Blue Elephants

We went to the beer festival yesterday. I only had 2 small beers, so instead of seeing pink elephants, I saw one blue one.

I could really have gone for more beer sampling, but oh those calories, plus I have to watch my sugar intake too.

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Beer With Me While I Get Drunk

It is that time again, just after the Hungarian Folk Festival and soon before the annual wine fest, Castle Hill is ready to receive those with money to squander yet again. There was no need to dismantle the wooden booths, just as I suspected when we were at the Folk Festival. They will accommodate the Beer Festival.

This year the claim is that it will be bigger than the last with over 200 beer producers tapping our wallets while pulling their taps. Imported beers will be Bohemian, German, English, Belgian and Irish specialties.

In order to convince us this is really a culture event, there will be 40 concerts and 120 well-known foreign and Hungarian performers. The promo states we can enjoy the concerts of the likes of Paddy & The Rats for one. Based on the other names, it seems you will want to drink if not voluntarily, but out of necessity. It is doubtfully that few non-Hungarians will have heard of any of the entertainment, and the standup comic will also try to tickle your funny bone in Hungarian too.
 

Like last time, you will be required to "rent" your beer mug (0,4 L, cost 600 HUF), but it is refundable if you don't drop it after the 6th mugful. Pints of beer will be: 400, 500, or 900 HUF depending on the brand you choose.

Before you think you can get soaked for cheap, they soak you for an admission fee as follows.

Daily pass: 1999 HUF, includes one beer (for children under 18 years includes one soft drink)
Five-day pass: 6999 HUF, includes one beer (for children under 18 years includes one soft drink)
For children under 12 years admission is free.

Opening hours:

Wednesday, August 29 noon – 3am
Thursday, August 30 noon – 3am
Friday, August 31 10am– 3am
Saturday, September 1 10am – 3pm

Thank goodness there are no alcoholics in this country, allowing everyone to enjoy these festivals with a clear conscious.

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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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Beer With Me

I would have liked to be able to say that this post is late because I am still recuperating from the 1st Annual Budapest Beer Festival, yet it is not so.  Not that I wish it weren't. We had an overwhelming build-up of anticipation when they had first announced it last year. It was to be held down the block from us. We arrived that day, but the festival had not. Cancelled!


Our time had finally come and so had the festival. Our appetites were whet with anticipation, but our throats were longing to be quenched with micro-brewery beers of assorted gourmet concoctions. 


When we arrived at the fair square, the throngs of people looked more like a Lady Gaga concert than a simple street fest. We plunged, pushed, squeezed, plowed, and inched through the crowds until the light bulb went on and dismay, despair, and disgust crept through our still sober consciousness. The crowds we were trying to slither through was not an idle crowd of spectators, sampling brew, but hopefuls standing in line at the next booth to purchase their next round. 


Yes, gentle readers, the sad fact is that the line was longer than a Tarantella contest in Naples. It was quickly apparent that this would have been more successful as a team sport. One member of the team stands in line at a different booth and buys a round for the group. Eventually, we would all see each other again; the key word is eventually. 


Our usual compatriots were off in other lands, abandoning us at our time of need and desperate for a cohesive force. This left our little team of two to battle it alone. I stood in one line, Ron went to another. We had a meeting point as if it would have been possible to identify it through the masses. Little did we realize we may not even have recognized each other. How innocent we still were in those early hours, there was so much yet to learn about a festival of this sort.


If it were not for may smartphone, I would not have lasted. Patience is not my virtue, but standing in lines is on my all time number 1 HATE list. Being able to read e-mail, the news, and War and Peace made the time pass faster. I had not realized that my next birthday had come and gone, but still the only thing in my hands was a phone and not a beer. 


Ron finally returned. His luck was better than mine. He had two beers in hand. If his line was so short, what did it say about the beer? Taking little sips savoring this brew like one would the last drips of a canteen that once held water, while crossing the desert, we micro-inched closer to the beer taps in the far distance. A couple of times, just to feel like progress were being made, I climbed on the backs of the two guys ahead of me. It brought me a skin closer my goal, but they were not sympathetic to my desperation as they beat me off like embarrassing dandruff. 


When I had finally scored beer number two, we had all good intentions of immediately getting in line for beer number three at a different booth. When we approached what looked like an unappreciated brew master, we actually discovered those waiting were deceptively arranged. To join this queue, we would have needed to take the metro about 3 stops.  


Overcome with mood swings ranging from despondent to disheartened to discouraged, we raised our white flag and undulated through the crowd to head home. Next year, we will know better; we'll be there at 10am when they open.  

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Blogger Down

I was hot to trot to post today, but this kept coming up. Blogger Status


Friday, May 13, 2011
We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon. 


We went to the First Hopefully Annual Budapest Beer Festival and now I cannnooot wirte a fink.

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