Yesterday, on the actual Pentecost day, there was church and lunch, normal Sunday tradition for me. After lunch, though, we headed to the Budapest Zoo.
I have only 4 weekends left in Budapest. The other weekends will be spent at the camp or traveling. Anyway, since the countdown has begun, so has the list of things we haven't seen but NEED to visit before leaving. The Zoo made the top of the list. Well, the zoo made the top of some peoples' lists and I just figured it sounded like fun. Honestly, though, a zoo is a zoo is a zoo, right? WRONG (again)!
I highly recommend the Budapest Zoo to any Budapest visitors. You could do the following if you wanted:
* reach out and pet a wolf
* stare into the eyes of a tiger, bear and/or leopard
* watch a leopard try to attack a baby (separated by merely 2 sheets of plexiglass)
* feed the hippos
* get slobbered on by camels
* steal a baby prairie dog
* see a Komodo Dragon
* check out the Raccoon exhibit
* wander through a horticultural zoo
* watch elephants dance
* pet a rhino on their way to the feeding pen
* see ducks mating
* have giraffes eat hay pellets out of your hand
* and so much more.
and that was all in the afternoon on Sunday.
Sunday evening turned out to be an American (and French) barbecue at the boys' flat. Taco flavored ground pork burgers and de-skinned hot dogs were the fare, complete with a real grill and ice tea. It was like being home :P only looking out at the sunset over the Buda Hills.
I hope you all had a BLESSED Pentecost and may you truly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit each and every day!
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There is a group of musicians who have a good relationship with my hosting organization here (the leader of the band is married to the leader of the organization). Because of this, we were all basically brought on board as the super international fan-base that any good band needs.
The band consists (on this day) of 4 Hungarian girls, 1 Ohio guy (Matt - ELCA YAGM), 1 Canadian guy (doing an independent study on Roma music here for a few months), and Gyüri, the leader. They perform Roma songs from many different countries, as well as some Hungarian folk music.
This particular performance was held on May 1st, Labor Day here in Hungary, which is a great celebration of all the workers and encourages people to take a day off and have fun - funny, because they provide a huge carnival in the park and SOMEONE has to work it, right? :P Anyway, this was in the political corner, an area we would have normally tried to avoid.
Even some of the crowd watching danced along and sang songs.
At one point, I looked around. The crowd was filled with an RGDTS dream - Roma AND Gadje (non-Roma). MLK Jr would be proud :)
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There are days when I am disappointed in the amount of folk culture I get because I'm here in the city. However, I am getting a fairly good dose of "sophisticated," city culture. Silvia and I went to the Opera to see the ballet of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs" in April. However, since we paid only 400ft (less than $2), we got to sit in the "ghetto" of the Opera House. There are no bad seats, really, because the place is magnificent... just less beautiful seats.
This is our view looking straight from our seats.
No red carpet stairs for us! :P
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