6. Thrills, Spills, and Near Death Experiences

23rd September 2013

I'm not a superstitious person, and, fingers crossed, I never will be.  But we had to contend with Friday 13th this month, and my God, it was a stinker.  Nothing too serious thankfully, but a few highlights involve a stubbed toe, a burnt dinner and knocking over an almost-full jar of jalapeno peppers inside the fridge.  Once we got that out of the way, the last couple of weeks have actually been rather pleasant.

There is a funfair in Budapest, which is called Vidampark.  It is extremely old, but it has so much character.  We went a couple of years ago, and having learned that it will close down at the end of September, we didn't want to pass up the opportunity of going once more.

Some of the rides in the park are actually over 100 years old, and it even used to be known as Angolpark (English Park), but I don't know the reason for this unfortunately.  My absolute favourite thing in Vidampark is the old wooden rollercoaster.  

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As luck would have it, this was actually closed for repair this time around (I wonder if it will run again before the park closes) but we were lucky enough to ride it several times the first time we went.  It certainly doesn't have the loops, twists or turns of your modern 'coasters, but what it lacks in scares it makes up for in charm and nostalgia.

There are a few, more modern, thrill rides in the park too.  Me and B both love a nice, scary jaunt every so often, so we of course hopped straight on one of the bigger ones here.  You've probably seen similar ones if you live in England, not particularly scary but good fun.  

Only this is Hungary, so not everything is quite so simple.  It was only after the ride had finished when the terror truly set in, as we looked back at our defeated foe to notice several of the seats in the front row had signs on them, saying 'Nem működik' which translates as 'not working'.  We still went on the other rides which flung us upside down and side to side, we just had a little extra fear in us after that.

I think this ride is the oldest, certainly one of them.  It is more an attraction than a ride to be honest, you sit on a train which is pulled along by a dragon, and it takes you through the story of János, a Hungarian shepherd who falls in love with a girl.  

As he is 'busy' with his girlfriend, he loses sight of his flock, and rather than face the angry villagers, he runs away and joins the Army.  He battles the Turks, and saves the French King's daughter from death.  

The King offers János his daughter as a reward, but he instead chooses to go back home to his girlfriend.  By the time he gets home, his girlfriend is dead, so János goes off on adventures and battles dragons and giants, before stumbling upon the land of the fairies, where of course he finds his newly pixified girlfriend.  A bit weird maybe, but it is a very famous Hungarian story written by Petőfi Sándor.

There is a ferris wheel of course, which the English Health and Safety Board would again have a field day with.  

100 feet high and the carriages are completely open, you could climb out at the top if you wanted to (but why would you?).

This beautiful carousel is also one of the attractions here, thankfully the authorities apparently have decided to let this one live on after the park closes.

Here are a couple of select piccies of some more of the more old school style rides at the park.  This one is the Hungarian version of teacups.  Even with authentic paintings of Big Ben, Tower Bridge on the back of the cars.

This one is my favourite though, very special Harry Potter inspired inflatable slide...

We had a great time at the park, and it truly saddens me that a big part of history from Budapest will soon no longer exist.  Although I can completely understand why, as the park was practically empty, I guess there is no place nowadays for such a traditional funfair.  It has obviously passed it's prime, and maybe one day a more modern counterpart will be built here, but we will miss you Vidampark!

Having waited for over 6 weeks for our dining chairs to arrive, we suddenly went from zero to twelve chairs in less than 24 hours.  B's family own a flat two doors down from us, and having rented it out to a nice, shitzu-owning tattoo artist (really), he decided he didn't want the furniture which was in there, so we had to take it in.  Of course, the minute we took them in, our ordered chairs arrived which meant a nice tally of twelve.  As luck would have it, the day after acquiring the extra chairs, we held up a dinner party for a newly loved-up friend of ours, so we could interrogate the new boyfriend.  They told us they were moving so we offered the chairs to them and they took them a few days later.  Result!

We have noticed a strange occurrence in our flat here.  Almost every day it seems, we get tiny powercuts which only last a fraction of a second.  Of course this isn't really a huge problem to us, but it can be a little annoying if you're watching a movie and everything shuts off, and you have to restart everything.  Well, in the last few days we've come to realise these are not totally random, but happening at exactly 6.08pm every single day.  We have absolutely no idea what is causing this to happen, I guess there must be a master switch for something in the building which is causing it.  I'm pretty certain no one will ever know the reason for it, I wonder if it happens to everyone else in the building?

Being the miserable English bastard that I am, B has decided to try and get me to open my heart and enjoy the beauty of a Hungarian Autumn.  I have tried to explain that, being brought up in England, where you get 10 days of Summer and 355 days of grey every year, there is no such thing as Autumn, but she insists so she has made me a checklist of things I have to do this 'season'.

As you can see, we've done a few already, but my heart of stone is yet to be broken, and I am still looking forward to seeing Budapest in Winter and hopefully under at least a sprinkling of snow.  However, I did enjoy a fairly Autumnal walk in the woods this weekend.  I even allowed B to pick a few leaves.  I know, I'm too nice to her...

The last thing I have to tell you about may come as a bit of a surprise to you.  This week, we attended a dance class.  B has always wanted to do this, and I (reluctantly) said I would do it if a suitable class came up.  Well, last week she spotted a voucher for a very cheap, 8 week course in various dances, in a place just 15 minutes walk away from where we live.  I think B was in shock when she asked me and I said yes, all I can say is she caught me on a good day.  What is even more surprising is, I actually quite enjoyed it.  We both did, once the initial embarrassment subsided and we realised we weren't the only completely uncoordinated, totally untalented, arm-flailing n00bs there.  

There was around 45 people in total, so there was never any attention on anyone other than the instructors, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  We quickly came to the conclusion that neither of us have any hand to leg coordination what-so-ever, but it's a beginner's course so who cares, right?  Last week we learned the starting steps of the samba, the foxtrot and even the quickstep.  Next week, no one knows, but I'll be sure to keep you all posted.  It's been a busy couple of weeks, well, busy for someone who's unemployed anyway, so I need a rest now.  Until next time, viszlát!