Kinga's final resting place

i hope my beautiful dog will sleep well here.

Bob the builder (I was born...)

There's an often said joke in Hungary:
'Everyone was born to be a bricklayer but some people study longer.'
Seems like it's true:

Still: Miskolc and around

Miskolc's walking street has always been very nice (as far as i can remember) and since they managed to refurbish the surrounding buildings, it's even prettier. as a child it fascinated me that trams were moving among people. i liked the whole idea: only trams and people on the street, and i still find it romantic somehow. it evokes those times, when there were no cars yet. Debrecen's walking street has been converted in the same fashion, and my home town used to look like the same. Szombathely was the first town to have trams, but unfortunately some idiots abolished tramlines there... :(
as i said, there has been many development works in the city, this one is the latest: the new layout of Heroes Square. Part of the Monument of unkown soldiers with reflections of a church:
One of the monuments closest to my heart: Mancs (Paw) was one of the most famous dogs in Hungary. He was a rescue-dog, and very successful in his job: he saved some few hundred lives, endangered by disasters. He was an Alsatian, just like Kinga.

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Miskolctapolca offers something very special, in fact something that is unique in Europe: a cave spa. yes, it is what it sounds, u can swim in real caves. there are some 5 or 6 halls, each of them natural formations, sometimes a bit re-designed. they look simply awesome. swimming in a cave is a feeling that u can not get in any other way then by actually swimming in a cave. it reveals some ancient feelings lurking in each of us: maybe the feeling that we once lived in these kind of homes. this feeling is mixed with some luxury that i could best compare to what i imagine a roman nobelity enjoyed a few hundred years ago. there's even a room called 'Roman room'. let pictures speak for themselves:

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Lillafüred is about 5 kms far from Miskolc, and i think it's one of the prettiest little villages in hungary. very romantic in fact. it's in the mountains, and mainly serves as a holiday resort. or rather a relaxation centre. a place for long walks with lots of sights. the whole village started developing after the palace hotel had been built. a hotel that really looks like a palace, in a wonderful surrounding:

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There are two things that i was very much impressed by as a child. First thing is Saint Stephan Cave, the other one is the small-gauge railway in Lillafüred. Both impressed me again, however everything seemed a bit bigger... :)
Saint Stephan Cave is a 800-metre-long cave system (it's still a small one, compared to other caves in hungary), out of which fifty-something metres are open to the public. there are around 6 rooms, each of them has an imaginary name, given after the fantasies induced by the formations found in them.

The name of this room was 'Wonderland', because u could see here different figures from tales (don't ask me whom...)

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This is the small gauge railway. i loved it. its route is beautiful with great scenery through a national park. worth trying it. quite oldschool, with wooden benches, and open coaches.

that's me there, that small point behind the waterfall. i love waterfalls.

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that's still Lillafüred:

Places in this post:
Miskolc, Miskolctapolca, Lillafüred

Strike while the iron's hot!

the guy beneath followed the saying and he did strike the iron indeed. and the result was quite impressive i must say: an iron rose maybe in ur garden, or rather on ur fence - i'm happy that smiths' race are not extinct.Debrecen, where this photo was taken is one of those towns with lots of tradition and history. For not long it was also capital of Hungary, and it's famous of it's religious - or rather calvinist - roots. The 'Nagytemplom' (Great Church) and the Protestant College, which was the most popular one of its time are indicating this legacy. For now, mainly the numerous folk events and festivals supply sights, and a must-see event is the flower festival taken place on August 20th every year.

After Debrecen Poziomka and me went to Miskolc, another town with long history in the North-eastern part of Hungary, however the extent it was artificially industrialized during the socialist era was much greater than in case of Debrecen, and u can easily notice this by looking at the many 'blocks of block houses'. And nonetheless, the city still looks very pretty, and just getting prettier as more and more money is available for these kind of developments. I remember how much more ruined it looked like 10 years ago. Nature sways over block houses:
I must say we found many more sights in Miskolc than in Debrecen. The latter was nice too, but with a completely different character - it was founded in the middle of the 'puszta', which i could best compare to a desert. Miskolc on the other hand is surrounded by mountains and by now, many parts of it is on hills and mountains too. And the main walking street offers more too, but let's leave this now for later.
Diósgyőr is a district in Miskolc and it used to be a separate town with a castle. Today the castle and the name has remained and they give some insight how and where people lived in the 14th-15th century. People? Knights. It is the only Knight Castle relatively well remained in Hungary. These pictures are talking for themselves:Places in this post:
Debrecen, Miskolc, Diósgyőr
Places to come:
Lillafüred, Miskolctapolca