Hungary? I am...
cSo, thus winds down our third day of BIG ADVENTURE installement 1: Budapest, the land of paprika, sweet wine, and... well, a big-city vibe kind of like any other. Except for the woman with her skirt hiked up, shitting at the entrance of the metro as we walked out of the train station for the first time. That was a little bit different...
But other than that, Budapest is... a city. It's got some great sights, some obvious nuances, and is filled with a finnougraic (spelling?) language that sounds not in the least bit familiar (Magyar)... but it's also got its Mickey D's (macdonalds), burger king, electronics stores (with over-priced digicams, so i think i'll be waiting a while for my new purchase...). When we asked Paul, our muscular, half french, half hungarian, hangs-out-in-his-boxers-all-day hospitality club host how we could escape the tourist trap and see a bit of the 'real' deal, he said we couldn't. That if we wanted to really see what hungarian's do, don't go to tourist things... just do regular city stuff. This, of course, was after we told him that we'd gotten tickets to see one of the 'traditional hungarian folk dance' performances for our first night there. He laughs... 'hungarians NEVER go to those things... and would never pay that price to see outsiders come in and dance their dances. It's the hungarians outside of hungary that keep the culture alive' Ah well. It was a good show nonetheless, with a violin orchestra featuring rivaling lead violinists and lots of vested, jumping, boot-slapping dancers...
Since then, however, we have managed to get outside of the tourist trap, despite Paul's insistance that we couldn't. Like yesterday's wine tasting festival... talk about divine! And filled with locals, going to get their fill on local wines and great hungarian cuisine. We bought our glasses, bought some tasting tickets, and proceeded to get our first glass of wine for free from an older winking wine-seller who rolled his eyes and then shook his head when we asked if he spoke english... but then dished us up two glasses of the famous hungarian sweet and fruity tokaji wine and waved us away without taking our drink tickets. 'So...' i turned to gretch 'do we look for all the stands with the gold-chained middle aged men behind them?' Of course the next place charged 5 drink tickets for a single taste, so our luck had run out... but what wine! Muscat with almond oil mixed in... like drinking dessert, right then and there!
The festival continued with the purchase of delicious stirfried veggies and chicken (cooked up in the biggest wok-type thing i'd ever seen), onion and chicken stew, a sausage (mmmm... sausage... Strasbourg has taught me well!), and a traditional sour cherry pastery, all eaten while listening to a hurdy-gurdy player pump out some incredible sounds accompanied by a reed-bending soprano saxophonist (sounded like a double-reed, though, and fit in perfecty), and a cello-type instrument that was plucked and hit with a stick instead of bowed. When i went over to try and ask the hurdyy-gurdy player how he got the buzzing rhythmic background in addition to the drone and the melody, it became obvious that the language barrier was going to prevent exstensive explanation... thus, he takes my hand and curls my fingers around the crank, with his hand on top, and makes me discover myself just how the sound is made! Then, right on cue, an american voice from behind me begins explaining 'the strings are resined and that's what makes the buzzing noise... it's a hurdy gurdy... I know because i collect antique instruments, and i have one at home... the two outter strings produce the buzzing against the cranked wheel...'
I proceed to start talking to the american voice, belonging to a middle aged woman from phoneix, arizona, who then offers to give me her email if i ever want to get a hold of her friend in Boulder that owns a renaissance instrument shop and sells hurdy gurdys... talking to dad on the phone later that day, he says he thinks mom may already have contacts at this very shop... So, essentially, the world is a small, small place.
After stuffing ourselves with delicious food, we decided to hit up the next place on our agenda... the baths! And considering we hadn't showered for a few days, it was a necessity as well as a luxury... after trying to decipher the various price boards (which seriously seemed like they were charging german speakers 400 forint less than those reading the english board (only 2 dollars, but still!), we changed into swim gear, left our stuff locked in the changing cubicle, and proceeded to delve into the baths.
After Baden-Baden's luxury, the initial mildewy smell caught us off guard... but it was there for a reason. Mineral baths... each room smelled slightly different... some rather rank, some almost yummy... and all in varying temperatures. Mmmmm...
Two and a half hours later, we walk out cleansed and better-smelling than before... and then it was back to Paul's bachelor pad apartment to chill and watch part of a world cup match before convincing ourself it was worth it to try and go out for drinks to experience a bit of budapest's night life.
Okay... time's running short and i didn't even get to today's adventures, which took us totally off the beaten tourist track, thanks to the fact that we got off the train at the wrong station trying to head to the cute but touristy town of Szentendre... and not realizing we weren't actually heading to Szentendre's town center, until we see a sign saying the town was still 7 kilometers away... but that's for another time.
Now we have to move our stuff over to our second host's place in the buda hills... an older german professor... we'll see how that goes.
Much love to all!
But other than that, Budapest is... a city. It's got some great sights, some obvious nuances, and is filled with a finnougraic (spelling?) language that sounds not in the least bit familiar (Magyar)... but it's also got its Mickey D's (macdonalds), burger king, electronics stores (with over-priced digicams, so i think i'll be waiting a while for my new purchase...). When we asked Paul, our muscular, half french, half hungarian, hangs-out-in-his-boxers-all-day hospitality club host how we could escape the tourist trap and see a bit of the 'real' deal, he said we couldn't. That if we wanted to really see what hungarian's do, don't go to tourist things... just do regular city stuff. This, of course, was after we told him that we'd gotten tickets to see one of the 'traditional hungarian folk dance' performances for our first night there. He laughs... 'hungarians NEVER go to those things... and would never pay that price to see outsiders come in and dance their dances. It's the hungarians outside of hungary that keep the culture alive' Ah well. It was a good show nonetheless, with a violin orchestra featuring rivaling lead violinists and lots of vested, jumping, boot-slapping dancers...
Since then, however, we have managed to get outside of the tourist trap, despite Paul's insistance that we couldn't. Like yesterday's wine tasting festival... talk about divine! And filled with locals, going to get their fill on local wines and great hungarian cuisine. We bought our glasses, bought some tasting tickets, and proceeded to get our first glass of wine for free from an older winking wine-seller who rolled his eyes and then shook his head when we asked if he spoke english... but then dished us up two glasses of the famous hungarian sweet and fruity tokaji wine and waved us away without taking our drink tickets. 'So...' i turned to gretch 'do we look for all the stands with the gold-chained middle aged men behind them?' Of course the next place charged 5 drink tickets for a single taste, so our luck had run out... but what wine! Muscat with almond oil mixed in... like drinking dessert, right then and there!
The festival continued with the purchase of delicious stirfried veggies and chicken (cooked up in the biggest wok-type thing i'd ever seen), onion and chicken stew, a sausage (mmmm... sausage... Strasbourg has taught me well!), and a traditional sour cherry pastery, all eaten while listening to a hurdy-gurdy player pump out some incredible sounds accompanied by a reed-bending soprano saxophonist (sounded like a double-reed, though, and fit in perfecty), and a cello-type instrument that was plucked and hit with a stick instead of bowed. When i went over to try and ask the hurdyy-gurdy player how he got the buzzing rhythmic background in addition to the drone and the melody, it became obvious that the language barrier was going to prevent exstensive explanation... thus, he takes my hand and curls my fingers around the crank, with his hand on top, and makes me discover myself just how the sound is made! Then, right on cue, an american voice from behind me begins explaining 'the strings are resined and that's what makes the buzzing noise... it's a hurdy gurdy... I know because i collect antique instruments, and i have one at home... the two outter strings produce the buzzing against the cranked wheel...'
I proceed to start talking to the american voice, belonging to a middle aged woman from phoneix, arizona, who then offers to give me her email if i ever want to get a hold of her friend in Boulder that owns a renaissance instrument shop and sells hurdy gurdys... talking to dad on the phone later that day, he says he thinks mom may already have contacts at this very shop... So, essentially, the world is a small, small place.
After stuffing ourselves with delicious food, we decided to hit up the next place on our agenda... the baths! And considering we hadn't showered for a few days, it was a necessity as well as a luxury... after trying to decipher the various price boards (which seriously seemed like they were charging german speakers 400 forint less than those reading the english board (only 2 dollars, but still!), we changed into swim gear, left our stuff locked in the changing cubicle, and proceeded to delve into the baths.
After Baden-Baden's luxury, the initial mildewy smell caught us off guard... but it was there for a reason. Mineral baths... each room smelled slightly different... some rather rank, some almost yummy... and all in varying temperatures. Mmmmm...
Two and a half hours later, we walk out cleansed and better-smelling than before... and then it was back to Paul's bachelor pad apartment to chill and watch part of a world cup match before convincing ourself it was worth it to try and go out for drinks to experience a bit of budapest's night life.
Okay... time's running short and i didn't even get to today's adventures, which took us totally off the beaten tourist track, thanks to the fact that we got off the train at the wrong station trying to head to the cute but touristy town of Szentendre... and not realizing we weren't actually heading to Szentendre's town center, until we see a sign saying the town was still 7 kilometers away... but that's for another time.
Now we have to move our stuff over to our second host's place in the buda hills... an older german professor... we'll see how that goes.
Much love to all!
posted by Melia at 7:20 AM
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