Tag Archives: quirky stuff

Eastern Europe, Hungary

Ten things I learned in Budapest, Hungary…

Here it is, the much anticipated “ten things I learned”, post… /sarcasm. Seriously, though, when I take trips, I like to take a few minutes to reflect on the new things I learned thanks to travel. And I did learn some new things in Hungary, this time. So here’s my latest list of ten things I learned, Budapest, Hungary edition!

10. The word “tilos” means “silence” in Lithuanian. In Hungarian, it means “forbidden”.

Interesting, huh? I noticed that word on signs in churches in Lithuania, when we went there in June, so I looked it up. Then I saw it in Hungary, but I didn’t go into any churches while we were there. So that word is used in two different countries and languages to direct people in how to behave.

9. Old Forints are worthless in Hungary.

When Bill and I took a taxi into Budapest, a cab driver gave Bill change for the ride. In the change, he included an old 1000 Forints note, which Bill gave to me. Later, I tried to spend it, and learned that Hungary changed its currency and the old notes are now worthless. We probably could have taken it to a post office, but we’re going to send it to Bill’s grandson, instead. The bigger note below is now worth nothing.

8. English is EVERYWHERE in Budapest.

I know I shouldn’t have been, but I was surprised by how very widespread English is in Hungary. Lots of signs were in English, and all menus were translated. A lot of people didn’t even speak with a heavy accent. In a way, I was kind of disheartened by how much English is used there. But it did make things easier for us tourists…

7. Speaking of tourists, they were also everywhere in Budapest!

On Friday night, I was especially aware of how many tourists were in Budapest. It felt like waves of visitors. I wonder what it’s like for the natives, having to deal with so many throngs of tourists congesting the city. Yes, they spend money, but they also make it hard to even just walk around downtown. One day, I counted FIVE Viking River Cruise ships. There were other cruise companies there, too.

6. You can see a lot of things in Budapest, just by walking around the city.

I only made it to one museum, and yet I saw plenty of stuff for free, just taking daily walks around the main drags. And there was a whole lot of stuff I didn’t see. I could go back there, spend a week, and still not see everything. I’d like to go back and spend more time on Margaret Island.

5. Someone built a Michael Jackson shrine in Budapest, and it’s “unmolested”…

4. If you love music, Budapest is a great city for you!

I was so impressed by the excellent music we heard in restaurants. Even tourist traps have really excellent live musicians who play with passion and love.

3. The Retro Museum will take you back to a time when Budapest was not so easy for westerners to visit.

And if you take your time in there, you will learn new things about how things used to be in Hungary. I was particularly interested in the exhibit about school. It was there that I learned about “Little Drummers”, which was the first stage of the communist youth movement for Hungarian children, back in the day.

2. There are 60 pairs of metal shoes by the Danube.

They were placed there to memorialize Hungarian Jews who were murdered by Nazis from 1944-45. An estimated 2600 to 3600 people were lined up by the Danube River and shot. Before they were shot, they were forced to remove their valuable shoes, so they would not be lost to the river when the dead bodies fell into it.

1. There are statues all over Budapest, commemorating famous Hungarians and other people.

Some of them sit on park benches. Some stand on bridges. Some are lurking in parks or on bridges, or even sitting by the Danube River. I should have paid closer attention to them during my week in Budapest, but maybe I’ll get a chance to go back.

Budapest is a fascinating city. Both times I’ve visited, I’ve had a great time. I hope we can go back again at a different time of year, perhaps during the “low” season… if they actually have one, that is. It’s definitely a vibrant place, full of fit, beautiful, warm-hearted people who are welcoming and kind. I’m so glad I had the chance to see it again, after sixteen years!

So ends my series on Budapest. Today, Bill and I have a lunch date at one of our favorite local restaurants, Villa im Tal. I’ll be writing that up later.

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art, books, Hessen, holidays, videos

Christmas 2024 is in the books!

I hope everyone who celebrates had a great Christmas yesterday. Bill and I had a lot of fun. I captured some of it in a video, but I also got lots of pictures. Bill is usually not very good at buying presents for me, because he doesn’t know what I want, or what I’ve already bought for myself. But this year, he gave me a great surprise that I genuinely love! The funny thing is, I doubt most people would love it… but because I’m “obnoxious as hell” (according to my mom), I was delighted to receive it!

I usually buy a lot of books for Bill, but this year, I truly went nuts. I bought him a couple of new cookbooks, even though he usually finds recipes online. I always buy him cookbooks, but this year, I got him an Armenian cookbook and a new Nigella Lawson one. He loves Nigella. I got him new tarot cards and a couple of reference books about tarot cards and symbolism. I got him books by Carl Jung’s protege, Marie-Louise von Franz, as well as one by Jung himself. There were some kitchen tools– a new water pitcher, orange peeler, artsy bottle opener, food chopper, a wooden Tile Rummy game set, and a Le Creuset grill platter. I got him two new sweaters from Ireland, a home brewing journal, books about coffee and fermenting foods, and a large lighted magnifying glass to help with close tasks.

Bill got me a new digital camera with a memory card, two geeky t-shirts in colors I like, a new jigsaw puzzle, a light panel to ward off SAD (which I don’t think I have), and he says two more are coming. But the best present was a wooden sculpture he bought from an art dealer in Wiesbaden. I noticed it last year, when we had some picture framing done. I took a photo of it and put it in this blog… then happened to mention it to Bill a couple of months ago. I wished I’d bought it when I saw it.

Bill had some dental work done a few weeks ago, and the office is within walking distance of the art dealer. So he walked there and looked for the sculpture. He didn’t see it, but thought to ask the dealer about it. It turned out they had an exhibition going on, so they had moved a lot of art to the back. Bill described the sculpture and they did, indeed, still have it (not a surprise to me). The dealer brought it out and Bill paid… a lot of euros for it!

It’s definitely strange, provocative, quirky, weird, and potentially offensive… But I LOVE it! I suspect it will make the few people who visit our house stop in their tracks! It’s the kind of thing our uptight former landlady would have hated, and the idea of her sneaking into our house when we weren’t home and seeing this warms the cockles of my heart. Of course, she’s in our past… but I’m sure there will be others like her in the future, right?

Below is a video I made of our gift exchange… It’s not particularly well edited, and I expect only my mother-in-law will watch it.

YouTube says this video isn’t viewable in Russia. So much the better.

I have some photos, as well…

The sculpture has a place of honor!
New tarot cards
Bottom of the sculpture. The artist is Wolfgang Aulbach. He’s from Bavaria.
This book on symbolism was sealed with cellophane. Bill opened it to the section on urine!
A journal for home brewing
Armenian cookbook

And below are some photos of the food… Bill started us off with baked eggs done in the Instant Pot, grits, fresh orange juice, coffee, and homemade bread. Later, for dinner, we had a savory cheesecake with Gouda cheese, Gruyeres, bacon, and spinach. Also, there was a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette, homemade bread, and local wine poured in new wine glasses gifted to us by Bill’s mom. For dessert, we had cherry cheese pie.

Pie crust
Everybody was home yesterday!
The pie was a little messy.
My man at work!
The finished product. Bill used the recipe in The Trellis Cookbook, which was written by the late chef Marcel Desaulniers. He was an owner of The Trellis restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia. I worked there from 1998-99 for about 18 months. My sister also worked there when it first opened in 1980.

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was during the afternoon. We were listening to Christmas music and a song by Kenny Rogers came on. All of a sudden, I remembered his 1969 hit, “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.” That was NOT the song that was playing, of course… but before I knew it, I started coming up with lyrics about Elon Musk. Bill joined in, and before we knew it, we had collaborated on a song parody. I sang the new version, set it to AI generated images and memes, and uploaded it to YouTube.

I suspect there could be more collaborations in the future!

All in all, it was a very nice Christmas 2024… one hundred percent drama free! This is in contrast to Christmas 2004, which was definitely not drama free. But that’s a story better suited to my other blog.

Hope your holidays are grand!

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Uncategorized

Swarming with insect protein…

Bill went to the store earlier to get some provisions for the weekend. While he was there, he noticed an interesting product for sale– protein bars made of insect protein. He said, “I think I have a potential blog post for you.” as he held up what turned out to be two protein bars made by a Cologne based company called Swarm. What made them so special? They’re made of crickets… (do I hear crickets now? Shocking!)

Swarm bars come in three flavors: Raw Cocoa, Red Berries, and Chia Hazelnut. Bill brought home one each of the Red Berry and Raw Cocoa bars. He’s already tasted the Raw Cocoa bar and says it’s kind of crunchy… which somehow doesn’t surprise me.

Why would a person want to eat a protein bar made of crickets? Because insects are nutritious. They are a great alternative source of protein, since they contain all essential amino acids and many important micronutrients like vitamin B12, zinc and iron.

It’s also more environmentally friendly to use insects as a protein source, and Germans are famously environmentally conscious. It’s illegal to kill bees here, for instance, and you won’t find a lot of pesticides for sale. Although there are plenty of farms and lots of natural fertilizers used in Germany (and believe me, the nose knows this, especially in rural areas), Swarm Bars are made from crickets from Thailand, among other natural ingredients. The crickets use fewer resources to process than more traditional protein sources from animals need. Compared to cattle, crickets only need 8% of the feed, 2% of the water, and they produce almost no greenhouse gases.

Swarm is a very new product, as in it’s only been available to the public for a very short time. Reading the company’s “About Us” page, translated by Google Chrome, I learned that in 2015, company founders Christopher Zeppenfeld and Timo Bäcker went to Thailand to eat insects. They had the goal of introducing them to the Western diet. The two guys bought a couple of motorcycles and traveled around Southeast Asia, tasting as many edible insects as they could. They had become accustomed to eating insects and realized they could turn their new interest into a business… if they could get Europeans and probably eventually Americans to take to the idea of eating bugs.

Christopher and Timo came back to Germany, teamed up with an expert in sports and nutrition named Dani, and started working on developing their protein bars made with Thai crickets. They launched a crowdfunding project and got cooperation from the University of Cologne, and voila, a new product was born! Here’s a review in German by some people who had the chance to try Swarm before it was made available at our local and newly remodeled Rewe.

I must admit that I didn’t try the bars, which are made with cricket flour, oatmeal, linseed flour, dates raisins, agave syrup, pear juice concentrate, and honey. I watched Bill eat half of one. He enjoyed it, although he only ate half because he didn’t know if maybe he’d be allergic to crickets. I think it’s safe to say that Bill can safely eat and even enjoy products made from cricket flour.

Here are some photos from his taste test… he definitely enjoyed himself.

Will I try a Swarm Bar? Maybe if I have enough German courage. Actually, I don’t really enjoy protein bars much, even if they aren’t made of crickets. I’d rather eat chocolate, and unfortunately, it shows. Here’s the link to Swarm’s Facebook page if you want to know more.

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