Village Visits to Dunaharaszti and Szigethalom

This last weekend was spent with people connected with Trefort school. On Saturday we took the suburban train out to one of Jack's fellow English teacher's home in the village of Dunaharazti, south of Budapest. It's only 20 minutes by car but by train it's usually about 45 minutes. The gulyas party was attended by about twelve Trefort collegues. Most "garden parties" feature outdoor cooking. Here is the pot which had been over the camp fire. Gulyas contains cut up beef, and Hungarians like to slow cook their gulyas for four hours or more!

Enjoying the food and fellowship on the porch. It was a beautiful day!

As we got to the platform where we had to catch the returning train, we found two mulberry trees that wanted to be picked. We enjoyed the usual purple variety and also a white variety that we have not seen before.

Here is the inside of the train car. With the weather being quite warm, we had all of the windows open. We spent more time on the train than we anticipated. At one point near the beginning of the trip the train stopped, which in itself is not unusual. There are many stops along the way. But after three or four minutes the conductor came through and said we would be stopped for thirty minutes because the train hit a car. She also said no one was hurt. We got off the train and enjoyed the cool air, not daring to go too far away from the train. We did hear a siren after a while, and later a couple of police officers drove along side, examining the undercarriage and the front of the train. Thirty minutes became ninety minutes that we were there waiting. Our Hungarian colleagues were concerned for our safety, so they called another teacher to come and pick us up. But after another ten minutes the police said to get on the train, because we would be leaving soon. So we cancelled our rescue. We got home at 11:15 instead of 9:30.

Here is one of the stations along the way. It was a beautiful night for being stranded.

Jack could not resist sticking his head out the window as many Hungarians do.

Kriszta, Reka, Eszter, and Eniko pass the time singing along with music on their phones.

On Sunday we were invited to the home of Coci, the 13th grade student Jack has tutored this semester. Szigethalom is also south of Budapest, but this trip was made longer because the tracks for the HEV train were being repaired. So after meeting Coci at Boraros Ter at noon (with the sun shining) we took a tram to where the HEV normally begins. There we got on a "substitute" bus as it started raining. Then fifteen minutes into this ride we got off the bus and onto the train. Once we got to Coci's town, we had to wait for another bus (now it's raining quite hard.) We arrived around two o'clock. Here also Coci and his mother had prepared the food in a kettle over an open fire in the "garden". They prepared a wonderful beef stew called "pörkölt" that is eaten with nokedli, or noodles. Dessert consisted of two different pastries. Yum! We enjoyed their company and hospitality, and appreciated learning more of their life in the country. Here is Coci's mom Iboya, Coci in the middle, and brother Istvan. It is occasions such as these that teach us so much about the people of Hungary.