Dad and Marta have moved down to their house on the lakeside for the summer months, as it's much cooler than Budapest at this sticky time of year.
It is just beautiful - the water changes colour fifty times a day, and at the moment it looks like cloudy glass, kind of a greeny colour. Just beautiful.
Haven't taken a dip in yet, because there are snakes, and while they're apparently not poisonous, according to Dad, it's not a theory I want to test him out on.
Today, he and I went for a little road trip into Balatonfured, the biggest town in the lake district, in an attempt to buy a vacuum cleaner for the house.
It is so difficult when a society is set up entirely differently from your own, and you can't even read the signs to find out what shops actually sell. So after stopping at a series of shopping centres that sold everything but vacuum cleaners, Dad and I plodded over to the local, friendly (I'm just joking on this note) Tourist Information Office.
Tourist offices in Hungary are a decidedly dour affair. They are staffed by women who were probably former potato farmers under Communism, and are completely ill-equipped to help, in any way whatsoever.
At least they know their constraints. I started speaking in English when we entered, and noticing the horror on her face, asked her if she spoke English. "No", she says. Well, that's one word of English, you silly-faced cow, I felt like pointing out.
We finally managed to get across that we were looking for an electrical goods shop, and get directions for it. Dad wanted to confirm that they sold vacuum cleaners, and weren't for some reason just outlets of electric cow prodders, or whirlygig bondage appliances. So he used the term "vacuum cleaner", with which these women were entirely unfamiliar. So he starts making a whirring noise with his mouth, and pushing an imaginary vacuum cleaner handle across the floor. When they look at him quizzically, like he's escaped from some sort of institution and I'm his Lucy Dudko helicopter hijacker, he just ups the volume. "Whirrr!!" he yells. They finally get it, and happily, we then get our vacuum cleaner. Happy times in Hungary.
More thumbnails ...
1 vote 
