Kathryn’s Visit

Tom and I took our last train to Budapest on June 16^th in order to go pick up our rental car and Kathryn Rummel at the Budapest airport. It was our first trip to the airport since our own arrival on January 21^st. I was very excited to see our friend come through the sliding doors with suitcase in hand.

In her luggage were a swimsuit, hiking shorts, and sun hat of mine, all very important. I’m afraid that when she left on the 29^th, she was carrying more than this. She agreed to take one of our suitcases back for us. Tom put her in a taxi yesterday morning at five am. I am not a very good person; I slept. Both of us sending her off seemed excessive.

After Kathryn arrived in Hungary, Tom drove us to Pecs so we could show her our home and environs. She wanted to see the university and what our life was like. I arranged a lunch with three of my colleagues from Pecs for her to meet: Maria Kurdi, Gabi Voo, and Trudi Szamosi.

We showed her all the sights in one day so we had a busy day. First, the Basilica of St. Peter, a magnificent four-towered cathedral with the Bishop’s Palace next door.

We actually saw the bishop moving across the plaza; it was the one and only time I saw him.

We also went to the Csontvary Museum, my favorite along with the Zsolnay Porcelain Museum. One reason the Csontvary is so appealing is that it is so intimate—only five rooms of paintings in a beautiful 19^th century mansion. Born in 1853, Csontvary is an astonishingly original Hungarian painter, almost unknown in the west. One of my favorite paintings is a massive canvas that I tried to photograph called Baalbeck (1906).

Another unique work is called The Lonely Cedar (1907).

I think I forgot to mention that the day Kathryn arrived in Pecs it hailed. This is actually an understatement. None of us had seen a hailstorm like this. The hail was the size of tennis balls. We had just rented a car and parked it in a small spot in front of our apartment. It sat there for two hours before getting dinged. Now it has pits on the hood. It was difficult not to read too much into our friend’s arrival and her good luck. I watched the storm from our second story window. Hail cascaded down our little street followed by a stream of small green apples. I guess a whole tree must have lost its fruit. Weather continued to follow us into Croatia.