Bakod Farm Hungary

Folk Dancing, Beautiful Embroidery, and Paprika at the Bakod Horse Farm, Hungary… Danube River 10

/ Curt Mekemson / 30 Comments
What’s more Hungarian than paprika? This delightful, elderly woman with her wonderful smile was stringing paprika peppers to hang at the Bakod Horse Farm near Kolocsa , Hungary.
Peggy likes to sprinkle paprika on deviled eggs that disappear almost as quickly as she can make them. The spice comes in small tins and bottles and is sold almost anywhere one can buy spices. I didn’t know that the spice came in red peppers that originated in Central and South America and arrived in Hungary via Turkey. They range from mild to hot depending on the type of pepper used. The Kalocsa region is one of the world’s primary paprika growing areas.
Another smile.
The woman’s face in black and white.
Strings of paprika peppers hung to dry.
Folk dancing is an important part of Hungarian culture, right up there with eating paprika it seems. This young couple in their 20s came to the Bakod Farm to demonstrate the Csárdás, Hungary’s most popular folk dance. They were quite good. Anita is carrying a handkerchief with her name on it. Soon, she would be waving it about as she danced.
I was equally impressed with their traditional Hungarian costumes. Note the bead covered head piece on Anita and the detailed embroidery on her dress.
Details of the bead work.
And the detailed, beautiful embroidery.
Anita displayed her pleated dress, embroidered apron and some of the 8 petticoats that held her dress out. There was also a small pillow.
Another Hungarian woman sat off to the side working on the embroidery for another costume.
At first the couple danced together.
And then they moved off on their own, almost seeming to fly. That’s it. We leave the Bakod Farm with its wonderful horses and Csikos and paprika and folk dancing today. My next post, I am going to take a detour to Hawaii and Volcano-land. After that we will visit Kalocsa before continuing our journey down the Danube and many more adventures.
You may not remember the dramatic media coverage of lava spouting out of Hawaii’s East Rift Zone and slowly making its way to the sea, destroying homes and blocking roads as it went 7 years ago in 2018. We do. It was around 10 miles away from where we are staying on the Big Island. Peggy and I drove out to the ‘end go the road’ that passes by our rental on Monday. As Kilauea continues to erupt this week, 20 miles away, it’s hard not to remember 2018.