Sure I Like Sör, but I am Bored by Bor

I smell a rat or racket occurring on Castle Hill. First there was the Beer Festival, but sör, you knew that already. You may remember my reporting that they charged 1,950 Huf admission and all you received in return was a lousy glass of beer and the privilege to buy more once you rented a mug for 600 Huf.


Currently, the hill is entertaining the 20th annual wine festival happening now. Let me bor you with few details that guests have reported. The admission was 2,500, but at least they received a wine glass for it, but no tickets toward wine like in times past. Each ticket cost 100 Huf with wine samples ranging from 400-900 Huf, so shell over 4-9 tickets. Get this, they went to buy food, but could only pay for it with wine tickets. When they did not have enough, the vendor was willing to take cash for the balance. After four tastes, they returned to whine about the wine, but the one they liked best was from Wien.


So is the Castle the new “Let’s have a festival, charge admission, and get rich!” scheme in the works? After you have sör-ly been bor’ed, the next fest to sweetly separate you and your cash will melt in your mouth. September 16th to 18th will be the Sweet Days chocolate and sweets festival, where you will only need to pay 1,900 Huf to enter the grounds where you will be delighted to learn that in the future, they are planning an expansion, so this entry fee is truly a bargain. Once they get this kick started they can sweetly with chocolate coating increase the prices. In the meantime, the promo offers such events as “guided chocolate tasting tours with expert. (Chocolate Ambassadors)”. Can you taste test the ambassador after the tour, I wonder?


While you are waiting for dessert, try the "The Szolnok International Goulash Competition”, but hurry, it starts today, September 9th and finishes on Sunday, the 11th. After your fill of goulash, move on to Makó for the International Onion Festival held September 10 to 12. All that running around will burn up those calories, so you can indulge with sweet days the following weekend.


I cannot wait for the Castle hill to be void of festivals and just let me drink in the sweet and sumptuous views.


Mini-Hungarian translations
Sör - beer
Bor  -wine
Note: I took the liberty of using bor instead of bore intentionally.

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Let's Have a Beer Cheer

I was just about to write about the First Annual Beer Festival held in the Castle district over four days, but our Internet went out for the last 36 hours. They totally discounted the festival in May as being the first, but whatever. I had attending this fest on my calendar as soon as the announcement came out in English. The wine fest can pass me by. I prefer beer. The problem was the weather. 

While we were breaking all kinds of heat records, it was too damn hot to walk two blocks to the metro and then get onto a crowded bus to climb Castle Hill. I climbed up Castle Hill once. Definitely a once in my lifetime experience. Exercise is best left to the young and fit. But we finally dragged our butts out on Saturday evening. Low and behold, it was actually cool up there. If we had only known. 

Just like the wine festival, they charge to get in. Unlike the wine festival it was 1,750 Huf per person just for starters. All we got for our money was a stupid paper wristband, in red. Red is not my color, but fortunately it is only paper, so it won't last long. We also received a folded green paper. It was a secret. When you open it, it entitles you to one free beer at the designated booth. Just my luck, what do I get? Soproni, a typical Hungarian run of the mill beer. Wow, but wait! This is not your, average Soproni, is is their special edition. Well, then, how lucky am I? Ron's was an edelweiss, which he was happy with, but then again that is Ron. He is easy to please. 

Here was another catch. Before you could get your beer, you had to get a beer mug for 600 Huf, redeemable on exit if you saved your receipt. The money just kept on flowing. However with mugs in hand, we separated to get our respective "free" beers. For some reason there was a long line for the edelweiss, but for the Soproni, there was no one other than me. Given the choice of caramel or cherry, I chose caramel. The only thing that should have cherry flavor are cherries picked off of the tree. I cannot stand anything cherry flavored, but am also not keen on cherry pastries either. 

Surprisingly, this festival covered a lot of the grounds behind the art museum.and into the courtyard where the Budapest Museum is located. Sadly though, most of the beer booths were run of the mill and not the microbreweries we expected.  I mean, come on, did I pay 1,750 for Soproni and Heineken? Yes, they were there too. I would say that food booths outnumbered the beer and not having had dinner, we indulged. Indulging is the right word too. For what we paid for piece of ham, a sausage, and two orders of French Fries, we could have had a sit down dinner in a nice restaurant.

We did get to speak to a nice couple from Munich, he was German and his wife was American. Highlighting the night for me was the view. I can never get enough of the view from the castle area or Fisherman's Bastion during the day, but at night it is all magical. And the clear cool evening just added to the pleasure.

So for my second and final act, I had a pumpkin beer. Yes, pumpkin. I won't eat cherry things, but I will eat just about anything with pumpkin. Though it only had a slight pumpkin taste, it was enjoyable nevertheless. This was only a two beer night because I am a lightweight drinker first of all, but secondly, each one was an additional 400 to 800 a mug.

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Don't Ask Because We Won't Tell

If you think this going to be some gay rights in the US military, hit the back button now, because it isn't. This is about the Budapest Tourism office and their ability to be timely with information. 


The Hungarian House of Wines on Castle Hill provided a wonderful treat for those who like wine and have a capacity to drink fast. You paid something like $15.00 at the time and you were set free in the cellar to taste taste 60 Hungarian wines without supervision. This was so high on everyone's "Must Do" list, when it closed years ago, I am surprised there was no funeral march with a memorial service. Hope was everlasting with the signs that stated they were eventually relocating to the Pest side of the river, though the time frame was indefinite. With that information and making it my business to keep up-to-date on businesses, I periodically, but with utmost frequency would stop in at TourInform hoping for a good news of a rebirth. Nothing new, same old, same old, no the Hungarian House of Wines has not reopened.  


Interestingly, when I went to the museum this Sunday, I just happened to walk by the old House of Hungarian Wine only to be aghast that the door was open. I barreled through the door like a drunk in prohibition finding the last drop of alcohol in a Baptist Church. When I started to question the receptionist, she had to call reinforcements; she did not speak English. Strange for a place that heavily depends on tourists to have their front person be a non-English speaker. 


The entire staff came to greet me. I think I was the first non-employee they have seen on the premises in months. Months, you ask? Yes, months. This new House of Hungarian Wines had re-opened supposedly in August of 2010. I am dubious about this information, because I know for a fact that I have passed by this location multiple times in the last eleven months with the explicit purpose of paying homage to a treasured tourism site, though I did not ever partake personally. Certainly most or at least some of my parting glances had to have been during normal operation hours, yet there had never been any sign of life to spark my attention for further investigation. 


That be what it may, the new rendition of the wine house will certainly cause whines from those who have been privy to its former carnation. This House of Wine is much more expensive, you are kept on a short lease for tasting, and you have to choose from different prescribed plans of offerings. For what they are charging, there are many other less expensive as well as less restrictive opportunities around the city. Too bad! I wonder if they will be open by next July.

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A Watery Wet Taste of Culture

When I awoke this morning, I decided today was going to be culture day, gosh darn it. I usually wait for someone to want to go with me and then when they decide they will, I am wrapped up in some project. I hate breaking away from projects in progress.


After the guest were fed, the laundry was hung to dry, I played clothespin photography (see photo blog site), I was ready to do the museum on Castle Hill. My experience in the past has been that the Hungarian National Gallery is hotter than hell in summer, so the stays are minimal. There were two exhibits I wanted to see: Markó Károly and Munkácsy's Christ Trilogy. 


My preferred way of getting to the castle is to take bus 16 from Deák Ferenc tér. So, I am walking through the square where just about everyone is carrying a plastic cup of water. Due to the heat, they set up a booth.

I am thinking, this is a great idea as I head over to get some water too. But then I notice something that stops me in my tracks. There was a valid connection between this and the booth where the water was being distributed.

Opps! No, thanks. I will get a bottle of water which may have the same source, but at least I won't know for sure. 
The Christ Trilogy was worth seeing, but the Károly was not to my taste. To my delight, the entire museum was cool, while certain areas were air conditioned. Anyway, I did get a couple of shots with my phone as I left.

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On a Windy Day...

This is my maiden voyage so to speak, into the world of video. What this is going to transform into is a series of short videos that people can view before coming here to get a bit of orientation to the city, learn some fun facts and get a sneak peek into some of the 'not to be missed' places to go.  


Truth be told, this idea is over 2 years old and that is when I bought the video camera. However, I am really shy about being photographed, so it took this long for me to throw caution to the wind and go for it. 


Ron was the cameraman for this short clip, but I had to be the director. At first he was not aware that the camera was running, then the second attempt, he kept panning everything in the background. I thought I had thoroughly explained that for this introductory video, I wanted the camera only on me. ME, ME, ME!!! This took 2 years, now I want it on ME. In this version of the video, you can tell I start just after finishing a laugh, because I had.


We took a trip to Castle Hill for this sample. It is the only video that I will post here, but they will all be in my Ryan and Ron Do the World Blog. Have fun with it.

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The Kim Files 3

Friday was Castle Hill day. We spent most of the day exploring the castle district. After meandering around the Budapest Museum, the Hungarian National Gallery, and oohing and ahhing over the views, Kim and Ron went into the Arany Sas, or Golden Eagle Museum. Been there, done that, no reason to do it again. No stop on Castle Hill would be complete without a stop at the Retesvar, my favorite strudel place in the city. None of us were disappointed. From here we went to Fisherman's Bastion, but in a capitalist move, the filled it with restaurant tables and chairs to force tourists to eat or drink to enjoy the views. We did find spots to by-pass this and had a great time. Ron took Kim into St. Matthias Church. Covered in scaffolding until 2012, it is still impressive, but unfortunately, the little museum inside with the history of St. Stephan's crown is also closed until 2013. That is one of my favorite parts of the inner church. Not to show religious favoritism, the two of them went to the Medieval Jewish Prayer House. The middle-aged woman guide was rather rude bordering on obnoxious, making me miss the little old man who was so pleasant upon my visit. Kim being a musician was sent off to the Museum of Music, while the two of us waited for her outside in the shade and coolness of the entry on a marble bench. After going home for a rest, we returned to the hill for dinner at Rivalda restaurant where we dined in an old monastic courtyard under the stars while musicians serenaded us with violin and saxophone. I had thought that we could go to the upper level of the Bastion for a well lit view of the Parliament building, but they were still charging to enter at 9:30 pm. They had told me that it was free after 9:00 pm. Instead, we went behind the President of Hungary's office, where the view was magnificent, not feeling like we missed out at all.

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