Wine Weekend

On Friday after my classes ended I went to get macarons with some other AIT students, went grocery shopping, and then went out to dinner and to taste wine with my friend Megan. We got a little lost looking for the wine tasting bar and wandered around Litz Ferenc Tér. We ended up at this really cheap and delicious traditional Hungarian restaurant for dinner and I ate fried mushrooms, chicken paprikash, and mashed potatoes. Hungarian food probably makes people fat, but it can be really delicious. I’m starting to really miss Indian and Chinese food though, so I’ve begun to research where I can find some good takeout. After dinner we went to a wine bar called Kadarka and tried a couple different wines each. Megan tried a couple dry white wines and I tried a spicy rosé and a siller wine (both were pink if that translates better). It was really fun to pick and taste from such a large menu, and each glass was so cheap! 

On Saturday I decided to some homework and eat at this adorable cafe Zoska around the corner. I ate fruit and a ham and cheese sandwich while trying to prove facts about distributive and ortho-lattices for my Quantum probability and logic course (which is already impossibly difficult, but fascinating). Eventually I gave up on my proofs and walked to get gelato with Megan. Then I went home to get ready to go watch the opera Carmen. The opera was at the Erkel theater just down the road from me. It was beautiful and in French with Hungarian subtitles. I made up what was happening in my head since I couldn’t understand a thing. I focused primarily on the beautiful voices and music. It was a contemporary adaptation of the original and there were a couple of scenes with what I can only describe as pom pom girls twerking. That was probably the most entertaining thing to me because it seemed a little ridiculous, but I was worried it was rude that I started laughing. From talking to the other students who came with me I found out that Carmen was a promiscuous gypsy who was in love with a bull fighter and running from the police. One police officer ends up setting her free after she’s arrested in the second act and then runs off with her and the gypsies. Then the police dude kills Carmen in the last act after she refuses his proposal to marry her (presumably because she was in love with the bull fighter dude). Obviously there are holes in my understanding, so if you’d really like to get a synopsis of the Opera Carmen I suggest wikipedia. And if you’d like to see it I’m sorry I spoiled the ending…

On Sunday I went to city park near Hero’s Square to toss frisbees with Megan, and our new friends Nancy and Kendall. After frisbee we wandered around to find lunch. We chose to eat at this delicious pizza place and then Megan and I set off to go to a wine festival at Buda Castle. The wine festival was amazing. I spent around $30 USD on a wine glass, entry to the Budapest history museum, 8 glasses of wine, 3 types of cheese, and langos. It was a wonderful afternoon of trying wine from all over Europe, and French cheese. I ate this soft goat cheese with chives in it that I definitely dreamt about last night. I also had the best wine! The coolest types I tried were a white Pinot Noir (which is cool because Pinot Noir is generally a red wine), and a golden Azuz Cuvee wine (not really the right name but it was basically a super delicious rich and sweet dessert wine). We had a lot of fun rating the wines and trying all different types. I tried so many it’s hard to really recall my favorite, but I definitely left with a much better idea of what different types of wine taste like and what I like. 

I don’t have class on Mondays, so today I woke up to do homework and visit the Hungarian Parliament Building. I met up with three other girls in my study abroad program and we went on one of the guided tours. The building was built in the late 19th century, had marble walls, and gold-painted ceilings. The gold was real, so they say the air’s very expensive inside. We got to see the main staircase leading in to the parliament room, the coronation artifacts from past Hungarian kings, statues of Hungarian kings, a hand-woven carpet that took 14 million people to make (and they let us stand on it!), and lots of stained-glass windows. The windows were the originals which is amazing given how much Hungary was bombed during WWII. They were preserved by someone with the foresight to take all the windows out and store them in the cellars during the war. That must have been hard work since the building was huge boasting something like 700 rooms. Of course they only showed us maybe 3 rooms on the tour, but it was still quite magnificent. I’m very happy I went and if you’re ever in Budapest you should go too. I also bought postcards, so get excited to receive them! (If you haven’t already told me you want one just let me know any time, make sure I have your address, and I’ll send you one).