Words

Kiskassa has just shot to the top of my ‘places to work when I run out of rail pass’ list. Kate and I arrived mid-afternoon after a few hours train from Budapest, a wander through downtown Pecs and forty-minute bus ride out to the village. Kiskassa has one street, maybe two hundred and eighty residents (Eva isn’t quite sure – there were a few babies in February), a cute church and a single, tiny general store.

In the few hours of daylight that were left, Kate and I milked a goat and learned how to make cheese. We cooked a simple but satisfying pumpkin risotto for dinner. Dessert consisted of a variety of goat cheeses, from fresh cottage cheese to a slightly more mature hard cheese, followed by kilograms of cherries from the orchard.

Success.

I’m hoping I can come back here to work in October. The weather won’t be quite as good, and there isn’t all that much farm work to do at that time of year, but the residence is undergoing constant renovation so I’m hoping there will be something to do.

The farmstay is run by Allan and Eva, an English/Hungarian couple. They have some friends staying at the moment – Todd and Ira, and their five-year-old (and photogenic) son, Quill.