Kőszeg

Well, Valentine’s Day was an eventful one.  There were seven American girls in the small town of Kőseg.  It’s very near the Austrian border and because of this it is quite a tourist town.  It’s small and cute, and perfect for the Valentine’s Day holiday with your girlfriends.  Eliza lives in Kőseg so we were all staying with her.  It was a nice train ride from Tata- (after the skin head incident) just over three hours.  When we got to Kőseg, Eliza took us on a tour of the city – though it was short since it was MN cold and windy that day.  We saw the main city center and the church (Hungarian staples in any town) and then stopped for Falafel at Biego’s stand.  I haven’t mentioned Biego yet – but basically he was the highlight of the trip.  He’s an Armenian who lived in Germany and now Hungary (the whole story is quite long) and he has the falafel shop/stand in town.  He and his dad drove Eliza to the train station to pick us up when we arrived – and is apparently a great asset to Eliza in Kőseg.  He not only made great falafel, he entertained us with his questions and querys about the United States and young American girls.  He fell on my list of people who impressed me when he stated “you look older then the other girls, how old are you.”  Did I mention that he is 26 and could pass for 50?  At any rate, we finished our tour and headed back to Eliza’s for some classic American films – neither of which I had seen.  “10 Things I Hate About You” and “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.”  They were both good films- many of my students have seen them too.  Afterwards, we headed out for a great dinner of pizza and beer – a classic Valentine’s meal?  Biego met us at the restaurant and continued to ask us why we were not married or didn’t have kids… quite an interesting perspective he has on American priorities.  He also managed to get me to commit to having my parents bring over every type of M&M available in the United States – not that I’ll ever see him again.  He is also fascinated with t-shirts.  He wants t-shirts from anywhere and everywhere, so he can be different and have something that no one else has.  He is quite entertaining – and must be nice for Eliza to have someone to hang out with… I have yet to find my Biego in Tata. 

 

After dinner, we went to another band for some “live music” as Biego called it.  It was a 65+ year old man, and what appeared to be his son – or maybe grandson.  They did a nice job and had lots of people dancing out on the dance floor, but the dancing crowd averaged a good 30 years my senior.  It didn’t matter – I wanted to dance.  So – I stepped up for the Credence Clearwater Revival songs, and the other ones that I knew, and I sat out on the Hungarian ones.  I seemed to be a one man show during many of the English songs, but Hanna came and danced too.  I hit it off with several older (elderly) Hungarian men as they took my arms and danced with me – but they were not really my Valentine’s type, so I didn’t hang with them for long.  It was a great night out!  

The pictures have the "band," Hanna and Biego, me holding a Rákóczi Ferenc bill, and the group.