This is a gorgeous city. Granted, I’ve mostly only had glimpses in the early morning or late evening, on my to and fro from meetings. Business trips are such teasers! (Kudos to those who can find the theme in this post*)
Sunday evening we went to dinner at a popular Hungarian restaurant. I got nervous when a local colleague said Hungarians are “meat, meat, meat and potatoes people”, but it turned out there were good veggie options everywhere I ate this week. That night I was intrigued by the “Giant Green Salad”, since it’s hard to find a salad with actual lettuce in it in Ukraine. The title was, if anything, an understatment. The salad was ginormous – there was enough for all seven people at the table and then some. I was in heaven! I’m not sure what kind of first impression I made with my colleagues who live in places like Berlin, Washington DC, New York, and Budapest (where, apparently, entire gardens of salad are offered on the menu), but man was I ever in veggie heaven!
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel via the Christmas market. How can you pass through a Christmas market and _not_ get a mug of hot spiced wine?
OK, we were kinda late for the mugs and got the end-of-the-night plastic cups – but how cool is that giant ceramic pot of wine? If only it could fit in my suitcase….
The local office took us to a fabulous restaurant Monday night for dinner -actually it was a… I can only think of the Russian word (I hate when that happens), дегустация (degustatsia) – tasting, gustation, according to my dictionary. We sampled six or seven Hungarian wines throughout the delicious dinner. I couldn’t help but notice when we arrived that we were the only people in a decent-sized restaurant, but I was easily distracted by the aperitif. Somewhere after the fourth or fifth course (and the fifth or sixth glass of wine) I realized we were still the only people in the restaurant and I finally asked a Hungarian colleague if the restaurant was actually closed. “Yes,” she said, “they are closed on Mondays. But my husband went to school with the sommelier and they agreed to serve us tonight.” I know the Hungarians are not Slavs, and they don’t want to be Slavs, but man was that ever Slavic! So awesome.
The wines were awesome, the food to die for. I bought a couple bottles at the end of the night – less than $40 for two yummy yummy bottles, a white and a red. It’s been hard to keep them in tact so that I can share them back in Kyiv!
How to make an American who lived in Turkmenistan for 2 1/2 years happy:
Tuesday we had some good meetings that bookended a nice lunch at a chain Italian restaurant. Apprently it’s new to Budapest (is it possible that we got a chain Italian restaurant BEFORE Budapest?!), and the local colleagues, at the end of the meal, let it slip that they had actually done research to plan for this lunch and had, in fact, investigated not one, not two, but THREE restaurants before settling on this place. This chain has never impressed me in Kyiv, but wow was it ever good in Budapest. The manager personally oversaw our service, made meal recommendations and checked back regularly to ensure our satisfaction. Should I just pack my bags now and move to Budapest?
Today I managed to squeeze out a couple hours for the one thing I most wanted to do in Budapest: visit the baths. I have to admit, it wasn’t what I expected, but it was still pretty darn cool. And beautiful.
I was introduced to swimming outdoors in cold winter months in Kyiv, and it seems to be a hit in Budapest too. This bathhouse, recommended by the hotel receptionist for no particular reason that she could articulate (at least not in a language I could understand) was the bathhouse equivalent of my Giant Green Salad times five. The scale can not be captured in photo, at least not by my simple camera.
This is one part of one floor of changing rooms. I think this floor is only open in the summer, as we didn’t get individual rooms but rather one of about 40 lockers in one of about 10 or 12 locker rooms. And that’s only the women’s side.
I was dang glad we inquired at the desk in advance to set some expectations for the bath. I had in my mind the Georgian baths I enjoyed in May, but this was quite different. We also had trouble getting some clear information from the receptionist on what we should take with us. “Do we need to talk anything?” we asked. “No” was the simple answer. “We don’t need to take towels?”, we inquired again. “Yes, you need to take towels”, she replied. “So when you said nothing, you meant nothing except towels?” I’ll save you the Laurel and Hardy routine, but suffice to say I finally asked the girl “Do you go to the baths?”, which was answered affirmatively. “And what do you take with you?” “Towels, flip-flops, shampoo, soap”, I think there was more but that was enough for me to hear.
More to come.
Anka in Kyiv 