Hungary! Home, sweet home

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After a year on the road it was time for me to come home. On the way back to Europe I took a plane via Kiev. At the Ukranian airport I was amazed, that I could flush the toilet and I could wash my hand afterwards with running hot water. ..

This was an amazing year. It taught me not to take things for granted .

Before this trip, I wouldn't even thought abot how amazing is that we have hot water ( or just plain running water) electricity and all the likes.
It is great to be home. After countless hours in asian public transport, my 8 + 2 hour long flights with a 4 hour stopover was like a treat : )))))
The plane was clean, I had my own seat which I didn't have to share with other people or animals : )
People spoke English and not one has tried to ask me where I was coming from. No one cared... People took it granted that I am white, so there were no people staring at my face, when I woke up from a well earned snooze ;o)
It was great to see my friends and family : )
Many of my friends have not been to Hungary, so I thought that I 'll make a new blog entry for those, who would like to know a bit more about my home country.
Putting this blog together took me time, 'cause for the first time in ages, the weather was not cooperating :o(

I spent some time with my family and friends, cooking some hungarian gulyas. Now I must tell you all:
Here in Hungary we don't eat gulyas all the time, althought people tend to believe that we do. Gulyas is usually cooked with friends and family in a special pot we call "Bogracs" it is a stew originally made of beef, onions,potato, tomato and paprika. Lots of paprika : )
While the stew is stewing we drink and socialize with friends and family. So after awhile we do not care about the taste at all, yet the dish is always very tasty. ( Or at least we do not hear anyone complaining)
This is the tipical meal which for the foreigners we serve with Peptobismol :o)
Most of our core hungarian dishes are very heavy. We eat a lot of ham and bacon without cooking with raw onions and white bread.
The older people in Hungary still makes sweets and pastry from scratch, so When I visited my brother, his mother inlaw showed us one or 2 really cool desserts : )))
At the evening we lit the fire and cooked some more bacon and told stories to remember : )))
I have also visited the Bory Castle. Jeno Bory was a very talented professor,
art teacher, sculptor, builder and painter. He built his castle with his own hands and decorated it with a very distinct flair. I have visited some friends in Szekesfehervar, 90 km from Budapest and remembered how nice are the towns of my country.
Visiting Balaton is a must for any given hungarian family on a Summer Weekend. The lake is nice, but I am spoiled and don't like to bathe in a water where I can't see the bottom, so I just had a cocktail in one of the many cafes and watched the people strolling around the "Hungarian Sea".
if the weather cooperates, I will take and upload some more pictures of Budapest, my favorit place in all the world !!!!

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Photos

Family Cookout
We roast bacon instead of Marshmallows

Rolling
we made my favorite hungarian pastry called "Kurtos Kalacs". In Hungary many of the traditional sweets and pastries are made from scratch.

showing the tricks
Juli Mama knows all the secrets about pastry making and she is the Queen of the homemade pasrty in our family.
She is very happy when we participate and I am eager to learn.

Rolling
Home baked pastry.

Comments

[Anup]

Mouth-watering Hungarian dishes
Grateful to you for describing us great places in your own country and mouth-watering Hungarian dishes. I wish to visit your places at the luckiest moment. Also teach us how to cook some special Hungarian dishes.

[Mr Wei]

Sweet memories
I can never forget the days in Székesfehérvár and Budapest. Székesfehérvár is a really peaceful and beautiful town to live in. Hope I could be there some days future.