OK...we forgot Art's Birthday

Another birthday?? Seems like you just had one last year. Merrill hasn't had one since 2008?? How does that work?? Anyway...HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Nothing like a baby to make you smile.

InSEA Gala Cruise on the Danube

The Gala was on Wednesday night. After the reception we threw at Birs on Tuesday the InSEA people had a hard act to follow so they chartered the Europa, the largest and most luxurious boat on the Budapest shore. We were greeted by the smiling staff with complimentary palinka and champagne. The dinner was quite nice considering they didn't have Stefan and Laslo from Birs. The food was tasty, the views from the river were dramatic and the conversations were artsy. We sat with Veronica and her guest Robert, the Salvador Dali look-a-like as well as a group of crazy Japanese guys who insisted on toasting almost everything that was said. The photos that need captions are of...Veronica and Robert and Lisa and Rita Irwin. Rita is the InSEA President. I'm not sure what they are discussing?

Tonight we are going with Rachael Mason to see Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hungarian Masdach Szinhaz, or Repertory House. It should be interesting. The Hungarian State Opera Orchestra is supporting the cast during this final production of the season. The performance will be in Hungarian with video sub-titles. I hope I get to sing along.

This is the big wedding week-end in Chicago, little Niece Allison and soon to be little Nephew Mark have the leading roles. Cast of hundreds. Clayton is going to represent. Remember who you are.

More later

More reception photos

Reception at Birs

The reception was a great success. We entertained about 90 people many of whom stayed until midnight. The evening was perfect, the wine and food were excellent and everyone seemed to have a very nice time. Debbie Smith-Shank made opening comments, which I forgot to photograph, Lisa made comments, which I forgot to photograph and I made comments which no one wanted to photograph. Barbara Guttman (new Doctor) and Andrea Karpati brought Lisa beautiful flowers. There were many toasts. Dr Bruckner from the Fulbright office came and that was quite an honor. Stefan and Andrea as well as their entire staff did an outstanding job both in the preparation and presentation of the food and wine. Many visitors to the reception stayed and enjoyed dinner. People played with the magnetic wall all evening, I forgot to photograph that. But I did take a few photos and several people took other photos with my camera...enjoy.

A trip to the grocery

The installation of the show is complete. The magnetic wall is attracting a lot of attention. The area on Raday utca is populated with galleries and restaurants and there was a constant flow of local business owners checking out the “magic” wall. It will be interesting to see the gallery filled with people.

Rachel Mason is our first overnight guest. She arrived from London Monday morning and will stay for several nights.

Blago's conviction was on the BBC News last night.

Stefan and I made a trip to the grocery, not the market, big difference. We had hoped to use wine glasses for the reception but it now seems there will be more people attending than the 50 to 60 we had planned for so we have decided to use plastic cups, tacky I know but necessary. The snacks will be different pâtés on slices of baguette. We bought extra wine and Stefan will offer several dinner options when the food runs out.

I took some interesting photos at the big market and found a neat Citroën on the street.

You do see a lot of American brands, or at least what we consider American brands. The Nestles cereal, the Uncle Ben's sauces and there was also Uncle Ben's rices. I'm always amazed at the bread in all the stores and markets just sitting around unwrapped. There are always a lot of people working in the grocery stores stocking shelves. I took a box of something to show Stefan and when I returned 45 seconds later the slot on the shelf had already been refilled.

By far the funniest label in the entire store is the "Dr. Steinbergers Kindergluck." I'll let your imagination tell you what the kid is thinking.

Romanian observation...the toilet paper in Romania does not have little perforations that designate the squares. This probably makes sense as TP is not exactly difficult to tear and the elimination of the perforation keeps costs down. There is a pun there somewhere.

Full show report tomorrow.

More Photos

Immigration irritation, InSEA registration

At the conclusion of the last posting, or next to the last posting…we were heading off to the Office of Immigration to apply for the residency permit which I was convinced we did not need. We arrived after a tram and bus ride and the office opened on time and we sat down on time. Documents were presented, official tax stamps were presented, $90 USD, tax stamps were pasted very officially on the proper document, the stamps, $90 USD, were cancelled, rendering them useless, and at this point the very pleasant immigration lady with the painted on eyebrows said “you really don’t need to do this.” She concluded, after cancelling the stamps, that we had indeed officially entered Hungary when we returned from Romania and would not consequentially be in the country for more than 90 days. But…the forms were filled out, the stamps cancelled, $90 USD, and we get to return on July 25^th to see if they will let us stay until August 19^th. We should have our residency cards sometime in November, $90 USD.

Observation…there are no public restrooms at the immigration offices. We were there for about 2 hours, certainly a reasonable time to hold it, but… Picture this; the office was filled with families and their screaming babies, women in birkas, attorneys assisting their clients with immigration issues, legal aliens, illegal aliens, a guy from Atlanta working for a cell phone company, people requesting political asylum, hot German co-eds and us. Now if one of us needed a WC during our 2 hour visit, it seems reasonable that others of the huddled masses would require the same. When I inquired of the officially dressed security guard he said “nem toilette” and pointed across the street to the Tesco store (Hungarian Wal-Mart.”) I looked at the huddled masses and figured there must be a mistake; it was a very large building, lots of people coming and going, lots of official government business several water fountains, even a coin operated coffee machine, but when I asked the very nice lady with the painted on eye brows she confirmed, across the street at the Tesco. Getting to the Tesco is not easy and the difficulty could be enhanced by the addition of screaming babies, speeding cars, large busses and the fact that the crosswalks are on the opposite ends of the street. They should at least remove the water fountain.

We will be sitting on pins and needles until July 25^th.

The InSEA conference is in full swing. We were at MOME at 7:30 to help with registration. I escorted several people to the Bankomat to get Forints and gave directions into the city. Later in the morning actually went with Rachel and Moshe to Deak Ference ter and pointed them to the Cathedral and the Great Synagogue. They haven’t been seen since but I think Rachael presents today.

We have one of the delegates staying with us so I have been cleaning and buying flowers. I went to IKEA and ALDI yesterday to buy additional pillows, pillow cases, towels and a few things we need for the reception. Rachel, another Rachel, is from the UK and is receiving an InSEA Lifetime Award. She flies in this morning and will stay here for the next 4 nights. The flat is swept and mopped, the underwear is put away and the fresh flowers look nice. This afternoon we install the show at Birs. The reception is at 8 pm on Tuesday. They are excited as it will be their first big event; remember they only opened 7 weeks ago. Stefan has planned a nice selection of snacks and we will serve Hungarian red and white wine as well as lemonade. Eva will be a special guest. Lisa has asked Rachel (sorry I don’t know her last name) to make a few opening remarks. We have invited people from InSEA, the Fulbright office as well as the American Embassy.

Our friend Debbie Smith-Shank is in town for the conference. She was at NIU and mentored Lisa thru her doctoral program. She is now at Ohio State and was recently named department chair. We went out last night to celebrate. Dinner at Listz Ference ter and dessert at Gerbeau. Fancy.

Anyway…we have been busy. I have missed writing the last couple of days. I will include pictures of the conference. Aniko and Andrea celebrating the birth of their InSEA baby, other conference pictures and a few others. Hope everyone is well.

Scott sees Cee Lo Green at the Opera

WARNING: ADULT CONTENT

....Dateline Budapest...popular American musician and recording artist Cee Lo Green was seen by this reporter on the red carpet at the Budapest Opera House. He was accompanied by an unknown female friend. It is not known if Cee Lo was there to perform his American classic "Fuck You" with the Hungarian National Symphany, there was no indication of this on the opera marquee.

Happy Birthday Matthew Cooper

A tree burns in Budapest

Dateline Budapest...Thursday, June 23

Fire on Vasar Utca near Rakoczi ter.

Neighbors in the area near the new Metro 4 station phoned the fire squad at 7:35 this evening when they noticed a large sycamore tree was smoking. The fire squad arrived quickly, donned helmets and boots and engaged all fire fighting gear at their disposal. Using axes and a 2” hose from the Mercedes Benz pumper truck, the fire, or in this case, the smoke, was soon thwarted. A large crowd gathered to watch the big event. They enjoyed ice cream and cheered on the brave hose men. Although there are no official comments it appears to be a case of smoking in a bed as it was speculated that someone had thrown a cigarette in the mulch around the tree. See photos.

In other news…the magnesfestekes seems to be working. After applying 4 coats of the magnetic paint to the walls at Birs Biztro I returned today and painted over the gray with the original paint. The Magna Hold is basically metal dust that you mix with paint that allows magnets to be held on a normal looking wall. Lisa’s visual essay images will have magnetic tape on the back and visitors will be able to move the pieces around on the wall. Our test this evening was a success. The reception is Tuesday evening and you are all invited. Except you, and you know who you are.

We have ordered wine and appetizers for the reception. In addition to the visual essay Lisa will have several of her bead pieces displayed in concert with Marcus Peter’s sculpture. Both really think the pieces complement each other.

Tomorrow we go to the immigration office to hopefully, in one day, although almost impossible, get our residency visas. We figured out that the Hungarian government requires you to get a resident visa if you will be in the country more than 90 day. This is because in most cases it takes at least 85 days to complete the paperwork. There was a glimmer of hope earlier this week when we realized that the first Hungarian stamp in out passports was from last Monday night when we crossed from Romania, we figured we may not need a resident permit. But we are playing it politically safe; we don’t want any international incidents. I can’t imagine them not wanting me to leave the country. Lisa is a different story.

The InSEA starts on Saturday. I am volunteering at the registration table or somewhere, I think I am in charge of registering the Nigerians. The InSEA people had an inordinately large number of Nigerians requesting letters from InSEA to secure travel documents. Most were deposed Kings or Princes and the recipients of large amounts of money and just needed a sponsor in Hungary to help them get the money out of Nigeria.

Why couldn’t I be in charge of registering the Swedes?

I’ll try and keep up with the posting over the next week; you can always go back and find your own worst of. Peace.

More Photos from Transylvania

Storming the castle

Monday was a day spent joining angry mobs and storming castles, pretty much normal daily activities in Transylvania and the real reason I came on the trip. I know all of the folk arts of Romania are important, I know it’s a good thing to support the crafters who painstakingly make all of the garishly painted ceramic garden gnomes. I know it is important to eat spinach soufflé pressed between two slices of Wonder Bread. I know it is important to pay over $9 a gallon for benzene, although it was 95 octane. Yes, all of the cultural activities are part of the deal but I knew I would always be disappointed if I came to this dichotomous world of horse carts and cows holding up a mile of traffic that consisted primarily of German luxury cars, and failed to storm a castle.

To bring everyone up to date…we spent Sunday night in Cluj, the ancient capitol of Transylvania. Cluj is a classic example of a 2011 Romanian city. Reeling from what everyone in Eastern Europe calls “the crisis,” Cluj is suffering. Apartment building projects are abandoned, industrial sites are abandoned and everyone is waiting for the EU to help out. The people are still smiling and the streets and sidewalks get washed, often times while we were walking on them. Back to the story…Eva was a little puny so we decided to head south and eventually back to Budapest. We mapped a course that would take us thru Aiud, (castle, mob potential,) Alba Iulia, (big castle more potential,) then toward Deva and Arad with plans to cross the border at Nagylak.

Aiud castle was built by the Saxons and is generally considered a church fortress. The city of Aiud grew around the fortress as is commonly the case. Basically the Aiud Castle was in the city square. Lisa and I walked around the grounds of the castle and dropped some coins in the alms box when we looked into the church area. Much of the castle is under renovation, but people were still living inside the walls; amazing stone construction. The spire had a clock that was added in 1836 and it still works with a bizarre series of weights and chains and can be wound from the ground even though its 90 feet above.

I visited a feed and grain store on the side of the castle and bought some seeds. You could buy giant bags of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and they also sold diesel fuel?

On the storm the castle issue…there were quite a few villagers wandering around the square, some were grumbling but not enough to riot. We packed up and headed to the next castle.

Alba Iulia has a very big castle, it is also under renovation. I think the Romanians are trying to get the castles up to EU castle specifications. We parked and walked thru the nicely gardened grounds of the Alba Iulia Citadel and across the original drawbridge from 831 AD…and then it happened. Just as we crossed the drawbridge I found myself in the middle of a very angry mob. It seems that the restaurant had run out of the daily special and they were fired up. I was instantly swept up into the moment and I felt, for the first time in my life, the uncontrolled fervor of a mob. It was exhilarating, I started shouting and grumbling with the mob, I looked for a scythe or a shovel but I only had my Bloomingdales umbrella, I shook it open and we stormed the castle. Then, just as quickly as it had started, the mob dispersed to the Elder Europa Autobuz and they were off to the next castle. They asked me to join them but I had to decline, I needed a beer.

We found a nice little lunch place near the city market and we also found the official mob supply booth. He was doing a brisk business.

Lots of castles on the road toward Budapest, lots of accidents, lots of horse drawn carts, which may have caused the accidents. We crossed the border into Hungary, we were home.

More Romanian Photos

Here are 5 more photos from our Romanian adventure. Check out the hay stacks. The glass windows and dome are from a building that Andrea's Grandfather designed in Oradea. I guess the hotel is more of a peach color, or maybe they painted it overnight.