We visited our friends Simon and Dora Hursthouse one day in Szögliget, who run a nice environmental friendly and cyclist-friendly bed & breakfast in Tornaszentandras through Tour Central.  We took a nice stroll through the town, which I have never properly seen before. Aggtelek National Park's Salamander House Environmental Education Centre, campground and hostel are located on the outskirts. While chatting, we asked if there was anything interesting to do in the area over the weekend, like village day celebrations. They recommended the village day on August 2-3 in Tornabarakony, a dead-end village past Tornaszentandras. We were painting that day and did not arrive until after Simon and Dori had already left, but it was not too late to enjoy a full programme of folk music, dance and food.

According to my book on the Cserehat, Tornabarakony has only about 41 residents, but they did everything right for this event.  There was a proper stage, changing area built specially for the performers, and water vapour sprayers built around the audience area and the stage. The performers were of high quality - professional amateurs. Sometime around mid-day someone thoughtfully attached a proper seat to the incredibly clean-kept outhouse.  Later in the day, someone set out solar lamps to charge for the evening of folk dancing. Unlike Hollókő at Easter when they try to ream you for every cent the one day of the year everyone flocks there, Tornabarakony's festivities charged normal prices. They even used an alternative central payment system where one bought paper "fabatka" and used those to pay for food and drink. Examples of prices : 120 huf for a palacsinta,  480 huf for local palinka from Fruktarium (one of the first local producers to be awarded the Aggtelek National Park seal of quality), 300-360 huf for beer, and 420 huf for kenyer langos.

Walking through town we came across several named houses (lavender, sage, lily of the valley, mulberry tree) with spectacular flower displays.  There was also a nice bus stop for a mobile library. One of the first houses we stopped at hosted a regular artist summer camp and had a really nice exhibition by three young artists. Our favourite installation, besides a painting of dark cherries, was the straw sculptures of chickens outside. There was also an impressive tiled stucco stove. Walking through the garden we came across a graceful gate sculpted from live trees. The Greek Orthodox Church's collection of painted wooden icons is also worth a look.

On the way home we were greeted by a gorgeous sunset.