Stories from travels in

Hungary

Expense explained

The price of Herend porcelain has, on occasion, caused to me to clutch my heart and fear death. You couldn’t pay me enough money to

Grateful 8

I’ve managed to get myself into trouble on occasion but never anything so serious that I couldn’t be extricated, more or less intact. I still

In a green bottle, please

Landing in the town of Mór in northwestern Hungary on a Saturday afternoon in early November, you’d be justified in thinking that the world had

Justice for Hungary

That last thing you’d expect driving along the minor road from Bicske to Csákvár in northwestern Hungary is to be catapulted back to July 1931.

Grateful 9

Hate takes effort and energy and, quite frankly, I’m too lazy to expend either on something that offers little reward. There’s some food I’d rather

All aboard

I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be trapped aboard a ship with the same people for days on end.

A shattered mirror in a secret room

If ever I need a dramatic rise in blood pressure, I take myself to the Párizsi Nagy Áruház on Andrássy. I go upstairs to the

Still rolling at 86

I’d just finished a rather graphic account of my recent foray into colonic hydrotherapy when he turned to me and asked – ‘Do you like

A view from above

‘You can’t miss it’, he said. ‘It’s the second-tallest building in Budapest.’ This was what was rattling around in my head as the metro approached