Fulbright Trip to Gödöllő
For our last Fulbright monthly excursion, we got on the bus to drive an hour to Gödöllő, a small town east of Budapest. There is an artist colony, university, and palace, all of which we saw with our Fulbright friends.
We first went to the Gödöllő Applied Arts House, which teaches and provides a workspace for applied arts like weaving, pottery, and textile creations. There was a display of prints that were created by artists, which reminds me of the show Project Runway when the contestants have to create their own textile print. Each of the displays was inspired by a famous painting, and I liked the grouping that looked like impressionistic flowers.
We then went into the weavers room where there were several looms set up. The kids liked all the different colors of thread, and wanted to learn how to make all the pretty rugs. In high school my sister wove me a blanket, and I still have it and love that blanket. I realized how difficult it actually is!
We then went to the Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences and listened to a very long talk about the history of the university. We sat at a long table in a conference room and I was really nervous about the kids behaving, but they did an awesome job. The best part was the university gave us a welcome bag with some wine, and were so thoughtful and gave the kids little bags of chocolate and candy. There was this big sculpture in the front atrium of the building, which was pretty cool. It looks like meteors hitting the earth.
After lunch at the university we went to the Gödöllő palace, which is where Queen Elizabeth (Sisi) spent most of her time when she was in Hungary. The kids loved that there was some snow on the ground and spent some time ‘ice skating’.
The inside of the palace was beautiful, as usual. I was glad we got to take pictures, because in many of the palaces we have been to they didn’t let us take pictures inside. They had a giant Christmas tree inside the ballroom, and the kids liked the bear rug (complete with head attached). There was some beautiful furniture in the palace, many of which was original. I especially liked the pink chairs and the green stove. The walls in each area were different colors, ranging from grey to red to baby blue to a deep purple. I have learned a lot about Sisi over the last few months, and even read a few books about her.
We walked down to the central square, which had a small market. The market wasn’t yet all the way set up, which is surprising because the Budapest markets have been up for a few weeks already! They did have a carousel, which we let the kids ride (once—it was expensive!).
There was a Christmas shop inside a large building that had different areas set up. It reminded me of the Christmas store in Gatlinburg. I wish there were some more traditional Hungarian things to buy, but it was pretty generic Christmas stuff. The different areas were pretty cute, and the kids really liked the Christmas village that even had a ski lift, carousel, and skaters.
After walking around the market we went to a really yummy chocolate store to get some szaloncukor. We picked a few to try, then bought a bag of hazelnut and peanut butter szaloncukor. I realized there is a very big difference buying generic szaloncukor from the grocery store bins and buying high quality ones from a chocolate store. I couldn’t even eat the ones from the grocery because they were so gross, but these were amazing!
As a surprise holiday treat, we had a final stop where a family taught us how to decorate traditional Hungarian gingerbread cookies. This is an art, and you an buy decorated gingerbread at any holiday market. There was even a kids table for the kids, and everyone had an awesome time. There was a buffet of snacks, but all Willow found that she would eat was carrots and bread. Oh well. The was also a sommelier who gave us several different kinds of wine, ending with an expensive numbered Tokaji Aszú wine. This wine is very sweet, and thicker than a typical wine. We ended up buying a bottle—number 33/200. The kids didn’t get any wine, but he had some white grape juice in wine glasses, and the kids thought it was super cool they got to drink ‘wine’ too. The last picture is my attempt at decorating. Some are better than others, but I would definitely have a long way to go to be a professional! Especially after several glasses of wine and several shots of Palinka, I am lucky they ended up this good!
It was a very long but great day. I have enjoyed these monthly excursions and am so thankful the other Fulbrighters have been so loving and accepting with our kids. I can’t believe our time here is almost up, and it makes me wish I was a student again so I could stay for a whole year!
