Happy World Bicycle Day

Vintage countryside cycling postcard

by almawad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bicycle_Day

Vintage countryside cycling .Art collage by Alma Wad .An antique bike rider graphic image ( courtesy of the graphics fairy ) is on a rural photo background . Fresh ,happy summer feeling for bikers and those who love the joy of a rural vacation . You can customize it with your own words .

Did you know ? June 3 is the International World Bicycle Day.

PAUL'S CAFE

I was very disappointed when I found this cafe closed during Eid . Was there a mouse like at the Carrefour in summer ? I have not heard anything - just I saw with sadness that it was closed due to the municipalities order .
This restaurant cafe is so popular and not without merit .
The service is quick and nice .The decor is vintage style - rustic chairs arranged in casual manner.The cakes are tasty ,old fashioned calorie bombs .
When we asked for a kid's meal -first we were given some tasty bread and butter and tapenade .Then came the chicken sandwich which was described as small in the menu - but actually it was large enough for three kids . The ice cream was OK . The cappuccino was a real ,continental hot drink , not a bucket -but a reasonable cup comme il faut .
When sitting at this cafe I got the surrealistic feeling that I just arrived to South France to visit my non-existing French aunt -and this fictive ambiance made me feel so good ..

Summer holidays at my grandma's village - 1960s ,70s

It is hot here and dull . For some unknown reason the summer festival had been cancelled here in Doha . This period of the year make me homesick .
Strangely , it is not our beautiful little town, Tapolca that I miss - but the village of my grandma - what I did not like much in my childhood .....

______________________________________________
 Every year we  made the same journey - coming from Western Hungary to the Great Plain - I loved grandma and her house  but I found some things  in her  village simply horrifying.
The railway station for example:The village station was a building about to collapse .The rails had finished there . It was the end of the world . There was  some terrible smell due to a rubber factory nearby . This village station would have been a perfect scene for Adams family  as the cemetery was also near.It was thrilling and sad .
In this collage you can see the protestant church , the station building , the meditation chair and some houses .
 In  my hometown Tapolca we had a neat building  for railway station with slot machines , vendors , a cute restaurant and so on. 
We left early in the morning from Tapolca , Western Hungary .Then we arrived late at night to the eastern village or rather the day after -as we spent the night at my uncle 's home . He used to live in a posh area of capital .
I saw very different lifestyles around myself during our journey .

In the real  collage of my  memories there is the veranda of my grandma's house , the garden, the big sorghum among which we used to play hide and seek , the raspberry brushes , the carpenter's workshop , the smell of wood , the baker , the smell of flour and fresh bread , maize , cows going home from the village pastures in the evening and blocking the traffic on the road , my cousins skilled in farming , a nearby lake , simplicity , backwardness , the heritage of glorious past - the rights of a"free town " rights which were given by the great freedom fighter Rakoczi ...
And when I think about all that I feel how lucky I am that I had had a grandma for nearly thirty years ...

 It was really something different to be there . We loved very much her  storage loft . It was full of dried corns on the cob - our favorite activity was to  rub it with our little hands to get the kernel off the cob- we enjoyed it so much !