#JFF

Les combattants

Excellent movie: Les combattants

Namaste,

Cs.

Childhood Friends

Friends

Not too long ago my maternal grandfather reconnected with a childhood friend and they have picked up their friendship like before. Except now they both have wives, children, and grandchildren. I have also met this lovely couple and have grown quite fond of them. During the holidays we went to visit them with my grandparents. We have a lovely lunch and a walk around the city. We visited an old church, saw the banks of the Tisza river, and drank water from a natural water source. It was a lovely day. I love old people. They have nice stories.

What do you think of old people?

Namaste,
Cs.

Belgrade

Day Trip to Belgrade

In between the two holidays, my cousin had a handball match in Belgrade and we decided to make a little day trip out of it. I have never been to Belgrade even though I have been to Serbia more times than I can count. We drove down and got there at around 11 in the morning. The night before I was researching the public transportation connections to be able to get around the city. It was extremely difficult to do this because officially in Serbia, they use the cyrillic alphabet. As I was planning our route, evidently all of the stops were written in cyrillic. I kept on writing it down on a piece of paper, and bringing it over to my grandmother to have it firstly written down in latin letters, and secondly to translate it. This took a very long time, but in the end I managed. On this little trip one of my dreams came true. We went to the memorial where Tito was buried and the museum and exhibition surrounding it. After, we went up to the old fortress of the city and look out onto where the two rivers meet, the Duna, and the Sava.
After we went back to the sports arena where my cousin was playing. We watched the match and came home. They won against a team from Belgrade. There were teams from Slovenia, Bosnia, and other parts of Serbia.

One of the things that I strongly associate with Serbia culture is burek. While in Belgrade, it was my desire to have a real burek from Belgrade. My dream came true and it was one of the best ones that I have ever had. I ate it with fresh yogurt. It is the best combination.
All in all, this was a wonderful day! :)

I love my aunt and uncle! They are my stepparents in a way.

Me and Tito

Peti and Tito

Tito's signature

Tito's Wife's Grave

Tito's Grave

House of Flowers

Tito with Sartre

Kalamegdan

Where the Sava Runs into the Duna

What do you think?
Would you like to go to Belgrade? Have you already been?

Namaste,
Cs.

Christmas Day

Christmas Day at Marcsi and Toni's

Christmas lunch took place at my maternal grandparent's house. It was extremely rich! :)

How was your Christmas?
What special Christmas traditions are unique to your culture? I would love to hear.

Guten Appetit,
Cs.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve at my Aunt's

It is rare that I get to spent Christmas and Christmas Eve with my extended family since they live so far from us. At the same time, it is lovely to do so, and to get to know their traditions as well. In Hungarian families, dinner on the 24th usually consists of fish soup. So this year, on December 24th, there was a dinner party at my aunt Gabi's house with my uncle's extended family as well and we had....fish soup. This is a tradition that I really like but we do not usually do this with my immediate family. It was a lovely evening with a small gift exchange, some nice desserts including beigli (a Hungarian pastry with either poppy seeds or walnuts inside) and zserbo, and great company.

Here are some moments:

Hand Made Decorations by Gabi

Drying Oranges for Christmas Ornaments

Fish Soup 

Zserbo (my favourite Hungarian dessert)

Kis kifli

Beigli 

Honey (my Christmas gift) - Already gone...

Sleeping dogs

Namaste,

Cs.

Morning of Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Morning With Bori Mama

I know that this is coming a bit late, but I still wanted to share them with you all.

This is my paternal grandmother, or as I call her, Bori Mama. She does not put up a Christmas tree any more, only a couple of branches that are modestly decorated, which I got to decorate this year. Along with the branches, she has a little "Betlehem," as she calls it, set up. She also made kalacs. I think it was one of the best ones that I have ever tasted. They were delicious!

The best kalacs I have ever had!

Namaste,

Cs.

Friends

Friends Before Christmas at Kisuzem

With Toldi and Kino :P

Namaste,

Cs.