As I write this, we're walking through the streets of Budapest. Yesterday was such a busy day that I didn't have time to write- so here it is now. So yesterday we woke up super early in Gyoma in the hopes of leaving for Budapest at 9 am to spend as much time there as we could. However, I hadn't gotten to hang out with my Hungarian facebook penal Rekus yet. So she stopped by in the morning with Tami to hang out for an hour and just talk. We talked as we packed and then jumped in the car and drove up to Budapest. We stopped for breakfast at this pastry shop that smelled like donuts. Mmmmmm. But as soon as we actually got in the shop, solt's wife they only had bacon or cheese filled pogatcha. However, I did find an apple cinnamon one, so Shane and I feasted on that.
When we arrived in Budapest we dropped our bags off at the hotel and walked around to surprise Tunde where she works at the H&M just a 5 minute walk away. Then we met up with Dalli at the hotel, had lunch (I had hortbagy polascinta which tasted just like a tamale and was awesome) and then met up with Tunde at the hotel, where we just hung out and waited to surprise Zsolt since he didn't know Shane's dad was coming. He was totally surprised, and afterward all of us decided to walk down to a really popular dance club and bar where we all just talked and had drinks and chilled until Zsolt's wife met up with us and we walked to the Basilica of Szent (saint) Istvan (Steven).
By that time it was dinnertime, and we ate at a cute renovated 1800s house that is now an italian restaurant, where we ate and drank and talked while watching the sunset over the dome of the church and listened to the bells ring (which they do every 15 minutes and for 10 minutes every hour- no joke). Then, Zsolt and his wife retired for the evening, while Dalmi, Tunde, Shane, his dad, and I decided to go club-hopping to find a good Monday-night club to make up for missing the fourth of july. We finally found a place that's super gorgeous and waited for a crowd to arrive (which, around 1 am, did) and then partied. Shane's dad was sitting at the table and saw this poor girl dressed in traditional Hungarian garb walking around the dancefloor trying to sell flowers.
He felt so bad for her that he bought all of the roses....and the basket she was carrying them in- which made the guy who had just bought one for his girlfriend pretty angry hahaahha. Anyway, Shane and I noticed that everyone here tries to imitate americans- even the way they dance. They tried, but failed. So Shane and I had a great time watching their dancing and laughing at all of the guys in capris. Every guy here wears capris and it makes us all confused. Anyway, we stayed out until about 2 am, and then got our taxi (which is super easy- you just call 77777 and give them your name) and came back to the hotel.
We have a few good stories I forgot to share, though. One is when we were at the house in Gyoma and Andrew (a family friend) came over. He said he would come back to Budapest to hang out with us, but had to take his grandma to the cemetery. Shane and I were so confused (why would this guy go and party right after his grandma died?) Within a minute he understood why we were confused and said "oh no no! I mean she has to put flowers on a grave!" Cleared that right up.