Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Bécs Welcomes You.

This past weekend Max and I ventured off to the land of Mozart and Milka, not to mention coffee, public transportation that is both quiet and smooth riding and of course, the slightly cliché, Wiener Schnitzel. I also ventured from Hungarian to German, a language that I do not know, but seem to have better intuition for. Max also speaks German, which helps…I took full advantage of this…. communication sans charades, pointing while smiling and nodding, happy dances, or some morph of all three is a nice change. Words. They are wonderful.

We took the railjet from Budapest on Friday afternoon. It took just under three hours, and we got to ride through wonderful country side, through an EU wind farm (I’ve never seem so many windmills in my life) and fields and fields of full grown sunflowers. It was beautiful. I would have taken a photo, but when we got to Keleti Paladuvar station in Budapest, I realized I forgot it. Keleti, like most things in Budapest, was probably once very beautiful. You can tell by the architecture hidden under all the soot. However, one area of the station (where you go to buy ‘international’ tickets) has been very well restored to its former glory. The area is soot free, with crown molding, murals and gold paint that shimmers in the sunshine. There are few, open and public, places in Budapest where you’ll find this.

We arrived in Wien-Westbanholf around lunch time and went to the hotel to drop our bags. Thanks to a very nice Birthday present, we got to stay in a super posh hotel right on Vienna’s Ring Road called The Hotel Bristol, Wien (that is what is said on the slippers that were waiting for me in the room). The Room Was Gorgeous. Really, when we walked in there was a place to put your coat, a mirror and a long marble hall way leading to the ‘bed room’. Halfway down the hall way there was an enormous marble bathroom with all the typical hotel amenities plus a manicure set. I won’t lie, the beds at the Sheraton are more comfortable (thanks to their ‘perfect sleeper’), but anything is a step up from the couch that I call my bed here in Budapest. The room also had a huge window ‘dressing’ and a couple of paintings on the wall, one of a jester looking man. There was also an LCD TV, a CD player (complete with cheesy CDs that you buy at 2 am from the shopping channel), a mini bar, a mini clothing grooming area (shoes horns, shoe brushes, laundry bag, sewing kit, etc), and a desk. I could not make the silly TV work. The staff were nice and some were really good at playing the ‘snotty posh hotel staff’ role. In those cases, I too pretended to be super posh….however I am not the actor in the family, so I probably looked and sounded slightly deranged. Oh, did I mention the elevator had two chairs in it? (built right into the elevator?).

After we checked into the hotel we walked around our new weekend ‘hood’, then went for lunch. I was being fussy (I don’t know why, but I was), so when the sign saying Wienerwald came to sight, Max instantly took charge and said ‘We are going there’. Oh man. It was Austrian Swiss Chalet. Slightly saltier, lacking chalet sauce and those French fries, and CD’s chickens, but it was a slight taste and reminder of home. Good choice, even if it wasn’t exactly authentic Austrian.

After lunch we went back to the hotel to actually go into the room and put our stuff down (it wasn’t ready when we arrived), got changed to go to the Hotel Sacher, for their famous coffee and Sacher (Saha) Torte. Sacher Torte is a kind of cake only made at that hotel and only exported to certain locations in the world. It’s also very touristy as 90% of the people in the hotel café were eating it. Touristy or not, it was probably one of the best European ‘fluffy’ cakes I’ve had so far. For the detail oriented people, the Sacher Torte is a chocolate cake with a light chocolate filling and thick dark chocolate, almost like Marzipan, icing, topped with a dark chocolate ‘Hotel Sacher’ medallion. The cake itself is very fluffy (as most cakes here are), and the very chocolaty. To add to the caloric count of this ‘snack’, a rather large dollop of real whip cream is added to the side of the plate….maybe to cut the chocolate-ness? Either way, it was Very Very yummy. I had a Kliener Café, which was a long black espresso with foamed milk on top. It’s served in a clear cup (similar to an Irish coffee cup) so you could see where the coffee started and the milk ended) very well presented.

After the sugar and caffeine high of the Sacher, we decided to take a 3 hour walk around Stephansplatz, (which is where there is a large church (which was under construction), and also a main tourist drag). I also took advantage of the shops, and popped into a few. Not much different from Budapest and, well, Canada. So aucune achats were made.

Then we went back to the hotel to get directions to a vineyard we were eyeing to go to for dinner. Vienna is known for their local ‘wine pubs’. And if you go just outside the city you can actually drink wine right from the Vineyard. The wine is slightly different than typical wine as it is served to you just before it is fully fermented, so the taste is slightly different. I can’t think of the words to describe that I mean. Sorry. But anyway, we ended up in the middle of nowhere suburban Vienna at a very very local pub. Inside was like a country cottage, and outside there were lots of picnic tables overlooking the vineyard. We started outside, but mosquitoes got the better of us, so we ended up back inside the house. Literally, it was a house. We had some more wine ( 3 euros for .5 litre!) and dinner (which is typically whatever the local family makes that day), and just enjoyed the night with the people there. I think the best description of the atmosphere is probably skin to a maple syrup ‘sugar shack/Cabin a Sucre’, instead of coffee, pancakes, sausages and maple syrup, we were eating bread, dip, potatoes, pieces of roast meat and wine.

We were there until pretty late, and the waiter ended up giving us a ride back to the metro (as we had missed the last tram). As per usual, I, well in this case, Max, got his story. He was Serbian, arrived in Vienna about 3 years ago, started working at the pub, then bought a share of it, and now helps produce the completely organic wine in addition to a second delivery job. We meant to buy a couple of bottles, but we completely forgot...He told me to tell Canada that Serbians are nice people. So, I tell Canada now. Serbians are nice people. (he was nice enough to give us a ride to the metro saving us a very long walk back in the pouring rain!).

Saturday morning we got up and ventured over to the Secessionist house where there are normally cool art exhibits. It was a modern one, and we decided not to go in. Then we went to a huge open air market for breakfast. There was one stall that was roasting coffee…and the smell was taste was DEVINE. After a coffee, we walked further into the market were there were tons of spices and colors and smells and people. At the end of the market there was an equally large flea market. Yes! I was slightly disappointed at the quality though. There were a lot of things there that could actually be considered garbage. Like naked one armed Barbie dolls.

After the flea market we went to Mirahilfer Strasse, the ‘Queen West’ of Vienna. We popped into some shops and just people watched….I was also on the hunt for something that told time as I was watchless….found nothing. After this we went over to Belvedere Palace to visit the gardens and see the permanent art exhibition. The permanent collection includes Klimt and Monet, and many local Austrian artists. There was also some cool ‘sailor’ paintings. The palace itself (where the art is displayed) was also magnificent. The architecture in each room was so intricate, and each ceiling was a mural about one greek god or another.

In the large reception area they had large velvet covered yoga balls where could lie on them and look up. I found max lying on one of them staring at the ceiling, so I decided to copy him. Except, the balance ball got the better of me, and my bum made a fairly painful interaction with the marble floor (not to mention the loud ‘splat’ sound). I fell at the palace!!!

Luckily, I managed to figure out a proper technique that allowed me look up at the ceiling without falling. It required that I take my bag off my shoulder (so I was properly balanced), carefully do a backwards ‘crab walk’ over the ball, then steady myself once the ball was in the proper position on my back. I felt like I was in a yoga class. About 50% of the new comers to the room also had the unfortunate ‘ball to floor’ experience, so I didn’t feel so bad of my initial kurplunk.

After Belvedere we wandered through Karlsplatz (another big, large square), and back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. (I also wanted to grab my coat as it was slightly chilly!). For dinner we went to a small family restaurant, apparently famous for their Wiener Schnitzel. Other than the fact that their portion sizes were larger than even North American standards (really, I am not kidding!), according to Max, it tasted ‘like my aunti makes it’. So points go out to the restaurant. The whole experience was hilarious as the place was actually closing down for a vacation, and so there was no real menu. You ate what they brought you, which was what they had left, which was salad and original Wiener schnitzel. We also had wine spritzers, which are pretty popular. After dinner we walked around the Hofuburg Palace, to Parliament and then back down the Ring Road to the hotel.

Sunday morning Max had to catch his flight, and so I wondered around the areas that we hadn’t already wondered to, had a pretzel croissant, bought some Milka chocolate and a bottle of Almadudler and caught the train back to Budapest to arrive to an empty apartment with the walls of the shower leaning against the kitchen wall. Apparently the bathroom renovations going on did not go as planned……….I had to supervise the installation of the shower the next morning….

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Mid week updates..

The updates---Mid week.

Truthful, not much to report, other than the fact that I have successfully found all 20 missing variables for my thesis (which took me to many, too many, obscure census tables and oil websites). This is step 1 of about 5 but hey, it's a start. Work has also been pretty busy with a wrap up of a VIP visit, a change over of another VIP happening next week....there is just too much to do, and ALOT of things for my brain to process in one day. Here's the jist of my week thus far:

Saturday: Was a slow day as I was at the library from 1-8pm. But managed to accomplish something-I think. Oh yes, I inputted 400 population statistics for 400 different country years. fun stuff. Saturday night the interns met up at Godor, literally translated to English as 'the hole'. in 'the hole' there is a night club, but the stairs leading down to this club, and along the outside, it just an open bar. We sat on the lawn beside this open bar with open beer. It was nice to see everyone, and get out of my steaming hot flat. I also met a couple of new interns (either just moving in, or moving out), and it was one of their birthdays. At midnight we rang it in with Jagermeister in plastic cups (can you guess the nationality?). By that point the birthday girl was, well, in no position to drive a car, nor were her Hungarian colleagues, who were more than happy to celebrate the occasion. We got there a little later on, so we sort of missed the boat, but happily chatted with all the others at various stages of intoxication.

Godor is one of those places where hundreds of people go and just sit on the lawn and drink and talk, so it's a really nice atmosphere. But there are also a lot of homeless or poor people who walk around picking up people empty cans and bottles. I am used to perhaps one or two people rooting through garbage cans back in Ottawa or Toronto (especially with the introduction of the 20cent wine bottle deposit), but never have I ever seen to many people out looking for cans than I have here. Really, it's shocking to see men and women rummage through everyone's garbage, or literally swarming areas where people have been to pick up their bottles, go through their trash, the whole 9 yards! they even come up to you in the crowd asking if you are finished so they can take the can......I don't really know enough about the social situation here to properly comment or criticize, but still...

Just as we were leaving, I got up to stretch my legs, and about 4 people came up to us looking for our cans (which, sadly, is normal), then I turned around and say that the birthday was striking up a conversation with a homeless man, then they cheered! Then I noticed that the homeless man was drinking my half empty bottle of beer.....it was slightly odd, but I couldn't help but think that hey, if these two people, a highly educated intern and a homeless man can happily have a drink, then maybe there is hope for the future! It was kind of nice.

After Godor, we went on a pub crawl to two ruined bars in Bpest. Mumuzs, and Szimpla Kert, with a intermission at a local 0-24 (their 7-11). At Mumuzs someone asked me if I was up for a shot of tequila. I think everyone will know the answer to this one.....

Then I was handed a 'tequila gold' a slice of orange and cinnamon. One intern noted 'it's Christmas'. I had to agree, but that combo was pretty nice. No exactly a margarita, but something new.

Sunday: Library. Boring.

Monday: Work, wrap up of VIP, two new projects, library. sleep.

Tuesday: see Monday. but progress made on new projects. Taught some one to use excel.

Wednesday: see Tuesday. BUT we got our train tickets to Becs (Vienna). That's where I'm headed this weekend!!!

Szia!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Szentendre and the Marzipan Museum









On Friday, afterwork, Max and I took the suburban train, the Hev, to Szentendre.

Szentendre is only 20 km outside of Budapest. But it took about an hour to get there on public transit. It was a very long, hot hour I'll tell you. The suburban trains do not have air conditioning. The windows do not blow any air into the car, and the whole train creeps along very very slowly through the city. Albeit, less stops than the regular metro, but still slow. very slow. I literally melted in the car as I stood by the caboose (we made the train connection by less than a minute, so we had standing room only tickets).

Szentendre itself is a cute little town, and it was nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of Budapest. We went on a Friday afternoon, so there was a good mix of locals going about their business and tourists going about theirs. The city is known for the 'budapest day trip' crowd, but I didn't really find it so bad. Other than a couple of streets with serious 'I love hungary' souvenirs, it was pretty relaxed. Other than the really interesting architecture (churches that were red, yellow and white respectively), and the vanilla-custard flavoured ice cream (called Májkrém), the sea side feel without the sea side, the people per square kilometer ratio closer to the Canadian average rather than the European average, and of course, the vapour fans at the cafes, the highlight of Szentendre was most definetly, the Marzipan Museam.

Yes. Although RS told me not to, told me it was for kids, we decided to ignore the man and go. (actually, since the RS failures of Barcelona, and the fact that RS is very North American-centric, Max was very happy to ignore RS that day).

Also, did I mention that it was air conditioned?

Having walked around for about 3 hours, enjoying the little town, climbing up a large hill, and being barred from every single church (they don't seem to like tourists very much), we headed to the Marzipan Museum. It is a very small place and the whole exhibit is on the second floor of a two story building. Once you pay your entrance fee (400 HUF), you are given an sample of marzipan, and then you are free to wander. The first thing we saw were two women working on their next masterpiece in the 'work shop'. Up the stairs, there was a large cake. Made completely of Marzipan. Apparently to reproduce such a cake, one requires exactly 970 eggs. oh, and 35kg of sugar. and 15kg of chocolate.

The Museum also had life sized figures of Lady Diana and Michael Jackson. made of Marzipan. All of the frames on the wall, life sized furniture, characters from children's stores (including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Smurfs, Mickey Mouse, and apparently an array of eastern European/old soviet characters that max became very nostalgic over). There was also a room entirely devoted to Hungarian history. Really, I saw the Marzipan versions of every single person that the down down metro stops are named after (Kossuth Lajos, etc), and Sissi, Franz Joseph, the whole crowd was there. all made of candy! it was really neat.

There was also a replica of the Hungarian Parliament. The details were fantastic! Really, I have waaay too much fun in these places! (you see in the photo of parliament all those faces? yup, marzipan!).


I will have to admit, RS was slightly wrong about this Museum. Sure, it was exactly the Tate, but hey, it was fun! and in reality, I think RS underestimated the skill required to create these almond masterpieces!

After the Museum we went for a sor (beer) and a break at a Gorog (Greek) Pub by the Duna (Danube) then headed home.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Pre-Szentendre

This morning I woke up laughing. Really, it was great. I don't even remember what was so funny about the dream I was having, but it must have been hilarious.

Again, a while since the last post, but work has exploded into chaos. and well, after getting home around 8 30 every night and then collapsing due to 40 degree heat in my oven of an apartment, the thought of turning on my computer (and the heat that comes off it) is just too much. My room faces the west. so It is even hotter at night because it has had all afternoon to heat up. hooray for me.

It's been really bad this week, and after a few nights of sleeping only a couple of hours, (and even missing a couple of events because I was too tired and hot to move once I had sight of my bed couch), I went out and bought a fan. the best 5000 HUF I ever spent. (actually it cost more than my monthly metro pass!). But whatever. Last night was the second night of sleeping with a fan, and the second night where I actually slept. Perhaps this explains why I woke up happy this morning. My subconscious sleeping body was happy!

So basically yes, the weather has been pre-occupying my life.

Today though work is over early, and we are going to take a jaunt over to Szentendre. It is a 'day trip' city just outside Budapest, and promises to be a fun filled tourist afternoon (and a break from thesis and work).

To give you a quick glimpse. Szentendre is the most 'Balkan feeling' village in Hungary. Primarily due to the large population of Serbian, Croat (then called Dalmatians), and Greek migrants who settled there after 1) after the Ottomans began to lay claim to more lands in the Balkan Peninsula and 2) a large flood in said Peninsula causing migration up the Danube. The migrants built temporary settlements in the city (the reason for windy, not-really-planned, streets), and waited it out. While waiting, they supported the Hapsburg's in their face off with Ferenc Rakoczi in the Hungarian War of Independence, and as a result, the Hapsburg emperor gave the little town many many concessions. This included trade privileges and wine making privileges. I guess the privileges were enough to keep the people there, and built more permanent structures, Churches etc.

The special treatment of the villagers was sadly rescinded in the 1770s, and trade and commerce ventured towards Budapest. The town went into further decline when a bug-infestation killed the wine crop in the surrounding areas. A hundred years later, it was a ghost town. Survived only by the now, poor, descendants of the original settlers (who had not left). Naturally, poor towns also mean cheap towns, and it's proximity to Budapest made it a very lucrative place for young artists to come and live, and well, receive more bang for their very small buck. Because Szentendre was essentially built by non-Hungarians, it also does not conform to typical Hungarian architecture. The town's colourful, snazzilicious Hapsburg style architecture was a muse for these artists, and so the art culture thrived, with even and art university opening up there! Today the village is houses six art museums and tons of local artists trying to make a go of it.

There is also a marzipan museum. Which is the cheesy tourist part.

Will send a post report!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Espana Uno

Espana!!!

Smart people pack the night before they leave for a trip. Smart people also have all required travel documents, boarding passes, clothing picked out, and plan to get to the airport sorted before they sleep. Frugal people decide it’s best to get up a bit earlier to take the very well connected public transit to the airport given the fact that their metro passes are valid on this route. Smart people set their alarm clocks so they wake up on time.

Stupid people forget to turn their alarm clocks on.

Yes, that is right; I forgot to turn on my alarm clock. I woke up at precisely 7:36 am. My flight Boarded at 8:55 am.

And so, my weekend in Spain begins.

I remember waking up so relaxed, really, the sun was shining, it was warm, but not too warm, it was like waking up on a Sunday morning, you know? Then I looked at the time and remembered that I had to go somewhere. My relaxation was shot right then and there, and I had a mad scramble to find the number a cab company, call them, get them to my house (requiring me to put forward my best Hungarian street pronunciation), and make sure I had everything I needed to go. Luckily, the reference to ‘smart people pack and pick their clothes the night before’ saved me a lot of thinking that morning.

I got to the airport at 8 33. got on the plane at 8:55 and arrived in Milan an hour later.

Had an espresso in Italy (out of a ‘take away’ plastic expression cup complete with a plastic handle), and jumped on the next plane bound for Barcelona, home of Gaudi, Picasso, Shoes (lovely shoes), and Sangria.

Barcelona was beautiful! It is on the coast of Spain and it was nice to smell the sea, and fish and inhale the clean air, see the palm trees and just enjoy the relaxed atmosphere. I met Max at the airport and we took the shuttle into the middle of the city (Place Catalunya), where our hostel was. As we approached the hostel, I heard…’jEssIEEE’ from a far. There sitting on the hostel balcony was Mi mama in a bright green t-shirt. It was very exciting to be in Spain, a country I’d always wanted to travel too, and to see familiar familial faces, but the two together was priceless.

As a note: The cheap airlines were not so cheap on the Budapest-Barcelona route, so I ended up taking a normal airline. I’d forgotten what normal service is. And what a padded seat was. It was wonderful!

So after we met up at the hostel, and chatted, caught up, and drank cervesa numero uno, we changed and went to town. Really we went to the Ramblas (I think that’s what it was called). It’s the main pedestrian drag that connects Place de la Cataluyna with the Port of Barcelona. The street is actually in the middle of a larger street (the cars drive on either side of it), and it is filled with artists, souvenir stands, those people statues and a pet shop. Yes, there is a pet shop, where apparently kids take their parents to buy their little critter friends. And birds. I don’t like birds…

Anyway, we actually took some side streets and found the big market in the city centre. Barcelona, like Bpest, has a very large ‘farmers’ market too. But this one was so colorful and bright and cheery with all the fresh produce, watermelons, strawberries, figs, dates pineapples, oranges, dragon fruit, lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, all the different colours felt like I was a candy shop. We bought some fruit for breakfast, and went on our way to another place to buy some saphron before heading to the port to visit Columbus (at the port, there is a large statue of Columbus). .

The smell of the sea was wonderful, and the cool air coming off the sea did just the trick for cooling down in the hot Spanish sun. When we were at the port we noticed some cable cars that seemed to be traveling across the whole harbour….so we went to investigate them…..after walking around for what felt like ions, we finally found proper information, jumped into a cab and drove along the sea to the cable cars, and took one across the harbour to the large mountain in the middle of the city. It was a great view of the entire city! The cable car had two other Canadian travellors, who noticed that we were all wearing Canada pins (it was Canada Day after all!) In fact there were a lot of Canadians there, wishing us a Happy Canada Day. (I also found out that the owner of one of the souvenir shops’ sister lives in Toronto, and he is going to visit her next year). When we got to the top of the mountain (thanks to the cable car!). We also had another cerversa (this time with lemon, yum!). then we went back to the Ramblas and decided to check out some of Gaudi houses near by.

Canada Day dinner night was Paella and Sangria. Yum!

For those who don’t know: Paella is a rice dish with lots of different types of sea food. Here’s a photo of david and the Paella.

one week later, I'm back!



Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a WHOLE WEEK since my last update.

To be fair, I was away in Barcelona last weekend arriving home Sunday, then I have been focused on my thesis…which left no time for updates. I would also like to note that there are several emails that I started, that I have to finish. They have found a home in the ‘drafts’ folder, but I assure you they are coming!

However I will give an update now. (the photo is of Raday Utca, around 8 am).

The last post I made was on Canada day. Or, rather, the day before Canada day because I actually left of Spain on Canada day. The photo I posted was of the center arrangement that I made for all the cocktail tables at the reception that we had at work. I just played around with the contrast on the computer. The reception was really nice, and we even had some Canadian sponsors and Canadian business who donated things (like food) for the event. I happily ate some McCain fries and cheddar jalapeño poppers. While Heinz ketchup was no where in sight, I was happy to taste something ‘homey’….even if McCain fries are not exactly gourmet….

My ‘duty’ at the party was to both schmoose (which I am getting much better at!), and take photos. I think having the camera actually made it easier as it was the ice breaker so to speak. Actually, I forgot the mention my first two jobs. One ended in a gongshow the other was kind of fun….in a work sort of way.

Firstly, the gongshow. I know there is a heat wave currently plaguing most of central Canada and the US (evidence: the thousands of facebook status updates related to the ‘heat’ from my Canadian and American friends). In Hungary, there is no heat wave persay…but rather, a serious mosquito problem. In fact, this year they said that the mosquito population is 50 times it’s normal rate (from 50 bites per hour to something like 100 to 120 bites per hour…I have no idea where or how they get/got to this fact, but I believe it). They say this is because of all the rain that bpest had in the spring, coupled with the large puddles in the streets, coupled with the fact that the rain delayed the 'spraying' meant that a perfect breeding ground was created for the pesky things to procreate......In the span of 30 minutes, I had been bitten over 10 times, and large welts were appearing…..(as a note: these welts then bruised, and I looked like I came from a war zone when I met my mum, David and Max in Barcelona).

Due to the mosquito bites and general mosquito population at the party, I was sent out to buy repellant to appease all of us stuck in the grass for the night. Actually I was sent out for batteries AND bug spray and asked to get a proper business receipt too. I failed to find bug spray (but found batteries) and went to the cash and said ‘Kanata’ receipt Canada. The women had no idea what I was saying. Really, I didn’t really know what I was saying. I remember a colleague told me the words that I was supposed to say, but I guess I just got nervous, I ended up mixing up ALL the syllables and saying a jumbled mess of words of Hungarian, French and English. So after about what felt like years of in Babylon, I took out my cell phone and called a Hungarian colleague, told her my issue and gave the phone to the cashier. At this point the cashier probably thought I was nuts. You know, I would probably think that if a strange person speaking nonsense handed me a cell phone….anyway…it worked, my colleague told the cashier what I needed and all was swell. Sort of. The lady didn’t seem too happy, neither did the 10 people waiting behind me. Apparently this was something I should have said at the beginning of the purchase….that I am actually totally just assuming though…she might have just been angry that I was causing a backlog of people, or hell, that I asked for something that she didn’t want to deal with. Anyway, she pushed some buttons, looked at me and said Nev. Nev. Nev.

I have (or, actually, had) no idea what Nev was.

Then she moved on and pointed to the word Cim.

Again.

I was clueless.

So I called my colleague again. Told her about the current Nev/Cim standoff occurring in the check out line and she said:

Jessica, Nev is your name, Cim is your address. She needs your name and address to give you the receipt.

So I wrote down my Nev and Cim on the back of an old receipt (including the words Nev and Cim and arrows pointing to each) and handed it over. There was NO way I was going to attempt to actually say the letters (attempt is even a long shot as I don’t actually know the Hungarian alphabet of by heart).

I half laughed/half cried/half wished I could communicated better/half wished I’d pay attention more in my impromptu lunch/break Hungarian lessons…..but I will never forget my Nev and Cim……and I did get the proper receipt…it just took longer than expected and required two phone calls and a very long backlog of people at the cash….

My second task was to greet all the VIP people who came to the party. I greated them in Three languages J. That was fun. Except that I wasn’t told that this would be my job, and therefore was not prepared for it. These people were soooooo VIP that they didn’t care to tell me who they were (and I had no idea who they were), so there were some awkward moments when I just asked them….But knowing after the fact did help with my job as camera-women and general schmoosing.

To be fair, I did recognize some from other things as well…but still…the people that I knew introduced themselves, it was the people that I didn’t know, who also didn’t care to tell me who they were, where tense-ish moments occurred…at one point me and the security guard had devised a plan for figuring who was who half by the cars they drove up in (and the labels on the cars). He also delayed some of the drivers, which gave me time to scan my brain in the hope that I would recognize the flags and labels on the car. Had I been able to communicate with the security guard, I probably would have asked him to ask the drivers in Hungarian….However, due to linguistic issues and security issues, after the VIP were all ‘in’, my job was handed over to someone who could speak Hungarian. So this meant I got to grab my camera and shoooot. And that is what I did. I also got to meet and chat with some really interesting people. One guy asked me about my research and he actually seemed more excited about it than me. It gave me hope.

The party ended around 8 30, and I got home around 10 30….when I decided that I’d better pack and get ready for trip to Barcelona! !