Speed Bowling in Csurgo

The alarm started beeping at 6am this morning. I wanted to go for a run in the rural town of Csurgo. It had rained and thunder stormed last night, but the sky looked virtually clear in the morning, so I got up and put my gear on. When I walked out of the hotel lobby, the air was crisp and the smell of wet asphalt was prevalent. The sun hadn’t yet peered through the clouds, but it was already out…perfect running conditions. I headed down the hill toward the local church/community center, turned left towards the town center and decided to take the right fork past a residential neighborhood. Since my sense of direction is questionable at best, after 15 minutes I turned around and headed in the same direction back to the hotel. Funny thing is (I guess it’s more typical than anything else), I past the street I was supposed to turn up and ended up realizing it only after the fact. I would say I ran a good 3 miles today. It felt awesome, it always does. I so enjoy going for a jog in an unknown place. To me, it’s the best way to get a feel of the landscape, the day-to-day workings of a town/city, and it gives a glimpse into the life of people who live or work in the area. Csurgo looks and feels like a very simple town. There is a 20% unemployment rate and their main industry revolves around the couple of small factories that exist here (dairy and condiment factories).

Our breakfast this morning included a new cereal - cocoa puffs Hungarian-style, ham, cheese, salami and bread of course. We all gathered at 8:15a and headed to the jobsite for our second day of building. Today, Court and I were once again on the ladders drilling the plywood to the wood frames. However, Court requested for a job transfer after the 10am break, which brought us up to the roof. Our new job was the same as our old job, however instead of climbing the ladders and screwing the plywood above our heads, we were bending over the railing to fasten the screws. Today was another hot day, but probably about 5 degrees cooler…95 degrees with the sun beating down on us. Lunch came quickly again, and this time I was given baked chicken with French fries. We have all determined that true Hungarian lunches (or at least the ones at this hotel) must start with some kind of tasty and brothy soup, be accompanied with vinegar-seasoned cucumbers and definitely potatoes, and end with a fresh fruit. Today’s fruit was a nectarine and I must say that Hungary definitely has some amazingly sweet fruit.

Once back at the jobsite and after we finished our most recent job assignment, we were given the new task of reinforcing the plywood joints with another piece of plywood on the interior. With all of the screws that we fastened today, I can’t imagine any of the plywood ever detaching from the studs. I guess they like to be better safe than sorry. The day ended early at 4:30p because our dinner was going to be earlier at 6pm. We had a planned outing at the local bowling alley. Dinner was pork loin seasoned with red and yellow peppers, paired with long-grain couscous. For dessert, we walked to a different ice cream shop in town, and this one surprisingly had sorbet. Of course, I had to get some. The black currant sorbet hit the spot, but the lemon sorbet was less desirable.

From the ice cream shop, it took us about 10 minutes to walk to the bowling alley. Hungarian bowling is much different from American bowling. There are only 9 pins and they are organized in a diamond shape. The ball is about half the size of an American bowling ball, and there are no holes to put your fingers in. A player only gets one shot, not two, to knock down all the pins. We played three games of “Speed Bowling” (created by Court - the first team to knock down 100 pins wins). Each time out of the three games, the team I was on won. It’s funny but I am much better at Hungarian bowling than American bowling, go figure! Another kind of odd thing about this bowling alley is that right outside of it was a beautiful clay tennis court. I played for a little while and it brought back memories of my days playing with Kelli after work at the courts back in Hawaii.

We walked back at about 10pm. Today felt like a long day, but it was most likely due to the effects of the heat on the jobsite. I read another chapter out of Michael Crichton’s “Travels” book and then fell right asleep.

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