Skanzen and Snow

Quite frankly, the title of this blog sounds (to me)more like a ritzy Law Firm in New York than my weekend in Budapest, but indeed it is most appropriate. This past weekend was one of festivities, goose and wine. Why the celebration, you ask? November 11th is St. Martin's day, a day for feasting and welcoming the fall harvest. Story goes that St. Martin, a Roman soldier, was returning home when he spotted a poor peasant out in the cold. Rather than walk by, he cut his cloak in half and gave part of it to the peasant, and so he is rememberd as a saintly figure to the poor. Here in Hungary, tradition has it that if you don't eat goose on St. Martin's day, you'll go hungry for the next year, and if you don't drink wine, next years harvest will be spoiled. So, naturally, festivals pop up around the country to ensure that these travesties should never occur.

The day started out cold, and for whatever reason it seemed like we were always *just* behind the ball on catching public transportation. We took the HEV train out to Szentendre, and as we went to buy our tickets for the 15 minute bus ride out to Skanzen I saw the bus waiting for us at the depot. After buying the tickets, I look again and the bus is gone. No big deal, right? It'll come back in 20 minutes and we'll be on our way. Wrong! We waited in the cold for 25 minutes only to have the bus driver inform us upon returning that the next bus doesn't leave for another hour. It worked out well enough though because we went into Szentendre for a bit and stayed warm in the small souvenir shops, and then returned in time to catch the next bus and finally were on our way.

Skanzen is very much like the Hungarian version of Colonial Williamsburg; it's an open-air museum that depicts village life and regional architecture across Hungary. They even had signs in English! I had been really looking forward to exploring the museum, but it had begun to rain a bit and was very cold and windy. We took immediate refuge in the large festival tent which made the whole experience worthwhile. The food was fantastic, those stand-up heaters were everywhere, and live music filled the room. After a very satisfying meal (I was the rebel and got kolbasz and kaposzta [pictured] but I did try a bite of goose) we poked around a little to discover a traditional Hungarian farm -cows, mules, and windmill included. I'd never met a Hungarian mule before, but while it was sampling the sleeve of my jacket I decided that Hungarian mules and American mules are pretty much the same; they all like to chew on your clothes!

I warmed up with a cup of mulled wine, and we listened to some more music before catching the 3 o'clock bus back to the train station. By the end of the day I was beginning to feel the tingling sensation of frostbite (not really though, I'm just a drama queen) and happily dethawed in our toasty warm flat that evening. The next day, however, I was sitting in my pj's working on homework when I glance out the window, expecting to see the ghostly shimmer of rain, and instead see big fat slushy snowflakes. In the city where it never snows! I even took a picture of it for proof because everyone who's told me it never snows in Budapest probably won't believe me if I told them that it did. Granted, November is the wettest month, but it's just so darn cold that we got a mushy snow shower instead. Global warming? Maybe....

Wish me luck on my trip to Paris, my flight leaves in three days!