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My house in Budapest - Greg - 08-12-2016
My brain is fuzzy. It's been an interesting first 48 hours of the trip. I haven't had any sleep and I'm still punch drunk from the events of Friday afternoon. It is now 3am on Saturday.
In the days leading up to my departure, my biggest task was to consolidate the gear that I was taking with me. That consolidation amounted to eight bags of gear plus two rather heavy carry-ons. Originally I was going to rent some of the gear in Budapest but in the end it just seemed cheaper to buy video lights that worked on 220. I also decided I wasn't going without one of my RAID Hard-drives. This necessitated buying yet another Pelican Case for the trip.
The eventual count was 5 Pelican cases, 4 duffel bags and my camera back pack. The worst duffel is this long pink fencing bag HK grabbed from the West Berkeley Fencing Club. It is too long and the balance is off and it always feels much heavier than it should be. It must be stealing weight from another dimension.
I flip-flopped on how early I wanted to be at the airport. I started out thinking I should get there 3 hours early but that seemed crazy so I settled on two hours early. This meant I started the drive to LAX a little later, which put me in a little heavier section of the rush hour morning traffic. Consequently, my journey to the airport took a lot longer than planned. I arrived with about 90 minutes to get on the plane.
I'm flying Air Canada to Budapest. It stops in Toronto with only a 90 minute layover. I've done 90 minute layovers before. It never ends well. The Queen gave me a disgusted snort when I acknowledged that I hadn't checked which Terminal Air Canada departed from. I assumed it was going out of the Bradley International Terminal. I assumed wrong. But once we pulled passed the traffic surrounding Southwest's Terminal One it was smooth sailing to Terminal 2.
I also assumed there would be a Sky Cap to help me get all the bags into the Terminal. Yet again, I assumed wrong. I also saw that it was going to take more than one rented push cart to ferry all the bags. I hurriedly loaded one cart and pushed it into the terminal toward the ticket line.
The ticket lines were long and not moving very well. I had already paid for the bag mountain and gotten my boarding pass. I still had this long line in front of me. I left the first cart and went back to the curb to get the second cart. All the time, I'm hearing in my mind that constant airport announcement about what you should do if you see unattended bags in the airport. I had a whole trolley cart of them.
At this point, I may or may not have cut in line of a lot of people. I may have just walked up to an unattended Kiosk and started punching in my info to get my boarding pass. This may have happened. I asked one of the Airport staffers if I could leave my trolleys near the counter while I waited for the next available checker. She said fine.
The day before the flight, I got an email from Air Canada asking me to check-in and pay for my bags. They also asked if I would like to upgrade to something called premiere economy for the flight from Toronto to Budapest. It was only $200, so I said why not? I didn't do that for the LAX to Toronto leg because that was $500. And because I'm not a complete monster, I emailed HK and told him to do the same thing.
Back at the terminal, I noticed a shorter line to the front desk for people who have purchased priority seating. Hey, that's me! Except it wasn't priority for this particular leg of the flight. Yep, got in another line that I probably wasn't supposed to be in. Look, I can hear the countdown to departure clock in my head and it makes me cranky.
It also makes me cranky when people don't know what the fuck to do when they get up to the ticket counter. It's simple. You hand the nice woman your tickets and your passport. Then she takes your bags and you go on your way. That's not hard is it? Many people failed that test in front of me. With my eight checked bags, it took me less time than the woman with the one bag to get through this procedure.
I also spent my time in line eyeing my bags far down the counter, waiting for someone to ask why this huge stack of luggage was sitting here unattended? But I finally made it to the front and started getting all the bags on the scale. Naturally, the pink goliath had to be taken somewhere else to be loaded because it was big and long.
With a great sense of relief, I handed off the bags and headed to the departure gate. I no longer feel calm until I'm at the gate. But not completely calm. That comes when I actually make my connecting flight. So, I spent the four hours in the air to Toronto doing the math about making my flight to Budapest.
It worked out fine. Our pilot had his foot on the gas and we arrived in Toronto a half hour early. By the time, I got through customs (Just have your passports ready, morons) and to my gate, I was finally calm. I also met HK who's plane came in from SFO. There was only flight to Budapest a day so all the feeder flights arrive at the same time in Toronto and those Hungary bound passengers all get on the same plane. So, HK and I were on the same flight from Toronto to Budapest.
And here is where that extra upgrade cash paid off. When I bought the upgrade, I figured I would just get some extra leg room and a discount on paying for my bags. Turns out, I actually got what looked like Business Class. I walked by my seat the first time, because I figured there was no way my upgrade was one of those big individual seats that I never sit in. But it was mine for the next nine hours. I got served a meal with actual silverware. They handed me an iPad to watch movies on. I got one of those bags with a toothbrush and socks and an eye mask in it. It was all quite sweet.
The flight went quick. I watched two movies and then I took a nap. Next thing you know, I was hearing the sweet sound of the landing gear extending from the belly of the plane. I love to hear that sound.
Since we were at the front of the plane, HK and I got to passport control quickly. Air Canada doesn't believe in sending out the bags too quickly, so it probably took 45 minutes to get the gear mountain. Guess what? It's easier to push that many bags with two people instead of one. Even though, we now had HK's bags, too.
I had arranged for transport from the airport to the hotel. There was one of those people with a sign with my name on it when I finally got through customs. When I arranged for the transport, I told them I would have ten bags. They sent an email back asking for dimensions of the bags. I sent them a photo of the Pelican mountain. They sent me a revised figure for how much it was going to cost. They needed a bigger vehicle.
HK and I are staying at the Hotel Nemzeti on Josef Ter. Ter being the word for street. I chose the hotel from pictures and price on hotels.com. My initial reaction was I chose wisely, despite the fact the neighborhood looks a bit dodgy.
The sky was overcast making the city look grey and dower. Budapest looks like it could use a good scrubbing.
I had arranged for one meeting after our arrival with our interpreter, Xenia Varga. Yes, I was making warrior princess jokes in my head. I had been going round and round with her via emails trying to straighten out the hiring. I would send an email then a week later she would email back. She was traveling or working or some such. But I finally hired her and this was our first face to face meeting.
I was thinking she would be doing some interpreting for us this first day, too, because some of the people we were here to see said they would be coming to the hotel but I hadn't heard back from then.
So, we stared on a low note when I said there wouldn't be any interpreting today, that we were just meeting. But she was bubbly and fine. HK and I told her about the project. She told us about her previous week at a life changing psychedelic camp. She also told us how she's learning massage. She mentioned that she had ridden her bike from her house so she should could drink at lunch with us. She was put off a bit when I told her I don't drink.
We ate in the hotel to make things simple. Since, I was in Hungary, I opted for the Goulash soup. I might as well get the new experiences out of the way before I spend the rest of the trip hunting for Hungarian Pizza joints. Towards the end of the meeting, the discussion turned to payment. I ran up the stairs to get the cash out of the safe.
While I was gone HK and Xenia had an interesting discussion which HK told me about later. Xenia asked HK if he wanted her to get us some women for our trip. I asked him later to clarify that Xenia was going to get us women who charge by the hour and he said yes. HK politely declined her offer. Xenia is ready to offer a multitude of services and we are probably a step down from the clients she is used to dealing with.
Always on the first day of trips overseas and multiple time zone changes, I like to stay up as late as possible to get myself acclimated. I didn't get much sleep on the plane so it was a bit of a struggle to stay up. But HK and I walked from our hotel to the Danube. We crossed the Freedom Bridge over to Buda and then down to the Chain Bridge, which is the iconic Budapest Bridge. Basically, we were out playing tourist.
I will point out that something is going wonky with my right heel. And by wonky, I mean every time I step I take, I get a nice jolt of pain running up my leg. It's like I have a massive bruise in there that doesn't react positively to any weight put on it. Basically, I'm hobbling and limping around. The walk around Budapest seemed to exacerbate it.
We found a pub to have dinner in. Our waitress was not pleased when I only ordered tap water to drink. But she perked up when she realized I would be ordering food as well. Continuing with my ethnic Hungarian theme, I had the chicken paprikash with dumplings.
HK and I got back to the hotel about 6. I resolved to stay up until at least 8 but I didn't know how. The how came in the form of a call from one our interviewees, Dr. Norbert Maday. He was one of the guys that I was supposed to meet with on Thursday but I hadn't heard from him.
One of the things, I had done when I had arrived was to send emails people telling them we had arrived and to hand out my European Cel phone number. I had purchased phones for HK and I to use while we are here. They are quite crappy and it took me a while to even figure out how to activate them.
Sorry, phone purchase side track. I purchased the phones in advance and because of some problems with the order, mainly they didn't believe I was ordering them, both phones ended up with HK, rather than one going to each of us. HK was mystified about them and couldn't give me the phone numbers from them. I wanted the numbers so I could send it to the people we were meeting. When I got my phone, I saw in the package the little card that told us how to activate the phones and get the phone numbers. When I got to the hotel and it's wifi connection, I activated the phones, got the numbers, and then sent the number out.
Dr. Norbert Maday was one of the first calls I got. Maday wrote a book on Piller. He also has a big collection of Piller memorabilia. When I would talk to people in Hungary, they always mentioned the person I should talk to was Maday.
He calls. He wants to meet Friday. Not only does he want to meet. he wants to pick up HK and I from the hotel and take us to his town 80km away to see all his historical saber fencers. The Saber Fencers were having some sort of meeting or convention and Friday was the last day they were all going to be there. Maday also pushed for us to do our interviews with him and another person on the list, Janos Mohos. I told him it would just be enough for one day to film the historical saber demonstrations.
The conversations was hard and I don't know if my point about the interviews was coming across. But I think I eventually got agreement that he was to come by to the hotel at noon, pick us up and take us to his city which he never told us the name of.
It had to be late in the day since one of the meetings I had scheduled for the morning was with Dr. Sallay Gergely at the Museum of Military History. Dr. Sallay (last name first in Hungary) and the museum had a lot of Piller's medals and military records. They were also going to license them to the film very inexpensively.
The plan for Friday was now full. We would meet with Dr. Sallay in the Morning and Dr. Maday in the afternoon. In between the two meetings I was going to run to a Film supply house here in Budapest to pick up a C-stand.
The best part of all this activity was that it kept me up until 8pm. I finally killed my lights and went to sleep.
The Double Post - Greg - 08-13-2016
But none of what happened in the first post is why I'm feeling a bit loopy. That all happened because of a jammed packed Friday extravaganza. At least, I think it was Friday. I'm stealing with time changes and jet lag. Let's agree it was Friday.
When last we met our hero, he had just collapsed exhausted in his bed in the hopes for a long night of recovering blissful rest.
I awoke in the dark after what seemed like forever. But the clock put lie to that statement. It was just about midnight. I had been asleep for a little over three hours. Fine. Back to sleep then. Except. Not so much.
I tossed and turned, sleepless, for the next couple of hours. My brain raced as I figured what was coming up for the day. I couldn't shut it off.
I gave in and got up. I sent emails. I read. I figured I would get sleepy and go back to bed. But nothing. I was wide awake. I turned on the TV and got to see a lot of Olympic swimming finals. Sleep was a stranger in my bed.
I figured I couldn't even leave the hotel until 5ish to go for a walk. I wanted there to be at least a little light while I roamed unfamiliar streets. I looked out my window to see if any of my neighbors were up, too. Of course not, fool, it is four in the morning.
Five o'clock rolled around and I headed out. Turns out, I should have worn a jacket. I also wasn't the only one up and about at this early hour. Although, the people I passed didn't look like they had gotten up early but had rather been up all night. Which I guess was my story as well.
The bars along my route were still open with customers. I passed many drunks. To cross the major intersections, you can enter the undergrounds. I did this and spotted a lot of homeless people down there taking shelter.
In case you are wondering why I'm going for a walk with a bum heel, the reason is I'm stupid. I checked on line and diagnosed myself as having plantar fasciitis. This is much more logical than bone spurs or maybe even a cool hairline fracture. According to the Mayo Clinic it is the most common reason for heel pain.
I also thought I would just walk through it. If I exercised enough, it would just go away. Did I bring up the part about my stupidity?
I walked for about four miles. I headed over to the main thoroughfare, Andrassy Ut which would lead me to Heroes square. There is a park behind Heroes square where the famous Szechenyi baths are located. The amazing thing was that despite it being the crack of dawn, the streets were full of cars. I expected some quiet streets and not a lot going on. But there were cars and people everywhere. How am I supposed to do a clandestine drone launch to video the city with all these people around? Yes, the Drone made the trip as well.
When I got back to the hotel, I must have looked like a vagrant in my shorts and ball cap, because the desk clerk came up to me as I wandered into the breakfast area to ask me what I was doing in his hotel. I just showed him my room card and he politely went away.
The breakfast buffet was included in the price of the hotel and it was marvelous. Much better than I was getting at the Holiday Inn Express and it's pancakes in sixty seconds. They had champagne. Dozens of different breads and pastries. For some reason , they had big pretzels out for consumption. It was all really nice and classy.
Xenia had said she would drive her car over and pick us up since our hired driver doesn't start until Saturday. Xenia also offered to be our driver rather than hiring a separate guy. I'll make that decision towards the end of the week.
But I get a call from her saying, she was coming over in a Taxi because she didn't know where she would park her car. She also figured this would be easier than calling for a cab. I guess she doesn't know how big hotels work and the large taxi stands in front of them. I counted five taxis at the curb when I went out to look for her.
I figured she took the taxi because that way I could pay for her Taxi ride to our hotel. But she proved me wrong. When I crossed the street to get in the cab, the meter was at zero. I only had to pay for the ride from there.
Unlike Thursday, Friday was bright and sunny. Everything looked beautiful as we crossed the Freedom Bridge from Pest to Buda to the Castle District. The castle looks so much nicer in the sunlight.
Our first meeting of the day was in the Museum of Military History behind the castle. The trip was short so we arrived early. Xenia needed a coffee and a smoke while we waited. My heel was acting up so I fell behind HK and Xenia as we headed to meet Dr. Sallay.
He was much younger than I thought and very polite. I thanked him profusely for meeting with us. He told us why we were getting such good treatment on the climb up to the meeting room. The man we are meeting on Sunday, Jeno Hamori, had put in a good word for us with the museum. I need to get Mr. Hamori a gift.
To put it shortly, it was a great meeting. When we entered the room, on the table before us were large trays full of all Piller's fencing medals including his Gold Medals from the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. Next to it, was one of his trophies. Wrapped in paper on the table were a cigarette case he had been given by the prime minister, a watch he got after winning the Olympics, and a ring that was another prize.
There were also all his military documents. Everything from World War 1 to World War 2. Dr. Sallay was amazed at the depth of the questions we put to him. And a little startled. He didn't think we would get that intense on the first day. I explained to him that we had been asking these questions for months and finally had a person that could answer them.
We spent about an hour going through all the material. HK geeked out about holding the two Olympic medals. That picture quickly went up on Facebook. Dr. Sallay's biggest concern was that we go through the proper procedures to license the pictures. He also needed to get permission from the military to do the interviews.
It was all quite cordial and exciting. We made plans to come back on Monday to photograph the medals and scan all the documents. Dr. Sallay is also going to let us look at all the Piller pictures in the archive and give us low-res copies.
As we walked out, Dr. Sallay showed us a couple of plaques in the courtyard that were dedicated to the military personnel who participated in the Olympics. He tried to set up a meeting with the head of the museum but he was busy at the time.
So, in the first half of day one, it felt like we had scored a major coup by seeing all this Piller memorabilia. And the day was just getting started.
Our next stop in the journey was to Sparks Film Equipment Rental house. It was on the other side of the city from the castle, but we had plenty of time to get there before our afternoon appointment. Well, we would have if we didn't have the world's slowest and most polite cab driver. She let everyone in front of us at every intersection as we crossed the Chain Bridge and headed up Andrassy Ut.
So, Sparks. I was the lowest person on their priority list. I had sent them an email requesting equipment months ago. They gave me a bid and I never responded since it was too expensive. Then I sent them an email Thursday asking if I could rent the c-stand and some sand bags.
Well, I guess they don't like emails wasting their time, because my reception at Sparks was less than welcoming. The woman who helped me remembered my email and seemed pissed that I had not responded. Now, here I was again asking for more stuff. In order to rent from them, I needed my passport and my Tax Number, neither of which I had on me. She had me write down what I wanted but said nothing was going to happen until I had those two pieces of information for her. Boy, was she unfriendly.
We dropped Xenia off at her house on the way back to Hotel Nemzeti so she could deal with her dogs. She was going to meet us back at the hotel for the ride to mystery town.
The Mystery Town was courtesy of Mr. Norbert Maday. Mr. Maday wrote the book, literally, on Piller. He was in charge of the exhibition at the museum which included most of his collection. Everyone we talk to says we should just talk to Mr. Maday. Well, Mr, Maday was picking us up at noon and taking us to his place to watch a historical Sabre demonstration.
Hk, Xenia, and I met up back in the lobby. I changed out of my shirt and tie into shorts. I'm not wearing the dress shoes while we are filming. I have a small film kit thinking I'll just set up one camera to shoot the demonstrations at the event.
Maday was supposed to meet us at noon for the drive. By 12:15, I decided to give him a call to find out where he is at. I let Xenia talk to him. She talks to him for a bit and then hangs up.
She tells me there has been a change of plans. Maday has been requested to meet with a minister. This means he can't take us to mystery town. Instead, he is coming by the hotel in the next ten minutes with some of historical saber fencers. They are going to do a demonstration for us at the hotel which I can film for the documentary.
Xenia was talking but I wasn't understanding what she was saying. What do you mean the team is coming here? I'm in a hotel. Why would they give me permission to film a group demonstration here? This doesn't make sense.
Then Maday pulled up on the curb. He got out. We shook hands. He seemed very excited about the documentary. He gave me a copy of his book on Piller, which is mostly pictures of his vast collection. And then he told me the rest of his squad was behind him and we should get ready for filming.
What the fuck?
In short, in ten minutes I'm going to film a group of men with swords in the middle of my hotel do a demonstration. No problem.
Ah, but there was a glimmer of hope. When I checked into the hotel, one of the managers, Zoltan, introduced himself and gave me his card. I told him about the project. I also asked about using a small room for some interviews in case I couldn't find space anywhere else. He said that if I needed to use the breakfast area for interviews, it was empty in the afternoon, and I could use it free of charge.
Well, Zoltan was standing at the counter when I came back in from the sidewalk outside. I asked him if I could disrupt his hotel while I shot the documentary. I needed to move about twelve tables out of the breakfast room and into another room. I needed to block off the coffee machine so it wouldn't be in the shot. And then I was going to have these guys swing their swords around. That would be alright, wouldn't it? Nothing like having some guy who just checked in yesterday commandeer your hotel.
Turns out, it was alright. Zoltan gave us his blessing, although there might have been some misgivings in his eyes.
I made HK run up to my room to start grabbing the lights and the tripods. Xenia, the saber fencers, and I started pulling out the tables. One of the hotel service workers gave us a hand. He didn't look pleased with disruption but he helped us out.
I kept sending HK back to the room for more gear. I didn't have the right adaptors for my plugs so at this point I was really thankful that I had loaded up my bag with batteries for the lights. Otherwise, we would have been shooting in the dark.
It took me about twenty minutes of scrambling to set up the two big cameras and my goPro. I wanted to get as much coverage of the demonstrations as I could. It was a get it right the first time or don't get it all sort of event.
Now, as many of you have seen me make films or worked with me on films knows one of the last things in the world I want while I'm in the thick of things is for people to offer me their thoughts on how I should be doing things. At this point in time, I don't particularly care for your suggestions. I will go so far as to say your helpful hints make me cranky.
So, when Xenia decided to get behind the camera and talk to me about the lighting and how there was glare coming of the glass panels at the back of the room, I will admit I was less than polite in my response to her queries. I mostly held my temper in check as she told me she was a photographer as well and was only trying to help out. Maybe my temper got out a little as I told her I too was a photographer.
Next thing you know five guys and one woman carrying swords and wearing red pants were doing historic saber drills in front of the camera. We did that a couple of times. Then we did some pairs drills. And we finished with some lunges to the camera. I think we filmed for about two hours. I'm not sure. It flew by. I'm running around moving lights. I got HK moving lights. I'm pushing people around. It was a blur.
All the time I kept thinking what hotel would allow this sort of behavior on such short notice? Also, why would Maday bring his troop by to do a demonstration for some yahoos from California he knew nothing about?
At the end, Maday had convinced the hotel staff to make us some Goulash for lunch in the dining room that wasn't supposed to be used for afternoon meals. Maday wanted to break bread with us in a traditional Hungarian fashion. He also paid for it, which I was appalled at. If anyone should be paying, it should be me. But he insisted.
At lunch, we told stories about Piller. At one point, I got HK to tell this story about Piller and the Hungarian National Team at the Philadelphia Championships in 1958 that Gerry Biaginni had told us. Maday's eyes lit up at hearing a story he had never heard before. He actually made HK tell it again while he took notes so he could get the story right.
Then Maday asked us our favorite Piller story. That was easy. It was the one John McDougall told us about of a bout Piller had fenced against Hans Halberstadt. It was one of the first stories I had filmed up in Oregon.
As I just started in on the story, Maday said his favorite story was one he had seen on youtube. It was about Piller and his number nine heavy saber. Maday was amazed when we told him that we had filmed that story.
I mentioned that when we went to Maday's place to film his interview I wanted to film the differences between modern saber technique and historical saber technique. Oops. Maday said we needed to do it now. These fencers wouldn't be available after today.
Before lunch I had started to put the gear away. Now, I pulled it all back out again and filmed for another forty five minutes showing the differences between old and new saber. Janos Mohos also wanted us to shoot some demos coming towards the camera. They also set up the swords and mask for a still shot on the wall. I even got Mohos giving a lesson
I took them to the stairs of the hotel for a group photo. I shot the saber fencers and then I added in Maday and Mohos. For the final, I figured Xenia and HK should get in the picture, too.
Xenia didn't get the idea that I had two lines of Fencers and she needed to be in one of the lines. She wanted to stand in the middle of the fencers in the middle of the picture. Um, no. She also wanted them to hit her in the head with her sabres. Again, no. Maybe I should have let her have her way with getting hit in the head with a saber?
The whirlwind finally ended and we said our goodbyes. Maday autographed his book that he gave to me. I asked for another copy of the book so HK and I wouldn't have to fight over who got the one copy. We made plans to meet later for a sit down interview.
The saber guys and Xenia helped put back all the tables while I packed up the equipment. HK spent the time talking to Maday and showing Maday the scrap books he has assembled. Later HK, wondered when all the tables had gone back.
I spent the afternoon hobbling and my heel was screaming when we finished. But it all worked for the best
Why Zoltan didn't kick us out of the hotel, I don't know, but I gave him $200 for his troubles.
For dinner, we walked twenty blocks for a pretty average steak dinner. Part of the problem at the restaurant was we were dealing with a training waitress who didn't quite know what she was doing. For instance, she brought the bread towards the end of the dinner and only after the manager prompted her. I also tried to order a Rib Eye but she only gave us two choices off the menu.
One of the problems I have with the Hungarian restaurants is the smoking. Yes, there is no smoking in the restaurants in Budapest. But every place we have dined in is wide open to the sidewalk. They have tables on the sidewalk. You can smoke at the tables on the sidewalk since they are not inside the restaurant. The air tends to blow into the restaurant from the outside.
At the steak place, they were showing the Olympics on the TV. One of the staff took his break and stood on the sidewalk and looked through the open front of the restaurant at the boxing match on the television. He was about ten feet from us and our dinners and of course he was smoking. I don't think they have taken this whole 'No Smoking' fad to heart yet.
I limped back to the hotel with HK. HK is now on a quest to find Fencing Salles here in Budapest so we detoured from our path to look for one he had found on Google. Google lies.
I collapsed into sleep around 8pm. I popped wide awake at midnight.
A less exasperating day - Greg - 08-14-2016
My heel hurts so much I've decided it would be best if I gave it a rest. So, I'm not doing my morning walks. Consequently, all these big breakfasts (and other meals) are going right to my belly. Good times.
One of the plans that HK had was to visit some local flea markets in Budapest to see if we could find fencing memorabilia. To that end, we were going to spend the morning in the Ecseri flea market. It is supposed to be big and have a lot of antiques.
Saturday is also the first day with our driver. One of the suggestions I got from our benevolent overlord was to hire a driver to always be with us. I spent a lot of time in prep working with one company that was pretty inexpensive. But about a month ago, they stopped responding to my emails. I spent the early part of this week scrambling to find a back-up. I finally found one but this company charges about $10 more an hour.
Anyway, our driver and his new Mercedes van showed up right on time. His name is Sándor and he will be with us for the next seven days. For those playing historical name game at home, Sándor is Hungarian for Alexander.
We were also bringing Xenia along with us to act as a go between with dealers in case we found anything. After we had stood on the curb waiting for her for about 15 minutes, I sent her a text. She called back, sleepy and loud and I could barely understand one word in three from her. I guess she had had some problem over night , had just woken up and was going to meet us at the Ecseri.
Sandor dropped us at the gate and we walked around. The first item we spotted in the first booth was the Hussar statue we have seen in everyone's house we have visited. They had two versions, one ceramic and one bronze. Eventually, we learned that they were selling for a bout $150 bucks.
If you like antiques, this is the flea market for you. I walked into one booth that had glass negatives from 1914 of World War 1 that were very cool and there was no way I was buying them. There were a lot of paintings, furniture, and russian memorabilia. A few stalls had swords but HK mentioned he would be killed if he brought any more swords home.
HK stopped at a book stall and found a book that had a picture of Borsody in it. The seller said he wanted 6000 ($20) forint for it. Naturally, HK just reached for his wallet to buy it. I almost slapped him. Doesn't he watch pawn stars? While HK continued to stare at the book, the seller dropped the price to 5000. I countered with 2000. The seller waved us off as if I had insulted him. HK panicked and immediately offered him the 5000. Oh, HK.
Xenia finally showed up after we had been there an hour. I'm still not sure what the problem had been. I think it was she was sick and had been up all night. She did mention to HK that cigarettes were helping to loosen the congestion in her chest. I did not mention that I had been up since midnight.
We found another dealer that had a 5th place medal from the 1930's that had the Hussar on it. The dealer wanted 5000. HK reached for his wallet. I slapped HK. I got Xenia to translate to the dealer that we would pay 4000. The dealer gave us the medal. I explained to HK that we would be negotiating for him from now on.
Xenia talked to the dealers about finding things we were looking for. She also took time to shop for herself. She feels she made a great deal on some chairs.
We didn't find a lot at Ecseri, but HK was happy with his two purchase.
Since we still had a lot of time left on Sandor's meter, HK wanted to stop at the Olympic museum on the way back. Google didn't really seem to know where the museum was. So our first stop was outside the Olympic complex itself. There was no sign of a museum. We started driving around with Xenia following us in a quest for the right address. HK kept declaiming that it had to be at this other spot he kept seeing since it reminded of what he had seen on Google maps.
Turns out he was right, and we only had to wrestle Sandor a little bit to have him let us out of the car.
The museum is in temporary accommodations while they wait for the real building to be built. Although small, the collection was quite nice. I was particularly taken with the flag from the 1956 Olympic team that had a black stripe across it to symbolize the mourning over the failed revolution. They had Jeno Fuchs mask from 1920. They also had a giant poster of Jeno Hamori who were interviewing on Sunday.
Our afternoon plan was to visit with Dr. Sakaly Sandor at the Veritas institute. He's a historian specializing in military and sports figures from before World War 2. His name was prominent on the exhibition at the Museum of Military History that I had been using as a guide to find people to interview.
We took a taxi over to meet him at his office near the parliament building. We had a few minutes to kill before the meeting, damn you Greg and your promptness, so we walked over to take pictures of the parliament building.
Dr. Sakaly's interpreter met us at the door. Our interpreter, Xenia, showed up on her bike a few minutes later.
In about two minutes, Dr. Sakakly expanded our knowledge of Piller about 1000%. He knows his Piller. He is going to talk to us knowledgeably about Piller's entire military career. Dr. Sakaly agreed we could come back on Wednesday afternoon to do the formal interview.
We asked him if he wanted to go out to dinner. He declined, but he did say we could go out after the interview on Wednesday. He suggested the Fighting Squirrel in Obuda. I am down for any restaurant called the Fighting Squirrel.
After the interview, Lazlo walked us over to Olympic Park where all the Hungarian gold medalist's names are listed. There is also a giant set of Olympic rings painted in Hungarian colors.
The restaurants near the Hotel Nemzeti are crappy so we asked Laszlo where around the Parliament building we could eat. He suggested a great restaurant called Kiskakukk. He kept repeating the name and I wasn't getting it. He finally said just look for the restaurant with all the K's in the name.
HK and I had our best meal so far. I had goulash for the third day in a row. This time it was really good. The restaurant has been in business for over a hundred years. My waiter looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if the place had just opened up. Americans and their stupid humor.
My plan for the night was to sleep a long time.
Budapest is winning - Greg - 08-15-2016
For the trip, I brought $5500 dollars in Hungarian Forints with me. I also brought along an extra $2K in dollars. When I was walking out of the bank, I thought it was overkill. I didn't know how I was going to spend all that money. Plus, I was jittery with all that cash on me.
Sunday, I came to the conclusion I didn't bring enough money with me. Sandor wanted to be paid in cash. Xenia is going to want to be paid in cash. It comes down to the fact I need more cash. Hopefully, I can make enough ATM withdrawals between now and a week from Friday to pay off the people who need to be paid off.
As noted, I've been getting up at midnight for my day. Sunday was no exception. I'm using that time to write the questions for the interviews and write this blog. I also read a Jack Reacher novel. I hoped that it would be so simplistic it would bore me to sleep. Nope. The hours just keep going around while my brain refuses to shut down.
I had another breakfast of way too much food at the breakfast buffet. Buffets are the devils tools.
Sunday was our first scheduled interview. We were going to Buda to interview Jeno Hamori. Hamori was one of the younger guys on the 1956 team.
There was no traffic on the drive, so we crossed over the Freedom bridge into Buda with plenty of time to spare. We hung out in the wifi enabled Mercedes for about ten minutes before ringing Mr. Hamori's bell.
Hamori lives on the fourth floor of his building. The building houses one of the world's smallest elevators which necessitated two elevator rides to get all the gear up to Hamori's floor. From his balcony, you can see almost see the back side of the Budapest Castle. Two castle towers broke the ridge, piercing the cloud filled sky.
Hamori was a pretty good interview. He spent a good portion of the time cursing the state of modern fencing. He also gave a strong feeling of dislike for Piller's widow. As usual, the interview wandered around at the end as HK chased small points of interest or had to share stories of his own. All I know is my foot is killing me and I want desperately to turn off the cameras, but they are still chatting.
I wrapped up all the gear and carried it down to the car while HK scanned a bunch of photos Hamori had assembled. Most of them we had never seen before. I was done before HK so I spent that time playing with Hamori's Border Collie, Houdini.
Hamori agreed to go with us to lunch on the condition, we go to this outdoor restaurant that accepts dogs. Houdini stayed with us for a minute on the walk before dashing off to visit a german shepherd. It was a really nice restaurant that had a covered outdoor patio sitting next to a railway car. Since, we were outside most of our fellow restaurant goers felt free to smoke. A stiff breeze took care of some of the second hand smoke.
Hamori quizzed us on the state of politics and how we felt about the global situation. Houdini rejoined us, a ball stolen from the German Shepherd in his mouth. That had to be sorted out.
The waiters at the restaurant were in no hurry, so two hours later, lunch was finished. By the time we got back to the hotel, Sandor had put in two hours more than we had paid him for. I told him we would cut him loose early on Monday to make up for it.
Ferenc, the bellhop, is getting good at the drill of getting my gear from the car to the hotel rooml. Big tips are a great motivator. On the way out in the morning, he intervened between me and a Romanian who had got it in his head that I should give him a ride to the airport, along with a plea for money.
I charged batteries and ingested footage onto the hard drive for my afternoon chores. I also printed out my question list and release statement. I get this done by the fabulous method of emailing them to the front desk. I go down later and they hand me the printouts. I love the hotel Nemzeti.
For dinner, we went to the execrable Rackosi Grill. It was a buffet where you picked your chilled meats and the chef cooks them up for you. The assortment was bad. The food was flavorless. The deserts were okay. And again, I shouldn't be going to buffets. But we did learn a valuable lesson, the closer we go to the river from the hotel, the better are the restaurants. Rackosi was away from the river.
I also have broken my new international phone I purchased for the trip. At some point, while it was sitting in my camera backpack, the screen broke. I turned it on to make a call to Norbert Maday and all I saw was this weird black pattern filling the screen. I could still make the call because the bottom quarter of the screen was partially legible. But the rest of the screen was a waste. A call to my cel provider, informed me that there was nothing they could do about me breaking my phone. Time to find a cheap unlocked phone to replace the broken one. In the meantime, I'm taking HK's phone to use since he still has his iPhone with roaming on it.
As for the call to Maday, well, not so good. He's now on vacation with his family. He won't be back for I think a week. It is always tough with him on the phone. He seems to answer questions I haven't quite asked. And he talks fast like he has something to do rather than this phone call. I think he requested I call him later in the week to finalize a time for an interview.
Woohoo, tonight is the night I'm going to sleep well. I'm exhausted and I stayed up late, so I'm sleeping in.
Monday sucks - Greg - 08-15-2016
I'm counting the fact that I slept until 2 as a major victory. I actually felt refreshed as I ate breakfast in the dining room. Oddly, on Sunday, I had eaten right when they had opened and then gone on the hunt for an ATM to solve my cash flow problem. I came back later and found HK eating his breakfast. He was very pleased with himself that he had gotten to breakfast that morning first. I quickly dissuaded him of that notion.
The process of moving the bags from my room to the car is going much too smoothly. And Sandor, our driver, is always prompt. It's almost like we know what we are doing. The ride to the House of sport only took a minute so again, we were early.
Which was good, since the security guard at the gate wouldn't let us in. I didn't have a number for our contact, only her name and floor number. I had emailed her the license plate of the vehicle but I guess that information hadn't trickled down to the garage shack. Mr. Security Guard wanted us to wait another half hour on the street until people showed up for work.
As Sandor backed the car out, he spotted a car with Fencing, in Hungarian, printed on the side. The guy in that car talked to the guard and somehow straightened things out for us. To the guards misgivings, he let us into the parking lot for the building.
We took the elevator up to the third floor to meet Eve Keresztes, who had agreed to give us a room for the interview. Originally it was going to be in the Aladar Gerevich sports hall, but I felt that might be too big for our purposes,so she found us a place in her building.
Sort of. The first place she offered was out in the hall, where everyone was walking by. The second place was down in the lobby, a worse choice than the hallway. Finally, she opened up a conference room for us to use. HK and I only had to move four tables to make it usable.
Monday's interview was with Lidia Domolky Sakovics. She was a foil fencer on the team that defected in 1956. We had interviewed her brother back in Boston and were now going to get her perspective on Piller and the defection. The odd part was that she went back to Hungary only a year after the defection.
Xenia was with us for this round, since Lidia requested a translator. She showed up on time and everything. Although she did need a coffee immediately. We were still setting up so she hustled down to the coffee shop in the lobby.
Now, I had prepped Lidia that these interviews can take some time. But I guess that message never sunk in. Or maybe it didn't matter how long the interview ran, she didn't want any part of it. From the second she sat in the chair, she wanted it to be over, for whatever reason.
The way we've been doing the interviews is by asking a lot of questions about the persons background. That seems pretty standard. Plus, we've been trying to get various perspectives about what it was like to be in Hungary during the uprising, so we had a lot of questions about that. Look, we have a lot of questions. We have a lot of things we don't know. We came to you to get those answers. That is how interviews work. Lidia worked as a journalist. She should know that.
We were deep into the Hungarian uprising discussion when she balked. She wanted to know when we were going to talk about Piller, ostensibly the reason she was there. She paled when we told her we had four pages of questions and we were on page one.
Nothing was to be done but to go to the questions about Piller. And what did she have to say about Piller? Not much. Piller wasn't her coach. She was a foil fencer. She was young when she was around him.
Actually, I'm not sure how full her answers were. Lidia answered in Hungarian. Xenia did a partial translation to speed things up . Later on, Xenia was going to fully write out Lidia's answers. On top of having a hostile witness, the process went slowly. Although, I think Lidia could have done the interview in English. Several times she started to answer in English, realized she was speaking English, and then switched to Hungarian.
After that, we started throwing huge chunks of the interview out. Every couple of minutes, Lidia mentioned that she had to get home to cook lunch for her grandchildren. I'm marking this whole experience down as poor.
A bit defeated, we lugged all the equipment down to the car after putting the conference room back the way we found it. Xenia did point out to us the building had bad vibes and was making her feel claustrophobic. Ah, Xenia.
Sandor was a bit late getting back to us. He had gone to get a bite to eat thinking we would be a lot longer at the interview. Traffic was horrendous along his route back to us. I gave Xenia the list of calls locally to make for upcoming interviews. She also said she would look for some sand bags for us, despite not really knowing what sandbags were.
We had a ton of time to kill before our afternoon meeting at the Museum of Military History with Dr. Sallay Gergely. All that time was eaten up by traffic on the short journey between the House of Sports and the Hotel Nemzeti. It took five minutes in the morning to get there. It took almost a half hour to get back.
I thought we would have about an hour at the hotel. It turned into a ten minute turn around. I was trying to get Sandor done early to make up for the time yesterday, but the traffic over into Buda, killed that, too.
We had twenty minutes before our meeting so we ate lunch at a nearby cafe. I had more Goulash.
Dr. Sallay was a stark contrast to the morning interview. He couldn't have been more helpful. After a short meeting with the deputy director of the museum, Colonel Atilla Ban, who basically wanted us not to fuck with the museums collection, but couched it very politely, Sallay took us to his conference room where he had all the artifacts laid out.
Here is a small example of how gracious or thoughtful was Dr. Sallay. Knowing I was going to photograph medals, I wanted to get a piece of fabric to put behind the medals. I hadn't had time to go to a fabric store so I ended up bringing a dark t-shirt along as a backing.
When we walked into the room, I noticed among the medals and trophies, three bolts of cloth. Dr. Sallay had brought them thinking it would be nice to use behind the medals. Not one, but three bolts. He wanted to make sure I had choices.
It took me about two hours to photograph Piller's medals, trophies, and paintings. While I photographed, HK scanned all the files relating to Piller in the museum's collection. Again, thoughtful Sallay, had placed all the previous scans the museum had done on a thumb drive and given them to us. He also gave us digitized copies of all the pictures in the museum collection of Piller. HK was astounded by all the different pictures of Piller he had never seen before.
My hand cramped while I took pictures of all the medals. The medals had come into the collection via Jeno Hamori. Hamori had gotten them from Mrs.Piller. Mrs. Piller wanted to make a swap of the medals with the Hungarian government for a comfortable apartment in Budapest. When that didn't happen, she just dumped them in Hamori's lap.
Most of the military documents were found rotting at a flea market.
It was a bad morning, saved by a good afternoon.
At the hotel, I offloaded and charged batteries. I went out and tried to find an unlocked phone to replace the broken one. There were plenty of ones down in the underground, but the one I found didn't work with my Sim card.
After several attempts, I was able to get money out of the ATM. It took me several tries because I was trying to figure out how many Hungarian Forints equalled my daily cash withdrawal limit. For the curious, it was 80000.
We ate dinner at Il Terzo Cerchio. It was closer to the river, so it was better than the previous nights meal. We probably could have stopped eating after the anti-pasta plate of meats and cheese. But we didn't know how big and filling it was going to be when I ordered it.
HK and I discussed our plans for the upcoming week as we usually do during meals. Although, we don't have any solid dates beyond Wednesday's interview with Dr. Sakaly, we do have a lot of potential interviews. Dr. Sallay confirmed the military will let him speak. And so will Dr. Kovacs, who is the head of the Museum of Military History. They just don't know when. Maday and Mohos are still floating out there. Along with maybe four others. I still have to film some exteriors of Budapest. We are planning to go to Eger and see the house Piller grew up in. And we have to strong arm the Hungarian Film Archive for their collection.
It comes down to this: We have a lot to do in the next 11 days. None of it is planned.
Slacker Central - Greg - 08-21-2016
There should be words here. But I've been hella busy. Six days until the plane departs and I'm still scrambling.
Awh, crap... - cranefly - 08-21-2016
Awh, crap.
Now I'm going to have to get a book from the library for something to read.
Hey! - Greg - 08-21-2016
So many ways to take CF's post. Am I writing too much and I should keep my post brief. Or maybe he just likes the library? Or is it just a guilt fueled inducement to get me back on it.
Rather than writing, I'm going to go ponder.
Come on, brain, remember the bits - Greg - 08-22-2016
Tuesday Aug 16th
Sorry, but that seems like a month ago. I've been looking at pictures and the calendar to figure out what the hell happened on that day. Plus, the run from Friday afternoon to Monday morning was particularly full. And now that I collapse with exhaustion and sleep through the night. I don't have that 5 hour insomnia block to use to write this blog. I think in the first seven days I slept about 20 hours total.
Excuses Excuses Excuses.
I might have gone for a big walk in the morning. I don't know. I probably had breakfast because there is still a free breakfast buffet down on the first floor under the stained glass ceiling. The same room we tried to destroy with the Hussars.
One quick thought about this hotel because I don't want to miss this point. They haven't gotten the memo about tipping. Or they are doing it wrong. Every day, I have the bell boy bring my bags down to the car because I am weak and there are so many bags. One day I gave Igor, part of the rotating bell boy cast, a 2000 HUF tip ( about 7$) and he declined it. He said I had tipped him yesterday. What the hell? And then I tried to tip the manager for giving me a great rate to use a room to do our interviews on Friday. It was about a $300 discount. I figured I could give her $50. She said no. She said I could tip her at the end of my stay, if I still wanted to tip her. This place is a mad house.
Tuesday was our date with Dr. Laszlo Szepisi. Look, everyone has a doctorate in this country. Just like everyone has a Hussar statue. Dr. Szepisi coached the French National Team for many years, very successfully, before just recently returning to Hungary. I got connected to him through Richard Cohen. Szepisi coached Ralph Fiennes for the fencing bits in the movie Sunshine. The character in Sunshine was an amalgamation of two Hungarian Sabre Fencers Atilla Petschauer and Endre Kabos. Both of whom worked with Piller before World War 2. Both of whom also died in World War 2. Ah, stories.
Beside being doctors and owning Hussar statues, all our former champions are rich. Szepesi was not an exception. He had an actual house, which I hadn't seen yet in Hungary. I had seen houses, just there were few of them. The house was at the back of a lot of four other houses. The only way to get there was to walk up a lot of stairs. Did I mention I have a lot of gear?
Well, I did some reconfiguring and we made the climb in only one trip.
Szepisi lives behind a security gate. Xenia got out and needed a smoke break. Since I wasn't sure if Szepisi had enough English to answer the bell, I waited while she smoked. When she realized, we were waiting on her she got all flustered. She wanted it to be known that she hates it when people wait on her. She promptly put out the cigarette and I buzzed us in. If she doesn't want people to wait for her, why is she always late in the morning.
Dr. Szepisi is also unclear on the concept. Rather than being interlopers in house demanding answers to our questions, he treated us like guests. He had bottles of water set out. He wanted to know if we would like coffee. It's weird. And we couldn't make the film without these people.
I set up while HK showed off his photo albums. There was a lot of interpretation between HK and Szepisi. Xenia was getting a work out. When I finished, they were still talking. I needed to get a move on since we were outside and the sun has a tendency to shift . I didn't want a repeat of an interview I did in Oregon where the interview started in the shade but ended up in the bright sunlight. The outside dining area we were in was roofed in a curved ivy covered arbor, but I could see the sun starting to peak through. Greg loves and hates the sun.
There was a dog present. I think her name was Gertie. She spent a lot of time drooling and sleeping at her father's feet. On two occasions I'm pretty sure I'm going to hear the clicking of her nails as she ran across the concrete tiles in our interview area.
I can't remember the content of the interview but it seemed to go very well, except for the interpreting bit. I got a little grumpy trying to get Xenia to give me longer interpretations. She felt she could just give me a written translation later to fill the bill. I told her it would be of great fucking help if I had some sense of what the people were saying when I started to cut the film.
The second problem was that while I was setting up Xenia wore herself out doing the translating between HK and Szepisi. About ten minutes into the interview, we had to stop because Xenia was losing her voice. She needed something to drink. Dr. Szepisi, still not understanding our respective roles, offered her a glass of wine. She gratefully accepted. I think it was about 10am at this point. She eventually would require two glasses. That's our Xenia. I don't think she sees the correlation between her smoking and her chest problems.
After the interview, Szepisi showed us some of the great pieces in his fencing collection. The prize was probably the sword and mask of Aladar Gerevich, six time Olympian. The sword hanging on the wall was used in three Olympics. Although how you can use a sword without it breaking over the course of at least 12 years, I don't know.
Still unclear on the concept, Dr. Szepisi demanded to help us carry one of the bags down the stairs to the car. Initially, I refused to give him one, but on the way down he grabbed one out of my hand. Seriously, these people.
Szepisi lives across the river in Buda, which is also where the Hungarian Film Archive is located. I figured it was a two bird and one stone type of day, so we were just going to go to the Archive and rush the gates.
I had been in contact with one of the guys at the archive. He had given me some links to some films HK and I hadn't seen before. He also mentioned that he had some films in the archive that hadn't been scanned and put up on the web. He, being Palos Abel. Unfortunately, he had not responded to my emails for about two months. My plan was to get Xenia to call over there until they let us in the door.
Which she did. Xenia made contact and pretty soon we were standing in the lobby of the archive meeting with the archivist. Mr. Palos was still on vacation. Because of this call, Xenia's stock soared in HK's eyes. I couldn't say a bad thing about her. He was also sticking up for her and commenting on the difficulty of her job. She spoke Russian natively and was having to interpret from Hungarian to English and back again, using terminology she was completely unfamiliar with.
When you put it that way, it was a hard job. But, um, that's what she signed up for. Now, there are two teams on the film crew: Pro-Xenia and Anti-Xenia. Although, I go back and forth.
They were helpful at the Film Archive. The let us look through the files. We had seen most of the films they had on line. Xenia made plans to return to the archive with a list from me of what to look for in the archives. At some later date, we would sit down and see what else was hiding in there vaults.
I spent the afternoon recharging batteries and ingesting footage.
Write - cranefly - 08-22-2016
Write.
And write lots. It's great.
BTW, I think all that driving in the States might have triggered the plantar fasciitis. I read that it's a known cause.
I don't know how you're massaging it, but some friends swear by using a tennis ball or other round or cylindrical object. Place it on the floor, plant your foot on it, and just move the foot around, working the ball (or cylinder) into the arch to massage and stretch the tendons. You could do that while on the laptop. Maybe you're already doing something like that.
Do something about it? Crazy talk! - Greg - 08-22-2016
The Greg way is to push on through the pain like a manly man. Pain is for the weak. The Greg way also seems to make him talk in the third person
Actually, I have bent a little and I'm taking Advil. I'm also doing some stretching. The pain is much less this week. Although it hurts like a mother when I put weight on it first thing in the morning.
However, all the limping is throwing my left knee out of whack. It has decided it no longer wants to bend. Push on, soldier!
In completely unrelated news, HK is spending the day in bed after a night on the toilet. He is trying to rally for this afternoon's trip to the film archive. I've already limped out to get him some water. (This would be on Aug 22)
Keep plugging Greg! - Drunk Monk - 08-22-2016
You should call this chapter of THE LAST CAPTAIN - Balls out in Budapest.
Advil is for pussies. You need flexeril or oxy. Don't mess around.
Poor HK. Too much goulash, was it?
Brain pwer - Greg - 08-25-2016
It's the last full day in Budapest. My mind has decided the body is no longer sick, despite all signs to the contrary and to get it's ass out of bed. We are not going out with a whimper.
First stop, breakfast buffet.
Check all the local infirmaries for me later.
Toronto Blues - Greg - 08-27-2016
I'm sitting here in the Toronto trying to convince myself to crack out the word. There are so many stories left to tell. Not the least of which was the prostitute on our route to the airport who gave me a big smile as I passed. I blame it on the Mercedes Van we were in.
The check in desk at the Budapest Airport was a treat. Our driver phoned ahead and porters met us at the curb to shift the bags. But at the counter it was nothing but nightmare. I spent 35 minutes with the clerk trying to straighten out my ticket. In Toronto, they finally decided I was traveling with enough gear that it should be declared. They took me into the back room to explain why I can't travel the world with this much gear without filling out the proper paper work. Agent Carter let me go with a warning and a promise if he sees me again without the proper papers my fine will on the catastrophic side
But I'm tired. My stomach still roils. There is still plenty of time for the travel imps to play mischief with me. Although, thankfully, the woman who latched onto me on the Budapest leg of the flight is thankfully gone. I even saw her in the little room with Agent Carter. And my flight has been delayed. But only fifteen minutes. Although 15 minutes seems like a margin of error rather than an actual delay. Best of all, while I wait here, there is another flight boarding for Los Angeles. The woman friend is on the earlier flight.
radar screen shows nothing - cranefly - 08-28-2016
Waiting to hear a blip here. Hope you made it home safely and in good health, and with your disposable camera. No, wait. You took more than that with you. Anyway, hope everything got home in one piece.