First, at 9AM, Daisy's aunt visited. Then at 11:30 we left to have lunch at Daisy's high school friend Vilma's house. A very good Hungarian meal. Then, we walked with Vilma to the Zsolnay ceramics exhibition where we met with the rest of the family. There were dozens of exquisite ceramics items from the period 1880-1920, that were collected by an Hungarian born American and sold to the city of Pecs.
Then, Daisy and myself went to the railway station to buy our tickets to go back to Budapest on Friday, before going back to Daisy's parents house. The rest of the family joined us later.
On Friday, I was able to read my mail for two hours (9 to 11AM). I had more than 800 e-mails (not SPAM), but for most of them I did not need to read more than the title and 2 or 3 lines. We had a last family lunch, then all the visitors left for Budapest: Daisy's children in their rented car, Daisy and myself by train.
The train takes a little less than 3 hours. We arrived around 6 PM and Daisy's friend Erica (that I had already met in August 2010) was waiting for us. We went to an excellent Hungarian restaurant, then to her place 25 kms east of Budapest, where we spent the night.
Saturday morning, we visited Erica's daughter who lives nearby, then went to Gödöllö where Daisy has lived for twelve years. Gödöllö cannot be transliterated in English; in French it is pronounced "Gueudeuleu".
In Gödöllö, we visited another of Daisy's friend who lives in the same street where Daisy had her house.
Then we went back to Budapest to have lunch with one of my nephew and his girlfriend who recently moved from Paris to Budapest. He is the son of one of my first cousin, from my father's side. He is an artist (drawing, sculpture, ceramics, but no painting) who lives from his art. We had lunch in a nearby café.
We left our suitcases at their apartment, then took the metro to meet with another of Daisy's friend Edit. The Budapest metro was the second one built in the world, after the London Underground. It was inaugurated in 1896 for the celebration of the millennium of the arrival of the Magyar people in what is now Hungary.
We met with Edit in a wonderful Tea Room called Gerbeault that is world renown. After tea and cakes, and walking around, we went back to get our suitcases and Daisy's sister Ili took us to another wonderful café in Budapest, located in a bookstore, where you can also buy wine. We met there with the rest of the family, including Ili's three children.
Then, we said our good byes to Daisy's and Ili's children and went to Ili's apartment to spend the night.
This morning, at 6:30 AM, Ili drove Daisy to the airport. She is flying back to Miami. Ili will drive me to the airport at 11 AM, to go back to Paris. I will work again this week at the Paris office and go back to Miami this Friday.
As you can see, I was very busy these last three days, and I expect to have a lot of e-mails to read on Monday morning! But spending this week in Hungary, meeting with Daisy's family and seeing many new things in Daisy's country was wonderful. Her family welcomed me with open arms.
We don't know when we will be back in Hungary, probably not this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment