The Hedervar Colorado beetle

Commerated in large statue form, the Colorado Beetle is remembered fondly in Hedervar - the first place in Hungary that it was found.

Funny thing to commerate when it causes so much distruction and damage

A Bug's Life

Hedervar Castle

The Castle is now a hotel, having undergone several instances of demolishment and then rebuilding following attacks from various invading forces, the Turks, the French and various other invaders.

It has been done up to reflect the style and design of the 18th and 19th Century with suites themed on various designs including Herend.

The dining room is in the old library whilst there are other rooms available such as the old Hunter's room which has a large painting of a Hunter and his dogs.

The estate has been split up now but is full of statues, interesting trees and other items of interests - two of the trees have grown together to form an H which is now a major talking part on the tourist trail for the hotel.

Hedervar

The Arpad Oak - the oldest tree in Hungary and an art gallery in a church

When we were away for the weekend in a town called Hedervar, we saw the oldest tree in Hungary - the Arpad Oak. Apparently, the tree is 820 years old and was supposedly where King Arpad tied his tree on the way from one side of his kingdom to the other. People claim that the marks on the tree are where he tied his horse up.

The tree creaks in the wind and is supported by a weird trelis frame to support it - only one branch is alive but the tree has a strong role to play in Hungarian folklore.

The tree is in the graveyard of one of the local chapel's where the Counts of Hedervary are buried - including a former Prime Minster of Hungary between the 2 world wars.

The Chapel is no longer just a chapel but is also an art gallery showing work from 3 Hungarian artists although only one of them seemed to have anything on display when we were there.

Living in the hurricane zone

 Life in Budapest has taken a turn for the worse - no sooner have we moved into a flat to enjoy the brighter sunshine of the summer have we been trumped by the weather.

Hungary has been subjected to some pretty merciless storms - torrential rain, 40 mph winds and day and days with no sunshine. It really does show how bad things are when the UK is 10-15 degrees warmer than Hungary in May. The river is very high at the moment so bets are off as to whether we will have repeats of last years floods.

Last weekend saw us dodging the heavier rain storms, wrapped up in our ski jackets - looking skyward to avoid the falling mortar from building facades and tree branches that have been ripped off in what is, as a general rule, a green city!

Even the long weekend this weekend looks to have succumb to the english Bank Holiday tradition of rain and cloud.

Hopefully it means that we will have a longer summer and in all honesty, the city skyline looks pretty impressive when backed up by a glowering sky - bring the more gothic nature of the city to life.

The best bit about it all is, Iceland is to blame apparently!

Summertime, and the living is easy

Who needs a garden when you have Margit Island - the last 2 weekends has seen much lounging around a bottle of wine and a picnic, watching various breeds of dogs chasing each other whilst men behave like men and try and get the frisbee/football as close to the girls sun bathing topless.

Can't wait for the bars and nightclubs to be fully open to experience the island in its full glory, despite the need to queue to get onto the island due to the bridge renovation work.

Finally, a bit of culture

Last weekend we took a little cultural trip up Andrássy utca to Ybl's beautiful opera house to watch the ballet.

Budapest's ballet has been showing Romeo and Juliet since 1985 and the company really did bring Prokofiev's score to life.

Never having been to the ballet before, I wasn't sure if the prima ballerina always receives 15 curtain calls and armfuls of flowers but based on the performance she gave, she probably deserved it.

The choreography was wonderful, especially the sword fights which managed to look convincing at the same time ad comedic elements - the Hungarian tradition of fencing schools and Olympic medals is alive and well.

The Opera house itself is stunning with beautiful frescos on the ceilings and golden adornments to the boxes. Everyone really gets into the spirit of things - dressing up to the 9s to make sure that the ballet has the poshness factor ramped up to the max!