The two travelling Canadians confirmed the things I LOVE about Budapest, like the views, the quirkiness of the city, the metro stop announcers, and to some extent, living in a place where the language is so foreign that it become comical attempting to understand something….I think they both experienced this at one point or another during their stay (and I will note: Amanda couldn’t figure out the water on the first try as well (so I am not that nuts!)). They also confirmed some of the things that get slightly frustrating about living here…. like how communication takes on a whole new meaning when your operating in a non-English zone, how a simple trip to get one thing is never so simple, what I mean by 'the city is covered in a blankey of soot' and what noise pollution really sounds like at 2 am....
Amanda arrived on Tuesday morning, fresh off a bus from Prague. We had breakfast together, I gave her a very brief almost skeleton sketch of things she should venture over too and explained the basics of Budapest (ie: duna, metro, key metro stops, and where I live (in proper Hungarian
pronunciation)). Then I took her to see the embassy, and sent her on her way. We all met back at the house around 5 and went to the opera! The Opera was on only because of ‘BudaFest’, a summer arts festival going on. It just so happened that the week that both of them were going to be in Budapest was also the same week the opera was playing the summer sh
ow, Il Travatore….so I got tickets and off we went. There must have been a famous hungarian singer because everytime one of the singers came on stage the crowd went nuts. Becca read a summary of the opera before the show (and subsequently translated the events after each scene).While the show was sung in Italian with Hungarian surtitles, it didn’t much matter as the building was so opulent and ornate it was very easy to get lost just staring at the shimmering gold, statues, and peoples faces as they watched. We had a balcony seat right near the front and I think we all felt slightly posh (even if we arrived huffing and puffy on the account of our own tardiness). During the intermission we were free to roam around the building taking pictures and exploring all the rooms. We ended up finding a cool balcony on the 3rd floor where a small reception was happening…..although we were ignored by the waiters as I guess we were the ‘crashers’ so to speak. After the Opera I took them to Szimpla, but it was really busy and I think both of them were slightly overwhelmed....
Wednesday I had to go to work, but I sent Becca and Amanda to Széchenyi Baths. It is the most touristy of the bpest baths, but still, it's beautiful. Then Wednesday night I took them to the place where I had by birthday dinner. The trofea grill (a kind of Tuckers Market Place for Hungarian foods). While the food quality is similar to any buffet, the type of food was all Hungarian (and we got a kick out of trying all the really rather interesting dishes……including foe gras….ewww…).
we had two rules about the night. 1) everyone had to try everything 2) each person got one ‘I will not swallow this’ pass. I used my pass on this crunchy creaming cold salad thing (that I still have no idea what it was). Becca used her'son the foie gras. Amanda was a trouper and tried, and swallowed, Everything.
The most ‘Hungarian’ dishes included Dill and chicken soup (we all liked this one). Goulash, Sour Cherry Soup, Chicken in a mushroom sauce, a roast that was made of something similar to game with a sweet gravey (gammet? I think that's what it was called), potato dumplings, some very odd cold cuts, pickles, saukraut (Hungarian style), pogàcha, chestnut Spaghetti, a weird cream salad in which NONE of us could figure out the ingredients too, Potato cheese pizza…etc... As always, I liked the dessert best, and may or may not have had 2 helpings....We didn’t eat full servings of anything….or else I think we would have all exploded…..we made mini bites (except, I had a full serving of dessert...), and I think it was enjoyed by everyone. PLUS they got to see the firework/birthday candle (and agreed that the candle would probably be considered a firework in Canada, and would not be found on a cake).
After dinner, we were all feeling like we were in a food coma so I decided to take my guests on a night tour of Budapest (to ease the digestion process). I took them to the Petofi Bridge to get a glimpse of all the bridges at night, the Danube Embankment where both got to see the Holocaust shoe memorial, then to parliament, hero’s square, the chain bridge, and St. Stephen’s Basilica.
We got home around midnight, spent a couple of hours getting ready for the next leg of our trip, then went to bed.
We got up 4 hours later to catch a 6 30 train to Zagreb!
Yeah Canadians!
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