Trip to Hungary

The day we opened our mission call to Romania, I thought it must be possible to get into Hungary to see some cemeteries. However, until January 1, 2025, that was not possible for us. When the land border opened under the Schengen Area agreement, we just needed permission from the Mission President and a vignette for the car.

Hungarian Forints are incredibly small. Paul stopped to take a picture at the gas station of the number 20,480. It was $61. We drove 5 hours to Devecser and decided to head directly to the cemetery. I had this picture printed in my hand, armed to do battle.

We entered the old cemetery while a funeral was taking place. Because we thought the four markers were together, we skirted the perimeter of the 10-acre site. We couldn't find anything and when it started to sprinkle, we decided to drive to Kolontar. 

The cemetery is full of names I've researched for years: Torma, Grof, and Kneisz. I took pictures of about a quarter of the markers. We spent the night at a cute place in Ajka, which is just east of Kolontar. In the morning we returned to Devecser on a delightfully sunny day.

This time we went to the newer cemetery in Devecser. I spoke with the caretaker after walking around and he assured me that the old cemetery would be my best bed. When we reentered the cemetery, we approached a couple who was cleaning a tombstone. I showed them the photo as a few more people walked by. As they started chatting, I opened up Google translate and started following along. Hungarian is so crazy. The older man said something about going across town and motioned to come with him. I then motioned to Paul that we were going! 

We hopped in his pickup and drove to the parson's office. Unfortunately, the office hours were only Tuesdays. Then he drove us to a cemetery marker business. The manager was sweet enough to look through the database, but found no Procsals or Pracsals. We felt defeated and left.

When we returned, we started tearing ivy off stones that were buried. There were actually four of these broken markers situated together. We gave up and went back to Kolontar. I wanted to walk around the city to get a better feel for it. There were many memorials to the victims of the aluminum sludge flood of 2010. 

Also, there was this memorial from 1993 to those lost in World Wars.

Translation: Kolontár

In memory of the victims of the World Wars

Erected by the residents of the village. On the back were the names of the soldiers.