Yesterday, on THE Fourth of July, I embarked on a great Swedish tradition: trip to IKEA.
While the signs were as unfamiliar and perplexing as the grocery store, rest assured that the cold, organized comfort of every IKEA still translates. In the food court, I counted about 80 percent of shoppers eating Swedish meatballs and some kind of Swedish cake. And of course, to Hungarianize it, almost everyone also had a plate of fries. And wine, beer, and tea. Any country that openly encourages drinking wine and beer before 3pm in a superstore that smells like wood, ruler tape, and minimal chic is a country for me.
The first pictures in today’s slideshow are some of the architecture on the way to Ikea—
Most from my district (I).
In the second part of the slideshow, you’ll see shots of A Magyarok Nagy Asztala, which means “The Great Table of the Hungarians”, a festival I stumbled upon in the early afternoon.
This morning, as I walked around Buda Castle to plot out my running path, I ran into about a zillion tourists all flocking toward some food, wine, and palinka festival! It was kind of a renaissance festival but with cuter costumes, faster whips, and better food and drinks. And only a few people who weren’t actually working there were dressed in costume so hallelujah.
Anyway, I met my friends there and we walked around, waited out a thunderstorm in the Országos Széchenyi Könyvtár (the national library), and had several shots of pálinka. I think we had peach, cherry, and my favorite, pear. It burned a little going down, though there couldn’t have been a more perfect accompaniment to the setting sun burning away the storm clouds above the hills.
[splashcast c XNES9140SC]
