Szent István Day!

August 20th is an important day in Hungary. It is a National Day celebrating St Stephen (Szent István in Hungarian). St Stephen was the first king of Hungary way back in year 1000 (or 1001 depending on your source). The day is filled with many events and culminates with fireworks on the Danube.

I was particularly excited to see fireworks for this holiday because of my mishap with the 4th of July fireworks while I was in the US. The 4th of July was very wet where my parents live, and although the rain had stopped I couldn't find the level of patriotism needed to go stand in the humid aftermath amongst my fellow countrymen, to watch fireworks shot off while not being able to drink alcohol in the street. So instead I settled on watching the NYC fireworks on TV. However due to misreading the TV schedule we found ourselves watching a firework display set to overlaid music with commentary about an hour after the real thing. Needless to say I barely made it through 3 minutes before demanding it be turned off. Seriously it was awful, they drowned out the sound of the bangs. What are fireworks without their noise?

So I was excited for fireworks in Budapest.

Also, this seems as good a time as any to point out that most Americans pronounce Budapest in correctly. When saying Budapest you should say it as if it was spelled Budapesht. This is because "s" in Hungarian makes the "sh" sound in English. If you want the English "s" sound in Hungarian you write it as "sz".

So back to the festivities. As I've spent a bunch of money improving my apartment over the past few weeks, I didn't want to spend much money on this holiday. So instead of setting out early in the morning to participate, I waited until after a late lunch around 3pm to start out. 

A friend had earlier warned me that I should decide which side (of the Danube) I wanted to watch from early in the afternoon or I might have difficulty crossing the river because some bridges close for the event. I'm not sure why but I've always had a soft spot for the Buda embankment of the Danube. It might stem from the first time I saw the Danube (in Hungary), experienced teachers brought me and my orientation group to see Parliament all lit up at night, we got off of the metro at Batthyány Tér and immediately saw, in all it's glory, the Hungarian Parliament building. I think that moment was the exact moment I started falling in love with this country. I just loved it's architecture.

I reached my "destination" by about 4pm and decided to have a look around. The first thing I learned is that if you go to a beer stand and ask for "alma" (apple) you don't get apple cider, you actually get some sort of strange apple beer thing. I don't know how to describe it. It was bad and kinda tasted like medicine. However I was lucky, the stand next to it was selling one of my favorite festival snacks.

Mhmmhhhmm

Kenyérlángos. Delicious. kenyérlángos is like a small pizza but instead of sauce you use a type of sour cream and you top it with onions and bacon. Lángos is a type of fried dough that is generally very greasy but this type isn't fried instead it is baked in little brick ovens. Normally it doesn't come with a bite missing, but the apple beer tasted soooooo bad. I just had to get the taste out of my mouth.

While enjoying my kenyérlángos I decided to walk along the river's walkway. Take a moment to look at the beauty of this bridge.

After enjoying a long view of the river I decided to walk to the cake tent. I haven't actually asked any of my Hungarian friends about this but I read that on St. Stephan's day the national cake and national bread is announced. So every year Hungary has a new national cake and a new national bread. I'm not sure if it's true but I definitely found a cake tent.

Cake Tent

If you wait in this line (and give them 600FT) you get a piece of the new National Cake! Being curious and a cake lover I decided to check it out. It took about ten minutes to get to the front of the line and I walked away with a piece of cake.

National Cake 2014

The cake was very good and layered in a way that we don't often layer cakes in the US. Instead of the same layers with the same icing, each layer was unique. Lets start from the top of the cake (dark brown layer). The first is a rich chocolate fudge icing (perhaps fondant), followed by a custard layer, the next layer (it's really thin) is some sort of citrus jelly, then chocolate custard, followed by some type of cake (I have no guesses as to what type). Over all it was very good but I didn't like the bottom layer, if I ate it on it's own. Now it was time to find a spot for the fireworks.

Perfect firework spot selfie :-)

My grandparents would have been very proud of me, I found a spot 3 hours before the fireworks started. They would be less proud of me for getting too bored to keep said spot but that's beside the point. I stayed at the perfect spot for about 30 mintues. Long enough to finish my beer and take a few photos of the firework barges getting into place.

Firework Barge and Tug Boat!

Shortly after watching this barge get into place I realized I was bored out of my mind. I had to do something pronto, there was no way I'd be able to sit there for another 2 1/2 hours. So naturally I decided to drink more alcohol. I bought myself some wine and decided to figure out what was for dinner. My favorite food to get from festivals in Hungary is definitely sausage. When you buy sausage at these festivals they are cooked in oil with various vegetables and chicken, and come with a big puddle of mustard and a few slices of bread. So I got dinner, talked to some fellow foreigners, drank some wine and still managed to find a decent spot an hour before the fireworks were scheduled to start.

When the fireworks did start, they were shot from three different barges and a bridge. Plus the beautiful Parliament was right there.

The fireworks went off in increments set to music that played in the background. One of the differences I noticed between the fireworks in Budapest and the fireworks in my hometown was the lack of participation from the audience. Where I'm from, you "oohhhh" and you "ahhhahhh" while watching fireworks. Here I didn't hear any "oohhhhs" or ahhhahhs" at all.

After watching the fireworks I decided to wander around a bit and enjoy another beer. I had read that if you wait about an hour after the fireworks end you can walk over the bridge in the car lanes. Being the rebel that I am (and having no desire to pack myself into a subway car) I decided that was something I needed to do. So I had another beer, spoke with some English speakers and then walked across the bridge :-)

The crowd waiting to be allowed across.

Walking where I'm never allowed to walk! Check out the view!

Guess who just walked across that bridge. Go on, guess. Yup! ME!

All in all I'd call it a wonderful National Day :-)

Where Am I?

Where Am I? What a strange question to ask, I always know where I am. However coming from my readers the question would read: Where Are You? A strange question within it's self. Did you know this is a new question? I read an article recently that spoke about the question: where are you? The article points out how before the invention of cell phones (or mobile phones as the British would say) You would never say "where are you?" in conversation because you would always know where they are. Land-lines had a definite location, if you were calling someone at home you knew they were at home, if you called someone at work you knew they were at work. However now with mobile phones and the internet it is very possible to talk to someone have no idea where they are. However, again I'm off topic.

If you've scrolled past my blog in the past few months you probably thought, or perhaps spoke allowed "where are you?" or "where is she?" and you were right to wonder. Perhaps your terribly pessimistic and thought I died. Wrong, still alive and kicking. Perhaps you have an interest in life beyond Earth and thought I was abducted by aliens. Wrong, to my knowledge I've never met an alien. Perhaps you know some of my hidden dreams, like trying to life off the grid and think I finally did it. Wrong, a bit of a coward here, not sure I'd want to go off on that adventure alone. Perhaps you thought that I hated Hungary and was simply enduring my time here. Wrong, I love it here! I love it some much I broke my cardinal rule about never going back somewhere. Whoa! Yeah, I know, I broke the rule. So by now you might be thinking I'm in Budapest. RIGHT!!! Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!

I'm here sitting on my futon, in my apartment in Budapest, Hungary. Unfortunately you know very little about my life and experiences here. I don't know why I stopped writing, I just did. I can't tell you how many times I opened up my blog and looked at it. I tried to write something but it didn't sound like it was coming from me. I didn't like that, I want what I write to sound like me. So I didn't write.

Ahhh, but now I am writing. What's changed you ask? I don't know. Or maybe I kind of know but don't know how to write about it without sounding crazy. Or maybe I just don't want it on the internet cause not everyone likes honesty, especially when it comes to how people feel. Regardless of the reason, I'm writing now, and I hope you like it.

So back to where I am. I am in Budapest, Hungary. The other day I went on a really long walk and I documented it for you, my readers, who deserve to know what the city who stole my heart looks like.

So I decided I wanted to go for a stroll and take pictures of my life. It occurred to me that despite talking with my family and friends regularly there were so many little aspects of my daily life they knew nothing about. So this is my way of showing people what my life really looks like. When I started off the day I was quite disappointed to see that I had just missed the bus. Look at that empty bus stop, an empty bus stop is never good. If it's empty, you've just missed the bus, I didn't want to stand around for the 15 minutes it takes for the next bus to show up. So I decided to walk to the commuter train. It takes 10 minutes to get there and the stop is home to 2 commuter trains, and 2 buses that end at the same place as the commuter train. Since I hate waiting around its a good option for me.

  

 My decision paid off and the commuter train showed up just as I got there. If this happens it actually ends up being about 6 minutes faster than having waited for the bus.

The commuter train ends where metro line 2 begins and as I found myself walking towards the metro I had to decide where to go. I knew part of my plan for the day was to acquire cilantro and there are only three places I know in Budapest that regularly carry it.

 I decided that after two long weeks at camp (I might tell you about this later), I deserved something American. So I decided to go to the foreign foods shop that sells lots of American goodies. The shop has multiple locations and I decided to go to the one near parliament. This stop like many in Budapest is so far underground that the escalators (the only way out) are nearly terrifying. Look how it just keeps going!

However I'm rewarded for my perseverance with an immediate view of parliament. This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world in my opinion, and I love walking past it.

Parliament even has cooling mist that comes out of its square. It's quite funny to see everyone literally run towards it when it begins. It often looks like a scene from a zombie movie as they run with their arms in front of them.

After enjoying the mist and the people watching I wandered towards the store. I came out with a fresh package of cilantro (score!) and a small cube of American cheddar cheese. Although I could have easily blown my whole paycheck there, I resisted. One of the things I do miss from China is my cilantro woman. She had a cart and sold cilantro for one kuai. I miss her.

As I didn't feel ready to go home yet I decided to take a wander over to Szabadság Tér (Freedom Square). It was one of the first places I went to that in Budapest back when I arrived this past winter. It was also one of the few things I blogged about. I like going to Szabadság Tér because it reminds me of that first walk there. It was cold and windy, I couldn't even say "do you speak English?" (beszelek angolul?), and I had no idea what this festival would actually be like. Now when I confidently navigate the streets there without carrying a map it reminds me of how far I've come.

The square is also now home to a rather controversial monument about the Hungarian victims of the Holocaust. I don't fully understand the issue with the monument, but from an aesthetics perspective, I just don't like it. And to end on a good note, check out these really happy oranges!