What a beauty - in one of Hungarian's old forests

Strawberries, Cherries and Rasperries

Last week I visited my grandparents in Szentendre, its a bit out of town - a small village near the Danube. It's strawberry season right now, or about to finish, so we had loads of strawberries the last 3 weeks in all variations and they were sold at every street corner. Since about last week, the cherries are good to eat, in fact they are superdelicious and everyone sells cherries on the streets now(small bags of collected cherries from the trees in the home garden).

The trees are heavily loaded and on public transport people are carrying basket and buckets filled with delicious cheeries. I am loving it!

(Right: A pic of my grandparents cherry collection of a day, strawberry jam and the famous Hungarian cherry soup which is eaten cold and very refreshing in hot summers.)

Hungarian gardens are full of fruits and vegetables even in the city. Many families make their own wine and Palinka (a strong grappa like spirit in all fruit types)...Since most of Hungarian's fruit of veggie consumption comes from their own or other local place, it also strongly influences what is eaten at which point of time in what amounts. So after our lovely lunch and the cherry soup in my grandparents garden, we had a break and went to collect some raspberries for our dessert. We had each a bowl of fresh raspberries with powder sugar and cream - sooo delicious!

My grandfaher said, that each fruit has its particular season so you always have one thing at a time, eating strawberries in May, then raspberries and then cherries in June/July. This year there was a very hot spring though and it still is unusually hot with up to 35-38 degrees at some days. People around here are flooded with ripe fruits of all kinds ready to be consumed or to be prepared into jams, Palinkas and other delicious things.

I miss the tradition of buying fresh fruits from the streets and the neighbour hood. Hopefully Hungary will keep this part of its culture and not change to buying their fruits and veggies from large super market chains where you can get all fruits throughout the entire year from far away lands for tripple the price and half the taste!

EU parlament elections: Increasing nationalist movement in Hungary

Yesterday were elections for the European Parlament in Hungary. My father who usually is not too engaged with politics mentioned a conversation in the family, the concerns for the increasing nationalist movement and the urge for many more Hungarians to give their voice for a more democratic and liberal Hungary.

Unfortunately there was only 34.9% voter turnout half an hour before the closure of polling stations. Hungarian Center-Right Opposition Fidesz is ahead in the EU vote with 14 seats or 56.37 percent of votes. More worrying though, Movement for a Better Hungary (Jobbik), which is considered a radical nationalist party, won three seats or 14.77 percent of votes. Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) got only one seat or 5.3 percent of votes.

"Jobbik leader Gabor Vona said on Sunday that a national front was born and it has won. He said that Jobbik was ready "to take to the streets" to urge early elections in Hungary. Krisztina Morvai, who topped Jobbik's European Parliament list, said that Jobbik was committed to supporting ethnic Hungarian communities in neighboring countries in their efforts for autonomy.(read more)"

I know very little about Hungarian politics so I had to research a little to better understand the different parties. What I found in particular very interesting is the history of Fidesz Party.
Fidesz was founded by young democrats, mainly students, who were persecuted by the communist party and had to meet in small, clandestine groups. The movement became a major force in many areas of modern Hungarian history, engaging itself on every level in the development of a democratic system, its members being active as guardians of fundamental human rights. It was only in the 90's that the party changed its political position from liberal to conservative after disappointing election results in 1994. This certainly brought a divide in the membership and many left to join then more liberal parties.

Wikipedia also mentions that Fidesz is despite being a conservative social democrat party, actually a socially more caring, and more "leftist" in it's social policies than "left-wing" parties...hmm its always somewhere inbetween in the grey shades, isn't it? Oh well who would nowadays expect a clear answer to what the situation is...if you are also interested in Hungarian politics, this seems to be a good site www.politics.hu

Enjoying Hungary's nature side

Last week Balazs and I spent some time visiting some beautiful places in nature near Budapest. Balazs is my oldest friend from Kindergarten times in Budapest; we also used to be neighbours and partners in crime; Sneaking away from afternoon sleeping times for more exciting adventures. Somehow we managed to stay in touch meeting again every couple years and now that we are both living in the UK, we succeeded to meet more regularly, mostly to enjoy the outdoors, like for cross country skiing in Donovaly (Slovakia), kayaking at Lake Velence or mountain biking at nearby huge forest.

The lake Velence is a smaller lake, closer to Budapest than the Balaton. We took a day to go kayaking with an inflatable boat, going silently through labyrinths of the surounding reed, which is home to many birds, frogs, and all kinds of other species, including a little water snake which crossed our way that day. One can easily get lost going through the difference channels in the reed. Every once on while inbetween there is a larger space opening up with was perfect for swimming.


Some days later we went mountain biking in a wonderful big fairy tale like forest, with thousands of of different butterflies flying with as we were cycling. I read somewhere that butterflies are an indicator for a healthy ecosystem and that they disappear quickly when there is an inbalance. This wouldnt surprise me, ee didn't see any other human beings the entire day.

About to take off - starting my sabbatical in May

I have decided to take some time off to step back from busy London and its hectic routine to discover new and miraculous places, meet amazing people and experience deep felt connections. For the next 9 months I am planning to visit interesting projects, eco-communities and wonderful nature and friends around the world.



I will start off in Hungary on the 11th of May and after staying there for a couple of weeks, most likely head south to Transylvania and Turkey. If all goes well, I will stay sometime in Ethiopia before heading further south via Kenya and Tanzania to Mozambique. From end of August on I will stay for some time in Northern India and in Nepal. The second half of my trip, probably from October onwards I will be in Argentina and Brazil before returning in January 2010.

This journey is very important to me as it is a calling that I have ignored for too long. I feel the break, the travel and the time for discovery will be a very special experience and an important step towards my work.



Moko's sabbatical 2009 auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen