Saturday, December 19, 2015

Some Missing Blog pics...

The lost files! Some blog bits and pieces lost in the last month of bad to no internet.
The path is done for a while anyways. It gets pulled up in April when Zoltan puts the cement down along the wall where you can see the unfinished area. Then the bricks will be relaid and it will be nice and tidy for spring, when the fight with weeds begins!  Will gather pics from my other computer over the coming months and do  a blog of some "then and now" shots for the 2 year anniversary in April.
The last coat of whatever on the walls...but we forgot the power points in this back wall...dohh, so after Xmas we'll have to gouge out a channel in the wall for them.
Nearly done...
The long awaited path to the end gate. Have run out of bricks...they are every size imaginable...thin, thick, long, short, wobbly, straight...crazy. Most bricks are around the 100 year old mark. Have to put that extra brick in the daffodil garden area now and this will be nice and tidy for summer.
Zoltan put in the extra concrete around the tap and I got him to try and mark it out like the other slab that was there. He did a pretty good job I think. The bricks at this end here nearest the camera, will lead to a nice summer deck where the tomatoes and cucumbers were last summer. It will be the same level as the existing patio. See the T thing near the tap? That's a thingy to turn to cut off the water when it gets cold and the pipes freeze. It stops the water pipes freezing. Will cut out the scraggly, prickly rose bush  at the left and put in nice soft bushes instead  where the pots are now..
Found this blog I'd started before Xmas when the internet was off for almost a week...then found another entry I'd started on the train...

Here goes...

Writing this on the nice intercity train between Fuszensabony to Budapest at 3.15pm on Wednesday arvo, 16th Dec...almost a year from when I boarded the same train last year, headed for my 90 days Schengen time out, in Croatia.

You wouldn't believe it but today was the first time in over 10 days that the sun shone-ish. 
It is so weird this strange cloud that hangs about in EU.
I'm positive it has something to do with cloud seeding. They have been doing it for over 40 or more years and still hardly anyone believes it is possible and even if it was, "the govt would never do things like that"! 
Go on and keep living in cloud-land I say to them.

Will arrive Budapest at 4.30pm and of course it will be pitch dark thankfully and all the Xmas lights will be on in full swing.
Will wander around Budapest for 5 hrs or so, watch the lights, have some Xmassy hot spiced gluewein, some other goodies that I can eat, then catch the 10.45pm train to Belgrade, a fast 3hr trip really, but it takes 6-8hrs on the train as they cross the Hungarian/Serbian borders and do the customs thing etc etc and that takes a few hours. (am back from my trip now, but I forgot about the hot wines in Budapest, in my quest to get the Xmas lights pics which you have already seen)

I catch the night trains there and back as it saves precious touring days that you can spend sightseeing, instead of rumbling along all day on a nice train, not to mention saving on accom and time. 

This time will be a short trip as I have not emptied my hot water system incase the weather freezes things etc etc, so here's hoping 4 whole days away and 3 nights will be OK and the place wont get too cold inside.

This will be the first time I've been so far into winter in Tiszaigar, so there's lots to learn about yet.

The train time tables between major cities are mostly geared so that if you leave late...10.45pm and arrive early, 6-7am, so you are not stranded in the middle of the night somewhere looking for your accommodation.
The trains are all very nice and comfy and warm and have security guards on board, so it is very safe travelling. I'm more afraid on a Bris-Caboolture 11pm train than any overnight train here.

Am excited to actually be going on a short trip, not beholden to time quotas.
It feels strange, but after Xmas when my 90 days usual Schengen visa is up, that's when it will really hit me.

OK...will talk more after I leave Budapest tonight....

Am off to Slovakia (Schengen area) in Feb for a week skiing in the high Tatras and if my 1 year staying visa had not come thru on time, I would have stayed in Serbia (non-Schengen) for an extra week to allow for the week back in Slovakia-Schengen Zone.

Hahaha...outsmarted myself…

There will be no ski trip this side of April, as my Schengen visa still applies in all Schengen areas except Hungary..hahaha...!

Forgot about that with all the fun of having my staying visa approved...for Hungary...only!

Slight oversight there, hahaha.

That also means the trip to Hamburg to see Love Never Dies in March is a no go too!
After the 30th March, my Schengen visa kicks over again for another 180 day period, allowing me 90 days, any which way, in the EU. 
That means I can do all my one and two and 3 week tripping around from then onwards for a year as I'd never be away from home longer than 2-3 weeks at the most from then.

Anyone need expert advice on EU visa info, see me! Joking, but, boy it sure is complex, but understandably so.

Most of this is done via the honour system, by passport checking at countries who border the Schengen zones. Saves a mass of paperwork and a ton of bureaucracy for sure.

OK...back to now...2nd Jan 2016.

Almost all the poles in the main street in Tiszafured had one of these strapped to it...very pretty.
The size of these things! That's my shopping in one of the kettles used for hot wines, soups etc.
These are the big cauldrons, or kettles as they are called here. For hot wine, party goulash, fish stew and more. Complete with copper fire and chimney!
Xmas market stall...really needs a red and green or orange light to make it more inviting and warmer looking.
Cherry Tree avenue in Tiszafured...
Xmas Markets food stall in Tiszafured...
Street lights in Tiszafured
The imaginative hay bale decorations in our village... Now on a calendar...
A load of wood being delivered...
The street where I live at a crisp minus 3 C 2pm afternoon in winter!
This is my own Xmas street decoration...right outside my bedroom window...well, the future lounge room window that is!
Looking out the kitchen door glass pane...Lovely view of the all day frost! Between - 4 and - 9 C today, New Years Day 2016 at 9am in the morning!
I hope the internet connection issues are resolved soon with this company, as it's frustrating trying for hours to load an image, getting up in the middle of the night to try and see if it's on and never remembering where I was up to!

I'm changing service providers anyways when my contract ends soon. I took whatever came first when I connected last year and it has been 90% OK, but when it's lousy weather outside and I want to research holiday destinations and Google info...no service...sad face.

See you soon...hopefully!
xx

Xmas Lights Time in Europe...

Will just show you the pics...

Bought this original oil painting from a neighbour... 
Lunch on the way to the train station for my 4 days of Xmas Lights...
Yummy mashed potato and vegies, with chicken. A beer and this very nice meal was just $4.00 in Tiszafured...
Train change 30 mins from Tiszafured...Catching the Intercity here to Budapest, another journey of 90 mins...
Don't you love it? 3pm in the afternoon in Winter!
First time we saw the sun in 2 weeks, so I bathed in it thru the train windows for 45 mins...
Arrived Budapest and headed directly to my fave restaurant for a great pizza. Have been good and saved up for the awesome Margarita pizza and beer deal they have going here   (Can't eat wheat based products) 990ft for a beer and this massive pizza you will see shortly. $4.87 in Ausd.
Heading to the restaurant...
Not far now...
The guy who designed this fancy train station also designed the Tower in Paris. Mr Eiffel.
Inside the restaurant. It has great ambiance.
This fave pizza was covered in heaps of garlic and Parmesan. The 2 dishes at the front are full of dipping oils, with garlic and chili. I love those dipping sauces...yummy. Could only eat half of this so they put the other half in a box and I gave it to some homeless people sleeping in the train station while it was still nice and warm. Suffered badly with cramps the next day...sigh...will I ever learn???
A nice easy decoration...a kids bob sled, some logs of wood  under it and a couple of slats of timber on top, some jars with candles in them...and presto! 
Off again...the lights made the focus thing on the camera play up really badly, so I've missed most of the best ones. They come out terribly blurred...worse luck!
Trying to see why the camera is playing up.
This is the best of a bad natch...
So, I stood on the road to try...a bit better, but not good.
It took this billboard OK, so it's moving car lights and the still Xmas lights that confuse the focus mechanism, possibly?
Back down into the underground to go to the middle of town for the main lights.
Budapest is cut in half, as you can see. Buda on one side and Pest on the other side.
Going up the huge escalators underground...
Now in the centre of town....emerging from the underground...
Metro station...
Yeah, they knew I was coming! Shoes...
Wow...
The poshy end of town...
All lights here this year are white...
More Xmas lights...
The biggest tree of lights I have ever seen...just lights.
WOW!
BOO!
Now onto the stalls with the compulsory hand made Xmas decorations...
Love this one...It's a duck, head down, It's a bubbly stopper for fizzy drinks! hahaha...
Went back to buy these, but could not find them again. Salt and pepper shakers, hand made in Hungary.
Amazing lights.
Coffee anyone?
Lollies...
Spotted stuff...
Things made from honey and bees wax...
Amazing...too much to take in...
I like these...will buy some later on...
The same type of lamps...
Nice...
These lights were in the top end of town...
So much stuff!
Spiced cinnamon rolls...
Amazing evening of lights...
Have heaps more, but will do this in 3 blogs!
This was just one street in Budapest...
More coming of  Serbia and Hungary.