16 January

Having done much fabric shopping in Hungary, I still didn't have the fabric I needed for my Valentines frock plan.

So... what else could I do but catch a train to Paris for the weekend and some good hard fabric shopping! I managed to find a great deal at an excellent hotel quite near one of the fabric market areas (The Tryp Blanche Fontaine in case you are after a decent hotel in Paris).

I did spend and spend big. I found a fabric that would do, and some very gorgeous fabrics that I don't really need as such, but want and will be able to use.

The next day being Sunday, all the shops were closed, but the museums not, so I went for a long walk down to the centre of Paris and visited the Museum of Decorative Arts. On the way there, I went on the big ferris wheel which was overpriced but I guess worth doing once, and got some pretty ok photos...

The museum had some great gems, including a fine glass collection, and the time flew by. Here is a small selection of some of my favourite things!

Home again home again to the hard work of sewing. Eschewing all other pleasures I then spent my leisure hours for the rest of the month, working on my frock.

6 January

I decided that, as much as there are museums yet to be seen in Budapest, I should go out and see another part of Hungary. So I hopped on a train to Eger. The countryside in Hungary isn't particularly exciting, I have to say: snow covered fields really. I did have a funny incident though...

I sat in a carriage by myself. Not long out of Eger, a young man came into the carriage. He said something in Hungarian, to which I replied "I am sorry, I don't speak Hungarian". He switched to english and with a distinct stammer, asked if the conductor had been. I said yes. The young man then sat down and started talking to me.

"w.w.w.w..where are you from?"

"I am Australian" I replied.

"H...h...h...how m...m..m..many years do you have?" he asked. I told him.

"I h have tw tw twenty s.. s... six years" he stammered.

"Really?" I said

"aa a are you a v... v... v... virgo?" asked he

"Um, no" I replied.. wondering why he would as such a strange question.

"I... I... I... didn't th.. th.. think you you you were a virgo"

there was a pause, and then he announced, gesturing at the same time:

"My my my sex has tw tw tw twenty four centimetres"

I was rather, well, stunned, by this. Why does this stuff happen to me? I think I might have stammered myself when I replied something along the lines of:

"that's nice for you".

He went on to ask if I would be interested in umm... getting to know him better (so to speak). I was relieved when we very shortly arrived at the station and I was able to make my escape! Why do these things happen to me?

The reason for travelling to Eger was to see the castle. The snow was thick on the ground, and the colour of the buildings glowed against the blue sky. It was another cool day... with a maximum of -5 degrees. Luckily by then I had figured it all out, and was wearing all my layers, so I wasn't feeling too bad.

The museum was small but interesting, relating the fascinating history of the town. For example, In the 16th century, this little town, which at the time had only about 2,000 people, held off a seige by 80,000 turks. The next time it was attacked it didn't fare so well.. it fell and became a seat of the Ottoman empire, with it's churches converted to mosques. 91 years later it was retaken, and converted back to christianity. A very mixed past indeed.

That said, by the end of wandering the castle grounds, I didn't feel the need to stick around, and took the next train back to Budapest. I am pleased to report that the trip home was without incident.

5 January

5 January was the day to go to the Budapest Museum. I had been last time I came to Hungary, and was keen to go back and get some shots that hadn't worked too well last visit.

All sorts of gorgeous goodies to be seen, including some lovely tiles and jewellry (I do love a shiny thing or two!)

Once I had sucked the marrow from that museum, I needed the long soak at one of the local spas. They are open until quite late in the evenings, so you can go and laze around in the hot water until 10pm. Just lovely.

4 January

Happy New Year!

There was not a particularly fortuitous start to my holiday. Heading out to the airport was straightforward enough. But once on the plane, that was it. It was snowing with enthusiasm, and as fast as they tried to clear the runway and de-ice the planes, the snow built back up again. Minutes passed, then hours. Three hours on and we were all wishing we were stuck in the airport instead of on the plane. We were saved a little by a group of young men. They had the look of a bunch of quite nice guys who were heading off to Budapest for New Years and maybe a bucks night or something
similarly silly. They had enough money to be flying in first class, and spent the first hour or so trying to charm the stewards into giving them booze. At one stage, one did manage to persuade a stewardess to part with her jacket which he donned and saunted down the aisles offering people moist towels. Together they were like an amateur comedy team and while, if it had been a normal trip, we would have all groaned to ourselves and wished they would pull their heads in, as it was, we were delighted to have this in built entertainment.

Once in the air, all was well. I asked my seat mate to take some photos out of the window and that got him started. He was very excited about the cloud formations over our destination; I was more concerned at what they meant. A
blanket of cold over the whole country. When we finally arrived at 3.30pm, it was already dark outside and they announced that it was -9 degrees. brrrr...

I caught a taxibus out to my hotel, which was pretty nice (in Pest), with the most enormous room. Once I had bundled up against the cold I headed out to the new year's party someone had posted on couch surfers. But when I got there, paid my money and settled down with a drink , it was to discover that absolutely noone else from couchsurfers was there. I hung around for a while and then decided that it was much more lonely here in a bar filled with small groups of people all of whom knew each other, than to be surrounded by thousands of strangers at the street party. I was right, and although it was very cold out on the street, the atmosphere was very warm. People were dancing around having a great time, and when the New Year came around, fireworks flew and everyone grabbed everyone else, planting kisses on cheeks and shouting and dancing. I kissed a policeman (its a tradition really) and did conga dances with complete strangers. All the good fun you want from a new year party.

Everything of course was closed on New Years day, Budapest like every other city in that way. But I slept in for a while and then took the tram out and scoped the joint to try and find fabric shops and get my bearings.

The next evening, I got in touch with one of the local couch surfers who was getting together with some friends, so I joined them in a smokey bar on the Pest side. They were a nice group... absolutely none of them from Hungary, so noone could tell me what was on the free postcards I grabbed. Ah well, does it matter? Nah. So if you get a strange postcard, you will just have go guess what is on the front, and maybe what is on the back, as my new friends helped a little with the writing here and there.

The next morning I moved hotels. I had managed to find myself new digs for an extraordinary amount of money - just 20 euros a night! It was up a bit of a hill on the Buda side but it was perfectly pleasant. I wandered around the old town in the snow. To thaw out I visited the Museum of Art, where I got to see some very lovely paintings.

by the time I got out, it was almost 5pm and dark.

Monday I went around the other side of the hill and had lunch at a local restaurant specialising in game. But by the time I had eaten lunch and wandered around the battlements, it was already 3pm (how the day flies by) and it wasn't worth paying to go into the Budapest museum as it closed at 4. But I knew that the museum of Hungarian culture was open late, so I crossed the bridge and wandered my way there.

Most of the museum was on reasonably modern cultural stuff, but there was also an exhibition which had some fascinating documents and other bits and pieces, making it well worth the visit.

The building itself is also very impressive: