Ambassadors Reception

Lisa and I were invited to a reception at the US Ambassadors residence. The event was an "Evening Salon Discussion and Book Reading." We knew what a "Book Reading" was but no clue as to what a "Evening Salon" was. I'm sure some of you cultured folks out there do, but even a check on Google provided no clues but we went anyway. I bought a tie at a thrift store to complete my "Business Attire." The evening celebrated the publishing in Hungarian of Julie Orringer's book "The Invisible Bridge" or in Hungarian "Lathatatlan Hid." We had read the book as or before we came to Budapest and really enjoyed it so it was an honor to meet and "Salon" with Julie and the Ambassador, Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis. The house is very cool, filled with Andy Warhol originals that I was asked not to photograph, of course I complied, see pics. The reading was in English, everyone received a copy of the book, in Hungarian and Julie signed one for us.

I had plotted a course via public transportation that would have put us 1 block from the mansion but we opted to take the Metro to Szell Kalman Ter, formerly Moscova Ter, and take a taxi from there. We arrived in style in a Suzuki Swift taxi, the guards at the gate were impressed.

It was a very nice evening, we met a bunch of "book types" and "media types." Eleni, as we now call her, was very gracious and thanked Lisa for the Crystal Temple Brick she had left for her last week. She was so gracious she called it a paper weight.

We met Julie's sister Amy and her aunt Judy. Amy lives in London and came for the event. Aunt Judy was born in Budapest in 1945. She was delivered by a Nazi doctor. Her Jewish mother was of course concerned but the doctor assured her he was a "Doctor first." She went to America in 1956 and had never returned, until Monday. An amazing story. She was even staying in the same flat she lived in as a child that is still owned by cousins. She now lives in Israel.

Enjoy the pictures. Do not look at the Andy Warhols. The Warhols, that are not in the pictures, are on loan from the Ron Feldman Gallery in NYC where Pepon Osorio, Lisa's colleague had his recent installation. Small World.