Kerekpar uzleti dolgok

The first Hungarian bike shop we visited.

Title: Bicycle Shop (my Hungarian Translation without letter accents)

  So before we left for our trip to Hungary one of my secret self-centered goals was to come home with a bicycle.  Preferably something old and something Italian.  

During the several drives between families homes I spotted two shops.  One morning Wife, LilGuns and Wife's Uncle 'Steve' brought us over to the both shops.  At the first I found a nice pair of gloves and a decent Specialized riding jersey.  At the second shop we got a really nice German made handlebar bag and a Cofidis cycling cap.  At this point I pretty much declared victory for bike shop related souvenirs.

A couple of days later 'Steve' and I with LilGuns left the house early to walk for groceries. He said we'd be quick and will stop at a bar and get groceries on the way.  its about 8am.  Well, yep we stopped at a shop were we each got a shot of palinka and an ice cream cone for Sam. Did the shot and walked over to the small grocery store for breakfast foods.  Of course this included paprika's.
About an hour later George showed up and I could hear they kept saying 'bickli'. That i figured they must have been talking about another bike shop. So the three of us went over.  We walked in and were looking around. I was a shot, and two beers in at 9am so i wasnt really thinking clearly.  I didnt really see anthing of interest, mostly hybrid style bikes, until i turned around and this 'wet white' frame with chrome fork were hanging.  I started to look at it and didnt think too much of it. Then 'Steve' reaches over, pulls it down and sticks it in my hands. 

'Hmm, this is pretty light. Oooo. huh?' I think and mumble as I look over the frame.  Clearly a racing frame.  'How much is this?  20,000 forint, about $87USD.  'Whats the size? do you have a ruler?' 'its a steel frame, right?'and since I know basic frame geometry I sized it up.  Apparently 54 cm. MY SIZE. 'Is the bottom bracket english or italian?' Italian.  I was slowly digesting the facts here.  And as light dawns on Marblehead I say to George,' for $87 its worth the risk to send it home. I havent heard of a F. Moser but its got all the right signs of a good bike.'

I bought it. and the shop guys removed the fork for shipping.  We got it home and sized it to the luggage, too big.  We quickly returned to the shop and they had an extra bike box and spacer for the rear dropouts.  Afterward, we packed the bike and and called around for shipping.  Fucking UPS wanted $576 dollars to ship it back home.  FAHKYOU GUYS.  We went to the regular post office, $75 dollars US; AND it got to the house in 6 days, undamaged. 

TO BE CONTINUED

Travel with George

Wife, LilGuns and Grandma had left for Hungary a full 10 days earlier than George and I.  He had to mind the Garage and get repairs done before leaving and I dont have that much vacation time.  So were left to travel together.  My dad picked us up and brought us to Logan airport. (Thanks Dad).  George and I then proceeded to get our tickets, check bags and all that wicked fun traveling shit.  Once we were through and found our gate we realized we had more than an hour to kill before boarding.  So we sat in at the nearest bar, order beers and watched the World Cup game.

 Six beers later (each) and after a quick pit stop, we glided over to our gate for boarding. 

Once we made it into the Charles DeGaule airport  in France and figured out what the hell to do there we managed to find our gate (Pict).  It was about 7:30am local time and George found a couple of 5% 0.5 liter Heineken cans to past the time before the flight to Budapest.

The flight to Hungary was relatively uninteresting except for the decent picture of the Alps I took from the plane window. The moral of the story is, if you can call it a moral, is when traveling with George be prepared to drink beers as many and often as possible.

Went to Hungary

The Family had a fairly good trip to Budapest. I'll hold off on calling it a vacation because there was really no relaxing..  95% our time was spent going between family members houses, depending where we were staying. 

Even when we went out to Lake Velence you still have to deal with worrying about people stealing shit or where Sam was running off to, or holding a conversation with your wifes cousin. 

And it was so fucking hot the whole time. and no one has a god damn fan blowing, anywhere. I think electricity is really damn expensive or something.

Anyway, Ill stretch this out into a few posts to capture parts of it. I did manage to keep a handwritten day by day journal upto date.  That works out well and is something I have done in the past.  Not only do i keep a written log of the day but I keep tickets, receipts and other small papers in with it as mementos. 

In the picture above is the Kiss (pronounced Ki-sch) residence, Wifes grandparents.  Their property (~45 ft x 250ft). called in the family 'The Garden' has everything. Very self sufficient.  Cherries, loads of grapes, apples, apples, peaches, cabbage, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, garlic, onion, peppers, squash, kohlrabi, chickens, aloe, beans, and tons more.  It is jam packed with every bit of land growing something.  It the shit were to hit the fan, this is where you'd want to be, or at least have something equal.  The cellar under the house is a cold cellar.  Down here the wine and palinka is made and stored and the apples from last season were still perfect.  

And since you can access the wine right from the barrel in the cellar you might was well have some, even if it is only 8am.