Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday, and what I wanted most was to explore. 

At six o'clock, I set out on a bicycle in search of the River Drava. I was told yesterday that I was very close when I biked to the bus station, and that people illegally cross tracks behind the depot to get to a very scenic area. This was my intent.

As with my first two mornings, I woke at four due to jetlag and to roosters and horses and what I think was a squealing pig, and I awaited the sun.

Before taking out the bicycle, the sun and light green of an early morning misted over everything, and I tried to photograph the experience of the dawn as seen from the back yard.

Fence to Tibor's walnut grove.

View from the fence to our house

Water tower in the distance

Dawn

There are many bicyclists riding through town, even at this time of the morning. There are no shoulders on the streets, and the bikers themselves cruise very leisurely on the sides of the narrow roads on mountain bikes with dynamo lights, something that's disappeared from the United States but not in Hungary, where it was invented. Cars swing to the middle and no one seems to dial up the road rage the way they do in Seattle or any other city. Also, no one wears a helmet, or owns one. 

I reached the bus depot, cross the train tracks, and was deeply rewarded. The early morning stills the water and the low sun brushes the trees in a soft glow. In the pictures below, you see the River Drava, and on the other side, Croatia.

A path running along the banks of the river leads to the bridge over which are Route Six and a border crossing to Croatia. Near the bus depot end is this beautiful building, as well as a legitimate road over the rails.

Near the bridge, meanwhile, sits a footbridge, remarkable because it is a landmark of beauty overwhelmed on one side by an industrial pit covered in a plastered white dust and small cranes extending nearly to its roof.

Nearby is a campground, occupied today by a dozen tents, and near this too is a path down which I took the bicycle until the groove in the earth was crowded with weeds. But the sunlight still turned everything yellow, and the lines of sticky web now draping across me and the bike began to appear over leaves in larger canvases. I braved ten mosquito-bitten minutes trying to force my camera to focus on the walnut-sized spider in the last picture here.

Visual rhyming time! This tunnel led under the border crossing and pointed me back towards town.

Four hours later, we were on our way to Pécs. Once we found a legitimate place to park and found our way into the old center, Stephanie and I were stunned by what we found. We really are in Europe. The kids, meanwhile, especially Maisie and Amelia, wanted to return home immediately, or at least find an air-conditioned corner out of the heat. They spent most of the time asking to leave, or to drink something cold, or to eat something, or to stop walking already.


The proof is in Maisie's punim.




But once we ate, put some cold drink into them, and wandered back out into the world...

...we were able to explore.

 Then we left, stopping off at the mall and Interspar for cold water.

Ten minutes from home, I pulled over to a playground at a neighboring village and slept. There, apparently, Sophie had her first encounter with Roma society, where she was surrounded by gypsy children practicing their English and stroking her long hair. Sophie said they were very friendly.

Now we are home. Sophie, unscathed, is playing the violin; Maisie and Amelia are playing with legos. We came closer to finishing the meal prepared three days ago for our arrival. Though I am exhausted and ready to pull over and sleep once more, I find that, on my birthday, perhaps I should spend less time trying to put the spider into focus and more on its intricate home among the leaves.