A Needed Get Away, Part 1

Well, we are back and Michael is at work. I slept in until 7:30 this morning and thought I would look at the photos I shot. We packed a lot in to our quick little jaunt. The weather was beautiful and as we drove north on I-71 it became quite apparent that they have received more rain than us. The humidity was low, the sky blue, the drive was pleasant.

Our first stop was in Parma, Ohio which is home to one of the largest American-Hungarian populations in the country and the location of the largest Hungarian Scout festival. We spent a couple of hours taking in the sights, sounds and smells. Had a few frosty beverages and shared some cabbage rolls and saugage. Once we walked through the gates, I felt as though we had tranported ourselves to Europe. Everyone around us was speaking Hungarian. Folks were polite enough to realize we did not speak the language and kindly spoke to us in English and answered our questions. I took some photos of some dolls and the woman said something to me and apparently I had an expression of stupidity on my face so she then asked me if I would like to guess the region that the clothing represented. I was happy that I could find Hungary on a map, but to guess regions based on dress? Good gosh... out of my league. In any event, these are hardy folks- physically and spiritually and emotionally. The language is fascinating and must be one of the most difficult to learn. But here we were in Parma, Ohio listening to young and old alike speaking fluently. Michael's father was born in Budapest and escaped from the Nazis and the Russians during World War II. Michael has the ability to pronounce words correctly, but does not understand the language. Like my mother not teaching me Japanese or Okinawan, his father did not teach him Hungarian. Michael would like to learn and I keep urging him to sign up for a class.

Now, a few photos. There were some wonderful faces that I fell in love with.




Michael tried this.... He was just shy of having 2 horseshoes per notch. His arm was a tad sore the next morning. The young scout really knew what he was doing to. He feigned ignorance about speaking English and smiled and said some things in Hungarian and slowly loaded the horseshoes onto the notched piece of wood. It was quite funny.
This was toward the entrance to where all the shopping was.... no idea... what it says... no idea how to pronounce it.
All right... I have to start getting the house ready for a baby shower... I'll post some more later... I have a lot more photos and experiences to share.