St. Stevens, the Café Montmartre and Tokaj

Well kids, it looks like you may have to wait a while to see pictures of any of this. The internet is very sluggish, and it takes too long to upload photos. Let's hope my mastery of the English language gives you a vivid picture of the times, places and goings-on of Budapest.

Today was our first meeting with Domenica, our wonderfully talented and charismatic Global Ed Director, in Budapest. We had planned to meet at 13:00, but Jack and I both slept until 13:20... when Domenica called us from Roosevelt tér. Oops. I have no idea how that happened. Maybe we're still jet-lagged.

Anyway, quick as rabbits we throw clothes on and run out the door. We hustle to the square and find her shivering in the cold. We suck. She comes back to our pad after checking out Parliament and Jack makes tea and I butter some bread. We chatted for a bit, and arranged to meet at 13:30 tomorrow (now today) for our big meeting at the Liszt Academy.

We walked Domenica back to her hotel in Roosevelt Square, and from there decided to check out Vörösmarti tér, a big square in the 5th district. We went via St. Steven's Cathedral, located near Déàk Ferenc tér. This place is an eyeful. I'm sorry I can't show you my pictures yet, but look it up on goodsearch (remember to donate to St. Thomas in Winn!).

From there, a little grocery shopping yielded sugar, wafers and some local brews we're eager to try. Supper at Casa Americana tonight was kielbasa and spaghetti ala Jesse, followed by some very dry red wine, courtesy of Gerge. We retired afterwards to the brandy library (my room) and watched billiards on the tele. Mmm, yes, I'm quite rich...

Our exploratory adventures today led us to Buda, the hilly side of the city. We followed the sidewalk across the Chain Bridge and up a path to the Royal Palace atop the big hill. Large, beautifully lit, architecturally stunning and very quiet, this filled my camera lens tonight.
It was also very cold, and started raining as we went home tonight, so we headed towards our next destination: the Café Montmartre!

The Café Montmartre is conveniently located near St. Steven's and advertises nightly live jazz and latin music. It is also the location of our first glasses of Tokaj, a famous Hungarian wine made in the Northern Uplands. It is characteristically sweet, tasting of apples, and we chose the very best stuff tonight - rated 5 puttony of the best brand (Lonely Planet tells me that the rating system actually goes to 6, but I haven't told Jack yet).

Anyway, the bartenders told me that there is actually very little jazz there, so not much chance of picking up a gig. We might come back. They both spoke pretty good English, so we imagine that a lot of internationals come there. Some pretty loud Americans were drinking up a few tables from us. We didn't say hello.

Just a note: Everything up there was written at the end of my yesterday, and I'm posting on my journal today, while you're all sleeping (I hope). Ahead for today is a meeting at the Liszt Academy, a trip to the West End for a SIM card, a trip to Tamas's workplace to pick up a charger for the cell, and practice, both trombone and Hungarian. Have a good day, everybody.