This One Time In Budapest - A Double Espresso and a Double Back-flip
This One Time In Budapest - A Double Espresso and a Double Back-flip
Sziasztok!
I've been living in Eastern Europe for years, in many different countries, and I was reminded recently of this short story that happened to me in Budapest a few years ago, a few months after I first moved to Hungary.
A random day a while back a friend of mine and I went for a walk wanting coffee. We went walking down Andrassy Utca from Oktogon (one of the the main central tram stops in the center).
We turned down the recently refurbished cobblestone road Hajos Utca (pronounced Hahyosh Ootsa) next to the Hungarian State Opera. (map)
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Walked two blocks in, next to the 'Rustic Cafe'.
We walked into a nondescript cafe (I can't remember the name) and upon entering noticed a large acrobatic ring in the center of the cafe.
After we ordered our coffees and got comfortable the barista heaved herself up on the acrobatic ring and began...well...acrobat ringing!
It was awesome.
For about 30 minutes she was spinning around.
And doing her thing.
I asked after a while if she'd let me on it, thinking that there's no way she'd say yes because I could easily hurt myself.
She says..
"Nincs problem!"
I respond
"Szuper!"
(no problem!)
(super!)
So I heaved myself up on the ring and...swung like an amateur for 5 minutes quickly realizing I didn't quite have the same muscle stabilizers that she did. I mostly just wanted to see if she'd say yes anyway. Mission accomplished.
After I got off, I chatted with her a bit in broken English. Turns out that acrobatics is her profession, but doesn't pay all too well, so her husband opened the cafe for her, so now she can combine her two loves!
In comes the culture shock moment.
After I left the cafe, I realized that I easily could have fallen, easily could have sprained or broken an arm or something, the owner knew that, I knew that. Despite this, she let me up without hesitation. This is what I LOVE about the East. No litigation culture here. If you hurt yourself, you're the idiot that hurt yourself. This was one of my first (of many) re-calibrations of what life is like out of the 'nanny' state and 'victim' culture of the West.
Takeaway
Who would have thought going into some random nondescript cafe in the middle of Budapest would get me a tasty americano, an acrobatic show, and give me pause to consider the some things that we have forgotten in the West...like, how to look after yourself! Long live Eastern Europe!
Sziasztok!
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Budapest one of the most beautiful cities in Europe I have visited
it's a gem! A definite gem. Now is the best time to go too. Before it becomes like Barcelona or worse, Venice. Tourists haven't taken over the city yet, so it's in the perfect 'zone' right now.
Found you on travel digest. Great story! Spent one day there at the end of a river cruise, would love to go back. But will not do acrobatics! Following.
Thanks Greg :) It's definitely worth a trip on its own. Come in the Summer/Fall and go out of Budapest to the wine regions...Canada has something like I think 3 or 4 wine regions (Okanagan & Niagara). Hungary has something like 23! So you can go for many wine tours and they're not stingy...Hungary isn't the West, so it's not all about 'rules' and perfect proportions; free-pouring wine tours in Etyek and Tokaj I'd recommend :)
Cheers and thanks for the tip on where you found me. Didn't even know that existed until now!
Cheers.
We live beside one wine region, Prince Edward County, and you are right portions are small and prices are high! The map and travel digest are great. I did some testing in early days for the map, now I spend the first part of my day going through the digest posts. Normally they send you a notification that you've been selected for the digest but steem posting problems the past week or so have meant a lot of the notifications haven't gone through. Thanks for the info.