Grandma Oma's World

As I said before, my sister Maria,  my brother in law, Miki, and my nephew, Tibi, waited at the Budapest train station for my arrival from Kiev. We spent four days exploring the city. My sister Maria, her son Tibi and her husband, Miki For me visiting Budapest was a special, and there is a story. I was born and raised Hungarian in former Yugoslavia. In my family we spoke both languages: Hungarian in the home, and Serbian outside the home. Our parents embedded in us the fact that we are Hungarians, and we should always remember that. Hungary and Budapest are only a few hours drive from my home town in Serbia, but because of the political situation during the former "iron curtain" period, I never had the opportunity to visit Hungary. In those days (40's - 70's) the borders to Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria - all counties surrounding Serbia - were closed and tightly guarded. So, for me, visiting Budapest and Hungary was also about discovering my Hungarian roots Hunga...

I left Kiev on a train to Budapest. This train ride lasted 24 hours. Hallway of the 1st class train The ride was very comfortable, way better than flying - and cheaper. The other savings of an overnight train ride is that one does not need to pay for a hotel and one wakes up, one is in a new city. There were very few people in this wagon and I was the only mature traveler.  The sights from the train were beautiful. Many quaint villages, but I was most impressed by the well maintained gardens and fields. There were gardens even right next to the train tracks. In my spare time, when I was not taking pictures, or looking at the sights, I read and I did some applique work on my quilt. Here are some of these pictures. All along the way, throughout Russia and Ukraine, there are these beautiful birch tree forests. Birch forest And here are these fields all the way from Kiev to Hungary. I never saw a car, but I did see plenty of horses and buggies. All these pictures wer...

Who say one does not need math in real life? Wrong.... Travel math can be rather stressful.  As one travels from country to country, the currency changes. Each time one needs to exchange the dollars to the new currency, one must be careful not to exchange too much because the next country might not want this country's currency. Anyway, here is how it went. I left US with a bunch of dollars and some euros. I figured it will be a good start, and I immediately memorized the exchange rate US $1.00 is equal to .0699 Euros which means if something costs 1 Euro it will be $1.43. That is fine - I will remember that. However, during this travel, in addition to dollars and euros I had to deal with: Russian Rubles; Ukrainian Hryvnia; Hungarian Forint and Serbian Dinars, each with a different exchange rate and different name that I needed to learn. There were some interesting experiences along the way. US Dollars  The first leg of the trip was Moscow and I had to deal with...

What is Paradise? Paradise is coming home! I love traveling (I will still write about my trips), but every time I get back to my home  I feel as if I am entering the Paradise. After being away from my home for two months I did not know what to expect, but yesterday, when I arrived home  I found everything green and lush, the lawn perfectly mowed, the flower beds weeded and edged (courtesy of Tom's Lawn Mowing crew) and the rhododendrons and other flowers in bloom. It was a beautiful sight. First look at my home Rhododendron Poppies in front of white picket fence Passage to the back More flowers Love the white picket fence Backyard flower bed Rhododendrons by the back fence Now, back to writing more about Serbia and Hungary.

There were many more things that I needed to see in Futog. Here they are: My neighbors house When we were young right across from our house  was this neighbor (he passed away long time ago)  who used to stand in his doorway and watch what was going on in the street. When he saw the young people do something inappropriate, such as be intimate or kiss, he would report it to the parents. With his, and many other people's help there were no secrets in our little village - everyone knew everything about everybody. My old high school. Before WWII it was referred to as castle This is the high school I attended between 1955 and1959. It was an agricultural school.  We studied everything from taking care of animals to growing grapes and making wine. Every day, and in the summer we had "practice" work. That meant we worked in the fields or in the stables with pigs, cows, sheep and horses. The morning work started at 5am and the afternoon work would be after the clas...

This time again the final leg of my trip was to visit my family in Futog, Serbia.  As, I get older, I feel a certain urgency to go "home" as often as I can. When I was younger I felt, I will visit next year, or maybe the year after, but now this urgency to go back to my birth place is really strong. Maybe it is because I want to catch up with what I missed by leaving my home, my family and my friends in 1963, or maybe it is because both my brother and my sister had triple heart bypass last year, or maybe it is because many of my old friends have already passed away and I do not want to miss anything anymore, or maybe it is just because I have free time to think and  travel. I do not know for sure, but when I am back there, I feel safe, I feel at home, I am at peace. Each time I am there I visit all the places I used to enjoy, I visit my old friends and I join my brother in his daily chores like taking care of pigs and chickens and working in the fields - all jobs that I left...

Yesterday, my oldest grand son graduated from high school. What a great milestone in this wonderful young person's life! What a joy for his parents and grandparents. We are all proud of him. Respecting his wishes, the graduation event was low key,  and went by like any regular day. In the fall he will start college. Congratulations on your achievement, and wishing you success at whatever you do.