A Rocky start to visiting Aquincum and the Roman Museum

Nate had no school today- parent teacher conferences. So, I went over in the AM to see his teachers and hear about how he's doing. (Nate got all A's this quarter, so I knew he was doing fine. Yay, Nate!). Then he and Mimi and Poppop and I went to Aquincum and the Roman museum. We had driven by it before so I kind of knew where I was going, and the website said it was open. It was poorly marked, and I ended up driving past it, and taking a turn that lead to a one way street. As the three stooges said  - we were only going one way." :-0  We had to make a quick turn into someone's driveway to avoid the oncoming bus, but it all worked out okay in the end. 


I was struggling to get Len up the ramp to the Museum, and some man met us at the door. "Segíthetek valamiben?" (huh?) I trotted out my go to phrase: "Beszélsz angolul?" (do you speak English?) He said yes, and asked if he could help us. I thought he meant with the door, but he didn't want us to come in.  I said we were here to go to the museum. He said "This is not the Museum." Really??

Apparently, it used to be the museum, but now it's through the parking lot (which would have helped me a lot 10 minutes before when I was hoping to avoid the rendőrség- the police)


Then, when we got up the ramp to the real museum, the handicapped door was locked....  Nate went in the front door and they opened it for us.  Once we were in, we were told that the gardens- the outdoor ruins- were closed. Only the permanent exhibits were open.  No audio guide. Some things written in English though. Okay..... Then the woman selling tickets didn't really speak English and my "extensive" Hungarian wasn't helping much. But then I understood that she was saying that Dot and Len were "pensioners" and Nate was a student and so, the grand total for our visit for 4 people came to a whopping 450 HUF- about $2 US dollars.  Well worth the price of admission. 

These were the "rejects" that failed in the firing process; they uncovered them from the kiln in the Roman village.

 Oil lamps, pitchers and early Christian symbols- the cross and the circle to the left of the cross with the P and the X inscribed

 Jewelry, hardware for furniture, and tools.

This item in the middle that looks kind of like a drum was described as a "portable stove". 

Then there was another room that showed a kind of diorama of some of the earliest inhabitants to Pannonia- this region'n name before the Romans invaded- these dated back 50,000 years. The people lived in huts half buried underground. Nate was interested in this and took a bunch of pictures.

This was a reproduction of one of the earliest maps made by the Romans- it's all compressed and reminded me of that New Yorker cartoon where Manhattan is Huge and then the rest of the country is a tiny sliver until you see San Francisco labeled. 

Here is all of the Roman empire in twelve panels 2 feet deep.  On the top copy, they labeled the cities so you could orient yourself. It was very cool. 

Nate has had enough pictures for now, thanks very much.