A Thanksgiving in Budapest

This Thanksgiving differed from all the rest.  

Thanksgiving isn't one day, but five. Yes, five.  Five days off from school, be it high school or college or graduate school.  

The schedule?

Wednesday is for traveling and relaxing.

Thursday is for dinner at my mom's house with food food food and relaxing because of the food food food.  The past few years, Thursday has been for an additional dinner of food food food at Ben's grandma's or mom's house.  And sweatpants.

Friday is for my brother to pester me to go Black Friday shopping with him, and me occasionally relenting.  Friday is also for my mom to say, "Isn't it time to put up the Christmas tree?" and for my brother and I to spend a good portion of the afternoon rearranging the living room to make room for said tree, and for carrying cardboard boxes filled with tree parts up our narrow basement stairs.  And turkey sandwiches.  

Saturday is for a get-together with my oldest and dearest friends.  We usually pick for our Secret Santa, eat cookies, pose for mini-photoshoots, and talk A LOT.

Sunday is for packing, driving, and preparing for the next week of school.

But, as I said, this Thanksgiving different from all of the rest.

How?

I could go on and on about how it was my first Thanksgiving spent without my immediate family, in a country that doesn't celebrate the holiday (obviously), without having a reunion with friends, etc.

It was, however, our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and my first Thanksgiving traveling!  And, we are so fortunate to have family close by.  A six hour train ride and this Thanksgiving was spent with my cousin and her family in Budapest, Hungary.  

Some Budapest highlights:

At the Christmas Market, we shared a Kürtőskalács.  It's a traditional pastry from Transylvania, which used to be part of Hungary.  It was warm, cinnamon-coated goodness, and plenty for all of us to share.   

Street performers entertained us.  The white bird, the gold guy, the xylophone player... What can I even say?  After the xylophone player finished playing a little Mozart (we can't escape him), my little cousin yelled to the crowd, "Give him mon-ey! Give him mon-ey!"  I loved it.  And, some people listened.  Also, I love the two girls in these photos.  The one looked at the gold guy so thoughtfully and the other in the white hat couldn't take the noise.  She may have affected how much money people gave.

Budapest at night is beautiful.  We had a delicious dinner at Vár A Speiz in the Castle District.  Now, I can confidently say that what Americans call goulash is not goulash.  Forever, I thought I hated it, but now I know better. And the paprika sauce? So indescribably good.  And, I even tried the grey stuff from this song.   

Before dinner, we walked to Fishermen's Bastion to see the city lit-up.  Next to us rose Mathias Church and across the Danube stood imposing Parliament. 
 

  

The next day, we did the Hop On-Hop Off bus tour of Budapest, opting not to do the exclusive, private boat tour they also offered. :) It was terribly grey outside during all three days, so my photos didn't turn out well.  Like, the glorious Parliament building:

A bit more impressive at night.

The highlight was hopping off to go to the Bazilica Cafe and Restaurant for some good margherita pizza and good conversation. After, we visited St. Stephen's Basilica.  

 

 That led us to a flea market with some interesting wares.   

But, my favorite part of the long Thanksgiving weekend may have been playing with the kids, and watching Ben play with the kids.  When Ben played Pushing (an anti-bullying game) and Blue's Clues (complete with the handy, dandy notebook), my heart may have grown a little bit larger.  

They cooked us a full Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night.  The ingredients for the meal aren't the easiest to come by in Hungary, but somehow they made it happen.  I didn't get any photos because I was too busy feasting, but trust that it was delicious.

Although we are far from New York, we aren't far from home after all.