Hillbillies in HUNGARY PArt 4

Didn't write for a night or two..... some of the local new wine, which seems harmless and lacking alcohol, made me sleepy....It creeps up on you, and then,,,,,,,I feel asleep,but never got drunk from the home made brew, made only 75 yards from here by Pishta Bottchi.....or Uncle Pishta Please ignore the spelling of his name in other Blogs....I had called him Unlce Phisha, or Phishy.....which means something completely different.....
Yesterday he brought Chestnuts from his tree for us to eat...He told us to boiling them and scrape them out....That is how the Hungarians collect the met from the chestnut, which they turn into various dishes....one being a puree of chestnut...where the contests is boiling, water and cream and sugar and flavoring added....it turns into sort of a pudding which is served with whipped cream and a cherry on top.
But i put a pile of the chestnuts atop the stove between the two rooms....with the fire burning......I placed a metal cover on top of the chestnuts...and they both steams and roasted....and were delicious..CHESTNUTS ROASTING ON AN OPEN FIRE ISNT...JUST A SONG....BY NAT KING COLE..

LIKE A REAL FOOL , brought the wrong bottle of eye medicine to HUNGARY.....and didn't have a prescription for an emergency..I tried one small drug store where i bought a few packages of NEXIUMS without a prescription....the second time the store did give me a hard time...but I showed her the HUNGARIAN printing of it...saying that another store...took my prescription...and she "bought that logic" But when i should her the bottle of XALATAN (eye drops for glaucoma) and althought it "sounds" Hungarian.......she said i need a pesrcription......
To make things worse, somewhere during the day, I lost the little of XALANTAN I had left.....I really was getting nervous to think I wouldn't have any drops left for the remainder of the trips...The worse that could happen, is to go to a hospital emergency room, find an EYE DR, or go BLIND.....
TESCO, a large AUSTRALIAN CHAIN store...which is sort of like a HUGE WALMART, with the exception that they have a giant and fabulous food department.....is on the outskirts of town....I figured there is no harm in trying them, but they probably would have a harder time bending the rules.....since everything is so computer run. To my surprise....they gave it to my just by asking.. No prescription, not even an empty bottle..and the price...a but under 25.00 Which is what I pay in the USA, with my prescription plan.....with my over 750dollar a month payment to BLUE CROSS>..those thieving bastards...Just think...without insurance..its the same price here...and the NEXIUM was also about under 25,00 in NJ, without insurance the same pills cost 140 dollars.. THERE IS SOMETHING VERY VERY WRONG WITH THIS....THE DRUG STORE HERE...STILL MAKES A PROFIT ON 25.00.. AND WE WOULD HAVE TO PAY 140!!! I THINK I WILL WRITE TO THE WHITE HOUSE ABOUT THIS.....BUT OBAMA CANT NOT MAKE THEM CHANGE THEIR PRICES.....IF HE SUGGESTS IT....HE WILL BE CALLED MORE OF A SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST AND ALL THE OTHER NAMES HE IS CALLED, ONLY BECAUSE HE IS TRYING TO MAKE LIFE EASIER FOR POORER PEOPLE. AND EVEN PEOLE LIKE ME UPPER MIDDLE CLASS, OR AM I LOW, HIGH CLASS??? CANNOT AFFORD ALL THE MEDICINES I NEED....WITHOUT IT HORRIBLY EFFECTLY THE WALLET. BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICINES CAN BE 50 A MONTH, 140 FOR NEXIUM, CHLORESTEROL MEDS CAN BE 75 A MONTH, ETCETC AND STILL HAVE TO PAY INSURANCE.... AND BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD WILL NOT LET ME HAVE NEXIUM...THE ONLY ONE THAT WORKS ON ME....THE REST INCLUDING OVER THE COUNTER PRILOSEC.....WHICH IS THE SAME COMPANY....AND SIMILAR...DOENST WORK!!!!

THE MORNING WAS VERY BRIGHT..THE SUN, WARM THE AIR,AFTER A VERY COLD NIGHT.....IT WAS A THREE BLANKET NIGHT.....BECAUSE BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP, I WAS ASKED BY BENNO to close the damper on the store, which smothers the fire....a serious safety precaution.
We were unable to rent a car last night........both Rental Places were already closed, and are not open on SATURDAYS.....YES, these morons close on the days, one would think they would do the most business. Many stores in this part of the country are closed on SAT and Sundays...and even though I called them morons, they probably have more time to enjoy their lives....so really, who is the moron...maybe it is me and the rest of the Americans who are married and glued to their business, and never get the time to smell the roses, pick sour cherries,pears and apples, grow grapes and make wine, have gorgeous flowers and veggies growing in the gardens.....and have time to even bake their own breads and pastries.

Our option today, was to risk driving around the countryside, and go to Croatia or Slovenia.....in BENNOS 14 year old RUSSIAN LADA, which makes enough noise to wake me up each morning, as he enters the property....He stays at another one of the houses he and his brothers bought on this mountain, will hills and hollows, like the Famous hillbillies of APPALACHIA. The road from the bottom of the mountain was paved maybe 50 years ago, but little of the paving materials are left.....the the entire road up the mountain and its many side roads, are filled with potholes large enough for a horse to drown in...the ride up and down to BENNOS casa, is very bumpy to say the least...and anyone with back trouble or hemmoroids would be in mortal agony should they attempt the trip.
We decided that we would go to CROATIA...and go in the LADA, better than just sitting around and doing nothing all day. We rode down the mountain, filled up with gasoline, which is double the price at home....or more......got out the map, drew our plan of attack, when we realized to problems. We didn't have any Croatian money and they are not in the European UNION, (no Euros), and Benno didn't have his passaport....and finally, if we broke down, we couldn't call TOMMY to come and get us because he doenst have any passport at all!!! Poor Tommy really never left his mountain and hills and hollows, except once to visit Budapest.....and he hurried back never to return.!!! It would be the same as a Kentucky Hillbillie visiting NEW YORK CITY>>>>OY!
Next plan of attack.....we studied the map of Slovenia and AUSTRIA......I opted for Slovina...we had very little Euros between the two of us...maybe enough to eat....and BENNO did have a card....but, would anyone in a little village in SLOVENIA (not the same country as SLOVKIA) take a credit card....or American Dollars, or Hungarian money???? Again, we could stop worrying and just go, or stay on the mountain, or in down town, NAGYKANITCA (ten miles from the mountain..and the little VILLAGE of HOMOK=kamaron....(or as i joked with hill:HOMOVILLE< HOMOLAND....)
We started driving towards slovenia...all the little villages look exactly the same...it looks like if the little town of ANATEKVA, from Fiddler on the ROOF was transplanted into NJ......and placed on ROUTES 202 that go thru MAHWAH and OAKLAND, and way up NY state in Sullivan COUNTY on RTS 17...Hungary looks very much like NJ...the hills, the flat lands, the trees.......except the MOUNTAIN on which BENNO has his summer home.........those hills and hollows break all the exceptions...

We drove for quite a while before we went over the border into SLOVENIA.....the border still had the custom buildings, the booths where guards and examiners used to stand and show their strength and authority...but now, well faded, with paint peeling, and everything in disrepair....and abandoned .
Soon the many villages started again, but the architecture changed somewhat..The buildings, seemed more modern, cleaner, brighter, and better kept. THe iron,wooden or cement fences that surround every Hungarian home, originally ordered by edict of Emperor Franz Joseph, and eventually became a cultural and security issue....were not longer seen, on this side of the border..Green grass was seen growing between properties, and looked more like homes were are used to in the STATES. There is more money in this country....and it shows.... We eventually ended up in a town....The difference between a town and a village in these parts...is simple....all the houses in a VILLAGE are on one ROAD>.the main highway.....a town has streets and stores...and some larger businesses on streets that run not only to the side but perpendicular.....YES we found a town, with magnificent bakery....with foods that I have never seen before.....some kind of multi layer flaky pastry interspersed with chunks of meat. quich looking things with all kinds ot "stuff"sticking out of it" various meats and sausages in pies,rolls, and pastry, strange pizza....and things...that look delicious but i had not idea of what they were....we shared a flaky pastry with meats between the layers...its was very nice, greasy and fattening..
We drove all over town...to try to find a real restaurant to eat in...We found a few bars that served no food, an icecream and cake cafe...but no food , and a pizza place, that only served pizza....no real authentic Slovenian FOOD(what ever that might have been) We guess everyone there just ate and home, went out for pizza or dessert or to get drunk. when we crossed over the border, we noticed very very steep but manicured hills, all with grape vines....vineyards, mile after miles...but so steep, i wondered how people were able to stand up and pick the grapes>>>>or did they lay on they back on some kind of dolly and roll slowly down the hill as they picked their crop?? It seems that everyone...in the area of the world grows grapes and fruit, and makes their own wine, Palinka and other drinks to keep them smashed all winter,m when they are snowed in, and have no where to go, or any where to get there. I didn't get the chance to see if they have AA meetings at any or all of the multitudinous Churches that we passed from HUngary into SLovenia...and by the way....almost all of these Churches were painted some shade of YELLOW.......yellow cement churches...with GREEN VERTI GRIS Steeples......
Since we couldn't find another restaurant to eat in, we looked at the map to find an alternate way back to HUNGARY, so we would see different scenery....We decided to go back thru the mountains...and pray....we didn't break down...
aS SOONS AS WE CROSSED BACK OVER INTO HUNGARY, we found a CZARDA, a hotel inn.(the dance the CZARDASH...comes from the name of this type of establishment...and the folk dances that were done at them way over 100 years ago) The menu looked good, the price was cheap and the waitress, and tall woman, with long hair that was too black, and you could see, that she hadn't smiled any time this Century...a really nasty bitch...We sat down, she threw menus on the tables and asked if we wanted a drink first....I ordered cream of garlic soup, Benno Ordered the special spicefishy soup......which was too spicy and too fishy and smelly....My garlic soup was sort of ok......I had a pork strew with a side order of CORN MEAL MUSH<(Romania MAMLIGA) which is also Hungarian.....they were ok.......the best part of the meal was the COKE, that came in a real glass bottle, made with real sugar and not corn syrup..it tasted like the COKE I new in my youth....
We left a bit disappointed...although Benno had a salad with chicken on it....and youghurt dressing that he did like..so the meal wasn't a disaster..we went on and stopped in another village, that did have one side street...with a CAFE....where were were able to get a great cappuccino...while viewing photos of American INDIANS.....all over the wall.....and leather furniture and an American Western Saddle.
On the way back , we came upon a sheep herder, in his tradition Hungarian Sheep Herders Costume....with a red hat...and blue tights, and gold bottons and cape....and his trusty Hungarian sheep dog at his side...His sheep were all over the road, and extended into a field 300 or more feet in from the road...We had to slow down quickly, so we would have turned any of his animals into lamp chops and roasts..His almost perfect picture of the past.....was complemented by his thick version of a SALVIDOR DALI MUSHTACE...
Another five minutes passed when we had to quickly slow down for what we think was a GYPSY WEDDING PROCESSION.....There were open trucks filled with people, and the truck was decorated with trees and flowers .......we followed the last truck for a while that was going two miles an hours...when BENNO started getting annoyed we passed them quickly......the front truck had a GYPSY band playing music.....and down the road a bit, in front of a house, there were people standing...looking at the approaching profession.....and in front of the house were a pair of dummies or effigies, dressed as a bride and groom. A very colorful experiences, but it happened to quickly for me to photograph it...and my piece of shit digital camera.....takes to long to open and take pics.....it is designed this way to save the battery life...but one misses a lot of pics...and pushing the button to take the pix..is not instantaneous...and you cannot shoot immediately again....
We eventually arrived back on the mountain....Pista Bottchi arrived again with a typical Hungarian DISH called "letcho" a stew of yellow and red peppers, tomatoes,..he added to it a few potatoes......it was perfect.....In another container he brought apple cake made by his wife...of over 50 years...and another dessert of what looked like pirogis, filled with peach jelly, and the entire dish was smothered in some type of sweeten bread crumbs, and of course another bottle of his new white wine which he insisted that i drink ....he toasted me....as a BARAT (friend)...and grabbed my glass of COKE....and wouldn't let me have it back until I drank some white wine....The Hospitality of this man, and all the people on this mountain is just to much to grasp emotionally....Their kindness and their....their sharing., and eagerness to help their neighbor..is something that the rest of the world should learn about. They want nothing more in return than their neighbors friendship.........Its the way life on planet earth should be.