Fulbright Concert, Santa, and more Christmas Markets
We had a very full Saturday! Zoey had gymnastics practice from 7:30-9, and then we went to a Fulbright concert at 11 at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music. We first had a short tour of the performance spaces, which includes a lovely auditorium with a huge organ. The students are allowed to sit or stand in the upper balcony for free for a learning experience. The hallways and atriums of the building are just as lovely as the performance areas, and we even found a few Christmas trees!
We next went into a smaller performance space that was packed with an audience from the Fulbright foundation and other musicians. The concert was a special concert put on by the Fulbrighter musicians. This semester there were five musicians (two faculty and three students): three pianists, one violinist, and one trombonist. The concert was supposed to be an hour, but ended up lasting almost two! This was the first musical concert the kids had been to, and Willow had a nice nap through some of it. First, student pianist Anthony Lee played three classical pieces, then student pianist Nicholas Emmanuel played two contemporary pieces. Honestly, I really liked the classical pieces, but the contemporary pieces were a little dichotomous for me. Then faculty Ketty Nez played a contemporary piano duet with Nicholas (again, a little too dichotomous) and premiered a piece she wrote while here in Hungary. She then performed a series of movements she wrote that were inspired by the Balkan traditional music with faculty violinist Daniel Sender. Daniel then performed a series of pieces he wrote inspired by Hungarian folk songs (these were my favorites of the concert). Finally, student trombonist Jason Wolfe and his trombone quartet played two pieces. I had to record some of this for my sister since her main instrument is trombone! Overall, the concert was excellent and I am so impressed by the talent and creativity of the artists we have this year.
After a stop at home, we went to find the 72M bus that Santa rides around on! We went to the bus 72 stop closest to our house, but realized after three busses passed that the M bus (the one with Santa) only comes once every two hours! Luckily, that was only about 35 minutes away, so we took a walk along the bus route to catch the bus farther up the route. We walked up four stops before waiting for the bus, and it definitely was starting to get a little chilly! The bus came, and it was all decked out in lights. Santa was in the back of the bus, and was waiting for kids. There was only one kid in front of us, and it was pretty tight there in the back of the bus! The kids thought it was so cool meeting Santa in the bus, and they were given a handful of szaloncukor each which is awesome. However, the Santa was obviously fake and Ronin even said “that isn’t the really real Santa cause I saw him pull his beard down to scratch his chin!” Oh well, at least they had fun. The Santa spoke English and had them sing some Christmas songs for him. Little did he know the kids only know three Christmas songs, and those are sung incredibly off key with several incorrect lyrics. They love to sing, but definitely don’t have the greatest innate musical ability!
Since it was already getting dark, we decided to take the bus back to the Christmas markets so we could take a walk through them at night. It is certainly a different feeling walking with all the Christmas lights when you can really see their splendor in the dark as opposed to during the day. Our first stop was the market in front of Szent István Bazilika. We walked in the side entrance and after waiting in a long line finally made it into the gated area of the market. You have to show your Covid card to get in, which is silly because you are not made to wear a mask when in the market and while waiting to get in people are standing like sardines to push to the front of the line. That is one thing I have learned being over in Europe—it is not unusual for lines to be completely optional! The tree was lit up and there were kids ice skating around the tree. There was a light display on the basilica that rotated pictures, and then there was a five minute light show! It was of the nutcracker, and we had a great spot to see the show right beside the big tree and the skating rink with no one in front of us. The kids absolutely loved it.
We next walked through the Fashion Street on our way to the other market in Vörösmarty tér. The Fashion Street was crammed with people and had all the decorations lit up, which made it really fancy. The buildings also had different colored lights on them, which changed colors every so often. Ronin’s favorite was the light-up DeLorean, Willow liked the present, and Zoey liked the shoe.
Willow absolutely loved the lights, as can be seen from her face here. The Vörösmarty tér market was just as full as the one at the basilica, and again the line was a big smush of people. I liked the hanging balls from the trees and the candy cane projection on the Café Gerbeaud. Again, there was a light show, and we were just in time for it. This one was more colorful than the Nutcracker one at the basilica, but it was shorter. The kids all agreed they liked the Nutcracker show the best. But then wanted to stay and watch this show again!
