Ready, set let’s giddy up!
LAST year was probably when your bin went out more than you did. But with travel restrictions lifting, travel is beginning to become a possibility again. So this column has been sending its researchers out into the community to bring you ideas for offbeat jaunts, activities or breaks. So, documents together, and off we go.
YOUR RECOMMENDED TRIPS AND TREATS
Visit cowboy country —in the Wild East. This cowboy odyssey is slightly to the east of the usual rodeo, ranches and wranglers territory. A land of big skies, prairies and rolling landscape, this is the Great Hungarian Plain, aka Alföld. Inspiring poets, writers and filmmakers alike, this extravagance of open land is the cradle of that great gift to humanity – the goulash. Herders, looking after their cattle and sheep, would sit around steaming cauldrons full of the stew to ward off the cold. Hortobágy National, some 180km east of Budapest, is your best bet to get to grips with the Alföld.
Hungary in general is a place where self-indulgence is not something to shrink from. As well as goulash and its many variations, bakery is the big thing here — this is the land of Attila the Bun.
GO CRUISING IN WISCONSIN
In 1998 the High Court of Ireland heard a case that gave a new dimension to the phrase stand-anddeliver. The plaintiff, a postman, was awarded damages of £43,000 for back injuries incurred while delivering mail. The problem had arisen through having to post mail through a very low letterbox.
What that Irish postman would have made of the delivery system used on the shores of Lake Geneva in Wisconsin is anyone’s guess. Mail workers there have something of an athletic interlude in front of them to deliver mail to waterfront dwellers. The post person has to jump from the window of a cruise boat, leap on to the jetty, then make a dash to the mailboxes. Post delivered, they dash back to catch the still-moving boat. Each mail worker — there are six serving the area — makes up to 60 jumps a day. The boats of the Lake Geneva Cruise Line are full again with passengers watching this most esoteric way of delivering the mail.
ASS MAKES PASS AT LASS
Yes, it’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The play features all your favourites including Puck who transforms his head into a donkey, but attractive though his Ass is, Titania falls in love with Bottom. Shakespeare’s best known comedy is the basis for Ambroise Thomas’s Le Songe D’Une D’Été being staged at the Wexford Opera Festival on October 20,23,25 and 30. This could be a different take on the story as characters include Shakespeare himself, Falstaff (normally appearing in Henry IV) and Queen Elizabeth I.
HEAD FOR THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST IN ITALY
Ireland’s entry hasn’t been chosen — so you’ve still time to write the song that will save us from the ignominy of nool pwaan.
HAVE A BRUSH WITH GREATNESS
‘It’s amazing how often my soul goes to the National Gallery and how seldom I go myself,’ said essayist Logan Perseall Smith, no stranger, I’m sure to readers of this column. But do make an exception, and go to the Louvre sometime; even better, paint a picture there. As you wander about the Paris gallery you’ll occasionally spot artists dabbing away on their canvases. They’re part of a tradition stretching back more than 400 years, when the French royalty would invite artists to copy paintings. This was how they learnt to paint back then, and today some 200 experienced artists every year are chosen to follow their example. There’s a two year waiting list, then you have to let the Louvre people see your portfolio. But even if you’re not successful you can still enjoy this amazing gallery