Being a Hungarian-Indonesian couple like Zsolt and I, last week had been a series of celebrations. As Indonesia celebrated her 61th Indepence Day on August 17, Hungary had the St. Stephen’s Day on the three following days.

The Indonesian Embassy in Budapest organized a trip to Lake Balaton—which we unfortunately missed—and several other events. I cannot help but miss the palm climbing race which we always had in each village in Indonesia. The concept is very simple. They put various prizes on top of the tree and smear the surface of the wood with oil to make it slippery. Anyone could try to take the prizes. As easy as that; it takes a good coordination among friends to reach the top of the tree. See how they had to climb on their friends. Of course the prizes would have to be shared among them.

And here is a solo player who doesn’t like the idea of sharing. So here he goes to get the whole prizes for himself. Good luck to him!

Click here for more pictures of the panjat pinang.

Sunday morning in Budapest, people were ready for the feast and merriment. The celebration was centered at the Parliament as always—which is only a few tens of meters away from our place. Everything was well in the afternoon. I even managed to take this picture of the Red Bull Air Race World Series 2006.

At 9 PM CET, the fireworks were launch. We were just chilling at home—don’t bother to mention it, I know it sounded silly. Suddenly Zsolt asked me, “Are you cooking? I think the water is boling.”

“No, I have finished cooking,” I said.

“Oh, then maybe it’s just raining outside.”

I opened the curtain and was shocked with what I saw. The huge tree in front of our window was almost blown by the wind. People were running from the Danube as rain water had been flooding the street.”We’re having a big storm!” I told him.

We still had no clue of how serious it was until he turned the TV on. It said that more than a million people were gathering around the parliament and they all ran for their lives. Trees fell, cars were damaged, several ships crashed, three people died and hundreds were injured. The night was closed with a blackout.

For more pictures, click here.