russian or Ukrainian???

Every village has either a Catholic or Orthodox church in it, and they are usually the tallest building so you can see them from afar, dotting the countryside.  

They are quite ornate.

I loved seeing the benches outside the front gate of a lot of the houses.  This signifies to me a culture that values people watching and visiting with neighbors!

Several times as we drove through villages, we would see that it was market day and lots of people would be braving the cruddy weather to shop for their food.

All Soul's Day and All Saint's Day, November 1 & 2,  are two of the more popular holidays celebrated in central and eastern Europe.  It's a sentimental national holiday that lasts for two days and is when the family members honor the dead saints and visit the grave sites where their family members were laid to rest.

We saw many, many places selling wreaths, arrangements and cut flowers for people to put on the grave sites.  You could always tell where the cemetery was because of the direction that people were always walking.

I loved watching for grandma's and grandpa's on bikes, going to the cemetery or market on their bikes! I tried to imagine my father on a bike, but I couldn't picture it.

We saw many interesting sights along our drive through the countryside in Ukraine and Hungary, but there was one outstanding village that was a real shocker!  Just inside Ukraine there was a village where there were many HUGE houses under construction, bigger than any I've ever seen anywhere in Europe and not many places in America.  One house after another, bigger than any family could ever need, and some of them quite beautiful in brick or stone was in this ONE village.   According to our friends in Ukraine, it is a Romanian village and the money has somehow come from the Jehovah's Witness church.  

We are here for the next week and it is a full one!