The Ványi Caravan 2020

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Trip start
January 1, 2020
The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
My own half marathon!
April 18, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
Finally- my first half marathon done! Despite the world clearly not wanting me to tick this off- two years after the initial planned race ( which I had to cancel due to injury) , the Covid lockdown cancels my this year's half marathon race. Then I decide to run it alone, without an official race. Then the authorities decide to close down Margit sziget for the Easter weekend ( ok, I'll wait and run next week!) , And the following weekend too. But I am no quitter ( at least not this time!) So I get up and start the run at 7:15 so I can enter the track before the police cars get there at 9. And voilà- by 9:30 the 21 km is behind me, and the beast that seemed quite beasty until now has been conquered. The girls and Gergő even got me medals- so yes,sometimes, on a small scale, you can have it all!Read more
Travelerwe are proud of you! greetings from Haifa
4/29/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
The seeds are sown
April 24, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
This year's 3 square meters garden: cherry tomatoes, full square meter of strawberries, zucchinis,radishes and salads. Beans and cucumbers are out due to last year's poor results- let's just focus on what worked! Updates to follow!Read more
TravelerKati, hope to taste some strawberries!👏👏👏
4/29/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Girls just wanna have hikes!
April 25, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C
So what are friends to do if there are no cafes,bars or restaurants to meet at? Head to the hills and woods- and spend 6 hours in nature. So we did with Tanya on a sunny ( and windy as hell!) Saturday morning. Destination Dömös- although most entrances to hiking routes were sealed off ( weekend Covid restrictions) we managed to find a few paths that didn't have a police watching over. Lots of woods, hills, a timber workshop, a fence to climb, a giant horse of a mythological breed, a stormy Danube bank, a picnkic by the river, Chinese families fishing for mussles- and all the same in a reverse order back to the car and home. Repeat again soon!Read more
Travelerhikes are the beautiful girls' best friends.
4/29/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Into the Páty woods
April 26, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Social isolation is no obstacle to visiting the nearby forests with Janó and co- so we, the girls, met up with Vedrana, Janó and David for an afternoon in the sun. A beautiful forest, deer crossing our path, frisbee on the meadow- making the best of the Covid lockdown. What a lovely spot- we will be back for sure!Read more
Travelerkolyas
4/29/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Run, Nóra, run!
May 9, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
Nora decided to join me on my run today- and did her first 5 km! Was it hot? It was! Did she walk some of the distance? She did ( but we didn't stop!). Did she look like a dying lobster when we climber back uphill from Gellért tér? She did. And did she make it? She did! Very proud of Nóra's first run!Read more
TravelerThe apple doesn t fall far from the tree!
6/4/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Animals calling
May 29, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
We finally set out to enjoy our present from Éva- a weeknd in a zoo hotel at the Nyíregyháza zoo. Just over two hours from Budapest, the zoo is one of the largest and diverse in Europe, with so many animals it really took us two days to see them all. It is also unusual in a sense that many animals are not enclosed by nets and cages, but rather by more natural dividers ( moats, cliffs, rocks etc), and hence look like they could be in their natural environment. But as with any zoo, this one also raises the philosophical argument of keeping living creatures in small enclosed spaces just for our enjoyments. A separate issue, about which the humanity can debate for many generations to come. But if set aside, the weekend was great- a break from hard work during Covid, with all four of us finally in the same place at the same time, no chores, just walking into the zoo from out hotel at the edge of it and enjoying the nature. The favourites- meerkats for Emma, donkeys and goats for Nóra ( they trumped the rest as you could feed them !) , baboons for me and the big cats for Gergő. The third day all cold and drizzle, but we still walked to say good bye to all the creatures and hoped we will be back. Although I doubt we will be missing the zoo cock who woke up at 3 am every night. Time for chicken soup?Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
RIP Nagyi
June 1, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Forest life
June 2, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
We set into the woods of Normafa at 9 am already, as Julika the cleaning lady arrived after almost three months of Covid related self imposed lockdown. A long walk amongst the trees took us to the top of Libegő - a chairlift ( still dormant for now) and a beautiful viewpoint over Buda. A three hour walk to get there ( ok, we took the long way on tiny paths and stopped to look for wood fairies everywhere) , then a long break at the playground ( all for ourselves!) And a hot dog lunch. Setting back through the woods, we found mushrooms, huge tree trunks destroyed by timber eating insects, old beehives, dead shiny beetles , and lots of sticks to whittle into magic wands. Seven hours of fresh air and nothing but green colour all around us- some things to be thankful for to the Covid that slowed us all down.Read more
Travelerback to the forests!
6/4/20Reply
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Kék csoport rules!
July 10, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Turns out spending time in Csopak at the Balaton is not dissimilar from being in Budapest, in some ways. The blue group ( aka kék csoport) of our kindergarten, for example, has managed to reassemble quite a good representation of its kids on the beach. Vince from Nóra's group ( and his sister Luiza) were the first ones we spotted at the lake, followed by Juli ( Nora's group), Sophie ( Emma's) and their sister Sári were next. Szonja ( Nóra's) has a summerhouse in Tihány, so she and her brothers Fülöp and Otto were regulars at the beach and in the night cinema with us, and we even managed to squeeze in two sleepovers for Nóra and Szonja át theirs and ours. And totally unplanned- Gréta from Emma's group and her brother Vincent , who used to go to the Malvinház nursery with Nóra , suddenly appeared on the beach towards the end of our stay.Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
The last supper
July 30, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
There is no more beautiful place to finish off our beautiful month long holiday in Csopak ( the longest we have ever been there!) than Koczor- a beautiful restaurant in a magnificent spot above Balatonfüred, with a fantastic view of the lake. The pictures ( some by Nóra) say bit it all.Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Tour de Balaton
September 17, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Two friends, 2 bikes,1 lake,222 km to go.Combined cycling experience so far- 60 km.
Day one:
West off Csopak on foot with our backpacks towards Balatonfüred,where we were supposed to rent our bikes and saddle bags, and start our trip around the Balaton. The bike rental is closed and after waking Balázs, the owner, with our call,it turns out he forgot about us coming. But he appears and soon are we ready to go. Highlights of the day:
1) Getting lost in Tihány ( first village on our route!) - turns out the route only leads there to see the hilly place and leads out the same way. We don't like hills and we have been to Tihány before, but the wild boards playing in the bushes compensate for losing an hour of our time of cycling in the hills.
2) Arriving in the beautiful Badacsony region clocking more than 60 km in hills ( ok,small ones...), finding out that our guesthouses is not where it was supposed to be ( but on the exact same street address in the next village ( a few more hills) .
3) Dinner at the only open restaurant in the village where the owner / cook László took us in under his pan Hungaricum hut.

Day 2: Left Badacsony and smoothly rolled on a beautiful route through Northwest of the shore to turn the corner into the south of the lake. 81 km that felt easy ( although long) . Highlights of the day: 1) A huge male deer crossing our path in the forest 2) A burger in Balatonmária looking at Badacsony which was now on the far opposite shore made us realise how far we have come in one day. 3) The allegedly luxury hotel we booked for ourselves in Balaton stalled Szinbad in order to warm our sore bums in their sauna. It is hard to tell whether the hotel indeed was luxury when it was built in 1978 ( probably not) but the fact that around 40 years have passed and the place has not been renovated since made the red carpets,green wall paper and neon ceiling lights a bit challenging to enjoy. The sauna closed at 6 ( we arrived at 5:55)Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Novoschool Christmas Lunch 2020
December 11, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
As usual, we held our Christmas team lunch this year, with some changes due to (what else, if not ) Covid 19. As the restaurants are closed, we had the lunch delivered to Novoschool (to our new, beautiful kitchen there). Éva had a cold, and due to Covid related code of conduct ( such as thy shall not cough on others at lunch!) had to miss the lunch, yet baked us a Christmas cake and called in via Zoom to take part in the even and appear on the annual group photo. Apart from that, the tradition carries on- food, wine, jokes, gifts, and the Christmas quiz by Tünde, which we all still fail, despite the question being the same for the last 20 years. Viki brought a gift telling of these times- assorted Christmas patterned face masks. Let's hope in a years' time it will all be behind us. Merry Christmas!Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Sleepover!
December 12, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C
So, we have been promising Nóra, and her classmate Szonja, a sleepover since before Easter (and Covid 19). Finally, after months of Covid, summer holidays, and country house- hunting-related reasons for no sleepovers, this has finally materialised. Pizza, movie, late-night conversations( made endless, thanks to Emma), pancakes and piano performances- a success- and to be repeated soon, apparently.Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Dragged out
December 13, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 4 °C
After a day and a half of blissful indoor existence, the grownups dragged the kid to breathe some fresh air in the Páty woods. After spotting a few very shy deer from the distance, and half an hour of uninterrupted whining " Can we go home now?", the cold came to the kids' assistance and forced us back into the car towards Budapest. Great stuff.Read more
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The Ványi Caravan 2020 Notes from Hungary
Good bye 2020!
December 31, 2020 in Hungary ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
It's time to say good bye to this strange ,but also great year. We would have gladly skipped the virus and the inability to travel to see family and friends - and unfortunately at the time of writing the virus is still here and the family still there. Burst the same time we got the gift of time- to spend more time at home, and to think about how we want to spend this time in the future. It showed us different options,and maybe brought us to this new phase of living closer to the nature,in Győrújbarát.

We ended the year by first planting our little Christmas tree in our upper garden (the first tree we planted on this plot since we bough it a few months ago), and spending some more time with Anikó and Richie- the ex owners of our new home, and now our new and first friends in the village.

A short walk across the pitch black forest took us to their new house( Gombóc, their dog,spent the day at our place so walked home with us) in the evening, to find the house full of about a dozen kids ( only 4 are their own!) and a lively chaos. A few bottles of wine later,we headed back through the still pitch black forest ( again,with the dog) to pop the champagne open at midnight at home. Happy new year!Read more
TravelerDear Kati! Looking at the wonderful photos of your family with the shining eyes full of love to each other and to life , I wish you the very happy New year! Be well and joyful!
1/3/21Reply
TravelerLove and miss you... See you soon!
1/3/21Reply
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Trip end
December 31, 2020