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Published: January 22nd 2010
Day 44: Saturday, January 9th, 2010.
Budapest, Hungary.
Yea! Today I get to see Kinga! Kinga was a foreign exchange student at my
high school in
Shortsville, NY.
HAHAHA! I have to interrupt this blog because when I went to get the link from Wikipedia from Shortsville I did some reading and I am very amused, Van Minos clan, to see you listed on this page! 😊 I thought they had people checking the facts on Wikipedia- hehehe.
Okay, back to myself and Kinga: We lost touch with each other but, thru the power of Facebook, found each other once more. She and her boyfriend, Tibi, have planned a wonderful day for me and they swing by the hotel late morning to pick me up. It's so good to see her again! And Tibi seems wonderful as well, but I think Kinga's head hurts from having to translate for both of us 😊
She was kind enough to make us a reservation for a tour of their
Parliament. This was the amazing white building that I could see from the Fisherman's Bastion last night. We get there early and Tibi drops us off and goes off to do man
things while us girls chatter. We walk for a few minutes and then go in to a cafe to get a drink. It's great to catch up again after all these years and her English is amazing (and the four words I mentioned in yesterdays blog I learned because of her wonderful teaching skills.) Speaking of teachiing, that's what Kinga does, she teaches English at an all boys school. Plus, she mentions that us native English speaking folks get paid 5 times more than what she would and I should think about getting a job teaching English in Budapest. Hmmm...
We head over to the Parliament building and they only let one person from a group in to pick up the tickets, so I hand over my passport to Kinga and wait with the other tourists. She comes back and a few minutes later we are let thru the gate, go thru security, and walk into the Parliament building. It's very elegant and lush- beautiful architecture and art work. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of "old" buildings left in Budapest because, if I remember correctly, 60% of the city was destroyed in World War II. This Parliament building was
finished in the 1890's, so in this neck of the woods it is still considered kind of new. Our tour group leader takes us thru the front lobby, the grand staircase, the room where they keep the Holy Crown and the Coronation Insignia, some other room and then into Upper Parliament. Another gorgeous room, and unfortunately the only part of the historical speech I remember is when he explained these weird gold things on the window sill. Each one had what looked like "finger grooves" of about 20 and each groove was numbered. Ends up this was where they would put their cigars when they went back into session, so at the next break they could come out and finish their cigar (and the number was so that you couldn't act like your cheap ass cigar was someone else's.) The tour wraps up after about an hour and we head outside to find Tibi patiently waiting for us.
We then head over to Kinga & Tibi's apartment for lunch. It's an adorable two bedroom with a balcony, very homey. She made an amazing dish,
Paprikash (Kinga, let me know if that link has the right recipe because I totally
want to make it when I get back to the states!) 😊. We sat and ate and she and Tibi ask me questions about Americans and our culture. Yes, you've heard right my American friends. I was your representative. Live in fear. It was interesting to hear that she and Tibi both thought that I was very positive and had an "I can do it!" type attitude. I tried to explain I was probably the least positive person I knew, but I guess everything is in context. They explained the generational fear that is passed on thru the Hungarian people. Even though Kinga and Tibi are mid 30's and have known mostly peaceful times, they still have this concern about acting up and bringing attention to themselves. Their parents remember very different times and Kinga said that that feeling was passed on to them. She said that she does have a feeling that this latest generation will be different and she has hope. I can't imagine the fear that is common for them. I tried to explain to them that we slightly experienced that with 9/11, and that that is my theory as to why it shook us so much.
We aren't used to being attacked. Meanwhile, in Hungary, just a few decades ago they couldn't trust their next door neighbors and it wasn't unusual for your loved one to be dragged off because of something your neighbor whispered to the police. That conversation started to open my eyes and the history I've been reading/hearing about finally started to become real. Budapest continued to open my eyes for the entire week I was there.
Tibi had run down to a local bakery so we find more room and eat some awesome dessert. Tibi then plays on the computer while Kinga and I sit on the couch and do some major girl talk. At first, it was odd to do "girl talk" in front of a guy, but Tibi knows about 4 words of English so Kinga assured me we were fine. Luckily, she was the one who had just admitted to an embarrassing date and we were laughing over that when Tibi said something to let us know he understood. You've never seen two grown women blush so fast in your life.
A friend of theirs is having a birthday party later that night so before that we
head to a grocery store and I stock up on some basic foods that I can keep in the hotel and munch off of for the week- saves me a lot of money. We head back to their apartment and they get all pretty and fashionable before we head to the party. I am reallllly starting to dislike my limited wardrobe- I wanna look pretty too! Oh well.
We head over to the bar that they've rented out and we hop out of the car. King and Tibi ask someone that is standing there if this is the right place and I look around. The first thing I notice is a poster that looks like it's advertising a play, and the name of the play is "Mein Kampf". What?! I ask Kinga what that poster says but it's too far away and we're heading back to the car because we're at the wrong bar. We find the right one and head on in. We grab a drink (water for me, cause i'm wild) and have a seat. Kinga introduces me to those she knows and everyone seems to speak at least basic English, I feel stupid. I have four
of their words down, and they can actually speak my language. One of her friends is actually taking an exam for English on Monday so she sits with us and practices on me. It seems that in order to get your college degree in Hungary, you not only have to have taken English but you have to take a national exam that proves you speak it. Wow.
The birthday girl comes in and the cake is cut (yummy) and the dancing starts (aw crap). I hate dancing. Don't get me wrong, in the safety of my own home, if a song I like comes on, I'll dance a little bit. Odds are better that I'll sing along in a very horrible way- hence my love of karaoke. However, everyone jumps up to dance and I don't want to be the grumpy American sitting while they party (like those of you who were on the Europe trip with me saw 😊 So, I head to the floor and do the white man shuffle. Luckily, after a few songs, God decides that the world shouldn't see me dance and breaks the DJ's speakers. Yea! So, everyone sits back down.
We
all sit and talk in the silent bar and I mention that they have a flat screen TV, someone should be able to hook their iPod up to that. They ask the bartender and he says it's possible, but no one seems to have an iPod. So, they start scanning the channels for a music channel. It's a typical satellite reception and before the picture comes up, the screen is black and you'll see a "pop up window" on the bottom of the screen that says what channel it is. They stop on one that says something "Music" and after a few seconds a picture comes up. We were expecting to see a music video, but we got porn. I'm not sure how that's musical, I want to make a joke that says something like "the girl was playing the flute", but I can figure out how to phrase it. Everyone else was talking so the only people that saw this (before the channel was quickly changed) was myself and the girl who is taking the English exam. We both burst into laughter and everyone looks up but the channel's already changed. So, they probably think she and I are
crazy. Oh well. The same thing happens again about a minute later- they need to label their music and/or porn channels better.
We say goodbye around 12:30am and Kinga and Tibi take me back to the hotel. Unfortunately Kinga has to go on a ski holiday with the school tomorrow but she's hoping that she can come back earlier in the week so that we can see each other again. So, we decide to say "see you later" instead of "goodbye".
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Chris
non-member comment
You sabotaged the DJ and made everyone listen to Bon-Jovi on your iPod?
What's porn?