Busy day in Pest

Another busy day here in Eastern Europe. Lisa headed off to ELTE and I headed to the other ELTE to tutor Viktoria.

The deal with Viktoria is really bizarre. She has been a loyal faculty member for over 20 years. A new department chairman came to the University and now her job is at risk because her English is weak. She has been boning up for months but is scared to death she will lose her job. The last chance test is in August. She is improving and we are working hard. In addition to Viktoria I am working with Andrea’s staff at the other ELTE campus every Wednesday for 2 hours. The frightening thing about this is that a lot of university professors in Hungary will talk like me. Maybe I’ll call in tomorrow with a sore throat.

After our morning sessions Lisa and I met at Birs Bisztro for late lunch. Birs Bisztro as you will recall is Stefan and Andreas restaurant. Stefan and Andrea are Eva’s parents. Remember Eva? Eva and I went for gelato the other day, it was a real adventure.

Stefan was headed to the Great Market as he does each afternoon. He looks for inspiration for the evening menu based on what looks good at the market. The Great Market is an amazing place. It has been in operation since 1896 and attracts tourists and natives alike. The building is huge, has three floors and for the most part you can buy any food item imaginable.

While Lisa and I were waiting for Stefan at Birs we started talking to a couple of ladies from Utah. They were lost, headed in the wrong direction looking for the Great Market. We explained or planned trip and of course invited them along. Their group quickly grew to seven as the rest of their group found them and we headed off, Stefan providing block by block narrative of the area we were walking thru. As we walked along one of the ladies asked me if they would be able to find paprika at this market. Stefan let out a giant laugh as we walked into what is easily the largest collection of paprika shops in the world.

We sent them off looking for the paprika and Lisa and I followed Stefan around as he bought rabbit, onions, apples and some spices. We bought a nice turkey breast, fresh red onions, kohlrabi, a beautiful cauliflower, some interesting pickled somethings and fresh green peas, Claytons favorite.

This evening we attended a modern dance performance at the Godor. (pronounced gutur because of the dots over the o’s which this keyboard doesn’t have) This is an interesting place. It’s basically the basement of a building with no building on top. It’s a government thing. New party in control; let’s build a theater. New party takes over; theaters are a waste of money. Construction stops but the basement is nice. Let’s have a theater in the basement. It’s actually a cool place, lots of music. The University semester is winding down so the place was packed with artsy types, we fit right in. The performance was very interesting. The dancers were very talented and because Lisa and I were in the audience they performed the entire dance program in English.

Back to the flat by 10 pm.

Observation…we kept noticing how many restaurants had signs outside that just said “lunch menu.” I finally asked Andrea about this. Hungarian businesses are required to buy lunch for their employees. They give the employees lunch tickets that can be redeemed at many local restaurants. The restaurants have daily lunch menus which include a choice of 3 or 4 soups, a main course and a light dessert. All of this for under 1000HUF, about $5.50. What a deal. The tickets are redeemed at the bank.

Soups; the Hungarians love soup. Goulash is actually a soup. I did not know this. We grew up with Katie’s Goulash. It was thick and had pasta in it. Every restaurant always has at least 3 soups, often 5. They vary from location to location but can include; chilled vegetable soups, (Lisa really enjoyed a chilled garlic soup) always a hot soup, tomato or cabbage and almost always a cold fruit soup. I had a pear soup that was killer.

Anyway…picture of a street cleaner, these men and ladies are everywhere, not to effective but visible. Also banners on a street. Very colorful and bright. The crowd scene is outside Godor after the dance performance.