Pestilog: A Saturday Adventurer is Me.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

A Saturday Adventurer is Me.

You know you have hit all the hot tourist spots when you are able to read everying you come across all day in English. Kinda weird.

So, Stephen's friend Kim is staying with us this weekend. She is teaching highschool at the Ramstein air force base in Germany, and was able to get away for the long thanksgiving weekend. I think Rammstein might be the only place in Europe that even knows what Thanksgiving is. It definately confused a few students at CEU. Common beleif is that this is the holiday where we give Indians the Small Pox. I told them that that was basically it, but with jello and football.

Today, we went to City Park to go to another flea market. We are flea market whores. We love them because, well, for me, the Hungarians have a sock technology that is way beyond our own in the States. I mean, you can get blue and white checked thigh high socks for a dollar. seriously. That's amazing. And Stephen likes buying flashy things for his cellphone, and Marko likes buying fake art. Its rad.

This building houses the largest baths in Budapest, in the middle of City Park.

There is also lots of "art" scattered around the fields there.

The flea market had an excellent assortment of random crap, not the least of which was the most extensive hood ornament colletion I have ever seen.

But this place was really touristy and commercialized, so we were getting charged like 5-10 times what we should have been for some of the crap there. Just cause someone from Bristol is willing to pay 5000 forints for a postcard from 1920 doesnt mean that its not totaloly ridiculous. lord.

So, instead, we left and got excited about a big checkers board painted on the asphalt.

And ran amok in the beams of the monument of the 1956 revolution. Look at it. At the back, they are divided, and weak, pitted and rusted, but where the beams are togehter at the front, its united, its smooth and steel and sharp, and cuts through the iceberg of communism! So symbolic!

We went to our favorite Hare Krisna restaurant for lunch, and passed some poi jugglers up at Nygati. Stephen was like "whatever. That shit's not on fire. I don't care. Let's go eat." Ha.

After lunch, we went up to Vörösmarty Ter for the Christmas market that has just opened up. They are setting one of these up in the square in front of our house too. I cant wait. Mulled wine for breakfast lunch and dinner, dude. Rawk.

The place is full of touristy junk, but also blacksmiths and glass blowers, which are really fun to watch.

There was also food. Oh my word. We were pained to not eat more after stuffing ourselves on Krisna food. There were pastries, and these crazy rolls of chocolate marzipan. Plus TONS of roasted onions and paprikas and shrooms...there was even a place selling black pudding. ew. And buckets. BUCKETS. of mulled wine, selling for like a dollar. Amazing and yum.

They also sold these awesome pasteries that is made of sweet fluffy bread dough wrapped around a huge metal dowel, rolled in sugar and maybe something else exciting like crushed walnut and then fire roasted. They sell them in the subways, but never piping fresh like this. I was totally amazed.

People were walking around eating these things so piping hot that steam was shooting out the top of htem like chimneys. OMG yum. Kim got in the pastry mood as well.