Cholesterol Overload. :)

After a long day/night of flights, we finally arrived in Budapest, only to have to wait in the airport for almost seven hours for the rest of Gavin's family to arrive; we were supposed to be on the same flight from Frankfurt to Budapest, but their flight from the US had departed late, taking up all of their short, 50 minute layover. We grabbed our rental van, the "biggest available," which was about the size of a station wagon with seats for exactly all 6 of us, but the last two seats unfortunately unfolded to fill the entire cargo space, leaving no room for our luggage... Luckily Gavin's brother and fiancé had met us at the airport and were able to take some of our suitcases!

This particular trip is to go to the wedding of the aforementioned brother Shaun and his fiancé Agi. Gavin's whole immediate family is here with us, including his parents and two other brothers. I am not sure if this part of the trip will be a lot of sightseeing, as they may need help with the wedding planning, but Budapest already seems like a lovely place to visit.

But first a little tangent about the marked difference between American airlines (not the company American Airlines, the broad category of all American airlines) and non-American airlines, which we have experienced again and again, but it was especially apparent on this trip. On our overnight flight across the Atlantic, we flew United. Our flight attendant never smiled, never responded to my "Thank you" with any acknowledgement, and as we left the plane said "Have a nice day." in a tone that seemed equal mixes of boredom, sarcasm and surliness. Many of them just HAVE to hate their jobs to be as dour as this guy was.

By contrast, as SOON as we stepped off the plane onto the tarmack, knowing we had only 20 minutes to get through passport control (with probably more than 100 people in front of us) and get to our next flight, so almost SURE we would miss it, we were met at the bottom of the stairs by a Lufthansa Airlines representative (our flight to Budapest was with Lufthansa.) with our flight number on a board. He caught the 4 people on our flight who were running late to the Budapest flight, got us on a special bus just for us (a HUGE bues that could probably hold 40 people) and took us to the necessary terminal. Another representative met us there and walked us through the bowels of the airport to bypass all the lines and put us through rush passport control. Then the two of them speed walked us all the way to our gate, saw it had been changed and called the new gate to hold the plane for us, and all this with a cheerful and friendly demeanor and a smile on their faces. The phrase "great customer service" seems a little cliche, but over and over again, we get that on foreign airlines, whether it be Qantas to Australia, LAN to South America or Lufthansa to Europe. Some American airline companies could definitely take a few lessons...

Here's a fun statistic I read in our Rick Steve's Eastern Europe travel guide: the average Hungarian eats ONE POUND of lard a week! (they cook with it). Looks like this will not be a healthy eating vacation... ( not like any of our vacations ever are...) :)

Agi's family had invited us for dinner, and we had to go straight to her mother's house from the hotel due to the missed flight. She had been cooking all day and had prepared an amazing feast for us! We started off with a toast of champagne (not icky, dry champagne, but a deliciously light and fruity one), then Agi's nephew informed us that it is traditional in Hungary to take a shot as soon as guests arrive at a house, so the poured out shots that were actually pleasurable and smooth; they tasted like grappa, though I have never taken grappa as a shot. :). Right before the meal was served, they poured another different kind of shot - this one more like a smoother, more subtle version of Jagermeister. I guess shots are not just for college drinking binges in Hungary; even Agi's mother took one! :)

The first course of dinner was the well-known dish goulash, but it is different in Hungary, especially from my own mom's Midwestern version that was pretty much lasagna with macaroni. :) Goulash here is a thinner soup with beef and potatoes, deliciously spices with the quintessential Hungarian paprika and also chili pepper for a bit of heat. Agi's mother's goulash had to have been cooked for HOURS; the beef was so soft it just fell apart as soon as it was touched and was completely infused with the spices. To make it spicier, there was a dish of dried chili peppers on the table. I crumbled half of one into my bowl, and then made the mistake of wiping a little sweat off my face. The heat from the pepper remnants on my skin gave me the feeling I had spread Tiger Balm all over my cheeks, but I loved the spicy addition to my goulash. We ate the goulash with a very soft bleach-white looking bread.

Second course was pork, thickly breaded and deep fried, served over rice and cheese. The breading was crunchy outside and soft inside (reminded me of a funnel cake sans powdered sugar) and as thick as the pork itself, which was also cooked so perfectly it fell apart in my mouth. The rice was so rich and soft it tasted like it had been cooked in a pot full of butter instead of water. This course was served with what is probably the closest thing I am going to get to a salad in Hungary; a plate that was equal parts shredded carrots and mozzarella cheese. :)

After dinner we headed over to the Art Otel where we are staying for the week. On the way we got to see some of the lovely architecture of central Budapest, all brightly lit at night. Our hotel is right on the Danube river (the namesake of the famous "Beautiful Blue Danube" orchestral piece.) and directly across from the incredible parliament building; our room has a view across the river. Now it is time to crash and get caught up on our missed night of sleep!

A friendly greeting from the TV at Art Otel. :)

The view from our window of the parliament building across the Danube.