Soledad's Journal

So, now comes the rest of the pictures in a colourful mix.

First another felt pic for meathiel - one that I failed to upload yesterday. What you see are felted shoes and bags.



( Basket weavers and other straw stuff )

( Various smiths )

( Wood and bone workers )

There were several artisans specialized in decorating eggs. Here are two examples:



(on the left side some very pretty embroidery)



There were also quite a few leather workers, but I couldn't find a good angle from where to take pictures. The ungodly amount of pottery pics are coming up in the next entry.

There will be more, as I can't stuff 35 photos into a single entry. Those of you who are impatient to see everything right now can check out my newly created Pinterest board.

So, we made it to the fair, despite the insane heat an the traffic problems. It took place in Buda Castle, which isn't easy to reach unless you are willing to climb several hundred stairs up the Castle Hill - we opted for the Castle Bus. Unfortunately, we couldn't catch it at the usual stop because the kays are closed due to the upcoming national holiday (tomorrow), when there will be fireworks. Those are put in place several days earlier. Fantastic timing from the organizers of the fair. [/sarcasm]

In any case, it took us three times as long to get to the Castle Hill as it would take otherwise, and the fact that the Hill is paved with those old-fashioned square stones that aren't fully put into the earth but build a very uneven surface didn't make things easier for Mum. Poor thing was done in by the time we arrived at the fair site. I had a t-shirt with a V-neck in, the neck constantly pulled to the side by my shoulder bag - now I have a bizarrely shaped sunburn on the upper part of my chest. Really bizarre.

Anyway, the fair itself was very interesting. A great many craftsmen and craftswomen were present, from various parts of the country and even from Transylvania, and there were rug-makers and felt workers from Uzbekistan, calligraphers from China and Japan (supposedly, as the only thing I found was the Chinese tea tent) and so on. I couldn't really explore as I'd have preferred because of Mum - the stupid thing was that there weren't any chances to sit down with a coffee or some soft drink. There was practically no food, likely because a food fair was going on in some other part of the Castle. Ah, well, we went to Stühmer's Café afterwards and had iced coffee.

The main focus was this time on wood carving, pottery, felt work and textile works. In this first section I'll show you photos about the felt tents and their surprisingly sophisticated inside. Some of the photos aren't very good - it was hard to take photos at all, because of the crowd and the harsh sunshine, but I'm fairly content how they turned out.

( Picspam behind the tag )

So much for today, there are a lot more pictures to come yet. As always, click to enlarge.

Listen to the English version of a beautiful Hungarian ballad - OT: "Bordódi Kristóf", as sung by our greatest contemporary singer, Zsuzsa Koncz.

I was delighted to discover it on YouTube, less than an hour ago.

I've finally come around to start posting my grand epos - yeah, the one lacking a fairly large portion from its middle. It doesn't matter, though; it will be months, if not years, until I get to the parts that need to be written anew, so what the heck. I've started, which is the most important thing. Since I can't hope to get it published any time, I thought Fictionpress.Com will be the only solution.

Since it's written in Hungarian, which none of my friends understand, giving the link is actually a moot point. Nonetheless, should someone wish to take a look at the beauty that is my mother tongue, just from the purely aesthetics of it, it can be found here. And perhaps someone who understands Hungarian stumbles over this entry (like altariels sister) and gives the story a chance. *g*

Just a little background trivia, not to the original mythology but to the actual adventure series - the one that consisted of more than 1,000 pages.

Behold the Order of the Falcon
( Read more... )
Sounds weird, doesn't it? Still interested? *g*

BOOK ONE OF THE ROYAL CHRONICLES OF PENDARLON
THE TALES OF WHITEHORSE’S SON
The storyteller’s word to the listeners

Based on Hungarian folk tales - which is all that is left from our original culture. The Hungarian version is posted to hiddenrealms. This is just a raw translation and doesn't even come close to it.
( Read more... )

This is Brother Servatius, a Hungarian Benedictine. A lay brother I used to know well. For me, he's the closest thing to Brother Cadfael. No offence intended to Sir Derek Jacobi, I'm sure he did a great job in the TV-series, but for me he just doesn't look like Cadfael. The above picture isn't very good, Br. Servatius is actually a lot more Cadfael-like in real life, but this was the only one I could find on the Net.

Also, the Cadfael database is growing nicely on the re-vamped multifandom Otherworlds group. Since my collegues never cared to use it for its original purpose, I changed the name and turned it into a group where I can store original writings, medieval stuff and the likes. But I think I already told so. Never mind, it seems I'm a bit distracted lately.

The Auchan supermarket in our neighbourhood has big DVD sales all around the year, where you can buy DVDs for the equivalent of 3 or 4 Euros. Usually, it's just junk - American action movies nobody cares for any longer, or black and white Hungarian ones my grandparents used to enjoy in their youth. Or not. But this week we really, really had a case of luckies.
( Read more... )

I know that all this stuff probably means nothing to you guys. I just added a few links to show that we have more to offer than just wine and paprika.

Oh, and by the way: while US studio bosses were fainting in shock about alien princesses' visible belly button in the original Start Trek, we already had close ups on bare tits in A Hungarian Nabob, back in 1966! *g*

I added Chapter 4 to "The Joy Machine" and a half-finished Chapter 11 to "The Lost Warrior". The former can be found on FF.Net and otherworlds_lib, of the latter you can only get a sneak peek at the LJ community.

In other news, it's snowing, but I don't believe that would hinder our self-proclaimed patriots to ruin half the city centre again. Gosh, I hate this. I wish my groups in every fandom weren't dead, so that I could take my mind off what's happening around me and happily occupy it with things that really don't matter.

Is posted to FF.Net and otherworlds_lib. I'm on a roll, it seems. Another few weeks of sick leave and I'd actually finish the whole thing. 750+ hits on FF.Net and amazing 4 reviews. Wonders never cease...

Alas, I'll have to go back to work on Tuesday again. But, well, the bucks need to be earned somehow. Not that I'd be so much better, but I can at least sleap during the night, and that's something. But I still feel like sh*t.

A former student visited me today, to congratulate me to my birthday, a bit belatedly. It was still sweet of her. But I've talked more than during the last week and a half counted together, and now I can barely whisper again. Ah, hell, at least we had fun.

Other than that, nothing much to report. We're fearing October 23 like crazy, but perhaps a wonder will happen and we all get away unhurt.

Oh, and if you're a fan of the original Battlestar Galactica, read this article by Dirk Benedict. Altough I find it a bit far-fetched that he blames feminism for so many things (well, he's a man, the poor devil), the rest of what he writes is, well... interesting.