VirtualTourist Member budapest8
 budapest8's Albums | | | |
|
| Page Views: 1,252 | My travels with my daughter Clara by budapest8 - last update: Oct 28, 2007 |
I will purchase 2 interrail tickets, Global all Europe for myself and Clara
tomorrow morning...187,000 HUF which is pricey but worth the joy.
We will be heading for Stockholm then the UK with LOTS of stopovers
at campsites, beaches, cities, pensions and the odd old lady offering a room cheap for the night. Family in the UK and official stuff and friends in Sweden.
I will try to write about about traveling with children and my own
experiances of traveling with my daughter. Her first trip was aged
3 months old by train with my parents to the Hungarian city of Pecs
in Souther Hungary from Budapest with my parents whom came to
see their new grandchild and other half of the family on my ex-wifes side.
Then a trip by train Clara aged 11 months 2,000 kms to the UK from Budapest.I will write more of those trips soon.
Sadly 50% of all marriages in Hungary end in divorce.
Then 85% of the children loose their fathers as an active
parent. The Hungarian courts award custody to the mothers
without consideration that that the child needs both parents
or that the father may be more suitable if the children are forced
to only live with one parent. The court awarded me 2 nights a month
after a lengthy 3 year battle to have shared custody or sole custody
if the mother refused me parenting time. I am now just one of 450,000
fathers who have been denighed parenting rights in Hungary.
There are 600,000 children who don't have regular contact with their
fathers in a nation of 10 million. My daughter is the reason I stay here in
Hungary and don't go travelling or move to another country,
so VT offers me a chance not to be totally cut off from the passion
I have! I didn't realise how many VT'ers were parents and grand-parents.
Luckily my ex-wife works for one of the government ministries so she is
always busy and I do get to spend a few more days a month with her.
And when she wants to meet her friends or boyfriend, I always say YES
to looking after her. She is the perfect female, my little princess!
|
| Clara Vale 2 yrs old in Buda Castle District |
|  | We went to visit our American friend Todd
Clara is aged 2....Todd took this picy of Clara and I on the way to his flat where he was living with his wife to be in a nice flat in the Castle District. Back in 2000 when us English teachers could ask a hefty premium for our labours. Todd and Yoli (his Hungarian girlfriend) moved to the States in 2002 after they got fed up with Yolis parents. Hungarians have a strange psyche and on the surface they seem totally European, but after you scratch the surface there is a complex labrint of mazes inside. I have some really good Hungarian friends but as a whole Hungarians have great troubles to deal with stress and Hungary could have won quite a few gold medals in the Bad Health Olympics, 26 years at the top for suicides, but now slipped to 5th place, plenty of Silver and Bronze medals for Stroke, Heart Attacks, Cardio Vascular related diseases, Cancer.
My daughter seems immune so far from the extremes of the eccentric British and the enigmatic introvert Hungarians....She is a really happy girl, amazing considering she has got two nutty parents like meeself and my ex-wife.
But she has our positive traits. THANK GOODNESS. But having to grow up with divorced parents and only getting to see your dad 4 nights a month can't be easy!
|
Clara aged 3.
Clara is part of my legacy of being a traveller! I met Claras mother while running 3 Youth Hostels together with a strange fellow called Bobby.She was working as a receptionist. The Hostel was Bobby's Hostel and for 2 Summers 1996 and '97 we had thousands of backpackers pass through our hostels. Sadly Bobby dissapeared to Las Vegas with the profits and never returned again to Hungary, luckily I didn't have any debts to pay or loose any money, but having a daughter I went back to teaching English for a fixed income. No risk ventures when you have a family. We lived in a 70 sqm flat on Baross utca close to Kalvin Ter. I have fond memories of the flat I lived in for 7 years until the owner sold the flat in 2002. It was the flat where I discovered life in Budapest, where Clara was concieved, 100 metres from the hospital down the road where Clara was born and where I got a majot stroke in 2001. Now I live in a house in the countryside in Nagykáta and rent a flat in the Jewish Quarter on Dob utca close to Astoria. Clara lives with her mum in the same VIIth Distict but closer to Blaha L.ter in a small flat.
| | | Clara Vale at Gare De Nord Paris..August 2006 |
|
| Clara Vale at Keleti Photo Booth Dec 2005 |
| | Photo Booth January Went to Keleti Station to make new passport photos for Clara and found out that they had gone digital so more modern here in Hungary than the UK now. |
Clara July 22nd 2006 Summer fun | | | With the latest addition to Mum's household |
|
| The apple of my eye Clara Vale |
| |
I'm a proud father ...
1998 Budapest |
Here she is with Spencer...his dad is also English and a single parent.
| | | Railway Park Budapest 2002 |
|
| Clara Vale in our garden a sunny November day 2005 |
| | Clara started school aged 7 on September 1st 2005
After my divorce I was only given 2 nights a month parenting time,
I appealed and got 4 nights after her mother allowed me that. I am
still fighting for equal rights for fathers or that both parents stay parents
and not that one parent is removed from the childs life as an active
parent.
In Hungary 80% of the family law section of the courts are women and
85% rule in favour of placing the parent with the mother! In Sweden the
system is more balanced and the moment the child is born both parents have equal custody rights even if they seperate or divorce.
Clara once said to me 2 years ago that when she grows up she will
become a teacher , to teach judges that people have to have families
and the judges have to teach people to stay families!
(" ! ") (`Q`)
|
| budapest8's Albums | | | |
|
 Comments for budapest8 about World | | | | |
willy_wonka Tue Oct 14, 2008 07:42 UTC
hey there tim! all is well, and sydney is hopefully ready for the crazy banana and her cousin show! lol. all good here economically speaking... im still spending big on red bull and bratwurst. lol | sachara Fri Oct 10, 2008 15:03 UTC
Tim, great expression 'the world has gone Boratski'. Probably people in Kazachstan will not like it. Almost on my way to Ireland for a VT meeting and to Iran by end of the month. As you see, still on the move. | LoriPori Fri Oct 10, 2008 13:29 UTC
Thanks for stopping by Tim. I've never heard the expression "the whole world has gone Boratski". If that's kinda like "bonkers" then I agree with you. Lori | giampiero6 Thu Oct 2, 2008 18:19 UTC
What the heck does that mean and how is it pronounced ;) |
|
|
email me
add as friend
