Langos, yum

Now in Budapest, we already have favorite foods. First is langos, a chewy fried-dough
concoction that must be healthier than some other food, but I am hard pressed to name what. There are also these delightful little fresh strudel-ish pastries that we found in both Eger and in the main market hall of Budapest. These have some emotional
significance for me as well because ordering them in Budapest was the 1st time that I succesfully communicated more than a few words in Magyar. A few sentences even!

Budapest has the most wonderful buildings, many in the most appalling condition. They
are crumbling, though perhaps genteelly. We are staying with a family that lives in a building with amazing amounts of trim and statuary on the front. It has a large courtyard with wrought-iron railings and seems fairly typical for buildings from
the 1890s. Quite a beautiful place.

We have to figure out how shopping works here. Stores are only open from 10-2 on Saturday (Szombat - which we have affectionately dubbed wombat) and not at all on Sunday. How people who work all week get their shopping done is a mystery to me. The main market hall, in a gorgeous 19th C. former Customs House, also follows these hours.

We are trying to learn Hungarian, which necessitates long hours of study in gorgeous coffeehouses that serve rich Austrian pastries.
Sziastok (which means
roughly "bye y'all")