Eating Turkey and Playing Tourist

This week has been full of exciting things to be thankful for. Despite living in Hungary, the CIEE group and I were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a fantastic feast. On the same day, my parents landed on Budapest soil for a five-day visit as the first leg of their vacation. I’ve spent most of the past three days feeling a joyful combination of spoiled and stuffed!

Buda Castle and Széchenyi Chain Bridge

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving is an odd holiday to celebrate outside of America, mostly because it doesn’t exist anywhere else... That didn’t stop us from having a celebratory feast in Budapest!

We (unfortunately) had classes on Thanksgiving Day, but several of us spent the hours between those and dinner cooking up our home specialties. I made Oreo balls the night before so that I could use the time to meet my parents who had reached their rented apartment while I was in class.

There where lots of hugs and “I missed you’s” before the “where can we eat?” slipped out so I brought my parents to Púder Bárszínház (my favorite restaurant on Ráday Utca, where I live) for dinner. I couldn’t resist getting my own meal (I did say it is my favorite restaurant). Two hours later I headed back to the dorm for round two of eating.

CIEE hosted the Thanksgiving dinner in the dorm kitchen. They brought the turkey and several side dishes in addition to those made by students. People in the program made sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, salad, wild rice casserole, stuffing, and more, as they would have back home. There was homemade pálinka (Hungarian hard liquor), several bottles of wine, and lots of talking and laughing.

Everything got rave reviews and people loved the Oreo balls (not to brag or anything). We ate until we could barely move but there were still a lot of leftovers remaining. There was a whole other turkey we didn’t even touch! CIEE comes prepared.

Tourist for a Weekend

I’ve had the enormous pleasure over the past few days of being able to share this beautiful city with my parents. My sister and her husband are having a second wedding ceremony in India (where he is originally from) later this week and so, once Mom and Dad decided to attend, it wasn’t a far stretch to stop in Budapest to see me on the way.

Having them here has allowed me to revert a little to tourist status. We’ve gone places new and known to me: Spinoza Café, St. István Bazilika (St. Stephen’s Basilica), Café Gerbaud, Buda Castle, Halászbástya (Fisherman’s Bastion), and Christmas markets all over the city.

Four Seasons Gresham Palace

Gresham Palace Christmas Market

Gresham Palace Christmas Market

We’ve had a ton of delicious meals and plenty of mulled wine to keep us warm outside. We even accidentally found out that St. Stephen’s Basilica has a short version of The Nutcracker projected onto the front in the evenings. It reminded me of the Christmas “show” in the Comcast Center in Philadelphia – except on the face of the biggest basilica in Budapest instead of on cleverly disguised screens in a lobby area.

St. Stephen's Basilica Christmas Market

St. Stephen's Basilica Christmas Market

The Nutcracker on St. Stephen's Basilica

Rain and snow could not affect how thrilled I am to have been able to share such an incredible place and my experiences with my parents – and there were both! It was nice to take pictures as if I were here only for the weekend and would never see these people again.

Fisherman's Bastion

It was even better to be able to act as a guide and to know where I was and how to get from point A to point B in the easiest manner. I realized how much I take my sense of direction for granted because Mom and Dad had no idea where we were most of the time.

It was best to be able to hug my mom and dad for the weekend. (My debit card and) I will have a hard time saying goodbye again, but I’m thankful to have the opportunity.

Dubbed

I have never seen a dubbed movie. Those that I have seen in foreign languages have been with subtitles. It’s rare that, as an English speaker, I should need any sort of translation to experience a culture and its entertainment. I often forget how fortunate I am to speak English.

This weekend my roommate and I found a theater showing the new “Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2” in English with Hungarian subtitles (the closest to just English that’s offered). The movie was great and tears were shed. The trailers beforehand were an odd mix of the two languages but the strangest thing was seeing Samuel L. Jackson dubbed. The most difficult part of the whole thing was ignoring the subtitles but eventually even that was easy.

As an American, I’m surrounded by familiarity wherever I go. Even in Budapest there are Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFCs, Pizza Huts, and an absurd amount of Burger Kings. There are also a lot of European brands that are well known in the U.S. including H&M (there are two in just one mall and several more throughout the city), IKEA, and Zara.

This weekend I found myself in a lot of touristy areas of the city where I noticed a strong concentration of English speakers. These areas are filled with shops and restaurants with English-speaking employees, making it easier for international travelers since it’s the most common, well, common language.

Saturday I got breakfast not too far from my dorm at Zoska where, despite being in an alley between tram stops, is a very popular spot with English speakers. I went to H&M (yes, it has the same things as in the U.S. but I needed socks) and walked back to the dorm via Váci Utca, a very popular tourist street lined with shops and vendors where English is the language you hear most from those around you.

Today we went to Café Gerbeaud, home of the Gerbeaud chocolate cake and one of the most traditional coffeehouses in Europe, for dessert. Of course we got the Gerbeaud cake and some tea – both were amazing. Between bites of the glorious cake I noticed that every server that came to our table immediately began speaking English before they ever heard us, probably because it was in a touristy area on the edge of a Christmas market.

Gerbeaud Cake

We visited the Christmas markets in Vörösmarty Tér and on Fashion Street where we had no problem asking vendors how much the citrus wreath or the (insanely fuzzy) slippers cost. Some even struck up a conversation, asking where we were from, why we were here. It was simple and something that could just as easily happen in the U.S.

Vörösmarty Tér

Fashion Street

The citrus wreath currently bringing Christmas cheer and wonderful scents to our dorm room.

One of the first major miscommunications I’ve encountered occurred Saturday night. There was a mulled wine festival on the street I live on and each business participating was marked with a mannequin. We went to Rombusz, a small square down the road with a food truck.

My roommate and I decided to order together for the sake of ease and intended to get two cups of one deciliter each (since that’s how it’s measured and priced). There was some confusion between our limited Hungarian and the vendors’ lack of any English and we ended up getting one cup of two deciliters and paying double to get a second one. Thankfully, it was still only approximately $1.00 each (and pretty good!).

The situation was minor and turned out all right but it was a reminder of how frustrating a language barrier can be. We had tried to explain the confusion but to no avail. As it was being sorted a bilingual girl offered to help. We had already handed over the extra 280 HUF, but it was a kind gesture that I’ve found to be fairly common.

Language is something that’s so easy to take for granted, especially for English speakers. I have the privilege of seeing movies and talking to others in my native tongue simply because it’s the most commonly shared language. Sometimes it seems as though the whole world is dubbed for our convenience.

Still, there is one thing most shopkeepers, store clerks, and waiters like to hear in their own language: thank you//köszönöm szépen.