September 12, 2010: At the Wine Festival: After Andi arrived, we ascended the hill to Buda Castle. The gateman collected 2,300 forints from each of us and in exchange he gave us a wine glass and a pouch to put the wine glass in. The pouch was attached to a strap that we could put around our necks so that we could put the glass in the pouch when we were walking from one wine tasting venue to the next and still use our hands for eating or whatever. (Great idea for Joanie and Russell!) The wine festival was in full swing. People were all over the place tasting wines and all the Hungarian foods for sale. There were over 200 yineyards represented just from Hungary and each vineyard had a number of white, rose, and red wines to sell. Andi and I each bought 600 forints worth of wine tasting tickets. These tickets were redeemed at each wine booth for a taste of their wine (whichever type we wanted). Some of the wines required more tickets than others. I tried two whites and two reds. The Syrah I tasted was good, but no contest to the Irish Vineyard’s Petit Sirah.
Figure 1 food stand at wine festival
Figure 2 Hungarian "Pizza " preparation (men may notice more than the pizza!)
Figure 3 One of many wine booths
Figure 4 food and wine booths area at wine festival
Figure 5 cheers from the wine festival
Andi and I listened to a number of musical shows, the first being a gypsy band from Transylvania. The orchestra consisted of a cimbalom, clarinet, six violins, a viola, and two bass viols. The cimbalom players I heard today were extraordinary. I don’t see how their mallets can hit the strings so quickly as they did in these orchestras. Following are several pictures and video clips of what we heard in the gypsy orchestra and in other ensembles.(Sorry that the sound quality is not as good as what I actually heard.) The last video clip below is of one of the cimbalom players. Wouldn’t you know that just as I finished filming him, he played the cimbalom even faster!
In the middle of the shows, they announced the winners of the wines tasted at the show. The winners came on stage to collect their certificates.
Figure 6 presentation of certificates to wine winners
While watching the shows, I saw a man with the Hungarian national dog. Here’s a picture of this beautiful animal. The man tried to get the dog to look at me, but the dog didn’t understand.
Figure 7 Hungarian national dog
Eventually we decided to get something to eat. There were all sorts of Hungarian delicacies I wanted to try, and Andi suggested the kilbasz which we bought with a slice of bread and a plate of Dijon type mustard, but a bit sweeter. Here are some pictures of the stalls preparing the foods.
Figure 8 potatoes being prepared at wine festival
Andi and I stayed to see and hear the Transylvanian folk dancing. The dancers solicited dancers from the audience to participate. It didn’t take much convincing for Andi to join them. It looked like great fun and easy, too. The dancers created a huge circle and locked arms dancing sideways each way, towards the center of the circle and back, etc. As the sun set, I got a good look at the Pest city lights from Buda Castle and a close up of Buda Castle. Another magical evening in Budapest.
Figure 9 Pest as seen from Buda Castle
Figure 10 Buda Castle at dusk
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