Lillafured, Hungary Day 2 (Wednesday May 27, 2009)

Lillafured, Hungary Day 2 (Wednesday May 27, 2009)

Today our adventure took us by blue bus to Aggtelek National Park to see natural caves and nearby Josvafo, Hungary to see an old cemetery in the hills above Josvafo and have lunch.

It was about 1.5 hours to Aggtelek National Park again through wooded hillsides and farm land. We saw many wild flowers on the fields such as poppies and edelweiss and rolling hills. The Hirsch family choir thinking of near by Austria and the movie “Sound of Music” burst out with song on the bus, such as “Edelweiss” and “Do-Ro-Me”.

We had a tour of one of the natural caves in the park. The slightly acid surface water filters through the cracks dissolving the soluble part of the limestone, leaving decorative deposits underground in the form of stalactites and stalagmites. Some of these underground deposits form large objects that go from the top to the bottom of the cave and took over 10,000 years to form. There are over 500 species of animals in the caves, such as blind bats and blind crabs, but we did not see any of these animals. The temperature in the cave was about 50 degrees, so we had to wear sweaters and jackets in the cave. One large open area of the cave has excellent concert hall acoustics in which our guide played a song from a Hungarian Opera along with a light show, illuminating parts of the walls of the cave. They had also placed several hundred seats on the floor, so one could hold concerts here. The Bradla-Domica caves are located in the northern most part, near the Eastern tip, of Hungary, which are on the border with Slovakia. Slovakia is one of 8 countries on the border of Hungary. Can you name the other 7 countries? A few of the caves connect to Slovakia, but the openings to the large caves on the Slovakian side are very small and difficult to navigate.

After visiting the caves we went to nearby Josvafo, Hungary. We were given a tour of the cemetery. To get to the top of the cemetery and get a high level view of Josvafo was a steep climb. Some of the family decided not to try the climb which was wise.

Professor Bercelli went with us but at the top of the cemetery area, nearly fainted, and had significant heart rhythm problems. Most of us were concerned about his welfare, but his wife and our guide, Mary Bercelli, was familiar with this problem and jumped into action. He had to rest at the top of the cemetery and his wife carefully massaged his feet with a light circular pattern on the bottom of his feet and Lillian (Dr. Stern) took his pulse, while others provided sweaters and other clothing to make him comfortable as he lay on the ground. Fortunately he recovered after a 15-20 minutes, felt well enough to walk slowly down the hill with the aid of the young bus driver, Victor, and rested in a room in a house near the bottom of the cemetery, while the rest of us completed the tour.

The cemetery had very old burial plots only marked by a post with an engraved metal plate on top. Most of the burial plots were since the late 1800s and had head markers made of stone with engravings.

We saw an old Jewish cemetery that, we were told, had been kept up after WWII by the citizens, but now was covered with weeds and not in good shape. There have not been any Jewish death since WWII since most of the Jewish Josvafo townspeople left town and most were killed or taken away during WWII.

Next to the cemetery was a restored house with things people used in the 1700s, including spinning wheels, looms, old kitchen stove, no running water and no electricity. Life was primitive by today’s standards.

After seeing the restored house we had typical Hungary outdoor lunch, prepared by a young woman from Josvafo, which included fresh potato soup, fresh “crepes” made with potatoes, flour and milk filled with Plum Jam. They eat lots of potatoes in various forms in this area of Hungary. The food was very good and we were all Hungary.

We took a slightly longer journey back to the hotel, got lost, saw again many small towns, wagons with hay on them being pulled by horses and stork nests high above the light poles on small metal platforms built by the town for stork nests. I also saw one stork sitting on one of the nests as we drove.

We had a short rest at the hotel and then had a nice dinner at 7:00 p.m.. Some of the people sat in the hotel lounge and talked after dinner, before retiring for the day.