After a lovely Hungarian breakfast with strong coffee and a variety of cheeses and meats, Nori and I set out for Ujpest Town Hall (Ujpest is an area of Budapest where my father and his family lived) in search of information about her great-great-grandfather and my great-uncle Lipot. Unfortunately, the pleasant town clerk Erika Varga who had been so instrumental in helping me find Nori and my Hungarian cousins was on a two-week vacation, and we met instead with a singularly unfriendly and unhelpful woman who gave us no information at all.
However, I had a minor brainstorm and realized that both Lipot and my great-grandfather Josef died in Ujpest before the war. Is it possible that they were buried in some Budapest cemetery? One of the Ujpest cemeteries was destroyed after the war by the Communist effort to build housing in its place, so we may not find their resting place. When we go to Szeshard tomorrow to meet the rest of Nori’s family, I will ask if anyone has any ideas about this possibility.
We did buy a watermelon for $2, so the trip to Ujpest was not entirely wasted.
After the trip to Ujpest Town Hall, Nori took me to downtown Budapest along the Danube, pointing out places I will take Courtney to next week. What a lovely city and what a lovely day. I think the temperature was in the high 70s today—perfect.
We stopped for an hour at the City Market where I my eyes took in some of the most beautiful displays of food: hanging salamies and pepperoni sticks, beautiful cherries and peaches, spicy red hot paprikas (peppers) and pastry—oh what pastry! We found a bakery that sold fresh retes (RA-tesh), a type of pastry made with filo dough, and I bought 15 of them, one of every kind they had: cherry, poppyseed, apple, nut, etc. Some of them actually made it all the way back to Nori’s house!
We stopped along the Danube at Nori’s favorite pizza joint and had (Courtney, don’t read this) cheese soup as an appetizer. Think melted brie and you have the right idea.
Tonight, we go to Sabbath service at Nori and Zsolt’s synagogue. It is an orthodox service (I have to cover my arms and head and sit separately from the men) where dinner will be served later. I won’t understand a word of the Hebrew or Hungarian, but I am sure that I will find the experience worthwhile. Both Nori and Zsolt are returning to Judaism which, like all religions during Hungary’s communist years, almost died out. It’s the young people in this country searching for more that are bringing their faiths back.
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