The end of March saw big changes in our lives. We made the move to Aggtelek National Park permanent. We did not have any furniture to move, but somehow it still required 3 cars and a return trip to Budapest the next day for the bikes and plants. Tremendous thanks must go out to Laci, Maco and Tim for their help with the move.

We hit the ground running. In fact, we did not manage to unpack our clothes for another two weeks. Tree surgeons Aniko and Arpi arrived the morning after the move and after literally decades, the fruit trees finally got a good pruning. They were very patient and taught us how to do it ourselves in the autumn. Even so, we found ourselves silently mouthing an apology every time we trimmed a branch. The pear and summer apple trees have grown too high, even for the 5m ladder to reach. But we did manage to tackle most of the plum and cherry trees, as well as the autumn apple.

 

With the raised vegetable beds dug, and some last minute advice from our friends Simon and Dora in Szögliget, we planted our first vegetable garden. We gave some other neighbours in Szalonna a hand with something last summer, but since then they have not been able to pay us back. So we asked instead of payment, if they could help us with some physical work in getting the garden prepared. Friends in Perkupa gave us 11 bags of 2-3 year old horse manure to dig in. So far, we have planted: sweet corn, four varieties of potato: Balaton pink, Cherie and snowflake, pearl onions for pickles, red onions, yellow onions, garlic, parsley, beans, white and purple cabbage, marjoram, mint, sage, green and purple basil, coriander, hazelnut trees, rucola, beat, peas, green beans, oregano, carrots, Swiss chard, oak leaf lettuce, parsnips, cucumbers, gherkins, Halloween pumpkin, gourds, California peppers, kápia peppers, hot yellow peppers, several varieties of tomatoes, purple lettuce, radicchio, celery, cantaloupes, zucchini,  broccoli, wheat... Our spinach and bear onion seeds were devoured by wild boar over the winter. The lettuce seedlings we bought from a woman at the Dombovar market not only survived the winter, but have already given us 2 big heads of lettuce. We read that if the lettuce is cut off with the stem left in the ground, the head of lettuce will re-grow. True enough - we are watching the seedlings re-sprout already. Everything else is coming up nicely, though, as expected, the ground fleas immediately attacked the rucola.

We have been mushroom hunting several times now with our neighbour Sanyi who has an eagle eye for fungus and knows the forest like the back of his hand. Incredibly, we have almost 9kg of aromatic St. George Mushroom (majusi szagosgomba), pink shield mushroom (tovisalja gomba) and witch's butter (aranyos rezgo gomba, tremella mesenterica) in the freezer. The witch's butter can grow to massive proportions. The single mushroom we dug out of the side of a willow tree weighed 1.4kg! Apparently they can reach 5kg. If people did not know any better, people would think Sanyi and I are having sex while mushroom hunting, with him yelling, "gyere Dani!," and me answering upon seeing a big ring of mushrooms, "jaj, Sanyi!"

 

Sanyi also introduced us to the sáshagyma (Allium scorodoprasum L.) or sand leek or rocambole that is growing wild along our road. These wild onions will keep us going until our own cultivated ones come up. We think it is just the most amazing thing to be able to just pick wild onions, mushrooms, or sorrel in our back yard or along the road and make a meal of it. The sand leeks have proven to be delicious in bread, in cream with St. George mushrooms and pasta, and just raw in sandwiches.

The Easter holiday was upon us before we even blinked. I have painted or scratched patterns on eggs on occasion, but it has never been a big holiday in my family. On the other hand, it has always meant a big Easter Sunday breakfast in Kata's family. We were amazed to find a bound turkey ham in Szendrő, saving us a trip to the Tesco in Miskolc. Kata boiled the ham, made colourful hardboiled eggs, and baked some delicious round challah bread http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challah with hardboiled eggs sticking out of it. I have always wondered about the connection between ham and Easter, which to my mind is even odder than the link between bunnies and eggs. I mean, Jesus was a Jew. I am sure he did not eat ham at the Last Supper. 

Having dug new vegetable beds during the week and feeling the muscle aches from so much unusual physical labour, we took a day off to see the newly renovated and reopened Palace Island in Edeleny, otherwise known as the L'Huillier-Coburg Palace. It is one of Hungary's largest and most magnificent baroque palaces. I have been waiting for over a decade to finally see the interior. Several years ago we specifically travelled there for the so-called, "Palace Day" on August 20^th. But rather than holding an open day at the castle, the oragnisers had Bébi Gabi and some pom-pom girls performing in the back garden. Now, after 8 years of renovations, the palace is finally open for tourists.

The palace was commissioned by Baron János Ferenc L'Huillier and based on the plans of master Italian architect Giovanni Battista Carlone (1640-1717), son of Pietro Francesco Carlone (1607 - 1681). Carlone is mostly known for his work designing abbeys. Built between 1716 and 1730 in the early-Baroque and Rococo styles, the building has 106 rooms and 365 windows. The complex occupies 7710 m² spread across several wings and sits among extensive parklands. It is the second largest cultural historical heritage site in rural Hungary after the Eszterhazy Palace at Fertőd. The palace is U-shaped, with a three-storied, flat-roofed central wing flanked by cylindrical towers at the corners. There are also two single-storied, mansard roofed side wings. The central wing overlooks the front courtyard, which is surrounded by single-storey ancillary buildings. Unusually, the open-end of the U-shaped palace was built facing the park, while the ancillary buildings, which formed an arc, were added on to the two side-wings, thus enclosing two formal courtyards. Of particular note is the excellent wrought iron main gate leading to the front courtyard. The two towers and repeated shell pattern throughout signal a French influence. In fact, the word Rococo is apparently a combination of the French rocaille, or shell, and the Italian barocco, or Baroque style.

The interior's grandeur matches the building's exterior. The ceremonial hall is adorned with stucco ornamentation and masterpiece-quality Rococo murals. The paintings are the work of Ferenc Lieb (1758-1788) of Edelény or Igló, known for his 18th century secular wall paintings evoking a certain romantic atmosphere of the times: ladies on swings and aristocratic couples confessing love mingled in with mythological and symbolic figures.

The palace-complex was erected on a small island formed by the Bódva River and one of its oxbow lakes. The presence of the river has been successfully integrated into the layout of the park. It was once surrounded by a French-style Baroque garden. A small, Baroque, 18th century sepulchral chapel with a semi-circular chancel to the left of the main gate is the only feature of the historical garden landscaping to survive. Today, part of the park behind the palace is used for the town's sports grounds.

After 1945, a number of institutions took up residence in the palace - the Public Prosecutor's Office, a nursery, an old people's home, etc. In 2001, the National Trust for Historic Monuments assumed responsibility of the palace.

Although I must say I miss the decayed grandeur of the un-renovated palace with its green wooden shutters and Habsburg puke-yellow paint, they have really made a splendid job of the repairs both inside and out. The first stop on the tour is a 23 minute 3-D film about the palace. At first I thought to myself, "what an unnecessary load of crap." In fact, it was the best film Kata and I have seen in the last 2 months - even without the 3-D. Initially confused why I got red 3D glasses and Kata black, it turned out that the red pairs are specifically designed bigger to fit over another pair of glasses if necessary. Strangely, and wisely, the film follows the fortunes of local painter Ferenc Leib as he decorates six rooms of the palace. In fact, the entire tour is based on the paintings and the film instead of the usual architectural and historical focus.

The guiding was very professional and enjoyable for both adults and children. The tour lasts 1.5 hours - a real value for money. I did not find anything on their webpage indicating tours in languages other than Hungarian, but they just opened a month ago and the information signs in different rooms were very well translated into English. The grand white tile stoves, the paintings, fireplaces, furniture, gardens, everything has been restored beautifully. I think the only fault to be found is the silly waste of money on a hi-tech presentation in the second room about the Order of the Starry Cross which was much ado about nothing.

Along the way, you can examine a passage between the interior walls used by servants to stoke the fires in the massive tile stoves, understand the hierarchy of servants in the palace through a "servant tree" instead of a family tree painted on a wall, and of course encounter a painting on the main stairway whose eyes follow you wherever you go. "The illusion is created by a perception trait of humans to interpret the eyes represented realistically on a flat surface as being three dimensional, rather than two dimensional."Seeing" it as being three dimensional, the brain, from learned experience, expects the eyes to follow you, so it interprets it that way for you." (source)

The last room is an innovative play of low-tech on hi-tech. The Dessewffy Highschool has designed a wall of Facebook chats discussing events of the day between members of the Dessewffy family who used to reside in the palace.

Outside, the landscaped garden for children behind the palace may be accessed by following the path along the moat. Chairs, benches, tunnels and trellises have been fashioned from live willow saplings.

Open Hours:

May 1 - September 30: Tue-Sun: 10⁰⁰- 18⁰⁰

First Thursday of every month: 10⁰⁰- 20⁰⁰

October 1- April 30: Tue-Sun: 10⁰⁰- 17⁰⁰

First Thursday of every month: 10⁰⁰- 19⁰⁰

Individual guided tours and group visits by appointment^. 

Tickets:

Adult: 1600 HUF

Student and Senior Citizens: 800 HUF

Groups (20 persons): 700 HUF/each

Family:  (4 persons) 3200 HUF

One day on the bus home from work, some local kids began chatting with me. They asked where I was from, and one kid, when asked replied that he was from Japan. So, of course I began speaking Japanese with him. The kids, all wide-eyed, then began learning the few Japanese words I know for "good morning," "good afternoon," "good evening," and "do you drink beer?" So do not be surprised if you meet some gypsy kids in Perkupa that speak Japanese.

On a completely unrelated subject, a neighbour in Jósvafő recommends watering your magnolia tree with pickle juice to keep it healthy.