08-13-2016, 07:42 PM
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.
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.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm