Thanksgiving and Vienna and School, Oh My!

I am happy to announce that as I write this, I am only 9 days away from leaving Budapest and 10 days away from arriving in Alaska. Joy! I'm not saying that I don't enjoy Budapest- it definitely has it sparkling moments, but I miss home and my family and my friends and the snow and using a phone, that I think after all these months it'll be good to see what's going on in my own turf.

I have been having some good times in Budapest for sure though, although not every day. Wednesday continues to be the worst day of the week for it starts early, ends late, and gives me too long of a break between my two classes, but not long enough to do anything productive. The rest of the days aren't bad at all, and I've been making a point to hop off random metro stops just to see what's around the parts of the city I haven't gotten to see yet. So far I've mostly been noticing the various outdoor holiday bazaars, and they are oh so lovely.

Last week Thanksgiving happened, as I'm sure most of you are aware. I was worried that it would be a sad and lonely day, since I've always been around family on that day- Cassandra came to stay with me in Greece for Thanksgiving 2006. I thought about taking a very long nap and skipping the day entirely, but luckily I found out that a restaurant near the Opera House, called M. was planning on taking traditional American Thanksgiving fare and preparing it in a "special" Hungarian way. There was also going to be live music put on by two American students at my school, so I knew if I went I would be in good company.

I had made a 7:30 reservation, but since it is seriously impossible to predict how long it will take to get somewhere (it's anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes to get from my dorm to my school, which is a big gap if you wake up late and need the extra minutes or if you get to Point B too early and have nothing to do to kill the time) so I got to the restaurant early. The host, named Marci, was extremely friendly and treated me as if I was a guest in his house. Up until this point I had not experienced this kind of hospitality in a Hungarian eatery, so I actually felt like I was intruding on a private party! The host introduced me to the performers, as well as a couple of other early patrons, and insisted we all sit together and chat. He gave me a complimentary glass of wine and left us to have whatever conversation we were going to have. It began with a discussion of "What the hell is the deal with 'half floors' here? They try to sneak in a whole other floor before they even get to the first floor from the zero floor, and what's up with having a zero floor anyway?" which lead to how cool the restaurant was for having drawings on the paper walls.

Let me see if I can describe this. The restaurant is small, so making reservations for the place even though it is reasonably priced is a good idea. It's named after some (I think French) author whose name begins with an M but is hard to pronounce, hence the name of the place is M. The decor consists of what looks like butcher paper bounded to each table, as well as on the walls. On this paper are drawings of shelves, dressers, and other furniture. There are even frames drawn around real photos. It might seem weird at first glance, but the point is that the author the restaurant is named after is being honored by the paper decor, since the use of paper is what made him capable of writing. Plus it was cute.

Dinner was a success! I sat with two American undergraduate students who are studying here for the semester, as well as their advisor from Romania named Monica who happens to be a PhD student in the Philosophy department here. Small world! I had delicious pumpkin soup with roasted pumpkin seeds, apple-stuffed turkey and mashed sweet potatoes, and pumpkin and poppy seed pie. These were all made in the Hungarian way as promised, but it was so nice to have something close to what I would normally have on Thanksgiving and I was very grateful for it. Oh, and I also had enough wine to where it looked like I was looking through glass during the end of the evening, but it's all good. After the live music was done, and as my table was finished getting stuffed, we went to go home for the evening. Monica, being the nice wonderful person she is (as well as a CEU employee) picked up the check and charged it to the school. Haha! Ultimate win!

So all in all, even though I didn't have Thanksgiving with my family, I didn't have a spoiled day and I was very thankful for the company I had that night. Next year, since I will be back here in Budapest, I hope to be able to repeat the evening.

Alright, I am so not in the mood to talk about my Vienna trip just now, I'm getting so sleepy. Next time I promise!