Mission Impossible???

If you choose to accept this assignment, the entire population of Hungary will deny having ever known you.
Time 1:30 am. Place Pécs Senior Headquarters. Premises invaded by two individuals who's identity we will disavow. "Its too hot.... The street light is too bright... and we can't sleep in the White Knight.....Can we come in....Please"

My new disguise. No one back in Spanish Fork will ever recognize me behind this Hungarian Fajita.

There is absolutely no TRACE as to who this might be And we are not about to give any hints. Fearless District Leader? "NEM TUDOM"

" How many B of M do you think we can pass out with this routine." "I don't know but all your Forints just fell out of your pants"
THIS POST WILL SELF DESTRUCT as soon as the Mission President sees it.

The Caves of Tapolca

Norm: I don't think there is a public cave in North America that we haven't explored. In every case the entrances to those caves are out somewhere in the boonies accessed by some remote road. Not so for our first case of European cave crawling. We set the coordinates for the Caves of Tapolca into our GPS which took us right into the middle of downtown and then said "arriving at destination..on right" Sure enough, we had arrived. There was the cave entrance, smack dab in the middle of downtown shopping.

We paid our money and descended a long set of stairs into the caves beneath the city. We could see places where the ceiling had been broken through and repaired, probably from a construction excavation. This cave is a wet cave but lacks the mineral content needed for the formation of stalagmites and stalactites. Thus it is a durable cave. No need for tour guides and barriers. So you are free to explore everywhere and at your own pace.

But here is the cool part. With the aquifer, it is an underground lake. We came to the shore of the lake where you could borrow a little tin boat big enough for two people and a paddle. The passages were too narrow to use two paddles and some places one paddle was one too many, and yes the ceilings became very low. A hard hat would have been very useful. The sounds of these little tin boats bouncing off the side walls was about all you could hear. All in all it was great fun.

It was quite unbelievable how clear the water was and it is apparently quite therapeutic. The local hospital has access to the lake in their basement and patients can bathe at their leisure.
You have likely read about Hungary's Toxic Red Sludge disaster. That took place just 20km north of this spot. Fortunately Tapolca is at a slightly higher elevation and will likely be spared any of that devastating contamination.

Heather: The whole country of Hungary has been blessed with hot water springs that have health benefits for various neurological and muscular problems. Many of them were found in the early part of the 20th century while drilling for oil. Very few explorations found oil but brought thermal water gushing to the surface. Ever resourceful, the Hungarians turned from oil production to building spas for bathing in the health restoring waters. Although many spas are not that old some of the baths date back to the 1500's. The Imperial Baths in Budapest were established by the Turks between 1566 and 1570 and the have been used ever since. The hot water for these baths is piped from springs near by. Here in Pécs we walk by the remains of the 16th century Turkish baths every day. We have yet to try any of the world famous baths -- but on days when my muscles hurt I am sorely tempted!

The Ponds of Tapolca

The town of Tapolca, in west Hungary, a short drive north of the Balaton, has one of the most unique and charming townscapes in Transdanubia. It is situated on the northern edge of the Bakony mountains. Beneath the town there is an unusual aquifer.

Clear , clear water seeps or gushes from under the building foundations to form these beautiful water lily covered ponds.

Thousands of fish grace the ponds. Some of these koi are a good 2 1/2 feet long.

This is the site of an old mill with spillway, no longer in use, but a great pastoral setting for a photo shoot. In our next blog we enter the aquifer under the city and explore by boat, the "Caves of Tapolca".

Lake Balaton

Norm: Before telling you about the Balaton, you might get a kick out of this story:
In my never ending quest to find Root Beer in Hungary, I got on line and punched into my browser..."Root Beer Hungary". Well that got me into a site for the Balaton Cafe. OK lets check out their menu. Sure enough, right there in black and white on the menu was Root Beer. Now I know from Pécs, the Balaton is only a 2 1/2 hour drive. Now for a Root Beer starved individual such as I, a drive of that distance for a good mug would be well within the realm of possibility. But were on the Balaton? Au yes they have a map. Punch up the map as to how to find the Balaton Cafe. Sure enough, there it is.......Balaton Cafe, Authentic Hungarian Cuisine,....CLEVELAND OHIO!!

Lake Balaton is Central Europe's largest freshwater lake about 60 km long. It is a fairly shallow lake and warms quite nicely in the summer. It is a very popular tourist draw with its close proximity to Budapest, although visitors from Germany add greatly to the tourist count. Because of our limited Magyarul, we were immediately pegged as being Germans almost every time.

Hungarians love their Paprika as evidenced by the hung to dry peppers on this Paprikaház.

We only had a one night stay over, so we were determined to spend it on the lake. We found an RV Park that had lake side bungalows.

A short walk to town to buy groceries and we were all set for breakfast on the porch next morning. This was mid September and we practically had the place to ourselves.

Heather: We really enjoyed our stay at this large campground. It was beautifully landscaped with flower pots everywhere (I did not download these pictures or there would have been flower pots!) Another good thing about being at Lake Balaton in September is that the mosquitoes are gone. We sat by the lake and watched the sun set, fish jumping, and a three lovely swans glide by. It was a totally refreshing and relaxing time together. We could see why the Balaton is such a popular destination for Hungarians and Germans from near by Austria! I hope we will be able to go back in the Spring when the lilacs are blooming!

September 29 2010 New Elders in Pécs

Transfer Day. Two new Elders. Sad to see Elders Diamond and Christensen move on. Here we have our current group. Elder Mullen, New Elder Johnson (Rigby Idaho), Elder Tracy, Elder Rollingson and New Elder Crandall (Spanish Fork Utah). Our usual hangout to welcome new missionaries, the Tex-Mex Eterem.

OUT OF UNIFORM EXPLORING

September 27, 2010--Heather: Hungary is a treasure trove of lovely historic places to explore. One day last week we decided to take the advice of President Baughman and drive to see the old city of Veszprém. King Stephen gave this city to his wife Queen Gisela as a wedding present in the 13th century. Now that is what I call a wedding present! The header picture on our blog this time is a view of the city from the castle wall. The castle dominates the city from its place on a high rocky crag.

We met Elders Mason and Paas while there and had a delightful lunch with them. We enjoyed serving with Elder Mason in Pécs a few months ago. Elder Paas is from Estonia. He is the only member of his family in the Church and is a very dedicated missionary. Norm and the Elders are standing in front of a Trinity Column. Every city of any consequence in Hungary has a Trinity Column to commemorate the deliverance from a plague during medieval times. This one is very grand and imposing.

After visiting the Veszprém Branch House, which is a very lovely spacious building, we drove to Tihany on the Balaton Lake. This is the famous Abbey of Tihany. The original abbey was built in 1055 by King Andrew I for the Benedictine monks. It is situated on a peninsula that juts out into the beautiful blue water of the lake. The Abbey has important historical significance in Hungary. The deed of the foundation of the abbey contains the first written record of the Hungarian language. The Abbey was also the last refuge of the last king of Hungary, King Károly IV. He and his wife Queen Zita retreated here after their second attempt to regain the throne in 1921. They were under house arrest here for a month or so and finally exiled to England. The room they stayed in is furnished in the period and gives the account of their time there.

All that remains of the original Gothic structure is the crypt containing the tomb of King Andrew. The columns are large and rough hewn and a small window gives some light. The original building survived the Turkish invasion only to be blown up in the early eighteenth century by order of the Hapsburg Emperor -- such a shame! We were able to see some of the old relics on display including this one holding the hat! The Benedictine monks are back in the monastery now. While we were there the bells rang calling them to their prayers and we had the pleasure of hearing them sing their very old chants. There was also a fascinating display of photography taken during the Soviet occupation that gives a wonderful pictorial account of the lives of the people of the area during that period of time. As you can tell, this excursion brought out the history buff in me and I thoroughly enjoyed our our mini vacation.

Pécs Branch Arts and Crafts Fair

Fun with paper mache. Kira said lets make a rabbit. Great idea!! Balloons and paper towel rolls make cheap armatures. Well our rabbit came out looking somewhat like the Energizer Bunny. That will never do. Hmmmm he kinda looks like a couple of fellows we know......Got a better idea. With a little modification we could turn him into....... ah ha how about.....

..........THE ENERGIZER ELDER. Elders Mullen and Diamond second the motion.

Plisz Beatrix was in charge of the fair and set up this lobby display of the Branch talents. Fair concluded with an evening of piano recitals, poems story telling and folk dancing and would you believe Elder Diamond gave us a speed course in Rubic Cube etiquette.

Our Center for Young Adults prepare for the fair with instruction in the art of making Dream Catchers

Car Nuts all over the World

This posting is for my car nut friends back home. Have you noticed that whenever there is a car show it rains. Reminds me of the car auction back in Okotoks years ago. About 100 vintage cars were on display on the main square. Here are a few of the more impressive big iron, mainly Ford, Buick and Chevy, but the real treat was the vintage European not seen too often.

Love this 3 wheeler,but don't ask me what it is. Raining too hard to stick around to find out.

I would have guessed this 3 wheeler to be of the 40's vintage, but was surprised that it was a 1970 model.

A Skoda....? We drive a Skoda. Until 10 months ago, I had never heard of a Skoda. Look at this little beauty. Looks like a mini Model A. The Skoda is made in the Czech Republic. Company started by a pair of brothers who had a bicycle shop in 1895 and started making motorcycles and switched over to cars in 1924.

Kristóf performs Dom Ter

Péc Branch has talent. König Kristóf loves to dance and has led many of the dance routines at branch functions. His dance company from school recently performed a number of traditional Hungarian folk dances for the public on stage at the beautiful Dom Ter in Pécs.

At age 12, he is one of the senior dancers of the group and performed a solo routine that I have on video, but so far have not been able to transfer to this post, but I'm working on it and open to tutorial comment.

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Performance was performed with this famous 1,000 year old cathedral as background. The Cathedral is in the final stages of a restoration financed by a grant from the Norwegian government. It is the leading landmark of Pécs.

Visit to the Vinyards

Heather: We are serving in the southern section of Hungary which is blessed with a Mediterranean climate. A Mediterranean means that the growing season is very long. The last frost is in March some time and the first frost does not ususally hit until mid October. This is a perfect climate for growing grapes, watermellon, and just about anything you stick in the ground! The hills are covered with vineyards large and small. Viticulture is a very important part of the economic life in this area. On our P-day yesterday we passed lovely vineyards where the grapes are just starting to ripen. There were several large wineries or borospincs along the way. The town of Villany is in the center of this area and is devoted to wine culture with many pincs, or wine shopes, lining the streets.

The grape vines are well tented and look like they are going to have a very abundant harvest this season. The grapes are small but very sweet -- yes I tested a few.

We passed through a very quaint village that was lined with small houses or cellars. Some of them were borospincs and others looked like they might be dwellings. We had to stop and get a picture of this unique grape vine growing on the face of the small house. Of course, I had to take pictures of the flower pots which are ever present in every village no matter how small. Hungarians are very fond of flowers and they decorate lavishly with them.

Norm: This wine area is just a few killometers south of Pecs. Obviously many German people are involved in the wine industry here. Many of the villages had German names as well as Hungarian names and many signs where bilingual. Hungary is a rather popular place with the Germans for retirement, with its mild climate and cheap real estate.

My Friends are Looking after Me

My OLD (emphasis on the OLD) college buddies back home are looking after me. Here we have Doug Calder and his wife Bernice and Craig Brown and his wife Karen at the Outback no less, pigging out on a BLOOMIN ONION and a Huge Mug of ROOT BEER as proxy on my behalf?
Thanks guys....I appreciate the effort .... and I hope you enjoyed it , but it somehow didn't take here in Hungary. The craving is still there and will only be satiated by us all being together. Lets plan on that happening in the near future. Today is the half way point of our mission and I love the jesture......well done guys!!

Wildlife of Hungary

"Where babies come from"......... Many small villages have inhabitants high in the power lines right by the highways that runs through town. These storks are huge. Can stand a good 4 foot tall. Larger than a Sand Hill Crane or a Pelican. In this photo, the father stands guard as the mother sets on the eggs. Nests are built on platforms provided by the villagers on the power poles. It is considered good luck to have a visiting stork near by. In Hungary a peony is called a gólya rózsa -- stork rose -- because peonies bloom when the storks return to nest in Hungary. The stork in this picture was out in the field hunting for food. We saw them often in the farmers fields. They probably are valued for their pest control appetite. It would take a lot of bugs, grubs, or what ever they eat to fill up those big birds!

Couldn't pass up a shot of these future mousers. Speaking of which, we have yet to see a mouse here in Hungary. Did see a rat that had had an encounter with a Michelin in a gutter. (Sorry no picture). Saw what looked like a mink in the street close to the apartment. While driving we see fox quite frequently, a badger and one time while returning from Kaposvar in the dark, a pack of wild boar crossing the road in front of us. Would not want to run over one of those in a Skoda. Expect that would give you quite a ride.

Saw egrets today but otherwise there are not a lot of bird varieties here. No robins, no hummingbirds, but maybe an occasional magpie and lots and lots of pigeons.