After all the yummy food in Hungary, I have been looking in very different places for a wider variety of food since my tastebuds have been reawakened. One of the Zupans type markets just got remodeled and I had to check it out. No only did they have Mexican foods, they had more then one type of refried/pinto bean; bamboo shoots for Thai foods and Goose fat. While we were in Hungary, Nelli had us try Goose fat on toast. Sounds gross, but is quite good. The fat comes in a hockey puck shaped mound that is white. When you spread it over toast it melts and tastes something like meat flavoured butter.
The cashier that helped me I just assumed was Polish from her accent. Since I had defrosted the freezer, our fridge was completely empty so I bought quite a bit, especially with my new discoveries. Since Ben was still away I had to bag everything by myself which was taking a while so the guy behind me was topping up his mobile, and thanked her in Polish. She did not understand so he said, you are Polish? And she responded in a very offended tone, No, Hungarian. He asked her then how to say thank you in Hungarian, Köszönöm, which he failed at saying multiple times. He walked away and I told her I just got back from Hungary and said thank you correctly. Her bad mood suddenly went to happy when I said all of my Hungarian words, and told her we were in Szeged, which also was her hometown. As I finished up my bagging, I said goodbye in Hungarian, and she was just so pleased. I even did it right! Katalin would have been proud. It is not everyday you meet a Hungarian in Ireland, and it is even rarer to have an American in Ireland be able to speak some Hungarian to them.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Lifesized Aerial Aquarium
Clémentine invited me to go to a St. Patrick’s Festival at the Docklands for the Irish premiere of 'Pearl' by the world renowned street theatre company Plasticiens 
Volants from France. This was set right on the water at the docklands where the giant inflated puppets took over Georges Dock to tell a story of the precarious journey of a precious pearl. The music was set to the puppets movements as if they would be underwater. The whale was the first to come out, but he died an untimely death as he got stuck on some light poles and his large balloons escaped his body, like giving birth to gigantic caviar. People dressed up as flying fish, 'joker' squids, bewitched jellyfish and starfish ran around among the crowd to keep all the kids entertained. Their costumes glowed as they ran about. Some of the puppets like the sea snakes and octopus were sort of scary to small kids, but they seems to get over it. The pearl danced around the whole night before finally settling within its
shell with a large firework display at the end. Very exciting since fireworks are illegal and it has been awhile since I have seen that exciting explosion of fire and colour in a while. It ended up being a nice clear night, with no rain and very little wind, which was perfect for the show. You are never too old to enjoy a children show.
Volants from France. This was set right on the water at the docklands where the giant inflated puppets took over Georges Dock to tell a story of the precarious journey of a precious pearl. The music was set to the puppets movements as if they would be underwater. The whale was the first to come out, but he died an untimely death as he got stuck on some light poles and his large balloons escaped his body, like giving birth to gigantic caviar. People dressed up as flying fish, 'joker' squids, bewitched jellyfish and starfish ran around among the crowd to keep all the kids entertained. Their costumes glowed as they ran about. Some of the puppets like the sea snakes and octopus were sort of scary to small kids, but they seems to get over it. The pearl danced around the whole night before finally settling within its
shell with a large firework display at the end. Very exciting since fireworks are illegal and it has been awhile since I have seen that exciting explosion of fire and colour in a while. It ended up being a nice clear night, with no rain and very little wind, which was perfect for the show. You are never too old to enjoy a children show.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Budapest - Prettiest City in Europe....so far
Katalin and I went to Architecture school together and used to work at AMAA together. She is originally from Hungary, so I told her if she ever went home, I would love to come visit her. Lo and behold, Katalin was going home. Ben and I flew into Budapest and Katalin was there to greet us. After a quick coffee we got on a shuttle to drive to Katalin's hometown of Szeged. It was so good to see someone from home, especially some one we both know and can appreciate architecture as well. After a two hour drive in great sunny weather we went from the north of Hungary to the very south, where we met up with Katalin's mom, Anna Maria. The transit system is efficient and comes often so we caught it out to the neighborhood she grew up in. After WWII the Russians were supposed to only occupy Hungary for a short time, but 45 or so years later, they finally left. The efficiently built Russian structures are either 5 or 10 storey housing, the same elementary school, the same high school and the same supermarket built all over their 'empire'. It was the same sort of buildings we saw in Slovakia. Of course now that the Russians have left they have painted them all different colours since they used to all be grey. We walked past where Katalin went to school, grocery shopped (where they could queue for hours in the winter to get that one banana for the year) and finally her housing complex. Katalin and her mom sweet talked a guy to unlock the door and let us into her old building so we could look around and get up onto the roof. If a family had 3 children (which they had three girls) you could get into this larger housing nicknamed the Baby Makers. The three bedroom places had a living room/kitchen area as well as a pantry which could not have been more than 3 feet wide. When the Chernobyl disaster happened, Katalin said she hid in the pantry to get away from the radiation for a few days. On a side note, most children who were exposed to that radiation have Thyroid problems now, as she does. It was great to get a first hand look at Socialism and how it really was like to live there. Just so different and oppressive then anything I have seen first hand. It does help to understand her better and where she comes from. We moised our way back to the heart of town to have a great dinner that was enough to feed 6 people and had more flavour in it then most of the restaurant food we have had here this year. Since I had been working such long hours before coming, I slept like a rock that night, isn't that what holidays are about?
The next morning we got up early and met up with the two of them to take us around Szeged. This day was not as nice, it started out as sprinkles and by the end of the day it was torrential downpour, the most rain they had seen in a very long time. It looks like we had brought some Ireland with us. We walked around the older part of town which has an interesting history. The whole city was flooded by the River Tisza just over a hundred years ago killing almost everyone, so they rebuilt the whole city by lifting everything up almost half a storey. In older buildings it i s interesting to see windows that used to be at ground level are now at basement level, or you have to go down stairs in order to get to the main level of a building. The night before we saw thewatertower all lit up, and they told us it is only opened to the public once a month. With our luck though, it was open that day and the skies cleared. We walked up the winding staircase up to the top and when we opened the door, it nearly blew us away. It was super windy, but it was a great view of the entire city. Next it was off to the main university where both Katalin's parents studied to be physicists. On campus it had a very old tower, Dömötör Tower, left over from an old church right with a new church build right next to it, the Votive Church. It also had a large clock sort of like the glockenspiel in Munich. We heard the music go off, but sadly missed the characters dancing. The rain was starting to pick up so we headed into a museum to check out a very innovative Hungarian artist, Victor Vasarely. He does some amazing work that was so ahead of his time! While circling downtown, we walked past a very closed National Theater of Szeged. Katalin once sang there in the choir and really wanted to show us where she had sung. We checked every door and we noticed they were making deliveries to a side door, so she slipped in and we followed. Everyone was staring at us wondering what we were doing there. She played innocent and talked our way out of there since when we went to leave, the doors were locked. Once again the family had gotten us into someplace we should not be. We also ate sweets, all over town. Baked good and sweet shops are such a part of Hungarian culture. They are everywhere and they are all fresh and of course amazing! I am just glad that we walked all over to work off those sweets. As the day drew to a close, we left Katalin's mom at her house, said our goodbye's and headed to the last few places we wanted to see. Gróf-palota and Reök Palace which are elaborate homes built in the Austria-Hungarian Art Deco Style. The palace has since become a museum which was currently showing a Picasso exhibit, how could we pass that up! We stopped for desserts one more time before heading off to the train station and into Budapest.
We packed along some of the snacks at Anna Maria had sent with us and ate most of them on the 3 hour train ride in Budapest. Nelli met us at the train station and took us to our apartment. Since the blocks are so incredibly deep, there is a courtyard in the center of them that has residences or shops off of them. Ours was off the courtyard, sort of sketchy looking from the street, but I always felt safe in the city. Our Apartment was right across from the Opera on Andrassy Avenue which is one of the main thoroughfares. We stopped into a traditional Hungarian 'mom's kitchen' sort of restaurant, but they were out of food so we had some pálinka which is a moonshine sort of drink made out of fruit. That stuff can strip paint, and will definitely put some hair on your chest. Good though! Had a quiet night at another restaurant for some more traditional food that they picked out for us and headed in early that night since it was such a jam packed day full of site seeing.
On a side note, one thing that is so cute about Nelli is she when looking for a word in English she would say a Hungarian word or sometimes a French word for me to figure out, like this:
"Piolette. You know this word?"
I would guess, "Pilot?"
and she would say "Yes." and continue on with her story.
It was just a very original way of asking what words are in English. She would do this several time throughout the day and most of the time I could guess the word from her random language word and the context. I will have to try that in Spanish.
The next morning we went to the one place for breakfast in the whole city and since we slept in that morning, we of course missed breakfast. Hungarians feel like it just is not that hard to make breakfast, so they do not have restaurants that serve breakfast except for where the tourist are. We set out into the city in what else, the pouring rain. Jogi is an old family friend of Katalin's that rescued us from the rain by taking us out to eat at one of the best places in Budapest. All I have to say is Hungarian has to be on of the most difficult languages, it was hard just to get by with just simple things like yes, no, thank you, good appetite (something you say before you eat something) and goodbye. We had to learn the good appetite one, Jó étvágyat , since it was just polite to say before we ate with people. Took us several tries to make it sound even remotely correct. Most people we met could speak some English. Jogi did not really speak English to us, but he understood what we said and then Katalin would translate his response. He spoke really slow Hungarian hoping that we would understand what he was saying. With the right hand gestures, sometime we did. Since he had a car he drove us way out into the country to his newly built office. We got to see some local gypsies riding their horses down the street. He then drove us up to the highest point in Buda. The city of Budapest is historically two separate towns, Buda to the west is hilly where Pest is in the east is flat with the Danube River splitting the two of them. As we looked over the city, the sky opened up and there was a rainbow over the city that Jogi had ordered just for us. We had a great view and enjoyed learning some of the history of the many revolutions over the last several centuries against many different oppressors. Jogi dropped us off at the Shopping Centre, which dwarfed any other mall I have ever been in, so we could pick up a plug converter for Katalin's camera charger. We stopped for some tea before catching a movie. On Sunday nights there is not much to do so after the movie we had no choice but to go home.
The next morning ended up being the nicest day. Our first stop of the day was the City Park that included Széchenyi Thermal Baths, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Zoo, and Hősök Tere (Hero's Square). On the castle grounds was a statue of the Anonymous writer that wrote revolutionary inspiring letters. He was quite ominous looking with his deep cowl and as the three of us girls looked deep into his mysterious eyes, Ben walked up behind us and shouted boo, which made all of us jump and scream. He though it was so funny, stinker! The one thing that we were not able to do there were the baths since there are Men days and Women days, it would not have been fair for all us girls to do it and have Ben not be able to. We will just have to do it when we go back some day. The zoo was quite small, but I did spy a Rhino through the bars, so I could not resist taking Ben's picture by it. (About 8 years ago we were in Phoenix, Arizona and I made Ben go with me to the zoo when it was so hot, like 118 degrees or something crazy like that. He looked so unhappy by the end of the tour that he looked like a rhino so I took his picture by them since they all had the same look. Since then, whenever I see rhinos I have to take Ben's picture by them, it is now our little joke.) We also came across one of the largest hourglasses I have ever seen, it marks the passing of a full year. Which of course, we had to try and push over!
After stopping for a bite to eat, it was back into old town. Katalin showed us the Hungarian Academy of Science where she had once worked on the remodel of the cafeteria before moving back to the States. Of course she convinced us that we needed to go in there and see it even though it is not open to the public. Once again we were where we should not be, but since we made sure that we looked like we belonged there, everyone let us go through the entire university building. The sun really started to shine as we left the university and crossed the Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Pest into Buda. I loved the big lions on the bridge. The engineer who designed the bridge said it was perfect, so for years people looked for a flaw and finally a young boy noticed there were no tongues in the lions mouths, so the engineer killed himself. At the end of the bridge was the cog railroad that took you up the mountian to Buda Castle. The views were breathtaking, and again the history of the buildings and ruins were as equally interesting. Mátyás Church was at the top of the hill next to the Fisherman's Bastillion. Inside was of the most interesting stained glass windows I have ever seen nestled into a corner in the back. The window was asymmetrical with a spiral curve within the stone, very ahead of its time. On the upper floor one of the cloisters contained the old crown of the monarchy. Since it was warm outside and even warmer in the church I had my sweater off, but when one of the women working at the church notices my v-neck top she touched each of my breasts, shook her head and motioned for me to cover up. I quickly put my sweater back on. I just did not realize how inappropriate I was, I should have known better since I have been to even more conservative churches in Spain. We climbed up the Fisherman's Bastillion to catch some great shots of the Parliament Buildings. Our architecture history professor from school never had a good shot of it in daylight and told Katalin he would pay her for a good shot, and she got one. We then wandered our way down snaking little paths to get back down the hill. The narrow streets were picturesque to travel down and we stopped for sweets along the way. We had to try one of everything while we were in Hungary!
Nelli had to be called into work, so Katalin took us to see the last things on our Must-see list. Parliament Building was our first stop back in Pest. Katalin took us past the TV station her sister used to work at MTV (Maygnar Television) and ended up watching the sun set on Szt. István Bazilika where it was just nice to sit, chat and people watch. Nelli got off work late and met up with us for dinner since March 3rd was Nelli's name day we we went to a dinner of her choice, pizza. Traditionally there are only so many saint names, that that is what children are named after. The name day is as important or more so then one's birthday. Nelli is short for Cornelia. She is definitely more of a Nelli. We made sure to bring her a little something from Ireland and treat her right on her special day. It's not that you cannot name your child something different, but it just would not be fair to a child to not have a name day when all of their friends would. Katalin is currently engaged to Omid who it Persian, so it will be interesting to see if their future children will have Hungarian or Persian names. We got some more pálinka on the house and the three of us girls had the sweeter stuff while Ben had the manly paint stripping stuff. The three of us split Ben's since he had to look like he finished it. One thing we have found around Europe that is very important when you cheer when having a drink it is to look people in the eye while cheering them or else they will be offended, and 7 years bad sex, and no one wants that.
The last day Nelli had to continue working even though she was supposed to have those days off with us, so Katalin was our tour guide for the day. It was just nice to wander around, and just stumble across things. We headed to the largest Synagogue in all of Europe. During WWII they locked up all the Jewish people into it and left them to die. The weeping willow is a tree found throughout the country, so it was an appropriate image for the memorial in not only its name, but in the basic form of the tree. It was made out of metal with leaves engraved with the names of those that died there that shimmer in the wind making an eerie sound. Next, we walked down the main pedestrian street Váci utca to see all the different shops and touristy things since what would a trip be without playing the tourist a little bit. At the end of the street was the Market Hall filled with hundreds of fruit and veg, clothing, meat goods, and dairy good stands. It was multi-leveled and we picked up some of our last items and had a great last meal. Nelli got off work so we met her in town for coffee and could you guess it, more sweets!
We quickly packed our paprika and sausages into our luggage and said our goodbyes to Nelli and Kati before heading to the airport. It helped having Nelli there knowing which of the confusing subway trains to get on and where to get off. We covered way more ground with her in those few days then I think we could have covered in a week. It was such a great trip having people know the language, the city and the food since we got an insider look into theculture. I know when Katalin goes home to the US they do not allow her to bring in sausages, but she figured Ireland is part of the EU I should be able to bring some home for Ben and I. When we touched down, I noticed a sign saying that the custom dogs were on duty, which made me suddenly fear for my meat and had images of a large dog tackling me and tearing apart my suitcase. All was well though, the dogs were knowwhere to be seen and we could take our meat home and eat it with great satisfaction. We loved Hungary, yet another surprise country we have traveling in, and hope to make it back for the holiday markets and some yummy treats! Maybe we can smuggle something home for Kati for Christmas ;)
The next morning we got up early and met up with the two of them to take us around Szeged. This day was not as nice, it started out as sprinkles and by the end of the day it was torrential downpour, the most rain they had seen in a very long time. It looks like we had brought some Ireland with us. We walked around the older part of town which has an interesting history. The whole city was flooded by the River Tisza just over a hundred years ago killing almost everyone, so they rebuilt the whole city by lifting everything up almost half a storey. In older buildings it i s interesting to see windows that used to be at ground level are now at basement level, or you have to go down stairs in order to get to the main level of a building. The night before we saw thewatertower all lit up, and they told us it is only opened to the public once a month. With our luck though, it was open that day and the skies cleared. We walked up the winding staircase up to the top and when we opened the door, it nearly blew us away. It was super windy, but it was a great view of the entire city. Next it was off to the main university where both Katalin's parents studied to be physicists. On campus it had a very old tower, Dömötör Tower, left over from an old church right with a new church build right next to it, the Votive Church. It also had a large clock sort of like the glockenspiel in Munich. We heard the music go off, but sadly missed the characters dancing. The rain was starting to pick up so we headed into a museum to check out a very innovative Hungarian artist, Victor Vasarely. He does some amazing work that was so ahead of his time! While circling downtown, we walked past a very closed National Theater of Szeged. Katalin once sang there in the choir and really wanted to show us where she had sung. We checked every door and we noticed they were making deliveries to a side door, so she slipped in and we followed. Everyone was staring at us wondering what we were doing there. She played innocent and talked our way out of there since when we went to leave, the doors were locked. Once again the family had gotten us into someplace we should not be. We also ate sweets, all over town. Baked good and sweet shops are such a part of Hungarian culture. They are everywhere and they are all fresh and of course amazing! I am just glad that we walked all over to work off those sweets. As the day drew to a close, we left Katalin's mom at her house, said our goodbye's and headed to the last few places we wanted to see. Gróf-palota and Reök Palace which are elaborate homes built in the Austria-Hungarian Art Deco Style. The palace has since become a museum which was currently showing a Picasso exhibit, how could we pass that up! We stopped for desserts one more time before heading off to the train station and into Budapest.
We packed along some of the snacks at Anna Maria had sent with us and ate most of them on the 3 hour train ride in Budapest. Nelli met us at the train station and took us to our apartment. Since the blocks are so incredibly deep, there is a courtyard in the center of them that has residences or shops off of them. Ours was off the courtyard, sort of sketchy looking from the street, but I always felt safe in the city. Our Apartment was right across from the Opera on Andrassy Avenue which is one of the main thoroughfares. We stopped into a traditional Hungarian 'mom's kitchen' sort of restaurant, but they were out of food so we had some pálinka which is a moonshine sort of drink made out of fruit. That stuff can strip paint, and will definitely put some hair on your chest. Good though! Had a quiet night at another restaurant for some more traditional food that they picked out for us and headed in early that night since it was such a jam packed day full of site seeing.
On a side note, one thing that is so cute about Nelli is she when looking for a word in English she would say a Hungarian word or sometimes a French word for me to figure out, like this:
"Piolette. You know this word?"
I would guess, "Pilot?"
and she would say "Yes." and continue on with her story.
It was just a very original way of asking what words are in English. She would do this several time throughout the day and most of the time I could guess the word from her random language word and the context. I will have to try that in Spanish.
The next morning we went to the one place for breakfast in the whole city and since we slept in that morning, we of course missed breakfast. Hungarians feel like it just is not that hard to make breakfast, so they do not have restaurants that serve breakfast except for where the tourist are. We set out into the city in what else, the pouring rain. Jogi is an old family friend of Katalin's that rescued us from the rain by taking us out to eat at one of the best places in Budapest. All I have to say is Hungarian has to be on of the most difficult languages, it was hard just to get by with just simple things like yes, no, thank you, good appetite (something you say before you eat something) and goodbye. We had to learn the good appetite one, Jó étvágyat , since it was just polite to say before we ate with people. Took us several tries to make it sound even remotely correct. Most people we met could speak some English. Jogi did not really speak English to us, but he understood what we said and then Katalin would translate his response. He spoke really slow Hungarian hoping that we would understand what he was saying. With the right hand gestures, sometime we did. Since he had a car he drove us way out into the country to his newly built office. We got to see some local gypsies riding their horses down the street. He then drove us up to the highest point in Buda. The city of Budapest is historically two separate towns, Buda to the west is hilly where Pest is in the east is flat with the Danube River splitting the two of them. As we looked over the city, the sky opened up and there was a rainbow over the city that Jogi had ordered just for us. We had a great view and enjoyed learning some of the history of the many revolutions over the last several centuries against many different oppressors. Jogi dropped us off at the Shopping Centre, which dwarfed any other mall I have ever been in, so we could pick up a plug converter for Katalin's camera charger. We stopped for some tea before catching a movie. On Sunday nights there is not much to do so after the movie we had no choice but to go home.
The next morning ended up being the nicest day. Our first stop of the day was the City Park that included Széchenyi Thermal Baths, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Zoo, and Hősök Tere (Hero's Square). On the castle grounds was a statue of the Anonymous writer that wrote revolutionary inspiring letters. He was quite ominous looking with his deep cowl and as the three of us girls looked deep into his mysterious eyes, Ben walked up behind us and shouted boo, which made all of us jump and scream. He though it was so funny, stinker! The one thing that we were not able to do there were the baths since there are Men days and Women days, it would not have been fair for all us girls to do it and have Ben not be able to. We will just have to do it when we go back some day. The zoo was quite small, but I did spy a Rhino through the bars, so I could not resist taking Ben's picture by it. (About 8 years ago we were in Phoenix, Arizona and I made Ben go with me to the zoo when it was so hot, like 118 degrees or something crazy like that. He looked so unhappy by the end of the tour that he looked like a rhino so I took his picture by them since they all had the same look. Since then, whenever I see rhinos I have to take Ben's picture by them, it is now our little joke.) We also came across one of the largest hourglasses I have ever seen, it marks the passing of a full year. Which of course, we had to try and push over!
After stopping for a bite to eat, it was back into old town. Katalin showed us the Hungarian Academy of Science where she had once worked on the remodel of the cafeteria before moving back to the States. Of course she convinced us that we needed to go in there and see it even though it is not open to the public. Once again we were where we should not be, but since we made sure that we looked like we belonged there, everyone let us go through the entire university building. The sun really started to shine as we left the university and crossed the Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Pest into Buda. I loved the big lions on the bridge. The engineer who designed the bridge said it was perfect, so for years people looked for a flaw and finally a young boy noticed there were no tongues in the lions mouths, so the engineer killed himself. At the end of the bridge was the cog railroad that took you up the mountian to Buda Castle. The views were breathtaking, and again the history of the buildings and ruins were as equally interesting. Mátyás Church was at the top of the hill next to the Fisherman's Bastillion. Inside was of the most interesting stained glass windows I have ever seen nestled into a corner in the back. The window was asymmetrical with a spiral curve within the stone, very ahead of its time. On the upper floor one of the cloisters contained the old crown of the monarchy. Since it was warm outside and even warmer in the church I had my sweater off, but when one of the women working at the church notices my v-neck top she touched each of my breasts, shook her head and motioned for me to cover up. I quickly put my sweater back on. I just did not realize how inappropriate I was, I should have known better since I have been to even more conservative churches in Spain. We climbed up the Fisherman's Bastillion to catch some great shots of the Parliament Buildings. Our architecture history professor from school never had a good shot of it in daylight and told Katalin he would pay her for a good shot, and she got one. We then wandered our way down snaking little paths to get back down the hill. The narrow streets were picturesque to travel down and we stopped for sweets along the way. We had to try one of everything while we were in Hungary!
Nelli had to be called into work, so Katalin took us to see the last things on our Must-see list. Parliament Building was our first stop back in Pest. Katalin took us past the TV station her sister used to work at MTV (Maygnar Television) and ended up watching the sun set on Szt. István Bazilika where it was just nice to sit, chat and people watch. Nelli got off work late and met up with us for dinner since March 3rd was Nelli's name day we we went to a dinner of her choice, pizza. Traditionally there are only so many saint names, that that is what children are named after. The name day is as important or more so then one's birthday. Nelli is short for Cornelia. She is definitely more of a Nelli. We made sure to bring her a little something from Ireland and treat her right on her special day. It's not that you cannot name your child something different, but it just would not be fair to a child to not have a name day when all of their friends would. Katalin is currently engaged to Omid who it Persian, so it will be interesting to see if their future children will have Hungarian or Persian names. We got some more pálinka on the house and the three of us girls had the sweeter stuff while Ben had the manly paint stripping stuff. The three of us split Ben's since he had to look like he finished it. One thing we have found around Europe that is very important when you cheer when having a drink it is to look people in the eye while cheering them or else they will be offended, and 7 years bad sex, and no one wants that.
The last day Nelli had to continue working even though she was supposed to have those days off with us, so Katalin was our tour guide for the day. It was just nice to wander around, and just stumble across things. We headed to the largest Synagogue in all of Europe. During WWII they locked up all the Jewish people into it and left them to die. The weeping willow is a tree found throughout the country, so it was an appropriate image for the memorial in not only its name, but in the basic form of the tree. It was made out of metal with leaves engraved with the names of those that died there that shimmer in the wind making an eerie sound. Next, we walked down the main pedestrian street Váci utca to see all the different shops and touristy things since what would a trip be without playing the tourist a little bit. At the end of the street was the Market Hall filled with hundreds of fruit and veg, clothing, meat goods, and dairy good stands. It was multi-leveled and we picked up some of our last items and had a great last meal. Nelli got off work so we met her in town for coffee and could you guess it, more sweets!
We quickly packed our paprika and sausages into our luggage and said our goodbyes to Nelli and Kati before heading to the airport. It helped having Nelli there knowing which of the confusing subway trains to get on and where to get off. We covered way more ground with her in those few days then I think we could have covered in a week. It was such a great trip having people know the language, the city and the food since we got an insider look into theculture. I know when Katalin goes home to the US they do not allow her to bring in sausages, but she figured Ireland is part of the EU I should be able to bring some home for Ben and I. When we touched down, I noticed a sign saying that the custom dogs were on duty, which made me suddenly fear for my meat and had images of a large dog tackling me and tearing apart my suitcase. All was well though, the dogs were knowwhere to be seen and we could take our meat home and eat it with great satisfaction. We loved Hungary, yet another surprise country we have traveling in, and hope to make it back for the holiday markets and some yummy treats! Maybe we can smuggle something home for Kati for Christmas ;)
Spain vs South America
The theory is that I am not working so much, so I have more time off. To fill some of that time I decided to take a spanish class. Just up the street from work is the Milltown Language College. Karen lives between the college and work, so since she is taking French at the same time, we have a lovely supper together before class at her house, cram before class and walk there together.
After visiting Spain, I realized how rusty my Spanish is. I have a large vocabulary, but to put a sentence together is something completely different. And to top it all off, I just do not understand those Spaniards. Their accent is so different from South America since they put in this strange lispy thing. I have a difficult time understanding my teacher, but I am getting better. Halfway through my 12 week course now, she has me read out loud often since I have such a sweet accent and sound so different compared to everyone else. She is even letting me know some of the differences between SA and Spain Spanish that she would normally leave out because most Europeans are learning Spanish to go to Spain. My teacher is also surprised with my extensive vocabulary for knowing random words but still have difficulties putting sentences together. I also surprise myself with how many words I remember since my last class was over 10 years ago.
Hopefully when Ben and I go back to Spain we both can manage the whole trip without any English. We just need to practice together more. Off to do my homework!
After visiting Spain, I realized how rusty my Spanish is. I have a large vocabulary, but to put a sentence together is something completely different. And to top it all off, I just do not understand those Spaniards. Their accent is so different from South America since they put in this strange lispy thing. I have a difficult time understanding my teacher, but I am getting better. Halfway through my 12 week course now, she has me read out loud often since I have such a sweet accent and sound so different compared to everyone else. She is even letting me know some of the differences between SA and Spain Spanish that she would normally leave out because most Europeans are learning Spanish to go to Spain. My teacher is also surprised with my extensive vocabulary for knowing random words but still have difficulties putting sentences together. I also surprise myself with how many words I remember since my last class was over 10 years ago.
Hopefully when Ben and I go back to Spain we both can manage the whole trip without any English. We just need to practice together more. Off to do my homework!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Strange Anomaly #14
Bumpers are for bumping. That is why they put them on cars, but in the last 10 y
ears or so, bumpers have not really been made to bump things, just to look good. But nonetheless, they are still used to bump another bumper gently when trying to fit into a small parking space. Yet another reason why I should not drive here, I am the world’s second worst parallel parker. I would be doing lots of bumping. I just need on of the old Mini Coopers or my favorite the Fiat 500!
Here is me with one in Hungary, it is almost as long as my open arm span. I just love those old Fiats.
ears or so, bumpers have not really been made to bump things, just to look good. But nonetheless, they are still used to bump another bumper gently when trying to fit into a small parking space. Yet another reason why I should not drive here, I am the world’s second worst parallel parker. I would be doing lots of bumping. I just need on of the old Mini Coopers or my favorite the Fiat 500!Here is me with one in Hungary, it is almost as long as my open arm span. I just love those old Fiats.
Mariah’s Top 5 Most Missed Places to Eat
5. Taco Bell (ANYTHING!) I miss Mexican food of any kind really. This being one of my top choices shows my desperation of wanting Mexican food!
4. Red Robin (Crisp Chicken Tender Salad)
3. Papa Murphy’s (Family Style Pizza preferably cold the next day or cold when coming home from the pub before going to bed)
2. Clay’s Smokehouse (BBQ Ribs or anything smothered in their sauce)
1. 24-Hour Original Hotcake House (Proper Pancakes, not that crêpe stuff!)
No, not posh, but still good!
Museum Adventure
After January being one the most grey and depressing months that I have ever lived through, February has turned out to be much cheerier since it is now light out when you go and come home from work and it has not been as cold and dreary. Whilst in Scotland I got to know one of my other co-workers, Katrin, much better. She is from Germany and understands the whole foreigner thing (when I get home I will definitely reach out more to foreigners I work with now that I understand how difficult it can be to live somewhere where you know so few people and have no family close). On a nice sunny Saturday afternoon, Katrin drove to our house to park in our free parking space (the second time it has ever been used), and then we walked the 6 miles clear over to the Northside of town to the Museum of Decorative Arts. It is located in the old Collins’ Barracks so it is interesting to see a place like that reused as a museum. We had to stop for coffee once we got there and the food was ridiculously priced, but since all museums are free here, I guess that it the trade off.
We picked this museum since they were having an exhibition of 1950s and 1960s Haute Couture by Neillí Mulcahy which was one of Ireland’s leading fashion designers, producing haute couture garments to the highest Parisian standards for her international and Irish clients. Neillí was one of the first truly Irish designers, she was known for her pioneering use of Irish fabrics, and tweed in particular. Neillí collaborated with the weavers, fabric and print designers and knitters to produce innovative fabrics in vibrant colours. She could make tweed look comfortable and fashionable. We could both appreciate fashion as designers, 
and it was great to see. We also stumbled upon a exhibition on Eileen Gray (1878-1976), who became one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th century. She loved working with lacquer and did some great metal and glass furniture later in her career. A movie was playing showing her still designing furniture when she was 97 years old. Very creative woman! It is sad that she is not know that well in Ireland except in designer circles, but she lived and worked in Paris for so long that she was well recognized there.
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