The Blessings of a Right Hand Drive Car without Heating in Hungary

So, as agreed with my aunt and cousins, we were going to pick them up and drive them over to our house for dinner today.
P woke me up around 6, so that we could get ourselves ready, and generally tidy the house around. I also prepared the marinade for the pork. So far so good.

However! P stuck his head out, and noted, it's blumin' cold out there. Minus 4 centigrade to be precise. Maybe we should call off this venture today, purely thinking about my cousin's 3 months old baby? Especially with 5 adults constantly breathing steam onto the windows, and not having heating in the car, and it'd take roughly 40 minutes drive each way... Surely not very comfortable for all.
So I phoned them up, explaining what the situ was, but they insisted it'd be fine! After all they were travelling on the bus yesterday, and everything was ok!

Off we went after about 10 o'clock. The usual scraping ice off the inside of the windscreen soon followed numb toes and noses turning red, internal shaking. Being silent and thinking only to ourselves. Not very nice.

We only got about 2 miles from home, when P started worrying about the temperature gauge, as it was rapidly reaching towards the 100 mark. We were so confused, because we assumed that the sensor was faulty; it did odd things in the past, i.e. moving from one side to the other very quickly, then settled around 80. This time it looked different. It went over 100, then 110 and stayed there. We wisely pulled over, popped the bonnet, carefully unscrewed the cap and water was pouring out in all directions. Despite living with an obsessed car enthusiast, I didn't have a clue as to what was going on, so I just watched him, and prayed that this is just a temporary glitch, and will fix itself. But P had other ideas, we were on the road again in five minutes, but only doing 40 mph. On the way to the local petrol station I had to think what the Hungarian word was for "anti-freeze". It was one of those moments again, all of my efforts turned into fear of being taken for a fool. Wasn't far off either. I asked the woman if they kept water for cars that doesn't freeze. I thought this would give her/me a clue. She handed me a bottle of distilled water. 100 forint she said. By this time P was standing next to me. I explained what she just gave me. P being P; no, this is not what we need. It's called anti-freeze. I know what it's called in English, but I cannot explain it to the woman in English, can I? Then I said, it's a blue liquid, and prevents freezing in the radiator. She still didn't get, and I could see on her face what she was thinking. What's up with these idiots? or along those lines... Then she reached for something else, is this what you want? Called "fagyallo". Yes! Great! 600 forints. Not so great. But necessary. And not enough. So off we went again, towards the next town, and eagerly awaited what will happen. Nothing major, the temperature stayed around 90, and the engine was still running, so we just carried on going. Bought another litre of the stuff at the next fuel station, which, being more upmarket, cost twice as much.

This seem to have solved the over heating problem, but the heater still doesn't work! "If I only asked at the time - does the heater work?" Shouted P, with all his hatred towards this poor French creation. "I see now why the wife kept interrupting him all the time while showing us the car" and such remarks followed. And who would have thought of asking that question anyway in the height of the "summer" of 2008?

Eventually we arrived at my cousins, who were slightly disappointed to say the least, as they were so looking forward to coming over to us for the first time. I felt quite guilty about this, and that we left the food behind too.
But hey, we loughed! P was playing the clown again, not knowing much Hungarian, that is how he entertains/communicates.

It was still light when we left their house, and very cold in the car. I surely wouldn't have wanted to do this journey 4 times in one day. The pork was very nice though, baked with parsnips and pears...