You Just Have to Laugh

This afternoon I walked down to the end of my street to grab a few things for dinner, and by the time I got to the corner, it had started sprinkling.  By the time I came out of the shops, it was POURING.  Not just raining, but crazy, water-running-down-the-street-in-rivers rain.  I waited in the little fruit/vegetable market for a few minutes, but I knew Charlotte would be getting home soon on the bus, and there didn't seem to be an end in sight...so off I went.  No umbrella.  No jacket.  Little ballet flats not meant for puddles.  After ten seconds (or less) I was completely drenched.  I held my shopping bag over my head, and walked through the rushing water, just laughing.  I'm sure I looked ridiculous to the cars passing.  Next time?  Umbrella!

AISB's International Festival

Sadly I took absolutely no pictures of the main part of this event.  The International Festival is the parent association's biggest fundraiser of the year, and is open to all of the city, not just school families.  Each community within AISB (American, Dutch, Hungarian, Korean etc.) staffed a booth and produced food from their native country to sell.  Tom worked the US booth, which made cheeseburger and hotdogs, and sold chips, American candy bars, root beer (nonexistent in Budapest) and assorted treats like chocolate chip cookies and Rice Krispy treats.  There were also some performances by students, raffles and a silent auction.  We didn't win the big raffle prize (an Air France trip to Disney Paris), but Tom and I won several items at the auction: 4 VIP Tickets to a Hungarian soccer game and a river cruise on the Danube for 300.  While we did have some great food (fantastic pot stickers, Belgian waffles and some kind of bacon and maple syrup grilled cheese from Canada were standouts), we learned too late that most booths run out of food early.  Next year we are going to eat first and play second!

Because what did my kids want to do?  Go on the bounce house, and have their faces painted.  There were two or three people doing the face painting, but we chose the absolute worst line.  Did she do a good job?  Sure.  Worth an hour of waiting?  Not in any way.  Every 15 minutes we'd think about abandoning the line, but we stuck it out.  Tom and I tag-teamed with the kids as they stood in the line...and they got their faces done:

You can't tell in this picture, but Charlotte's involved about 3 different paints and one or two different glitters.

Then what did we do?  Went home and showered...all the face paint down the drain.

Next year I'll be sure and capture the cool booths from the different countries!

¡ARRIBA!

We've been on a downward trend in terms of quality Mexican food ever since leaving the Southwest for the Midwest in 2005.  The quest continues here in Budapest...but we have a new front runner.  Arriba Taqueria.  It's something we've driven by many times, but it's not the easiest place to get to.  Here in Budapest, the land of no left turns and many confusing traffic intersections, you can see something right across the street, yet have no idea how to get there!  The stars aligned tonight after Nico's baseball game and we made it to Arriba.  It was worth the wait!

Big, big burritos.  Machaca, carne asada, carnitas...lots of great choices.

As everywhere in Budapest, ginger ale (Kinley's) is on tap.

They make a Junior sized burrito perfect for Miss C.

"Gracias a Dios por crear el taco." (Thanks to God for creating the taco)

We agree. :)

A Lesson in Using What's Available

There are some things that are just unavailable here.  Brown sugar, buttermilk, chocolate chips.  Another thing that's taken some getting used to is that they don't sell celery.  Only celeriac/celery root.  I have used this a few times in the States, but it was never something I stocked like I did celery.  The taste is pretty spot on...but translating "2 stalks of celery" into a given amount of diced celery root is pretty much a guessing game!

Easter Monday

Everything in Hungary shuts down for Easter Monday, but the Castle had a special festival.  We decided to check it out.  We were greeted by marching soldiers.  A first.

Inside the festival gates, there was a children's area with all kinds of crafts.

Charlotte chose to sew a little pouch made of muslin:

Threading the needle (her first time, we think). Love the concentration.

All done!

Then the kids made a little flat bread.  But before they could start, we got a prime example of Hungarian bureaucracy.  Nicholas did not want to make a muslin pouch, but we were informed by a very serious Hungarian woman manning the bread booth that apparently you HAD to make the pouch before you could make the bread.  (Why??)  This explains why so many parents were frantically sewing pouches...which I had thought odd.  I think our look of confusion and lack of Hungarian language skills got us off the hook!

Anyway...back to the bread making:

Bit of elbow into his sister??  The dough was premade.  The kids just rolled it out and chose a design for the head baker (the serious woman...) to roll into it.

Then onto the stove it went.  

It was a bit more cracker-y than breadlike, but yummy nonetheless.  The kids scarfed them down.

Candlemaking, with a much more relaxed guy who didn't care that Nico hadn't made a pouch!

Silly Daddy was in full force.

The kids didn't want to leave the kids area!

Now onto our favorite thing about festivals...the food!

I translated this sign when we got home.  The stand was called "House of Pies"...though there were no pies.    Only big doughy circles, coated in oil, then grilled on a flat top.  Maybe that's what they call pie here?

Once cooked, the dough was filled with chicken and veges or leeks and magalica (pork from the Hungarian furry pigs) and folded in half.  We got one of each type and were in absolute heaven.  Oh how I wish the fantastic scents could be posted on this blog!

Next, we were drawn into standing in line to play this game.  It was like something you'd see at a carnival in the US, with ducks or something moving across waiting to be shot.  But in Hungary, you don't shoot at them with guns, but with walnuts and a slingshot.  Awesome.

After a certain number of shots, the carni guy would take the sling shot from the child, and direct him or her off to the side.  

The person who had just been the shooter then becomes the person controlling the ducks.  By pulling on the ears of the horse, the ducks inside the booth would move back and forth.  And it works so much better in costume!

Where can we find a pair of these goggles??

Then off to try another Hungarian treat.  Boldog is a Hungarian city, apparently famous for their nagyrozsa, or "big rose" cookie-type things.  

An iron is dipped into a bowl of batter, then into a pot of hot oil  How could that be bad??  It was crispy deliciousness.

But how could we neglect our favorite Hungarian treat, the chimney cake?

Mmmmm.  A canoe filled with cinnamon sugar!

Trust me.  We did not force her to eat her piece of chimney cake despite how this picture looks.

Past the food stalls, we entered a courtyard of the castle we hadn't been in before.

This statue cracks me up.  It looks like the angel is blowing the trumpet in the man's ear...and he' not happy about it!

At the far end of the courtyard was the entrance to the Budapest Historical Museum.  We hadn't been in before.  It was great!

Peeking out towards Gellert Hill and the Danube.

Love the turret!

One cool thing was getting to explore some of the oldest excavated parts of the castle.

Really neat original chapel.

Now that Budapest is our home, this picture was really shocking.  The bridges across the Danube have been destroyed during every war and rebuilt.  I knew that already, but had never seen pictures.  Seeing our beloved Chain Bridge like this is terrible!

While we were inside, the skies darkened, then opened up.  We hung out inside the museum and watched until it blew over.

The rain hadn't deterred the stilt-walkers.

The festival was a fun way to finish out the holiday weekend.  Perhaps a new Easter Monday tradition??

Easter 2014

 

Our little chapel had an Easter Vigil service, so we went on Saturday night.  I hadn't been to a Vigil in years and years, certainly since I had kids, and it was amazing.  We all processed in the dark chapel holding a mish-mash of candles, dripping wax all over our hands and the floor.  Despite it being very long, the kids held out and I was happy we went.

 

Going to church on Saturday meant we could sleep in (yea, right!) and hang at home all day on Easter.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is closed on Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, so we stocked up on food and enjoyed some welcome family time.

 

I was committed to incorporating some Hungarian traditions into our celebration this year.  The biggest food tradition I found was having "fonott kalacs", or braided sweet bread.  After perusing many, many online articles, I settled on a recipe.

 

It made a HUGE loaf.  Really had to cram it in my tiny oven!  (I also got busy and let it rise way too long on its last rise...so I wasn't sure if all my efforts would be in vain!)

 

Tada! It was a big hit...which is good because it made enough for an army!

 

There is an Easter Bunny (the "Nyuszi") in Hungary.  He seemed to leave clues in eggs leading to Easter baskets just like in the US.  Although there were Hungarian coins instead of American ones in all the eggs.

 

To add to his extensive Monopoly collection!

World Cup soccer cards were a big basket hit.  He has never really been into baseball cards, but man does he obsess over soccer cards!

 

We went yesterday to our corner wine shop to pick up a bottle of wine, and the shop owner threw in some "kiddy wine" as he called it.  Starting them young...  :)

A Hungarian Easter table is often decorated with pussy willows (which I tried to buy...I'll have to start the search earlier next year!) or these yellow flowers which grow in our yard.

 

We had a great day.  Food,  family, and a long, long game of Hungarian Monopoly. 

 

Rejoice!  Happy Easter!