3. Day Trippers, yeah!

Day 3 Sunday
We walked to the bus exchange and asked a few halting questions and worked out where to wait for the bus to Fertod (Fairturd). After a pleasant and relaxed hour waiting for the bus, we set off for the Castle of Esterhazy. On the way we passed a new housing estate, complete with unwalled gardens, and I saw one house with twelve solar panels on it (the number we have just installed at home). Good to see its possible here too, on one house anyway.
After about fifteen minutes we were passing through little villages where the bus shelters were like little tropical huts with thatched roofs. We passed the very “edges of sedges” of Lake Ferto, and passed through some beautiful oak forests.
I wondered to myself where Dad had passed. Which vineyards had he hidden in as he waited for the cover of night to make his escape? Had he also walked through these pretty woods as a teenager on his way to a new life?
The bus continued on its way on roughly sealed narrow country roads – way too small for our big bus! Past tractors pulling wagons loaded with the vintage, just harvested. Past a lovely verdant parkland, and suddenly on our right there was the Esterhazy Castle.
We had asked for tickets for Fertod. We’re SO smart. The bus whizzed past the castle stop. I went to the driver, pointed back and asked him to stop, wishing I could speak his language beyond about ten guidebook words which I have trouble remembering anyway. I sometimes use word associations to remember things like that. The Hungarian for Thank you is koszonom (cursin’ ‘em, but thankin’ ‘em at the same time). I go to thank someone the next morning, and, instead of kozsonom my brain produces hirenem (i.e. hirin’ ‘em, and thankin’ ‘em at the same time!) Wonder if I could get a transplant!

	Off the bus, we walked up a double rutted track beside the road, and entered the enormous open gateway. Took the first photos, ‘cause this is HUGE. You need three photos at a hundred yards just to fit it in frame. Needs a paint job, but unarguably very grand, with columns and balconies et cetera. Then we realize this is the back door! We walked through the café to the front.
All done up, even bigger and grander! A giant horse shoe of castles and stables. One hundred and twenty seven grand rooms, all built in just four years by a rich jerk who owned over a million acres. Dunno how he got them. Or why. They don’t talk about those things in the tour. He used to work for Prince Nicholas. Remember him?!! Neither do I!
	So, he needed to build it to demonstrate that he could afford anything that Prince Nicholas’s family could afford. Then he hired Haydn for twenty years to make it all seem important. I suppose it makes sense! All the locals had a job. I could imagine the horse drawn carriages pulling up to the sweeping double stairway with beautiful statues on the balustrades.
Ladies in their long flowing gowns getting ready for a ball, or going to the premiere of Haydn’s latest work in the concert room, or the Opera House (which sadly no longer exists – burnt down long ago.
	The tour took us through about twenty rooms. What’s-er-names bed chamber, this salon, that corner room, that salon, what’s-his-names bedroom, Haydn’s concert rooms, a beautiful tiny two storey high chapel tucked in the front corner, and so on.
Apparently the rich women sat around playing dominoes and musical instruments, eating off French inlaid tables, and showing one breast to portrait artists. They had nothing else to do. The men wore wigs and were fully dressed in all portraits. They had Eros, the god of love hanging in their bedrooms, and breasts all over the place! The men were allowed outside to hunt in the forest at the end of the garden. Right: chapel ceiling
	The Germans and Russians bombed it and desecrated it with much more than the modicum of derision which I possess. They used it as stables. Piles of straw and horse shit on the now cracked marble floors. They didn’t mind stealing these offensive artifacts and furniture for themselves, or having their headquarters there. It is a very grand and beautiful palace. . . even though when built it was the preserve of the aristocracy, I’m glad they indulged to such excess, as now so many people are able to enjoy it.
I only noticed one tiny reference to the servants. “The servants used to come in that door” (points at door). So what? They obviously were legion, and had to come in everywhere through a door. They probably wished they could simply materialize, as their staircases were not at all grand, and not in a straight line – small stone spirals. We didn’t see their rooms, or their work areas, because there is much work still to do.	one of the out-buildings
The rooms were warmed by these beautiful looking heaters, filled from behind with hot coals by the servants. They are all one-offs. Each room has a different one.	Queen Marie Therese (remember her?) had a suite of rooms here. You might say she had a wing, instead of a breast. Yet apparently she only actually came here once, so she could see a “proper opera”, and some Fireworks. Poor thing. Life was tough. I couldn’t ask any questions, ‘cause I only speak English, and the tours were in German or Hungarian. We get an English language Tour Pamphlet, which is very informative. This is laminated, to be returned, and not litter the grounds with. Good idea.
There’s an irony to these huge properties bequeathed to us all accidentally by these former power mongers. They are wonderful heat sinks to absorb carbon, and to purify the air with their trees, and to provide a home for birds and animals, and to have lots of tourist industry around here. Horrendously grandiose or not, I’m glad it’s now owned by the State and gradually being restored and cared for, otherwise it would probably become another Casino the world doesn’t need.
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