On Leaving Hungary

In commemoration of my parents and those who left Hungary in 1956, I am attaching a picture of a plaque in placed in honour of them. The plaque shows a flag with a hole in the centre. This was symbolic of the Revolution as the Hungarian flag is red, white and green sometimes includes the country’s coat of arms in the centre.







While the Russians occupied the country, the coat of arms was replaced with a hammer and sickle which the Hungarians found offensive and, as an act of rebellion, removed it.


While our stay was short, my impression is that the country is struggling to meet the EU requirements with mixed enthusiasm for the project by the population. Their standard of living (as well as costs) is quite a bit less than in Canada. Particularly in Keszthely, which is a place to holiday, there appears to a time warp which is really refreshing. Simple pleasures like having an ice cream or a beer, feeding ducks and swans or swimming for the afternoon is done by young and old alike. Two evenings, we walked down and they were holding concerts with music from the 60s to the 80s; some of which we actually recognized. People bought snacks from the stands or brought their own from home and had an outing.
So we pack and are on the road again. Literally, on the road, dragging it down the street and through the park to catch the 9:22 AM train which goes about 15 miles up the rails and has a breakdown. Who knew that train cars can be unsafe? We were about 40 minutes delayed while they decided what to do which turned out to be another train. John was very stressed as we only had 50 minutes at Budapest’s Kelenfold station to make connection with the train going to Vienna. After finding out that our stop was next, even though it was still 30 to 40 minutes away, we decided to be ready with our bags at the exit. Then we ran like crazy. I found out that we were on track 14 or 15 and we had to drag the bags down the stairs and up another set in less than 5 minutes. Mission accomplished with room to spare as the Vienna train was also a bit late.

I never actually got to visit the town in which I was born but it is very near the larger city of Tatabanya and I took a picture of the sign as the train flew by the station. The Hungarian word banya means mine and I do not know what it is that they extract from the ground but I do know that Mom worked in this community when she was a very young woman.

In many of the European countries there are large lovely fields of sunflowers and they are now in bloom. It would be enough to plant them for the pleasure they give but they actually use them to produce oil for bio fuel.

We arrived in Vienna and the only obstruction to our hotel which is directly across the street is the construction of the new railway station happening all round us. A lovely lady who spoke no English walked us through the maze to show us the way to the Merkur Hotel.