Happy as a hound dog!

Of course you know what makes Mom happier than a hound dog---HORSES!! On the way back from inspecting missionary apartments in Györ we passed our first horse!! Of course we had to pull off the road and get a picture.


When we stopped at the Széchenyi Castle outside Sopron, I told Caroly--"I smell horses!" She said she had smelled them already and was ready to use our blood hound noses to find out where they were.


This archway was the entrance to a patio surrounded by stables like a horse minimall. Click on the picture below to see how the stall windows are decorated with flowers.


Széchenyi felt that the first step to improving Hungary was to improve the quality of the horses. To get the noblemen interested in his project (since they were the ones with the money), he decided to tap into their competitive spirits by encouraging horse racing. He figured that if the rich improved their breeding stock to win races, it was bound to improve everyone's horses--his version of trickle down economics. It must have worked since Hungary became known for its horses and horsemen.


Look at how beautiful the stalls are. He treated both people and animals with dignity.


Does Mom look happy?


The horses were all stallions. (Mom notices things like that. They all just looked like horses to me.)


I think this one needs a haircut.



Do you think Mom will have us back here with the first snowfall?


How about these carriages?

Christmas tree?

What we love about walking around rather than driving a car is that we get to see little details that we might miss while worrying about how to get through the narrow streets without crashing into something. This fir tree seems to have red berries growing on it. At least it looks like a fir tree--but what do you expect a grammar doctor from Florida to know? Isn't it amazing? Of course, our Hungarian isn't good enough yet to find out for sure what kind of tree this is. Be sure to click on the picture so you can see that the berries aren't on a vine. They are actually part of this very tall tree! Do you suppose this is how they got the idea of decorating Christmas trees?

What's cooking?

All this exploring sure works up an appetite!

Florida Gators?

This is for Sage and Troy, Joe and Heather, and other Gator fans. Does it look like the owners of this building are Florida Gators? Go Orange and Blue! We didn't find anyone doing a Gator chomp though!

Country living

You know that we love to go exploring. Hiking around and walking is much better than exercising in our room. Does this look like we are in the foothills of the Austrian Alps? That's what they call these hills we live on. They seem more like the toes than the feet of the Alps! Recognize the radio tower in the background?


Here's mom getting ready to climb a tower near our house for a look-about.


On the other side of Sopron you can see Austria and the blue of Lake Fertö. Of course, since we are looking into Austria, we ought to use the Germany name: Neusiedlersee.


Since Floridians are flatlanders, lets walk over that way. (On the Hungarian side, of course.) You meet lots of hayseeds in the countryside.


Mom finally found a horse.



Even the roofs of the barns are made of straw.


How would you like to meet up with one of these Hungarian bulls? They put round brass tips on the horns so they can't gore each other.


They use whips and dogs like this to herd the animals around. Do you feel safer now?


Here's a cute picture made of dried leaves that mom wanted to share. See, they don't just use straw.

Varosi könyvtár--city library

Kim wanted us to find the public library and take a picture to show in her presentations about public libraries around the world. Of course the first problem is to determine what they call a public library. Most libraries are associated with universities. Finally I found through the Internet, the website for Sopron's public library. The phone book then gave me the address. Here it is, not far from the church.


Above the front door you can see that it is named in honor of István Széchenyi, the famous Hungarian nobleman who spent his fortune improving the lives of Hungarians, including starting the Hungarian library system. One of his estates was not far from Sopron.


Here is the check out stand. In the two stories they include a film club, children's story time, and other activities for the public. I was double parked when I ran in to get this picture so I didn't do much exploring. What I know, I learned from the website.


The next day as we were exploring the town in our morning walk, we decided to go to the old mill that we can see from our balcony window. You can see that it is surrounded by a building.


We went inside and took this picture so you can see how it was made.


On the way out, this sign caught our eyes: library to the left. You can see it in the background, on the ground floor behind the laundry.


Just before you go in, you pass this sign advertising free Internet for the public.


This branch library is rather small. It is just this room. It has two computers that the public can use for the Internet. You can see that it is quite pleasant inside. That is the surprise of Hungarian buildings. They can look rather shabby outside but look great inside. This branch has a children's and a youth section, as well as reference books and a collection of DVDs.


We went outside to see why we missed that the branch library was here. This is the gate to enter the labyrinth that leads to the tower.


Aha, here high to the left on the wall next to the gate is a sign for the library. If you click on the picture, you can see it is part of the Széchenyi István Varosi Könyvtár system.


Across the street is this sign advertising free Internet access. On the way home, I noted that this sign is outside the Western Hungary University library too, so this might be the best way to discover where the libraries are when you are walking the streets in Hungary. Look for the sign for free Internet.

Vörös--the new blond?

You don't see a lot of blonds running around. Instead, women here seem to think that red is the color to attract the attention of men. It comes in all shades and is found on all shapes, sizes, and ages of women. My Hungarian dictionary says that the word for red hair, vörös, also means "foxy." Here's a sampling of the redheads seen on the streets. I'll let you decide how foxy they are. My informal street count says about 20% of women are going for the foxy look. (The anthropologist in me drives me to look for these lifestyle patterns wherever I am.)

Street meeting

Here we are setting up a street meeting to meet people.


Do you think my preaching will bring them in?


We used the balloon approach. Elder Rummler makes balloon animals to attract the families with children. Elder Baumgartl tells them we'll bring them some American süti (dessert--brownies) to try out. Then we go teach them.


Of course it helps to stage a parade to get people to stop. Do you think the sign says "Get your free Book of Mormon here"?


We even had baton twirlers...


and high stepping dancing girls...


and a marching band...


with various camp followers.


It must have all worked. We got 9 new families to teach and Mom gave away a Book of Mormon.(The chef's hats should clue you in that the parade is advertising the Sopron cooking convention and contest and is inviting everyone to come try out the goulash.)

Tears to my eyes

While waiting for the bus home after teaching our English class, we heard the music of a marching band. You all know how marching music always brings tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat.


This one seemed to be followed by a bunch of Harry Potter tag alongs.


It turns out that it was just the opening of the September wine festival. It brought a lump to my throat anyway.

He who writes the history controls the history

We've seen lots of memorials in honor of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the Revolution of 1956 against the Russians. We haven't seen any in honor of the Second World War when Hungary was aligned with Hitler. However, we found these interesting monuments in honor of the First World War. We aren't too sure about the meaning of everything. Our little pocket tourist dictionary doesn't seem to think that tourists want to translate the writing on war monuments. Even the nearby tourist office wasn't sure, but this seems to be the message. This statue seems to honor 17,464 heroes, perhaps from Sopron, who died in battle--though that number seems high since even today Sopron has perhaps 60,000 people.



The sign on this statue honors the soldiers who died "trying to preserve peace." It was Austro-Hungary that was attacked first by partisans in Sarajevo in Serbia. The world then attacked Hungary while Hungary was just ""defending itself"and "preserving peace".


This shows the royal lion representing Hungary wounded by an arrow in battle while protecting the country. (Symbols of Hungary are in its paws.) It was after WWI that Hungary was reduced to 40% of its size. A third of all Hungarian speakers now live outside Hungary in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and the Ukraine. They are still upset about this unjust reduction in size. (At least the old-timers are.) This isn't the version of WWI and its war heroes that we hear about. Like they say, "He who writes the history (and builds the monuments) controls the history."