Thursday, November 9 - Town of Ocsa and Budapest City Park

 We rode by coach to the rural town of Ocsa, pronounced Oska. In this small town of 9000 residents are two noteworthy sites - the 13th century Protestant chuch and outdoor museum of life in Hungary centuries ago. The double walls of stone filled with lime attest to its longevity. The simplicity if the interior with fading frescoes educated the commonly non-reading residents of Bible stories.

 The small outdoor museum  displayed daily life in wealthy and vommon homes as well as a meat smoker and animal stalls as well, as a display if costumes/clothing. Married women wore head scarves and aprons. This visual education surpassed a book or lecture on the topic of rural life.

 Our coach returned us to the City Park. We crossed the street and visited Heroes Square. This huge area contains tall pillar and statues of 14 heroes, all male. We had Bern informed about several of them the past two days. The statue of the Hapsburg queen, Maria Teresa, and of four other Hapsburg rulers were replaced in order to try to forget the 400 year rule of the Austrian family. Interesting. 

  We lunched in a lovely restaurant jn the park on goulash soup and walnut paste-filled crepes with a drizzle of chocolate.  As we ate we could view and imagine the ice skating rink, just outside. In summer it is flooded for boating. Now it is a large cement area. Agnes, our city guide, let us know that she has many happy memories ice skating there as a child and also with her two sons.

  She led us on a walk around City Patk, around a huge and complex castle,  the recently-completed House of Music, and pointing out a couple other museums located in the park. Our tour concluded at the very large public bath house, it contains 15 heated mineral pools in two large buildings.  I seriously considered joining a couple others there. I decided, rather, to join a couple and explore more of the park. We visited the House of Music.  A concert hall, a library, music practice and education small rooms were filled with proper. Within the library we saw 86 CDs of folk music and remembered that Bartok and Kodaly collected over two hundred gold songs.

  We also visited the colums of varying heights memorializing the people who died in the 1956 revolution.  Nearby we walked up grated steps, up a slight slope to the the top of the ethnology museum. It appears underground and covered with grass and plants. A second section of the museum is identical in design and slope and faces the first section  of the building. From the top of the steps we had a wonderful and clear view of the City Park and city. After coming down to ground level we went inside and spent time walking around models of the the city- 1910 and current.  Video images of the city accompanied the models. This is an amazing park, also with plenty of green space for strollers and dogs.

  A short two block walk from the park to our hotel brought usby several embassies. Including Turkey and Serbia. A short time to relax and five of us were on our way back to the park and to the Hall of Music you a foncert of songs dunf by a Roma singer. Monika projected emotions with her loud singing, minor mode, and unusual vibrations. She spoke about her son's, in Hungarian, and she brought two young womrn who had apparently participated in her master class earlier in the week. Over a glass of sparkling wine and houlash soup we shared thoughts our impressions if the concert.

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