Edrie

Travel Day 3 Slovakia

Saturday:

The alarm went off at 6 it had been a rough night for sleep. I had to keep waking S up asking him to turn over. The trip had affected his sinuses more then usual and his snoring was very loud. And since I was probably much over tired I found it hard to stay asleep. I finally ended up on a tiny hard couch in the living room with my feet propped up and out to the side by one of the dining chairs. I slept for a good two hours this way. S was kind enough to let me move to the bed and got up to take the first shower. I slept for 15 more minutes much grateful for the extra sleep. I spied T out of the window at exactly 7. He had told us the previous day that we were giving a ride to a carpenter and his girlfriend to their newly acquired house in Hungary. The carpenter J is a restorer of antiques and uses the basement of the apartment building to ply his trade. His girlfriend M does a few chores and general cleanup for the building. They are both very nice but speak no English. They seem to be moving as the amount of stuff they have is more then slightly incredible. They load then we load and the whole Motley crew of us (J, M the band and the band manager T) are off leaving Vienna behind and off through Hungary to Slovakia.
The ride through the city is beautiful. Early on a Saturday morning no one is out and you can see the city for the clean and orderly place it is. T becomes guide again and points out sights along the way. After forty minutes of driving we arrive at a fill station where we eat a buffet breakfast and I accidentally discover that no one locks the doors of the bathroom stalls. But they seem not to mind being interrupted either. I was the only one who was startled apparently. The day turned rainy quickly and I did not envy t his huge driving task in such nasty weather. I thought several times to ask if he wanted a break but I got too frightened by the possibility of trying to drive in a place where I didn�t understand the road signs. I am sure I could have figured it out though.
After several hours of driving we reached the village home of J and M. Their house was outside of a tiny town tucked up onto a rather steep hill. There are several houses in a row like this looking down onto the road. Their stuff is wondrously heavy, but we manage to help them as much as we can. Their bathroom it an outhouse but the outhouse is not yet functional. I count my blessings that I have not drunk anything much as of yet today. S, however, goes to find some plants in their yard that need watering. The countryside here is beautiful. Wide stretches of farm land almost glowing green in the spring rain. Tiny old villages with stone houses and little old ladies riding ancient bicycles. For me it is completely foreign, something that would come out of an old movie. But it still has the feeling of home. Perhaps it is the farmland and the new green plants.
We make it to Budapest but it is not our destination for today. Out concert here is not until tomorrow. Today we must just go through and travel on to a medium sized town in Slovakia. It is still three hours away. By this time we�ve dropped M and J off in Budapest. They needed to get their car and drive it back to their village and it seems to be tucked away somewhere in the city. The land flows quickly past the window. We go past towns and villages separated by farmland. The landscape changes slowly. By the time we make the Slovakian boarder it is more hilly and even though it is still raining one can sense it is a bit more arid.
The boarder crossing turns into an event. Unlike the Hungarian boarder that we had gone through earlier, the Slovakian boarder has no line. We drive right up but they take a long long time to think about our passports. Finally they ask t to kill the engine and then to explain why we have blankets over our things. When we had parked to get a bit of a snack he had done it for the safety of the equipment. They ask how much it is worth and he tells them to us a lot but to someone else, who knows. They seem to have to get some sort of manager and he comes and in seconds waves us through. We continue and then see the people who have set up the show. They have come to meet us at the boarder to lead us to the gallery. T looks back and sees another official waving crazily at us. He backs up and we realize we had only made it past the Hungarian officials. We now hove to be scrutinized by the Slovakian guy. He is upset we went through without stopping. T explains that he thought the other guy told us to go, because he had. The Slovakian official puffs like a rooster and tells us to pull over to the side. He takes a lot of time sitting and smoking in his booth and letting the three cars that have now crowded behind us go on without even a cursory glance. Finally the people we have come to meet come up and T and the official and they all talk. They try and joke with him. Making a point that on May 1st this boarder crossing will be gone and that they will all be a part of the EU. They tell him even this part, which is now Slovakia will actually be Hungary again having been wrongly split off, from the country in WWI. He finally tosses out passports at T and we are off. The excitement wasn�t all that pleasant but we are through it and we drive off with heightened moods ready to explore this new country.
Our new hosts to a castle that has a bust of a Hungarian freedom fighter out front take us. Mustache rubbing and belly patting punctuate explanations of important history. Am I mistaken or does our host resemble the bust just a little bit. We pile back into the van and our three guides pile into their car and we are taken to a local winery to have a wine tasting. The wine is white and sweet, though there are several types. All are made from local grapes whose vines cover the hillsides. We are shown everything including underground caverns where the wine is stored and teased about buying several cases to bring home. I could not imagine how much the wine might be and aside from that we have no way to transport it home. S and I discuss and we think that if one bottle is not too much we will buy one and drink it with the family on Monday. We ask and they tell us the prince in Slovakian money, which T tells us, is about 2 euros. Yeah. We have no Slovakian money but lucky for us they would gladly accept Euros. We buy one bottle for ourselves and another bottle as a present to Sz�s mother and father. All told it comes out to about 9 euros. T then buys a bottle as well and we end up giving him 15 euros, which is about 4 euros more, then the charge but he has no change and we are not concerned.
Happy and VERY full of wine (we did have to try every vintage of everything after all) we then make out way to the home of the hosts. It is in another little village a short distance away. The wife/mother has laid out a spread of snacks for us. The husband shows us his modern rather colorful and moving paintings and the weird but wonderful pastel and pen and ink drawings of his oldest daughter C who has set this whole evening up for us. The food is quite wonderful. She has set out delicate little pastries and some lovely little sandwiches that have fresh butter and ham and radishes. We eat as much as we can S and I both familiar with the custom of eating as much as a grown up offers you. Everything is obviously homemade and we don�t want to disappoint her. But there is no need to force ourselves since the food is so wonderful.
We are then quickly off to the gallery. It is in an old building much like a town hall. The gallery is really quite impressive. Someone has taken a great deal of time in the making of it. The paintings are wonderful though I don�t have as much time as I�d like to examine them. There is only an hour until the show so we set up and sound check as quickly as we can. We have an avid audience for the sound check which is something entirely new for us.
C the journalist introduces us. S and I have little idea as to what she is saying since we speak zero Hungarian but the crowd warms properly and we go on to applause. The set went well though a little rough for me as I made a couple of mistakes. Sz seems a bit nervous at first but gets over it. It is certainly weird to look out at the crowded room full of everything from 7-year-old girls and teenaged boys to old men. The room is also very bright. It was like performing at noon at a family reunion. They ask us for two encores and then C requests we reply Black Swan, as it is her favorite. Finally I close the computer and then the crowd gets to ask us questions with Sz and T translating. It was very surreal but really quite friendly.
After the concert we tried to hurry and strike the show at it was now 8:30 and the restaurant in town closed at 9pm. We were prevented from striking by a line of young and old who expected us to sign CDs. S had decided to just give away the CDs and we set out 30 all of which were snapped up and all of which we eventually signed. Finally at 9 exactly we were in the van with one of the organizers and went to the restaurant. We found when we got there that he was actually the mayor of the town. RobotZen meets and dines with the mayor. We had a before dinner toast with hard liquor and then ordered not off of the menu but by the recommendation of the lady of the house. Beer or wine is also traditional so we had that to. The conversation meandered through art and politics and back to art. Most of which Sz and T translated for us but some of it passed us by. Though I was convinced if I had another couple of drinks my Hungarian would have been very good.
After dinner we went to the apartment they had set up for us to stay in. It was dark and I didn�t notice the building as we went in but the apartment on the third floor of a 5 story building was clean and had everything we would need the most important of which was a bed because after all of that alcohol and the lovely chicken we ended up eating a bed was all I really wanted.