Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part IV - Kiskunhalas

We must keep in mind that our visit was during Communism and everything was owned by the State.

So a lot of things are no longer valid...

On Thursday, October 25 of 1984, we got up early at 6:00 for having breakfast and then departure by bus at 7:00 for a visit to the research center in Kecskemét, Hungary.

Next we went to Hajos, where we hd lunch at the State Estate.

Complete with good music and wine!

We even purchased a bottle of wine... a Tokaj.

We saw huge agricultural areas; everything was State owned.

Next we went to the substrate preparation place for Pleurotus, in Borota.

Then we visited a private Pleurotus grower in Kunfehértó.

We even went to the State Forestry in Kiskunhalas, to look at sawn off poplar trunks. These were being spawned with  Pleurotus to digest them within 5 years. They also yielded some fresh Pleurotus. 

In KISKUNHALAS, at the State Forestry Company we had dinner with music and dance and lots of brandy, wine and champagne tasting!

In my diary I wrote: 'We even could handle it!'

Well, we dumped most of it in the decanter, at the table...

Pieter's successor at the Dutch Practical Training College, did NOT dump his glass' contents in the decanter...

A fun evening.

KISKUNHALAS ÁLLAMI GAZDASÁG

STATE FARM OF KISKUNHALAS

WINE LIST

Barack Pálinka or Apricot Pálinka (brandy) is a national drink.

Earlier, in Hajos, the Congress participants could select their photos, taken during different events.

Here Pieter is dealing with that and it probably was the photo taken during the lectures.

That's me on the right, sitting next to Frank Gabell, Pieter's Campbell Soup colleague and the one with his glass to his lips is the other colleague, Lung-Chi Wu.

Around 20:30 we departed for Budapest where we arrived singing... around 23:30.

Yes, in the bus I've been singing together with two Hungarian colleagues/friends; Júlia Györfi and Katalin Stubnya.

Our song was: KALINKA and without dancing... Haha!

Enjoy it from my Pinterest: Kalinka

and to see the authentic Russian dance to it, click here: Kalinka

My Dad sang in a small choir as a Don Kozach for a while... I had to sew his Astrakan hat, his red satin blouse and the cummerbund to it.

Both, Pieter and I LOVE Hungarian and Slavic music, including Russian!

Bit by bit you figure out who we are....

~~☼~~
Thanks for your visit and comment!

Related link:
Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part III - Szentendre | previous post by me
My 1st Trip to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part II - Budapest | previous post by me
Driving to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part I - Mayerling | previous post by me

Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part III - Szentendre

On Wednesday, October 24, it was again full congress day for husband Pieter and I could join the ladies in the different buses. For me no problem for joining the English, German or French speaking group.

Pieter later would have an excursion to the state owned Duna in Csepel. 

But we were going to Szentendre...
The first city you reach in the Danube Bend; Szentendre (St. Andrew).
This was once a popular place for immigrated Serbs who fled for the Turks, and that is still visible in the many Serbian Orthodox churches.

A beautiful Serbian Orthodox Church
Wooden frescoes of St. Constantine and St. Helene.
Paintings throughout this Church by Mihailo Zivkovic, with eyes that seem to follow you...

SZENTENDRE
Blagovestenska Church at Fo tér 4, is the only one of the town's several Serbian Orthodox Churches that will be fairly sure open.
The tiny Church (as in above's card), dating from 1752, was built on the site of a wooden Church from Serbian migration of 1690.
Lovely Baroque-Rococo design!

THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION

Check on my Pinterest link for information in regard to the Plaque Cross, seen above to the right. 

Click here and then enter from there.

Folklore Center Scentendre... I did find a lovely, hand embroidered Hungarian blouse here.

You will see it later in a post...

This is from a brochure but their work is stunning!

Szentendre is only 20 km away from Budapest!

A Nostalgia Café at the back of a Folklore Gift shop.
We first got offered an aperitif and then we ate lunch there.
Above the bar they had all kinds of money bills, also Dutch Guilders and US Dollars...

This was the Restaurant

In the Danube Bend we did visit the 13th Century Esztergom Castle and had a great view from there.
Click to see it on my Pinterest: Esztergom Basilica and Castle and this is the very place where husband Pieter in 1974 visited... see post below.
Esztergrom is the seat of the Hungarian Catholic Church and this is the largest Church in Hungary.
The first Hungarian King, Saint Stephen, got coronated here and it was the Capitol till the 13th Century.

Back home to the Congress Center in our little German speaking bus, via Margaret Island at 17:15.
A gem in the middle of the Danube, with Margaret Bridge reaching it...
Click here to find out more via my Pinterest.
The men got home from their excursion to the Duna by 19:30.

For me it was a lovely day, with lots of impressions!
Just pondering if the Belgian Mrs. Jacquemin in my bus, would be related to the Jacquemin in my post (see below) about the1958 tragedy in the caves... We meet so many people in this life!

Stay tuned for the next chapter...
~~☼~~
Thanks for your visit and comment!

Related link:
My 1st Trip to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part II - Budapest | previous post by me
Driving to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part I - Mayerling | previous post by me
Husband Pieter's 1974 Visit to Esztergom, Hungary during Communism | post where Pieter was in Eszergom
1958 Tragedy for Pieter's Mushroom Friends in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder in Belgium | previous post in which I mentioned mushroom friend Jacquemin...

My 1st Trip to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part II - Budapest

There we were, on October 22, 1984 in Budapest at the Congress Centre, which was high on a hill on the edge of Buda.

We had quite a nice room and we ran into lots of colleagues and friends from all over the world.

Pieter's Campbell Soup colleagues Lung-Chi Wu and Frank Gabell also had arrived by plane from the USA. 

Budapest, Hungary

We were around 14:30 at the Congress Center

HOUSE OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES (translated from above card and mind you, this was all state owned, the entire congress center! That's Communism...)

Number 225/2 (room and 2 keys)

Departure date October 28 (but we left on the 27th...)

Check out, please leave before 10:00

Baggage and storage of valuables is available at no charge

Finally

Saturday

Meal Time (which was all left blank...)

We both followed Dutch business friend Piet Theeuwen (from Theeuwen Compost then and now Walkro), driving into the center for strolling around and seeing some shops.

Finding a good restaurant to eat,  which would be Belgrado with Hungarian music. Pieter's colleagues who had joined us in our car, loved it!

A very good first evening in Budapest, the Paris of the East!

*

HEROES' SQUARE with Archangel Gabriel standing on top.

On Tuesday, October 23 it was a date which Budapest for 28 years never forgot.

The day to remember that in 1956 the revolution started and that the Russians knocked down brutally on November 4th in 1956. 
Soviets Crush Hungarian Revolt (1956) | A Day That Shook the World

As a little girl, I remember that we prayed for Hungary with Catholic nuns, our teachers... It made a very strong and lasting impression on me and the adults were talking about war again, they all feared the Russians would invade further.

In 1984, Hungary had 11,000,000 citizens and 2,500,000 lived in Budapest.

Their salaries were very low and most people had to have 2 or 3 jobs for making ends meet.

Rent was usually 1/3 of their salary in 1984. State loans for 35 years at 2% interest, after their own initial capital. 

*

From the Heroes' Square I also went to the Matthias Church 

Greetings from Budapest is written on the card...
The Matthias Church was used as coronation Church by Hungarian Kings and it dates from 1015.

Check out the Matthias Church's Roof Tiles and the Holy Trinity Statue here click it through.

St. Stephen's Basilica

Greetings from Budapest is written in Hungarian on this card...
Budapest is really a marvelous city with its Buda and Pest embankments.
Top left you see the famous Fisherman's Bastion in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style.

To the right the letters ANSP are visible, guess that is the Hungarian Air Navigation Service Provider.

It also gives you an idea of the cars from 1984, lots of Trabants during the Communist era...

We got to see 8 bridges from which 7 got destroyed during WWII and needed to be restored.

While I was out with the Ladies, Pieter was seriously attending the lectures at the International Congress.

At that time, there were translators and you could opt for languages to listen to.

In Hungary they speak often German so that made it easier for us.

But for English speaking attendants, it was not easy...

Pieter is seated in the 3rd row from bottom and he's the 3rd from the left.

His two Campbell Soup colleagues were seated 1st and 2nd from the left.

We met for lunch after we got back around 13:30 and we went with the two American colleagues shopping in Budapest. Traffic is a disaster... Stinky cars, no clean emission at that time!

We parked and I wrote the name of the street down for all, with question in German for direction, so they too could find their way back, by asking if needed.

We ourselves could ask it verbally...

Shopping on foot and Frank came back with a red Hungarian rose for me; very sweet!

Not easy for finding our way back in the dark. With asking in German, English with Hungarian replies - what a language!

By the way, Hungarian is only related to Finnish and Estonian...

But we made it back to our Congress Center and Hotel.

Here I'm on the balcony with the red rose I got gifted from Frank...

We had to get ready for the official reception with cold buffet.

We met with several colleagues/friends from The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia (at the time!), Bulgaria, Russia and Hungary...

It was an interesting day, till 22:30...

Stay tuned for more...

~~☼~~

Thanks for your visit and comment!

Related link:
Driving to Communist Hungary with Husband Pieter Part I - Mayerling | previous post by me
Budapest: The Best of Hungary click to go to my Pinterest for EDUCATIVE video