Taken in December of 2014 at the University of Pécs
DAILY PHOTO: Bronze Tree Plaque
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Category Archives: Hungary
DAILY PHOTO: A Bus in the River
Taken in December of 2014 in Budapest
Amphibious tour vehicles have been around for a while. However, most of the ones that I’ve seen are “Ducks”–the converted DUKW military amphibians. In Budapest this winter was the first time I’d seen one that looked like a run-of-the-mill tour bus–at least as it was tooling down the Danube. (Granted, most of my travel is in the developing world, so maybe these “buses” are old news throughout Europe and North America.)
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DAILY PHOTO: Yellow Façade in Vác
Taken in Vác in December of 2012
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DAILY PHOTO: Várkert Palota Under Stormy Skies
Taken in Budapest in December of 2014.
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DAILY PHOTO: The Puppy Who Didn’t Know How Much He Could Chew
Taken in December of 2014 in Budapest in the City Park (Városliget)
I watched this little dog carry this stick across Budapest’s City Park. He set it down once, or maybe twice, to regrip it in its teeth, but otherwise it kept trotting along. The stick was about 1.5 times the dog’s length and about the diameter of a woman’s wrist.
The expression goes, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” but I applaud that this puppy was willing to shoot for the stars.
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DAILY PHOTO: Castle House in Vác
Taken in Vác in December of 2014
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DAILY PHOTO: Terror House in Black & White
Taken in December of 2014 in Budapest
Terror Háza is a museum of the atrocities committed by the fascist and communist regimes in Hungary. It is housed in a building, Andrássy út 60, that was used by both those regimes for torture and imprisonment of dissenters.
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DAILY PHOTO: Lost Baby Sock Hung on a Fence Post
Taken in Szentendre in December of 2014
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BOOK REVIEW: Quarantine in the Grand Hotel by Jenő Rejtő
Quarantine In The Grand Hotel by Jenő Rejtő
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
[Note: This book is published by Corvina Books, which is a Hungarian publisher that—among other things—specializes in translations of Hungarian literature (into mostly English and German.) I bought the book on a recent trip to Budapest. I mention these two facts because this seems to be an expensive and / or difficult to acquire work outside of Hungary. A cursory Amazon search brought up copies only at an exorbitant rate. In Hungary I paid 2500 forint (about $9 USD at the time), which I would consider on the high side of what the book is worth. It’s a good book, but it’s a 160-page pulp-fiction paperback novel written about 80 years ago.]
Quarantine in the Grand Hotel is a murder mystery set on a fictional resort in Indonesia (or thereabouts.) However, it’s not your typical dour mystery. It’s as much of a satirical humor novel as it is a mystery. I was hooked with the first paragraph, which reads, “When Maud returned to her room, she saw a man emerge from her wardrobe. Dressed in pyjamas and wearing a bright green lampshade on his head, the stranger beamed a friendly smile at her.” From that point, I had to know who the man in the pyjamas is and how he got there, and that information doesn’t come immediately or without false leads.
The premise is that the resort is quarantined and a murder takes place there (actually two murders.) It’s not a creative premise. The hotel setting allows the author to bring together an international cast of characters (suspects) some of whom would believably have secrets or be leading double lives. Where the creativity comes in is both in the humor, and in the skilled reveals. Rejtő used cliff-hanger chapter closings to good effect. He also plants false information, e.g. in the form of false confessions designed to protect loved ones that may or may not have actually committed a crime.
Rejtő (who wrote under the nom de plume “P. Howard”) was a Hungarian journalist and author. He wrote this and most of his books in the 1930s. He died in a forced labor camp in axis-controlled Soviet territory during World War II. He’d displeased the Hungarian Arrow Cross Militia (i.e. the Hungarian fascists) and was sent to a labor camp at the front.
I’d recommend this book for those who like light, humorous novels. If you’re a hardcore mystery fan, it might seem a little silly and ham-handed. If you are looking for a novel that offers insight into Hungarian literature, I don’t think this one is for you. The setting is not Hungarian, the major characters are not Hungarian, and I would hazard to say that most people wouldn’t know that this translation wasn’t written by a British, or other English-language country, author.
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DAILY PHOTO: Széchenyi Tér in Pécs
Taken in December of 2014 in Pécs
The photo above and the photo below were taken at almost the same time (around dusk), but with some adjustments to the manual settings. (You can see the time continuity in the clouds above the hotel in the right half of the photo.) What a difference a few clicks make.
