As I was waiting to be picked up for the next part of my trip, the rubbish truck came. The strong young men manhandled each wheelie bin into the back of the truck to be emptied, and when they were done, they wheeled all bins back inside the apartment complexes. That does not happen in Australia any more.
I was being picked up by Zoli, who has the same surname as me but as far as he knows we are not related. We first got in touch through another person in 1996, and we have emailed off and on since. It was awesome to hear and speak Hungarian so much. Actually, we moved between Hungarian German and English all weekend. Fun!
Zoli first took me to a rest stop for a coffee - a special stop, as the artist Hundertwasser had a lot to do with the decor and structure.
Next stop was a blaudruckerei. Josef Koo dyes fabrics with indigo using a process his grandfather used. He was enormously generous with his time and his knowledge. He showed us his workshop. Here is a vat of indigo ready to be added to the dye bath.
According to Josef, the process of indigo dyeing originated in India and travelled to all parts of the world. It has been known in Austria and Hungary and Germany for hundreds of years. Josef uses a lot of print blocks from his grandfather, but lately his daughter-in-law has been involved in designing the motifs/patterns as well. He has been approached to dye leather for bespoke shoes in England - this is a piece of leather that he's dyed.
Of course there's a showroom/shop. Josef has perfected a technique for dyeing both sides of the base fabric so one side is striped and the other side has flowers. I bought a little bit of each of those fabrics, plus the fabric his daughter-in-law designed, which I think is very artistic. Josef's mother served in the shop
This is Josef with Zoli.
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