Anna!

Anna Ruth Tucker, daughter of our dear friends, Ken and Laura Tucker, who live in Cluj Romania, is studying violin here at Crescendo. During the school year, she is a student at Oberlin.

Luncheon

Our informal English-speaking faculty luncheon at a very good restaurant near Tokaj.

What?!

I don't think there is any conscious rivalry with Wales.

Cool street!

David Gier conducted the wind ensemble in Dvorak's Serenade on Saturday afternoon in the town square. Note the pork-pie straw hats--very cool!

Street concert!

Every year Crescendo presents music in the street in Tokaj. Here are some shots from Saturday's street concert: 

Rehearsal!

My friend, Delta David Gier, conducting rehearsals of Dvorak 

Serenade for Woodwinds above and Tchaikovsky 5th below

Monteverdi

Here is our dear friend, Dr. Marcel Zwitser, giving a fascinating lecture on Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, specifically, the Biblical references contained in the libretto.

Crops

Tokaj is surrounded by hills, cultivated with wine grapes.

Giant sunflowers are a frequent sight.

Tokaj!

Tokaj is in the center of the wine district. See Tokaj.hu 

The town is small (no Starbucks). The weather is lovely so far, temp around 75. Of course everyone is just fainting from the heat!

Welcome to Hungary...

...land of no cognates!

I cannot read a single word on street signs. I have no idea what the above sign says. Thank Heaven for the illiterate signs on the road for rest stops, gas, lodging, etc.

We are there!

At the Crescendo Summer Institute.

http://www.crescendohungary.org/en

At the opening session, Beat Rink speaking.

and us listening:

Over 300 participating from 34 countries.

Also stork Zarathustra

Farewell to K+K

and on to Tokaj.

Our hotel NOT

Our car rental YES

Breakfast at the K+K Opera Hotel

McDonald's+++

Tourists

A guy with a straw hat, Bermuda shorts, and a camera strap around his neck gives advice: "You have to haggle with them or they will think you're a tourist!"

Right.

Well, Budapest is jammed with tourists. The Fina Water Sports World Championships are being held in Budapest all this weekend and next week. The Hungarian Grand Prix F-1 car race is next weekend. Much of downtown looks like an Irish marketplace on nickel beer day.

It's been fun, but we will be glad to drive out of here tomorrow (assuming we CAN get out), headed for Tokaj.

Check out Fina http://www.fina.org/event/17th-fina-world-championships

Two objectives

I am the first international traveler to leave a computer power cable at home. The shame of this compelled me to slink over to NOTBOOKS.HU, five blocks from the hotel, and purchase an Hungarian one for $5. Said cable is presently powering this computer in a fully satisfactory way (so far), so there is hope for idiots.

The second mission was to obtain an Hungarian SIM card. At Vodophone, (four blocks the other way) I obtained the card, 100 minutes, and 5gB of data for $11. What a world we live in! Write to me if you want my phone number in Hungary.

Both missions accomplished, I began looking for something familiar. Walking back from Vodophone, this sight beckoned me:

I encountered one of these in Shanghai. Everywhere in the world, it seems, there are Irish.

Oh, coffee

Ellen insisted that we document my annual cup of coffee. Here's hoping to chase away my jetlag!

The reason that...

... the K+K Hotel Opera is so named:

is because this is about 25 paces away:

Home away from home

Ellen and I checked into the K+K Hotel Opera. Glad to be here, but exhausted. Good night.

In Europe

We are in the Frankfurt Airport awaiting our flight to Budapest which leaves at 5:15 am (my time). I have already purchased a $5 (sic) bottle of water. Still thirsty.

I am hearing a great variety of foreign languages. I must get used to this again. My usual way of dealing with language barriers is to speak slowly and real loud. Seems to work.

Our plane

Airbus A330-300

Anticipating...

Ellen Rose is all anticipation as we wait for our Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt.

Off to the wilds of Hungary

Once again, we are headed for Hungary on Wednesday to attend the Crescendo festival in Tokaj. We look forward to this every year, though last year we could not go because Ellen's broken ankle was not sufficiently healed. But this year, with Ellen's retirement from the Dallas Symphony, everything is looking up for our trip. There is a big bonus at the end. After the festival, we will return to Budapest and take a Viking river cruise down the Danube.
So, keep checking this blog. Sign up to follow this blog be email, so that you can notified of each post (about one per day). And to all our friends in Texas, we will be back in time to catch some of the heat!