In search of magnesfestek

Todays Hungarian lesson will allow you to impress all of your non Hungarian speaking friends and co-workers. Imagine the surprised look on their faces when you say; "just yesterday I bought a can of magnesfestek and can't wait to give it a try. I bought it at the festek bolt and paid with forints." Wow, soon we will be organizing Hungarian speaking clubs.

This is what we did today, our original plans got changed so we went looking for magnesfestek. We could have easily purchased it in the US and brought it in our luggage but we were a bit nervous about bringing it thru customs which there are a lot of in the country but none at the Budapest Airport.

Let me clear something up here. There is only a 10% chance that we will even need the magnesfestek, however there is a bit of a window to find it here in Budapest before we ask Barbara's friend to bring us some from the UK. I guess magnesfestek is readily available there, those Brits have everything; hot new Princess, Land Rovers and something else.

There was good information that a store on Ulloi Utca had it in stock but they were out, they sent us to another store that only had small expensive bottles but we need at least a liter. This store sent us to a store that didn't exist but we found workers on the street that directed us to a Festek bolt, they should have it.

They didn't even know what I was talking about, there was a lot of smiling and head shaking but no magnesfestek.

We are going back to examine the space again, we may not need the magnesfestek after all, but we did see a new part of the city and discovered the Museum of Applied Arts. We were amazed at the building, built in 1893 to house the museum, see pic of entry.

Off on another tangent...you never know what you're going to see behind doors. Amazing courtyards, funny little businesses. Today we cut thru a block wide courtyard and found a shop where they make leather and fur items.

There is a man with a coffee bike at the entrance to ELTE, good coffee too.

We had lunch in the Csiga Cafe, snail in Hungarian, great food, great decor. Lisa took my picture. We met three other Americans having lunch. The point of the rant is "you can't judge a book by it's cover." (this is not true for wine)

The exteriors of many building near our flat look pretty run down but the interiors are fantastic, the Csiga Cafe is a perfect example. The food is very reasonably priced, fresh and well presented.

This really is rambling, I'll get back on track tomorrow, I'm suffering a little Magyar's revenge, part of the cultural exchange.

Tomorrow we travel West of the city to Etyek for the opening of a textile show.

Enjoy the pics.

I almost forgot. Magnesfestek is magnetic paint. Festek bolt, paint store. I told you Hungarian was going to be easy.