Welcome 2013!

Happy New Year, everybody! Actually this year I didn't really feel anything much. Perhaps one of the reason was 'coz I had a morning shift on NY Eve and it was rather chaotic at work due to the fact that for two days straight prior to NY Eve, the weather was bad, so people opted to stay home. Therefore, they all came to the stores only on Monday. In the past I'd have time to reflect on things, but this time I was so exhausted that I had to take a nap at MIL's right after we had had a late lunch there ha ha ha...

Anyways, during the night we played cards as usual and then during midnight we went out to look at fireworks (MIL stayed inside, though). I didn't see too many fireworks this year, but this time MIL's neighbour lit two fireworks and I managed to take this pic. They were right on top of MIL's roof and they were SO noisy 'coz of the short distance. I took three other pics, but they didn't come out too well ha ha...One of them should've been good if not for the fact that one of the trees blocked 1/3 of it LOL!!!

It snowed a lot on the first day of the year. And the temperature's been very mild (closer to 0'C). Very surprising. I'm really excited 'coz I'm planning to visit my friend in Rovaniemi sometime this month. We haven't met each other in a few months already, so I'm sure we have a lot of things to talk about ha ha...and I'll also do some shopping while I'm there. 

You see, the last time we went to the cabin in Kelujärvi, I accidentally burnt the bottom parts of my good winter jacket sleeves. It was cold outside, so I was warming up my hands on top of the fireplace, but I didn't realize that I was too close to the heat. Doh!!! Yeah, stupid moi! I managed to fix them temporarily by putting on some black cellotape. It wasn't an expensive winter jacket, though. I bought it on sale at €20 (it was a children's jacket, you see LOL!!), but one time the zipper got broken and I had to fix it. Guess how much I had to pay for it? €20!!! (because it was a two-way zipper). But then again paying €40 for a jacket that has been faithful to me for 4 years is a bloody cheap investment, don't you think? HA HA HA HA HA HA...I can still keep this jacket at home, though, so when I need to shovel the snow outside I can just wear this one. :-D

So maybe it is time to buy myself a new winter jacket and I hope there are still good jackets on sale now that Christmas and New Year are behind us. :-D The hunt is on! :-D Oh, and while I'm in Rovaniemi, I'm also planning to have some Chinese lunch buffet HO HO HO HO HO HO...I'm drooling already! :-D

OK, now I still have tons of house chores to do. I'll blog-hop later in the evening. Today I received some good news. My Mom sent me an SMS and said that my SIL had been a few weeks' late, so it seems I'm gonna be an aunt again sometime this year! Let's hope that the pregnancy is going well until the end, shall we? :-D

St. Stephen's Day

Before going to Hungary, I contacted a Hungarian friend to ask if she had travel tips or recommendation for us. She then told us about St. Stephen's Day on August 20th and I was grateful for her info, because had she not told us about this, we wouldn't have known. She told us that most shops would be closed that day and that there would probably be special programs to commemorate the day.

In Keszthely itself and the beach, a few days prior to August 20th and most especially on August 19th, we felt the festive mood. They had bands playing in the beach for a few days prior to the day and there were lots of food and wine stalls as well as a few souvenir stalls. Here are some of them:

In the first pic I failed to capture the moment when some water came out of some of the holes on the ground behind R2. That was why the area looks very wet ha ha...

One of the bands performing...

One of the food stalls...

The closed-up picture of the food sold by the above stall. It cost 600 HUF (€ 2.2) in Heviz, but only 450 HUF (€ 1.6) in Keszthely. In the pic below, we were in Heviz. I wanted to buy one more before going back to Budapest, but alas...the stall that sold this was closed after St. Stephen's Day! :-(

 

One lovely marzipan stall:

There were also some stalls intended for kids like this one behind R2. We secretly called the balls "Hamster Cages" he he he...

And then a few days before St. Stephen's Day we went to a tourist info office in Keszthely and THANK GOD this time the woman spoke English. She said that there would be fireworks on August 20th and she showed us the leaflet with some programs on it. She herself didn't particularly know the performing bands, but at least it was enough for us to know the schedule.

I then asked if everything would be closed on August 20th and she said that big stores and supermarkets would be closed, but museums would still be open as well as restaurants. In fact, some of the museums were free on August 20th, so we made a point NOT to visit those museums before August 20th so that we wouldn't have to pay HA HA HA HA HA...ahem...

Anyway, I personally feel that after August 20th all the places become SO quiet, including Heviz and Keszthely. The guy who was at the Thai massage place said that around Balaton area, it's always like that after August 20th. All the private souvenir stores are closed earlier than before and there are no more food and wine stalls in Heviz as well.

The pic below is a pic of the stage in Heviz, though we never stayed in Heviz long enough to enjoy any of the performers there, but we did see a few performers in Keszthely beach and in Centrum.

The two "towers" on the right is the entrance to the famous Heviz Thermal Bath. The bus stops are directly on the left side of this photo, so it's very convenient for people who want to go to this thermal bath. 

Here's another view of Heviz Thermal Bath taken from the air balloon just to remind you that it's a HUGE area.

On August 20th there were SO MANY PEOPLE in the beach area, waiting for the firework display. I suppose many of them were the locals themselves. I was a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to watch the firework comfortably 'coz I'm a short woman (145 cm), but thankfully the beach is a huge area and the people didn't stand too close to one another so we had clear views of the fireworks. Here are some firework photos (silly me, I only found out last year that our camera had a firework mode! Doh!).

I took lots of pics, but some of them failed 'coz I obviously clicked at the wrong second ha ha ha...

It started at 9 pm and lasted about 15-20 minutes. In the beginning they shot only smaller fireworks but then they got bigger and bigger and bigger. Lovely! :-D

Fireworks

How was your New Year's Eve, everybody? Last night we didn't do anything much. Each of us spent time with our own computers and then we watched fireworks from our kitchen window. I wanted to take some pics of them with my slow digital camera, but it was SO hard, so I couldn't get too many good ones. I knew if I had gone outside the balcony, I would have been able to get better pics, but it was too cold last night. It was -17'C (today it's even colder, -19'C).

Even so, lots of people were outside last night, lighting up fireworks and fire crackers. Brrrrrrrrr...they started lighting up fireworks even at 7 pm already, can you believe it? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

My Brit friend MC went to Luosto with her hubby to have a date night and they enjoyed firework display there.

Last night hubby wanted to sleep early at first, since he had woken up at 7 am yesterday morning and he hadn't taken any nap, but since the fireworks made lots of noises outside, he decided to get up again and we ended up watching a cartoon together ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

Anyway, here are some of the pics I took last night. Mind you that my camera's not a photographer's camera, so there were SO MANY failed ones he he he...I had to use my night mode but it meant that my grip on the camera had to be SO steady. Plus I had to press the button at the right time, otherwise I wouldn't catch a thing. Oh well...I just want to share with you what I saw he he he he...hope they're at least clear enough for you.

First pic: I managed to take a pic of the firework before it fully "expanded itself". GRRR!!!!



Second pic: Around midnight a bunch of teenagers lit these kinds of fire crackers on our apt. building's parking lot.


The rest of the pics are the fireworks he he he he...