Budathanksmas

Happy Christmas! In spite of our resistance to celebrating so early, Christmas season has arrived in the UK, especially here in Birmingham where the German Christmas Market is in full swing. Normally, I’d stick to protocol and hold off on letting out my Christmas cheer this early and before Thanksgiving, but seeing as the Brits don’t celebrate our favourite American excuse to over eat, it seems acceptable to make spirits bright a bit earlier this year. Besides, it’s getting dark earlier and colder by the day, so I could use the help ridding myself of any preemptive bah humbugs. Best of all, it reminds us that we’ll be home for a visit oh so soon (25 days and I'm counting)! Before I get to discussing all of the fa-la-la-la-mazing that Christmas Market is, I’ll recap our trip to Budapest!

We didn’t know much about Budapest going in. We’d heard from Adam’s parents and our Turkish friends (who say it’s similar to Istanbul) that it’s a great place, and such proved the case. Hungarians are quite friendly and the city is very relaxed. Though it’s a popular tourist site, it never felt like it. We easily moved about the city (back and forth between the Buda and Pest sides) and enjoyed each stop. Most everyone speaks English (by choice, not because we asked) and welcomes you to the city. We knew it would be a good trip right from the start as we met a local who kindly showed us from the airport to our hotel and made some great recommendations for the weekend ahead.

We drove down to London-Luton airport and flew WizzAir having found good flight prices and times.  WizzAir, like RyanAir, has some strict requirements, but I’d also like all of my tall friends out there to know how small their seats are.  Seriously, our knees were against the seats in front of us. Anyhow, it was an easy 2 hour flight and upon arrival we purchased 72 hour passes for public transportation (bus, metro and tram all included). I don’t remember how many HUF (Hungarian Forint-national currency) the tickets were, but it was only about £10 and worth it. On that note, the HUF is not very valuable, thus making conversions quite tricky - about 450 HUF is £1 (which is around $1.50) meaning the cash we drew out came out in bills of 10,000s. It was weird! That aside, things in Hungary are actually VERY affordable. Our first night we enjoyed a meal of lamb and steak medallions and it was amazing! The restaurant was charming and close to our hotel (the Hilton, Pest side) and was a great intro to the city. We also really liked the public transports. The buses, trams and trains were OLD, but in a vintage way and they’re run quite well.

Friday morning we ventured into the Pest side passing through Heroe’s Square, Vajdahunyad Castle and made our way to the SzechenyiBaths.  We’d heard amazing things about these natural springs that have been turned into spas of sorts – you can lounge in these large hot tubs, and the water has natural minerals that makes your skin soft! It was amazing.  We spent the morning testing out each room/bath, stopping in a sauna or two along the way, and after freshening up (we brought swimsuits and rented lockers), headed back into the city.  We made a quick stop for lunch and continued our peaceful day by visiting St. Stephen's Basilica. It feels like we’ve seen dozens of cathedrals at this point, and we say we love them all, but this one was a top 3.  We’ve found it’s less about the décor/size/age and more about the feeling you get when you walk in, for us at least.  Some cathedrals allow pictures, have music playing, prohibit talking, etc - it just varies and all of this impacts your experience. We then went and checked into our hotel on the Buda Side and rested before dinner, which was on the Pest side in an area called Deak Ferenc which is a cute and busy road with several shops, restaurants and people milling around. 

Saturday morning we walked right next door (literally) from our hotel to see Matthias Church which is pretty on the inside, but actually prettier from the outside when you’re looking at it from across the river; it’s beautiful at night. We then decided to wander through some of the Hungarian markets.  There are several small shops with fun items on the Buda side, but we made our way back to the Pest side to check out the Central Market.   One of our favourite markets was in Madrid, and we made a point to visit the one in Budapest as well because you get to see lots of locals milling about and they usually have local snacks/treats.  We then took the tram up the river to Parliament, which is VERY cool.  The building is massive and there’s interesting history around how Hungarian government has been shaped over the years.  It looks like a palace, and houses the crown jewels, so is worth a look if you have time.  To finish off our day and trip, we went to the opera!

The Hungarian State Opera House is one of the prettiest buildings I’ve ever been in.  We had very cool box seats (thanks to Adam) and felt this was the right way to have our first opera experience, sans black tie attire.  We thought were set to see a classic, yet got quite the surprise performance (at least to us, we wonder if our fellow opera go-ers were better informed).  I guess it was a modern interpretation, so the opera was the same, but the costumes, and I imagine some of the acting were quite different than expected.  Having read the synopsis, I expected togas and lightning bolts – Greek mythology type stuff.  What we got were futuristic costumes and an overlying theme of the evils of consumerism.  Nonetheless, it was a very cool experience! All in all, Budapest was perfectly lovely - we'd definitely go back and I'd say for anyone considering it, that 3 days is plenty of time to spend there.

The following weekend we made a trip down to Watford (north of London) to the Harry Potter Movie Studios and had the best time! Adam and I are both fans of the books and movies and we made a day of it with our fellow expats after each refreshing our fan-knowledge through a week-long movie marathon.  Warner Bros has preserved most of the sets, props and costumes and did a really nice job turning it into a tour experience.  I had some major fan-girl moments, particularly on Diagon Alley.

Our friends followed us back to Brum so we could have our first proper outing at the Christmas Market the next day.  It was opening weekend so there was a nice crowd, and we were really impressed.  Birmingham’s German Market is supposedly one of the best in the country and the downtown High Street is flooded with vendors selling all kinds of goodies – the most popular of items being mulled wine, German bratwursts, knitted hats and a new favourite of mine, hot chocolate with Bailey’s. Our market here lasts 5 weeks, so I imagine we’ll be back several more times and we’re also going to try to venture out to some of the other UK Christmas markets over the coming weekends.

Last Saturday we ventured down to Guilford (south of London) to our expat friends’ house to see their new place and meet some more fellow expats.  Besides the good southern food our host filled us with (and her insanely kind host manners she shows us every time we stay), it was fun getting to talk with others who understand the transplant life. It was a much needed fix of good food and company.

Our office cafeteria is making a Thanksgiving Meal for the few Americans in the office (I think there are 4 of us total) and my team is excited to dine with me and hear all about my home traditions.  I’m sure I’ll try to whip up a few traditional items for Adam on Thursday night, but we most look forward to face-timing with family and living vicariously through all of you as you enjoy your time off from work. It’s been pretty cold here, including some snow flurries last weekend, so you’ll probably find us bundled up on the couch this weekend watching what American football we can stream and sipping on warm drinks.

I think that’s plenty from me for now! As is Thanksgiving custom, I’d like to share some of the things I’m thankful for..

Good family, friends (old and new), health (mine and those dear to me), technology, wool fabric and Sainsbury’s chocolate spread 

Gobble gobble, everyone.