The wedding day was a nice lazy day that began with Roland barging into our hotel room and telling us to wake our lazy butts up and complaining that our room was "worse than if gypsies were staying there" ;o) . We headed down to the cafe (which is also owned by the Vas mob clan) and had a nice full spread of food waiting for us along with juice, waters, coffee, and anything else we could possibly want for a Euro breakfast.
The wedding was in the afternoon and would take place at the church near our hotel. A few of us went for a late-morning walk through lovely Komarno and took pictures, did a little bit of shopping, got some sun, and ate some ice cream. Komarno is a nice, picturesque Euro town with some shopping, many cafes, cobbled streets, and not too many people. The kind of town you would want to have a wedding in. Interestingly, we ran into some Americans in one of the stores who were also in town for a wedding. Damn, I thought we'd be the only gringos in town!
The wedding started with a reception in a small gathering room at the location of the wedding party. They had tasty appetizers and served drinks while we mingled amongst ourselves and talked to Roland and Csilla, who just finished their wedding pictures.
After a half hour or so, a procession led by the best man and Csilla walked down to the nearby church for the official ceremony, which I presume was like a mini-mass and included the signing of the documents and a few songs from the organ and opera-style singer.
After the wedding itself, there was a greeting of the guests that had Roland and Csilla with perma-smiles plastered on their faces as they exchanged greetings with everyone who attended the ceremony before we followed them to the ballroom where the festivities would be held. Outside the entrance, a plate was broken and Roland had to sweep it in to a dustbin that Csilla held. I hope Csilla doesn't always expect Roland to clean up messes like that in the future ;o) .
The party was great - we had wonderful ethnic cuisine from Hungary for our main course, there were about fifteen different cakes, most of which weren't even touched because of the sheer volume, there was a band that played traditional Hungarian music, there was eating, and there was plenty of booze on tap. Because I was planning on stuffing myself with the awesome food, I shied away from the beer and stuck with Vilmos, which is a pear-flavored liquor that can be sipped and enjoyed throughout the night. Stefan, in his infinite wisdom, told me I should just stick with one drink for the whole night, for example the Whiskey & Coke cocktails he recommended. Not being a fan of whiskey, I told him to have fun and sure enough a few hours later, when the second meal was prepared, he could hardly eat anything (imagine that!) and was complaining about his stomach because he had too much sugar from the coke. Glad I stuck with the Vilmos, which allowed me to maintain a nice, even buzz the whole night - and early morning as the party went on until almost 6:00 in the morning!
Roland and Csilla had a handful of friends at the event that kept to themselves for a while at the party, but we knew eventually they would break out of their shell. Sometime around midnight the booze caught up and they started rallying and socializing more. They tried to talk Stefan into partaking in a Hungarian wedding tradition of kidnapping the bride and taking her to a bar and buying everyone there from the wedding the most expensive drink available, then going to the next bar, doing the same, etc. until the groom finally catches up and takes the bride back. It would have been pretty crazy to do that, but I guess Roland had it banned beforehand because it was a pretty big wedding and they didn't want the older family and kids to miss out on the fun.
Naturally, most of us had a pretty lazy morning on Sunday, some of us not even waking up until the afternoon :). It was nice to have an easy-going schedule that allowed us to do this. Roland had planned on going on a winery tour in Hungary tour on Sunday and, though the idea didn't initially seem too appealing considering it was the day after a wedding, but nobody got too out of control the night before and at about 5:30 at night we departed for the Hilltop Winery across the border in Hungary.
The views from the top of the hill down into the plains of Hungary and Slovakia and the Danube River were absolutely awesome. We took a quick tour of the facilities and then sat down to eat a wonderful dinner and taste about six bottles of wine, one of which (a grapefruity Sauvignon Blanc!) I bought. Actually, Roland bought it. Thanks Vas, it was great - as was the delicious dinner.
Monday was the last day together with the whole crew as the Great Danes were going home on Tuesday morning. Roland decided on a day trip down to Hungary's Great Lake - Lake Balton and the city of Siofok. It was once a burgeoning vacation city that attracted people from all over Europe but I guess it's not as popular with the youth anymore. But the weather was still great so we drove down (getting the other car lost somewhere along the way, thanks to the traffic lights) and eventually made it to town. We found a shady spot in the park along the water, setp camp, and enjoyed the warm, shallow water with the kids. Marcus had an asthma attack because he was laughing so much and having so much fun while Lucas ended up with a bloody nose after getting body slammed in the water by Stefan one too many times. We ended the day renting a couple of paddle boats with slides to take the kids for a cruise around the shallow lake. Stefan fully utilized the slide himself and I made sure none of the kids were underneath it in case the fiberglass slide collapsed under the weight :). We capped the late afternoon with gelato, doener, or anything else that we felt like eating along the shopping district, vowing to return at night later in the week to see if the nightlife was still as fun as it used to be.
J. Riley, there's much much more to come (eventually)
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