museum and festival - with aniko!

this weekend my friend aniko took me to an open-air museum. i thought the idea seemed a little boring, but that's because i didn't know about the festival!

we took a bus to the "salt lake" part of town. to my surprise the bus was LOADED with people. this is the #8 bus which i take all the time and i had never seen it so full. then everyyyyone got off at the stop we got off at. my suspicion was aroused.

we entered the open-air museum for a fee of about $2.50 each, which got us some free tastes of random foods and drinks.

here i am tasting hot wine and cracklins on buttered bread

(of course they were both kinda sick)

then we saw through a clearing this little site. fun was happening in the open-air museum!
we went through some old buildings, looking at old crafts, paintings, woodworking, etc. in one of the little houses there was an old lady serving hot rosemary tea. we got some and it was ok.
there were a LOT of merchants selling jewelry, jewelry boxes, crafts, goods, and other handmade wonderfuls all over the festival.

see the people? they were all eating, strolling, being entertained, and being festive.

this is a basket weaver guy. i spent some time with him, watching him weave some stuff. later he let me try!

i made the one in the middle. see the holes... and he gave me the other two coasters as presents! sweet, free hungarian stuff! i don't know what i'll use mine for. he called it a sun.

here was a honey booth

some geese.

here are some old people eating. this picture was taken on zoom, but they really were looking right at me. i was most interested in the guy on the right because he had sour cream on his face but he just kept on eating happily - and with gusto!

walking around the open-air museum village place. a sign i couldn't read pointed to places.

aww! look how cute this kid was! his little ears on his hat were so precious!

in the back of the open-air museum there were some sheep and roosters. just 'cause.

we ate some palacsinta! like crepes with a layer of chocolate, hazelnut, or jam rolled inside. mm.
since there were 90 billion kids there, there was entertainment for them in the form of skits by some people dressed as geese. i think maybe there was a mild goose theme to this festival. i think this because of all the geese... these people... and the goose soup. ew.

aniko was telling me about a contest they were about to have. there were three tasks, ten contestants, and a bottle of wine to be won. the first task was to wheel a keg of wine around some poles, zig-zag like, then run back straight after you get to the last pole.

i still have no idea how she convinced ME to be one of the contestants. but aniko is somewhat of an evil genius. see that little lady with the microphone? i snatched it from her before i began these events and said in hungarian, "i'm not hungarian, i'm american. please clap for me!"

here i am with the wheelbarrow ful of wine. it was REALLY heavy.

the next task was to suck water from a bucket through a fat straw... into some kind of a liter container which is part of the straw. then run to the other end of the field and dump out the contents of the straw into a pitcher. minimum of 2 trips! i was a good sucker and a fast runner. i got high marks on this event. i am awesome. and aniko took pictures!

i ran, i was happy.

the third task was to straddle a barrel on a sawhorse, throw five balls into a basket. see the basket!?! it's pretty hard to balance on there, fyi.

here was me doing it. i had strangers i asked help from. i was supposed to let go of those guys, but i held onto them while i was throwing the balls. i only got one in, and i only threw 3.

the coveted bottle of wine! all the losers got a chocolate bar, myself included - and aniko!

i WON her that chocolate. i hope she enjoyed it.

there were some folk dancers and i asked if i could take their picture. they allowed.

weird barrel crafts taking place...

ok, i can't believe i'm putting these on the internet. this is me in the water sucking, racing, dumping task.

i overflowed the pitcher!!!


i found xander some snacks he really likes. this is him a-chewin' away.

Day of the Dead!

I FOUND THIS MUCH BETTER PICTURE ONLINE SOMEWHERE AND IT LOOKS LIKE WHAT WE SAW: CLICK THE PICTURE



every year on november first the hungarians all go to the cemetery in their towns to honor or remember the dead. they bring flowers to the graves and put candles on them, too. that's basically all i knew about it before this evening.

tonight my private student ma'lna showed me and laura and reagan around the cemetery after she and her family went there. we went at about 5pm (but it was already dark) and it was one of the busiest times, according to ma'lna. she told us that there are priests who say prayers or sing songs over the graves and families all go together. she also told us that when you're at the graveside of a loved one you tell happy, fun memories you have of that person and remember all the good things about them. you do this as a family, as opposed to the very private ways we grieve and remember the dead in america. even though i knew about candles and flowers, i couldn't have imagined all this.

the whole town had millions of flowers and candles for sale this week and especially today

some famous guy from nyiregyhaza's monument

uh, don't mind the stroller... though it shows that everyone in the family goes to the cemetery.

i liked this one a lot

oooh, what a lucky dead person!

ma'lna said this person must have only very recently died, that's why it has so many wreaths, flowers, and ribbons (she said they must have been buried in the last few days)

a close-up of that recent one

it's hard to show you just how HUGE this place is!
it was a bigger than most parks, maybe as big as an airport!

aw, this little unmarked grave with no flowers or candles was so sad

i figured out the "twilight" setting on my camera when we were on the way out

this was us after we got outta there

me and one of the cops who were directing foot-traffic

and then we ate at mcdonald's - we were happy to have MEAT!

oh, here is a video i took while we were in what seemed like the middle of the cemetery. i did a 360 degree shot to show all the candles everywhere but you can't see it too well. you'll just have to come here one year and see it for yourself!