What’s more, this travel video is a great educational video at the same time (being an ex-teacher I can’t help but appreciate the educational value of making such a video and traveling in a way so that you have a video making project in your mind):

• the information about Budapest is interesting, well paced for kids aged 6-14
• the video quality is also very good: cuttings, music, the kids in the vid clips, the guest vid clips are superb (thanks to Lora Gray and Clark Gray, the parents of the Traveling Trio)
• the video is authentic, funny, and you really feel the kids had been exploring the city!
• Can you imagine a better way to really make a cultural trip interesting to kids? Make your own video about Budapest, Hungary and let us know at topbudapest [at] gmail [dot] com.

Here’s the blurb of the video:

“The Traveling Trio checked out the amazing city of Budapest, Hungary. Follow Olivia, Ingram and Everett as they visit a church in a cave, swim in a famous public bath and even venture underground to explore the ancient labyrinth under Buda Castle.”

Thank you, Lora and Clark and the BigRedHat!

One of the ‘greatest hits’ of the Hungarian communist era (if we can apply this highly western term for a real eastern phenomenon) was the song that started with the line ‘Like a squirrel up on the tree, the pioneer is so happy… The title of the song is The Happy Pioneer (A vidám úttörő), but most people know this communist song by the starting line. Sure, we were as happy as a lark, lots of competitions, lots of children’s camps, etc. Being a pioneer (úttörő) with a red scarf or a little drummer (kisdobos) with a blue scarf was tiresome and restricting for some, but I would risk that most of the ex-pioneer people I know look back at those times with nostalgia, as funny, engaging, so all in all positive (even those who rebelled against being a pioneer admit that pioneer times were good times for kids – not for adults definitely). By the way, he pioneer movement was the undeniable eastern copycat of the Scout Movement, I think.

Now here is a beautiful authentic audio – video of the pioneer song ‘Mint a mókus’ (Like a squirrel). The lyrics (in Hungarian) below the video:

Mint a mókus fenn a fán,
Az úttörő oly vidám,
Ajkáról ki sem fogy a nóta.
Ha tábort üt valahol,
Sok kis pajtás így dalol,
Fújja estig kora reggel óta.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyörű az élet.

Fürgébb, mint a könnyű szél,
Gyorsan jár és messze ér,
Nincs túra, ami kifog rajta.
Hívja erdő nyári rét,
Vígan marsol, jól kilép,
És a szemét mindig nyitva tartja.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyörű az élet.

Mint testvér, vagy hű barát,
Megsegít, ha bajban lát,
Munkában alig akad párja.
Hol szöget ver, hol meg főz,
Mindent megtesz, amit győz,
És a helyét mindenütt megállja.

Évek szállanak a nyári fák alatt,
Oly vidám az ének.
Boldog dallama így önti dalba ma:
Csuda jó, gyönyöru az élet.