Our Fall Break

We have just wrapped up a wonderful fall break, and now our minds must gear up for another work week. The vacation began on Thursday, October 23 with a trip to Sárospatak with Orsi, husband Zoli, and brother Zoli. Orsi's grandmother celebrated her birthday the following day, so we had a true family experience going to her house in Tiszakarád. I guess we usually focus on our meals so I'll oblige again. The main meal began with palinka (brandy), then the traditional chicken soup, which comes to the table first as a broth and a bowl of noodles. Then out come the platters of chicken that were cooked in the broth, along with potatoes, turnips, carrots, and dumplings. Salads are generally grated cabbage or beets or cucumbers, all of which are pickled. Dessert consisted of a variety of sweets and, of course, birthday cake. Because Grandma lives in the "country", we had to go out and visit the chickens. While in Sarospatak at Orsi's dad house we played cards, walked through the town, and helped with cooking. We can always count on having traditional Hungarian food with Istvan (Orsi's dad) cooking: strabacska (potato dumplings, bacon fat, sour cream), bundás kenyér (like an eggy French toast deep fried in oil), and for breakfast on Sunday we had hurka (sausage made with ground pig livers, lungs, and head meat that is mixed with rice). Actually our favorite meal was bábleves (bean soup).



After driving home on Sunday afternoon, we repacked for our trip to Croatia. Our rented Fiat was delivered on Monday morning. The trip took about six hours and took us through some beautiful country-side. Western Croatia becomes a bit more mountainous, so we passed through at least ten tunnels and over a large bridge to the Island of Krk. Our hotel was on the island of Krk, in the town of Krk. What a beautiful setting! Our time there was a real vacation. The hotel package included a huge breakfast and dinner buffet, all for 50 euros/day total--a special deal since it was the last week they were open for 2008. In between meals we hiked about 10 miles each day on stone fenced paths along the coast or through the island. Krk is located on the Adriatic Sea. The climate is tropical and many of the plants reminded us of Florida. The temperatures were in the 70's each day and the water temp was just a little lower. When our three days in Croatia were completed, we returned to guests visiting from the Czech Republic. Bill and Linda Palatinus are also new ESI teachers. We had gotten to know them at training in Pasadena and had a wonderful time getting to know them even better over the past three days and nights they spent in Budapest with us. We showed them as many sights as we could in and around the city. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time showing our city off.