Going South

We wanted to see what the other part of Hungary looked like. A lot of people told us we need to see Pecs  and Kaposvar before we go home. So we headed out to see the country!

I will never get tired of the vegetation along the roads here.  I LOVE IT.

This falu (town) had a lot of old OLD buildings, with a few that looked like they had occupants.

  We took the picture of the sign so we could remember the name of the town.

Beautiful streets (highways)

A lone statue in this falu.  (The name is below)

Try saying that!!

Or that!!!

There really is a Utah in Hungary.  The J makes a "ya" sound, the U makes a U sound, and the TA makes a tah sound.  Now we can say we have been in Juta (Utah) in Hungary. Who knew?

We frequently see statutes like this on the highways.

We stopped in Kaposvar to visit Elder and Sister Colledge.  With them are two elders who served with us  in the West Zone.  On the left is Elder Christensen. The tall one is Elder D'Angina 

The Colledges showed us around a little and we ate at a great pizza place.

Just a random statue in Kaposvar. Ok, it is really Shauna turned to bronze!

There are fat pigeons in Hungary!

Summer is a great time to walk around town even if it was a scorcher this day.

Coming up, OUR TRIP TO PECS.  We were told that this is one of the prettiest cities in Hungary, next to Budapest.  

Night of the Museums

Every year Hungary has Night of the Museums. It is a catchy title, someone should make a movie. This lamp post looked like it needed straightening

We never get tired of walking past the Roman Walls. People who live here don't seem to notice them. They act like the walls have been here forever!

Our first visit was a large museum that had lots and lots of artifacts. Some dating back to 6th century BC.

We could have spend all night, actually I guess we could have since it was Night of the Museums.

This is one of the first know jewelry cases ( I got mine at Jareds). They were sure crafty.

There was one that showed the burial sites. Some had urns.

We were getting ready to go up another flight of stairs when a host stopped us and said something to us. Steve said his usual reply - Nemet/ Angol ( German/English). Usually we get a German reply but he just looked at our names tags. We said we were missionaries and he gave us free tickets to a concert upstairs. It was performed by a flutist, pianist and violinist. Very relaxing!

Next we went to the Mining Museum.

It was interesting and showed some of the tools they used to get the coal out.

They were having a program in the Fo Ter (Main Square) and the Hungarian Dancing is so good. I could watch that all night. There were all kinds of booths with all kinds of things to buy.

This plate looked really good to me.  French Fries, a long kolbasz with mustard on it and topped with pickles. They have good food in Hungary.

On our walk back to our car, they wall was more beautiful than ever.

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Food Storage in Hungary

Every morning for breakfast we have a half of a grapefruit and Master Crumble Crunchy Coconut Clusters. It is a beautiful way to start the day.

It would be hard to explain how horrible we felt when we could not find the Crunchy Coconut Clusters at the Lidl Store closest to our apartment. I even send an email to Lidl and explained that they should package one kind of cereal in one box because at the store we shop at everyone always takes Curnchy Cocnut Clusters out of the  box first and leaves the dry musli kind. They responded with a kind letter that they would forward my suggestion to England.

Steve got a little worried and bought a Chocolate Muesli. It has chocolate pieces and peanuts in it, neither of which I can eat before noon. Don't worry I make up for both peanuts and chocolate after lunch.

We were driving past the other Lidl Store in Sopron and we stopped in to see if they had the  Crunchy Coconut Clusters. Lo and behold they did and we put them all in our cart. We sure got a lot of weird looks. When we checked out the guy in front of us made the comment that we must really like Muesli.  This picture seems a little blurry because I was so excited to have this much of such a good thing.

A Trip Through Paradise

Sister Flammer and I were looking at some pictures around the Sopron area and we saw a tower that we wanted to see, so we asked where it was.  Through the use of our hands and feet we learned that it was south of Sopron, so we drove down there to look at it.  Following are some pictures we took.

The name of the place was Banfalvi.  It stretched over quite a distance and there was really no town with more than one road through it  The vegetation is what was most beautiful.

This is a sport field by the town.

It just doesn't get anymore remote than this.  It was amazing.

You kind of get the feeling you have been taken back a hundred years.

It was so peaceful and serene.

The houses were mostly a ways apart.

This had been an mining town at one time.  I think they mined coal. 

Hence the picture of this cart.  

This is Shauna trying to get into the cemetery.  

I love how beautiful they are, and yet they aren't really manicured that much, obviously.  

 A small chapel like this is in all cemeteries.  

If this isn't the Garden of Eden, it can't be far from here.  

  EVERYTHING is so green and lush.  

It is almost like being in a rain forest as I would imagine it.  

Just a couple of more.  

As we were driving down the road here I felt like I was in a storybook land with the road winding through the trees.  It was truly enchanting.

One more picture... I promise.

Just one post script.  This was the winner of the "Biggest Grave Marker" in the cemetery there.  It is so amazing to be here and be exposed to all the beauty and serenity.

Good friends

One of our favorite people to visit in Sopron is Gizi neni. She is 92 and speaks Hungarian, German and English. 

What is really amazing is that she will start a sentence in one language and then look at a different person in the room and change to another language and finish with a third language.

She lives on the seventh floor of a ten-story. There are hundreds of ten-stories built by the communists. We only have a few in Sopron. They are gray and the apartments are very small in them. This is the view that Gizi has from her bedroom window.

Her husband was a doctor and she moved from a much larger place to this. We love that she is so spry and young in heart. Steve and the elders take her the sacrament every Sunday. She is one of many that we are going to miss.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 43rd anniversary. Steve surprised me with breakfast by candlelight. It doesn't get better than grapefruit and Master Crumble. Yes it is the 4th of June and it has been a really cold weeks. It is good that I have not given away the winter pj's.

We celebrated by going to lunch at the Rosengarten. Never smile with your mouth full!

Yes, we did have enough to eat. It was a great day and we are happy we have had so many great years together.

This is the kind of weather we had all day. Just tilt you head a bit to get the best view.

More Strawberries!

Last year Andi took us to a strawberry patch in Balf which was two or three acres. 

We were able to find the patch again this year and in less than an hour we had a bucket full. It had rained most of the night so our shoes and some of the berries were pretty dirty.

There is a nice talkative man that weighs the berries and takes the money.

I am always glad to let Steve do the talking. We got this whole bucket of berries for 1900 forints which is $8.49 in American money.

The nice man was almost as talkative to Steve as he was to this man. He probably didn't know that we understood very little of what he said.

We made some delicious freezer jam with the clear jel and corn syrup we had left over from our stuff James and Britt brought last year. This is the view looking up from the strawberry patch. There is always at least one church in every village.

We couldn't pass up taking a picture of the stork at the end of the road. If I had to come back in a second life as a bird I would want to be a stork!