Bountiful Budapest

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When I awoke I was a bit brokenhearted, I did not hear from Sylvia, I tried to reach her to no avail, so needed to regroup and make a plan for the day. I had no appointments or reservations so just took my time in getting ready for the day. The photo from yesterday depicting the beautiful canapés in the window drove me to a small obsession today. But more about that later.

I started the day late just barely getting to the dining room as they were closing, about 10 o'clock, had a very good but quick breakfast. I returned to my room to retrieve my stuff for the day, then headed down the street towards the transportation hub which is just about half a block from the hotel. Only made it to the very next doorway, I had noticed a gallery, spotted a painting in the window. Stairs down to the shop, the owners greeted me, Andrea and Sandor; I looked at the piece, it was a replica of a mural from Pompeii, the technique was different than I had seen, I appreciated that but piece really didn't suit my style.

Andrea and I were chatting and I noticed how beautiful the frames were . Well to make a long story short, I retrieved my painting that I had purchased in Prague. She was going to help me with the frame. We selected a style I've never seen before, my painting will be from Prague and my frame will be from Budapest what a delight!!! The painting actually sits in front of the frame, I can't wait to see it finished, hanging in my home.

When I return to the shop on Friday morning to collect my prepared and packaged frame, Andrea and I had quite a bit of fun taping everything together to make transport of my new art as manageable as possible. Just as we were finishing I noticed a small watercolor painting actually four of them, Angels one through four. Angel number three is coming home with me, she's a chubby little thing; if I didn't know better I would say the artist had used me, my chubby hips, thighs and buttocks as the model. I just couldn't resist.

Then off to the metro, heading for the Budapest Castle area for exploration. The metro system here is very clean and really quite sophisticated, you can do and buy just about anything in the metro; there are gorgeous pastry displays, short snacks, liquor stores, locksmith, ATMs, information booth; you need it they got it. And clean, so clean, very fast-moving steep escalators, no one running up and down stairs and the platforms clean and smooth; no one's really making a lot of noise; the buses are easy to use as well as long as you know what direction and the number you got it made; that's the truth anywhere I guess, the only thing is this metro really doesn't have very good signage from the street, but once in the metro quite simple. Everything really quite civilized about this public transportation; no pushing, shoving, running around people, everybody waits patiently to use the escalators and no one is on their cell phones or texting and everyone's paying attention to where they're going.

I kept dreaming of the beautiful little canapés I had seen in the window of Duran Szendvics yesterday. I had just visited the Jewish synagogue and the shop was in the vicinity. It was just before 6 o'clock and I was a little concerned they might close at six and I would lose my opportunity, today, to get some of their tasty treats. On the way I kept thinking of all these tasty treats calling to me, yes, I guess I have to have the caviar, yes, caviar. I arrived, and luckily they were still open.

I was greeted by two lovely young ladies and being unable to pronounce the names of the beautiful little hors d'oeuvres I proceeded to point at my selections through the front window. Each one of the beautiful little canapés had a base of sliced baguette approximately 2" x 4". My first selection was caviar which also had a small slice of lemon and a bit of egg. My second one was egg salad also beautifully adorned, and my third was tuna salad. At this point I asked the young lady which were her favorites and she added a Hungarian Hot Paprika spread on brown bread and something called hatszin, the translation of which means six color. I hurried back to my hotel with my small box of treasured treats! I must say there wasn't a disappointment in any bite of the delicious morsels that I consumed for my supper in my lovely hotel room on the Danube River overlooking Parliment, all illuminated to meet the night.

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Photos

Andrea and Shondra
Gallery Owners

Yard Art
Really gotta have a big driveway for this puppy

Hop on Hop off Bus Ticket Saleslady
She told me that Daniel, who got the Happy face puppet yesterday had his best sales day yet, so I gave her a handful for her colleagues

Street Vendors
Made beautiful ornaments from seeds, gourds and dried natural materials

Weeping Willow Tree
Memorial at the Jewish Synagogue the second largest in the world, New York City being the largest

Girls from Duran Szendvics
1065 Budapest, Bajcsy-Zs ut 7
And three other locations

Canapés
Yummy, yummy, yummiest!