Visit from Margaret and Dick!

After the rocky experience at the hostel in Vienna, I was certainly ready to spend some quality time with Americans speaking in my native tongue with people who understood my background and life at home. It's rare that you have someone here that you can really talk with - who knows enough about you that you don't have to explain everything or go through a series of small talk questions.

Margaret has been a friend of my mother's since we were in grade school. They have participated in numerous "parent" events together and have remained friends as their kids grow old and become adults. Margaret is also a die hard reader of my blog (at least my mom tells me this) :) and I was thrilled that she finally had the opportunity to share in so many of the things I write about frequently.

We met at the Vienna train station. I'd been there before so I had no problem determining a place to meet and we were plenty early for our train. I did a brief lesson on train timetables and reader boards, as Margaret and Dick were going to make the journey back to Vienna on their own. We found our train - Budapest bound - and boarded... only once we were on the actual train, I noticed that almost EVERY compartment and seat had been reserved. WHAT? Why would a train bound for Budapest on a Friday in off-peak travel time be completely booked? I was a bit nervous since we didn't have seat reservations, but it was not a problem. Margaret spotted a series of seats that were open - though in all reality I doubt that the train came even close to filling up. I envisioned a multitude of high school students running to catch the train at the last minute, but this was not the case. At any rate, it was a smooth trip with interesting scenery (at least I think so) on our way towards Budapest. Though it was raining a bit when we left Vienna, the sun began to shine almost the instant we crossed the border into Hungary. (ok, maybe it was shining before then, but I like to consider Hungary the bright spot of Europe) We transfered trains in Győr - not passing up the opportunity for them to see the favorite "pink" bathroom that Megan and I always stop at. It's a fairly clean bathroom, but the attendant sits there and smokes the entire day away, so it's not the most fresh smelling place in Győr. We went outside to see the big town hall, and watched two women planting new pansies in the beds out front of the building. Hungary is very keen on flowers, and Győr is no exception.

Boarding a new train to Tata, we relaxed for a quick 45 minute ride to my part of Hungary. We took the bus into town and headed to my apartment first. I'm sure they were blown away by the luxurious living standards... not really... but we rested for a bit and then headed out again - we were burning daylight after all!

They were both troopers throughout the day. I made them walk all over town, and they had had a restless night, and I certainly was tired, but I didn't want them to miss anything while in town. We started with the compulsory visit to the clock tower - the symbol of Tata.

We continued through the "main drag" to the grand entrance to the lake- through a beautiful park area. As we rounded the corner, I said to them "and there is my school" pointing to the wonderful building that perches over the lake. At first they didn't believe me as it's quite a sight- but I swear I have the prettiest setting for a school known to man. We walked to a nice Hungarian restaurant on the lake (that incidentally does NOT serve paprikás chicken) and enjoyed a wonderful meal over looking the Öreg-tó (the Old Lake). I had a grey beef stew - (it's called that because the longhorn cattle here are grey) and they ate the "Castle Defenders Roast" which should actually have been prepared in a Turkish manner, not a Hungarian one because the Turks are the ones who defended the castle after taking it over... (eventually the Hungarians got it back, but still).

After lunch, we wound our way around the lake to my school, stopping for some pictures along the way.

They are in front of the lake with the castle in the far background

Margaret and Dick with the castle in the background again

We ran into several of my students leaving school, and all of them spoke to us in English, no matter how nervous they were to see more than one "native speaker." The weather could not have been more gorgeous for us to walk around and see the sights of Tata. It was a bit chilly, but it apparently turns to fall over night here. So I wasn't quite ready for it - but Margaret and Dick had enough layers to be comfortable.

They got a quick tour of my school, encountering Kata the choir director (nevermind that I haven't been to choir yet this year) and Kata my favorite secretary- who wondered why my parents were not here, just their friends... They got to see the 200+ year old building that has caution tape surrounding it to protect innocent bystanders from getting hit with falling debris. They also got to see strangers cooking gulyás and exiting my school with glasses of beer. I'm not entirely sure what was happening at the school - but two things were clear. 1. I was not invited and 2. this was not the norm for a Friday afternoon (at least not that I know of).

We finished our sight seeing in the old center of town while in search for a plate from Hungary. Both of the Catholic churches were open, I'm not sure why since that is not the norm, but I was glad they got to see the inside of both. We rested for a bit back at my apartment, prepared some sandwiches for the road home and headed out one last time.

Margaret making sandwiches :)

I went with them to the train station to get them on safely - then they were on their own. I about cried when the train they were to ride pulled up - standing room only - Great - they were exhausted and had to stand? Yikes! Luckily I was told that they got a seat after the first stop. Phew. What a great day of visitors and sight seeing! Thanks for coming - and for the M&M's!!!!