07-25-2016, 02:42 AM
The freeway or thruway as they call it here in New York, was wide open so we flew to Csaba Gall's house in White Plains. So much so that we had to kill twenty minutes before we pulled up to his house. We spent it at Starbuck's.
Csaba Gall has been the enigma on the schedule. Originally HK had been told not to interview him because he was a crook. The previous day, Pallaghy had been dismissive of him as well, saying he was too aggressive. I didn't have much hope for this interview.
As I pulled into his driveway, Pallaghy popped out onto his porch to greet us in his stocking feet. He seemed very excited to see us and ready to talk. Since I had been the one talking to Gall on the phone, I took the lead in our initial interview. Once again, Gall declared he didn't know Piller and didn't know what he could tell us. Then he launches into a story about seeing Piller at a changing of the guard in Budapest. We had never heard this story about Piller.
It was like we opened up a faucet with Gall. I was afraid he was going to spew out all his stories before I got the cameras rolling. He had pictures for us to see. He couldn't be nicer, a far cry from what I was led to believe about him. His girlfriend(?) was there and she too was the picture of hospitality.
Eventually, I got the cameras rolling and the rollercoaster of an interview went off. He had information on everyone we wanted to know about and a lot of the information was more than cursory. I still don't think we got a lot of information on Piller but we got a lot of information about his team. We got a great story on how Piller tricked Gurevich into losing. Gall was ready to talk all day.
And HK was ready to go right there with them. As we entered the third hour of talk, the interview veered into area that were far afield of what we needed. HK felt it was time to tell his own stories, that I heard before. I started turning off the cameras when he would launch into another pet story of his. There was a lot of talk about a Polish fencer who had been convicted of spying that went on forever. I kept wishing they would just wrap it up. But no. Although at one point, Gall did share a story and asked me to shut down the cameras.
On the whole it was a good interview. There is stuff there. But I wish it had been two hours of talking rather than three.
We checked into the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown and then went to lunch. The Marriott is the most expensive hotel we have stayed in so far and of course it is the first one to charge for Wifi. Grrrr. My wifi should be free, dammit.
We ate lunch at the El Dorado diner. From the outside, it looked like a dump, but was really nice inside. The problem came when we left.
When I pulled in, the parking lot was packed. I had very little room in the spot I was able to squeeze into, but I was between the white lines.
On the way out of the restaurant, the driver of this electric blue camaro, that was parked next to my van, drove past us to the exit. The camaro stopped. The driver got out. He asked if we were from around here. I thought he was asking for directions. I sheepishly said no. He waved, got back into his car, and drove off.
Yeah, he wasn't asking for directions. He was checking to see if I was going to track him down. I came to the car to find a big ding in the door and paint scraped off the fender. He had hit me on his way out. As I sat in the car, I saw him speeding onto th onramp. Oh, I was mad. Since I had used my own insurance rather than the Hertz insurance, I'm on the hook for the damage.
It's at this point, HK tells me has also damaged the car. When he was picking up Ben in Scranton, he drove into something and scraped paint off the bumper on the passenger side. Oh, I'm getting a nice bill from Hertz.
We went dinner in Pleasantville, mostly for name recognition. While dining, we got to see the Pleasantville Volunteer Fire Department in action. An alarm sounded from the fire station across the street from the restaurant. We all wondered what it was. Then about ten minutes later, the volunteer fire department strolled up. They didn't seem to be in quite a hurry. After another ten minutes, the fire truck pulled out of the fire station. It must have been a false alarm since the truck returned pretty quickly. A fellow diner at the restaurant told us how bad he thought the volunteers were doing.
When I travel, I like to get up early, drive like crazy and be where I'm supposed to be. HK, not so much. Sunday was the day to drive to New York City. I didn't have any interviews scheduled so we could take our time. HK was of the opinion we should sleep in and leave at 11am. Um, what? You would rather hang out in Tarrytown rather than in one of the greatest cities in the world? Um, no.
I agreed we would leave at 10am. HK rightfully argued that we probably couldn't check in at our hotel until the afternoon. But Marriott had sent me an app that I could use to check in early. I downloaded it and I checked in. At 7am, Sunday, I got an alert saying my room was ready. Woohoo. We left the hotel at 9ish and were at the hotel by 10.
When HK asked if his room was ready, I jokingly had told him who cares? My room was ready. When we tried to get his room at the hotel, it wasn't ready. Oops. So, we hung out in my room and formulated plans.
My plan was to leave the hotel and explore. Our Courtyard by Marriott is on 92nd Street and is only a mile from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I decided to go see that. HK had the unenviable task of trying to get Ben interested in doing something. Ben would have liked to spend the day in the hotel room with his headphones on.
I didn't care either way. I was leaving. HK got Ben to agree to go to Time Square. We walked together to the museum since it was on the way. We walked over historic streets like Park Avenue and Madison Avenue before hitting 5th avenue. We passed the museum that now holds the Klimt painting of Adelle Bloch Bauer. There was the Guggenheim. People were running a triathlon in the park. It was all very stimulating.
We parted ways at the museum. The Met has a pay what you want policy, but they would like it if you at least paid $25, which I did. The couple in the line behind me decided not to pay and walked in.
Like all great museums, the Met has entirely too much stuff. I opted to stick with the impressionists and the swords. Even that was too much. I did see Van Gogh's iconic self portrait in a straw hat. I saw a painting by neighbor separated by decades Jackson Pollack. I also saw more works by Rodin. There was just room after room of great paintings. I could probably have just spent an entire day in one of those galleries.
I was fading so I grabbed lunch in the basement cafeteria. I then ventured into the arms and armory wing. Again too much good stuff. I concentrated on swords and armor, although there collection of guns and rifles was pretty impressive. And if that wasn't enough, they had a bonus gallery of the weapons of islam, classic not modern. No one wants to see suicide vests.
I decided to walk around the reservoir in the park before I headed back to the hotel. It was all quite civilized. I passed plenty of people lost in the world of Pokemon Go. But it was a lovely walk in the 95 degree temperatures.
For dinner, we opted for something besides Italian food and went to a Chines restaurant. Ben decided it was okay to help himself to the mushu pork pancakes without eating any of the actual dish. But that was easily remedied.
Today, Peter Westbrook, a man who really doesn't know Piller. Westbrook didn't start fencing until after Piller was already dead. But he does know a compatriot of Piller, Csaba Elthes and hopefully he might have one or two nuggets to share.
Csaba Gall has been the enigma on the schedule. Originally HK had been told not to interview him because he was a crook. The previous day, Pallaghy had been dismissive of him as well, saying he was too aggressive. I didn't have much hope for this interview.
As I pulled into his driveway, Pallaghy popped out onto his porch to greet us in his stocking feet. He seemed very excited to see us and ready to talk. Since I had been the one talking to Gall on the phone, I took the lead in our initial interview. Once again, Gall declared he didn't know Piller and didn't know what he could tell us. Then he launches into a story about seeing Piller at a changing of the guard in Budapest. We had never heard this story about Piller.
It was like we opened up a faucet with Gall. I was afraid he was going to spew out all his stories before I got the cameras rolling. He had pictures for us to see. He couldn't be nicer, a far cry from what I was led to believe about him. His girlfriend(?) was there and she too was the picture of hospitality.
Eventually, I got the cameras rolling and the rollercoaster of an interview went off. He had information on everyone we wanted to know about and a lot of the information was more than cursory. I still don't think we got a lot of information on Piller but we got a lot of information about his team. We got a great story on how Piller tricked Gurevich into losing. Gall was ready to talk all day.
And HK was ready to go right there with them. As we entered the third hour of talk, the interview veered into area that were far afield of what we needed. HK felt it was time to tell his own stories, that I heard before. I started turning off the cameras when he would launch into another pet story of his. There was a lot of talk about a Polish fencer who had been convicted of spying that went on forever. I kept wishing they would just wrap it up. But no. Although at one point, Gall did share a story and asked me to shut down the cameras.
On the whole it was a good interview. There is stuff there. But I wish it had been two hours of talking rather than three.
We checked into the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown and then went to lunch. The Marriott is the most expensive hotel we have stayed in so far and of course it is the first one to charge for Wifi. Grrrr. My wifi should be free, dammit.
We ate lunch at the El Dorado diner. From the outside, it looked like a dump, but was really nice inside. The problem came when we left.
When I pulled in, the parking lot was packed. I had very little room in the spot I was able to squeeze into, but I was between the white lines.
On the way out of the restaurant, the driver of this electric blue camaro, that was parked next to my van, drove past us to the exit. The camaro stopped. The driver got out. He asked if we were from around here. I thought he was asking for directions. I sheepishly said no. He waved, got back into his car, and drove off.
Yeah, he wasn't asking for directions. He was checking to see if I was going to track him down. I came to the car to find a big ding in the door and paint scraped off the fender. He had hit me on his way out. As I sat in the car, I saw him speeding onto th onramp. Oh, I was mad. Since I had used my own insurance rather than the Hertz insurance, I'm on the hook for the damage.
It's at this point, HK tells me has also damaged the car. When he was picking up Ben in Scranton, he drove into something and scraped paint off the bumper on the passenger side. Oh, I'm getting a nice bill from Hertz.
We went dinner in Pleasantville, mostly for name recognition. While dining, we got to see the Pleasantville Volunteer Fire Department in action. An alarm sounded from the fire station across the street from the restaurant. We all wondered what it was. Then about ten minutes later, the volunteer fire department strolled up. They didn't seem to be in quite a hurry. After another ten minutes, the fire truck pulled out of the fire station. It must have been a false alarm since the truck returned pretty quickly. A fellow diner at the restaurant told us how bad he thought the volunteers were doing.
When I travel, I like to get up early, drive like crazy and be where I'm supposed to be. HK, not so much. Sunday was the day to drive to New York City. I didn't have any interviews scheduled so we could take our time. HK was of the opinion we should sleep in and leave at 11am. Um, what? You would rather hang out in Tarrytown rather than in one of the greatest cities in the world? Um, no.
I agreed we would leave at 10am. HK rightfully argued that we probably couldn't check in at our hotel until the afternoon. But Marriott had sent me an app that I could use to check in early. I downloaded it and I checked in. At 7am, Sunday, I got an alert saying my room was ready. Woohoo. We left the hotel at 9ish and were at the hotel by 10.
When HK asked if his room was ready, I jokingly had told him who cares? My room was ready. When we tried to get his room at the hotel, it wasn't ready. Oops. So, we hung out in my room and formulated plans.
My plan was to leave the hotel and explore. Our Courtyard by Marriott is on 92nd Street and is only a mile from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I decided to go see that. HK had the unenviable task of trying to get Ben interested in doing something. Ben would have liked to spend the day in the hotel room with his headphones on.
I didn't care either way. I was leaving. HK got Ben to agree to go to Time Square. We walked together to the museum since it was on the way. We walked over historic streets like Park Avenue and Madison Avenue before hitting 5th avenue. We passed the museum that now holds the Klimt painting of Adelle Bloch Bauer. There was the Guggenheim. People were running a triathlon in the park. It was all very stimulating.
We parted ways at the museum. The Met has a pay what you want policy, but they would like it if you at least paid $25, which I did. The couple in the line behind me decided not to pay and walked in.
Like all great museums, the Met has entirely too much stuff. I opted to stick with the impressionists and the swords. Even that was too much. I did see Van Gogh's iconic self portrait in a straw hat. I saw a painting by neighbor separated by decades Jackson Pollack. I also saw more works by Rodin. There was just room after room of great paintings. I could probably have just spent an entire day in one of those galleries.
I was fading so I grabbed lunch in the basement cafeteria. I then ventured into the arms and armory wing. Again too much good stuff. I concentrated on swords and armor, although there collection of guns and rifles was pretty impressive. And if that wasn't enough, they had a bonus gallery of the weapons of islam, classic not modern. No one wants to see suicide vests.
I decided to walk around the reservoir in the park before I headed back to the hotel. It was all quite civilized. I passed plenty of people lost in the world of Pokemon Go. But it was a lovely walk in the 95 degree temperatures.
For dinner, we opted for something besides Italian food and went to a Chines restaurant. Ben decided it was okay to help himself to the mushu pork pancakes without eating any of the actual dish. But that was easily remedied.
Today, Peter Westbrook, a man who really doesn't know Piller. Westbrook didn't start fencing until after Piller was already dead. But he does know a compatriot of Piller, Csaba Elthes and hopefully he might have one or two nuggets to share.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm