Berkhamsted chillout

The Phantom of the Opera

This charming man was starring in the film i saw this evening. A horror film from 1925, directed by Rupert Julian; The Phantom of the Opera.

Normally i don't watch films older than 15 years - yes, u can throw stones at me because of this -, but this one was shown in the Palace of Arts, whats more, Thierry Escaich supplied the background music during the show: live organ improvisation.

Well, the word 'background' music is not really apt in this case, as the music was as gripping as the film itself. Or even more. The advantage of listening to concert while watching a film is that it is guaranteed that u concentrate on the show. U r forced to it if u like. Sometimes i get distracted by my thoughts if I listen to a gig, especially if it's a solo improvisation, but if the story is on the screen, ur attention is always occupied. At the same time this is the drawback as well: I really like using my imagination, letting the music evoke feelings and thoughts in me, figuring out what the musician is trying to tell me. In this show the message was in front of my eyes.

Nonetheless, Escaich perfectly caught every moment and used effects to raise tension, his music created a special atmosphere, completely matching every action in the film. In other words, Escaich resonated with the film. It was very interesting to observe him with one eye how he synchronises his play with the film.

The film was an interesting experience as well. Firstly, because i've seen the musical version of The Phantom a few years ago, which i enjoyed very much. However, it was a completely different experience, even the story was quite different. This film, being a horror film of that time, lacks almost every scent of romance, whereas in the musical version - according to my memories - the Phantom manages to raise sympathy in Christine towards him.

Anyhow, a 1925 horror film in 2007 makes the audience laugh sometimes. I mean the effects and scenes that are meant to scare the viewer. The threshold of sensation certainly rose in the last couple of decades because unlike a horror film is supposed to be today, it never made me frightened, not even excited. I was watching it as a work of art, as it was. A co-production of arts.

Thierry Escaich

Cheddington still life

Here are some snapshots from Cheddington so that u won't think that we are drunkards.

Booze Cruise

in my last short stay in England i visited a few places in and around Bletchley with Poziomka. on one of these trips Peter gave us a company. i believe he didn’t mind to come with us, not only because of the pleasent chat we had but also we popped in to a local pub in Cheddington which sells beer for at least four centuries.

i must say i had one of the best ales there i’ve ever had in England. black sheep. with the pub in the background. note the thatch roof. it really gives a traditional look to the pub. there are a few thatch-roofed houses in that area, without them, the whole place would look so much poorer. just like Szigliget and a few more villages in Hungary with old cottages. anyhow. this ale was yummie, i can only recommend it. light, tasty, fresh, with a soft barney taste.

the next stop in our booze cruise was the Three Horseshoes pub. well, the Hobgoblin (ale) wasn’t as fine as the previous one, but we found a treasure: our passports.

This is my passport:
This is Emese's passport - cheers :) -:
And yeah, i just cannot stop myself from showing this to the public. A unique drink from Hungary: Unicum.

i guess you, Dear Reader already figured out that this Booze Cruise is nothing more than a quiz game usually played in pubs. well, here's my favourite question:
it seems like hungarian is an exotic language :)

places in this post:
Bletchley, Cheddington

place to come:
Berkhamsted, Caldecotte

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.

GosiaPic®

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:

GosiaPic®

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:

GosiaPic®

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...)

GosiaPic®

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.

GosiaPic®

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

Photo session

i guess my last few posts did not seem too organized or easy to get. nor will the next one be better explained. only a few hints: i've spent a week in Poland mostly at the seaside. the following shoots are my favourite ones, they r being published without comments. i'll tell about my stay maybe later. my days are busy though... :)

past two weeks...

...successfully finished exams

...been to England (fantastic)
...been to Tata (joyful - got knackered)
...been working a lot (boring - sometimes little bit exciting)

and a little bit more detailed:
England, England, what do u expect from England when u visit it? rain rain rain. and as far as i know, it still rains. after last summer's drought. at least the good old English grass is green again. Hyde Park looks much better green than as a desert.
so, i've been to Bletchley visiting someone Special. this little town (or village?) is very English i guess, neat, pretty cottages, lots of greeneries, a big park with lots of sights (which i've missed this time). pretty much that's all i can tell about the place, i was rather busy with other things than sight-seeing. :) i didn't even take photos - and that's a miracle.
Bletchley is administratively connected to Milton Keynes - or at least i think so. Milton Keynes is a 40-year-old town, so u may not be surprised that it looks like a well-designed American town. wide road, spacious places and very boring. but only for superficial, drive-through visitors. i mean if u look at the buildings and the town itself, it's still boring. but there's this huge entertainment park, whatever it is called. biggest indoor ski-slope in Europe - i've never seen such a thing anyway, lots of other things as well, but the most exciting stuff for me was skydiving. it was stunning. the cooler version of skydiving is free fall with it's many different types of jumps e.g. with board or formation jumping - this is what u can see here, on the right hand side.
and this is what we've seen in that entertainment complex. if u r a beginner, u there's always an instructor who takes care of u, and tells u how to move not to fall down, or bump into the glass wall :). it must be fantastic, next time i'll try it. beginners' face looks pretty funny though: the air is making their cheeks tremble like hell :) when the beginners finished their session, the two instructor gave us a little show which absolutely breath-taking. they turned the strength of the blown air at maximum then started spinning, jumping from here to there, above each other, circling around or rose really high and then fell free approaching the safety net (practically the floor) in 10 cm distance - upside down, facing the net! it was crazy and stunning!

YES!

Friends

My friends during the examination period:i not only enjoy the taste of coffee, but also the art of coffee making fascinates me. i wonder if shall give the rank 'coffee-science' to it. i suppose my friend would laugh at me.

Tense welcome

after a short break in england my welcome back in hungary was full of tension. high voltage i'd rather say. after a hot day this evening clouds obscured the sky in just a few seconds and the parade began. pics of an impressive summer storm.

Horvath Consulting

Accounting Department:

Lead T-shirt - Cutty Sark

i'm not sure, but hopefully Cutty Sark will be restored - as it was supposed to be by 2009.
For now, i'm remembering her by publishing some pics taken last summer when i visited Cutty Sark with my friend.

Mix mix

uhh, i'm not gonna make excuses for not posting for long again. that's life: am being busy and have had no inspiration. well, now exam term made us (Gege and me) tired well enough to discover the silly little funny things in our environment which is - i must say - poorly stimulated these days.

but first sth that i got really upset with:
Cutty Sark, this fantastic old, and fastest ship of its time blazed two days ago. a peace of history was lost and i'm also touched because it reminds me of nice memories, that is because it is situated in South London, Greenwich, next to the university where i studied. it also formed part of the Greenwich Maritime World Heritage Site. it's really a shame. especially if the fire was on purpose. sad pictures:

and as i said: exam term gets the worst out of u: milk in a beer jug.

Pub to rent. no comment. Santa Claus rulz. is he maybe letting the pub??

Rope Pull

busy days, few posts. sorry for neglecting my blog...

every year a big Clash takes place between the students of the Polytechnics and those of the Uni of Economics on the Liberty Bridge. this wednesday around two thousand students gathered either to pull rope or to cheer for their mates. i was there too, cheering like mad :)
well, the rivalization is huge between the two unis situated on the opposite sides of River Danube. btw, that's why the bridge was chosen as being a neutral place between the two main buildings of the unis.

no need to say: it's a matter of prestige who wins the game. imagine thousand of students shouting 'KÖÖÖZGÁZ KÖÖÖZGÁZ KÖÖÖZGÁZ' or 'BME BME BME' while jumping and shaking their fists threatening the other party. (közgáz=economics, bme=polytechnics) and of course various tricks were implemented to beat the enemy, namely the polytechnics students :)

well, in the girls' contest we didn't have to have recourse to uhm.. fraud - we won it anyway. not like in the 100+ kg boys' contest. i must admit we lagged behind in respect of wheight and hence we had to do sth if we didn't want to lose face. so a few fellows gave a delicate hand to the guys in contest in pulling the rope, and we won this category too. then unfortunately the organisers realized the cheat and made the participants swap sides. now, imagine ten guys, surrounded by hundreds of students from the rival university on both sides.

to be honest, from that point on i don't know much as i had to leave soon after i saw my team first defeated, and the next day i received contradictory information about the results. of course different infos from polytechnics students and different infos from my economics fellow mates. i'm not surprised at all... anyway, i'm sure we won :)

for a better view some crazy people climbed the bridge. so did i :)students on the bridge and the castle of buda in the background

Waterdrop

Oh Waterdrop, why are you Waterdrop?

Deserted gem

probably these are the two words best describing this place near Kőszeg. but if u want, i can also say: peaceful, romantic, picturesque, mysterious. it's an abandoned, or rather never-finished tavern. ideal place for a tender togetherness or a long chat with ur friend.
the view is fantastic, the nature beautiful, everything is given, the rest is up to you!
urban citizens will also enjoy the remains of an old wooden carriage: