Budapest

Our first away game in the Hungarian league was to Godollo, near Budapest. I heard rumors that for the Hungarian Cup games, we would get a really nice bus. I was really excited to have my own row in one of the nice charter buses we always get for road trips at UVU. So when I walked into the parking lot and saw this nice white van I was confused. Yes, this is the "bus" they were talking about. I got my own seat. That's about it. The three and a half hour drive was not quite as comfortable as I hoped. 

Every trip to the Budapest includes a stop at the Fitnesz Park which also happens to be a gas station. It has some good forms of exercise if by exercising you like bouncing and spinning in circles. The most popular machine is the "treadmill" that you see the little boy using below. If the user is really talented, then some spinning and bouncing can also be incorporated into the experience.

After a cramped ride through the cornfields of Hungary, we arrived in Godollo. This is their great gym which looks a bit more like a greenhouse. Maybe that's their secret tactic because we lost. It was a miserable game and we definitely did not play our best.

We arrived in Godollo with one hour to rest before our game. This is quite a big difference from my experience at UVU. We would arrive the night before so we wouldn't have cramped legs during the game. Naturally, during this one hour, we found a cafe and partook of some delicious gelato.

On our day off, Lana and I went to the Csaba Center to shop off some of the depressed feelings of the Godollo match. They were having a fashion show in the middle of the mall.

Our next away game was against MTK in Budapest. We got some new training suits for this trip. We were all pretty excited. Well, I think I was a little more excited than the rest of them because these training suits actually fit in some way.

Here's some photos of the drive through Budapest. It is a beautiful city and photos don't really do them justice. This river is the Danube and I got a really good view of it sitting on the right side of the "bus."

Pretty sure that this (below) is the tallest mountain in Hungary. Or at least it is the tallest one I have seen so far. And the crazy thing is that it has houses all the way up until the top. 

Here is the MTK arena. I really couldn't believe this one. It looked more like an igloo. Or rather two igloos. Don't worry. There is only one bathroom in the arena, the size of a penguin with no room in the hallway for any waiting space. There was always a mile long invisible line to the bathroom so when you would think that it was empty, someone else would sneak on in

After our win against MTK, the junior team (yeah the junior team had to also fit on the "bus" with us) played their game. So Lana, Ivana, and I went to check out the mall in Budapest. It was really nice to see some civilization. And some American stores. I even found a frozen yogurt shop which reminded me of Provo. Lana and Ivana weren't too excited about it. They were busy trying to find a cafe.

Food at the FEK

Turos csusza (Cottage cheese) 

Tasted like noodles with sour cream on top. I wasn't too enamored by this dish and my first instinct was to add sour cream, but it was already smothered in sour cream so I added some to the red stuff (Eros pista) and it tasted alright.

Here is their version of Tomato Basil soup. It tasted a lot like Spaghetti O's with their alphabet noodles. I half expected to find letters with accents stuck on top.

A Hungarian traditional: Toltott kaposzta. I think I ate about two tablespoons of this one. Even with a considerable amount of sour cream and eros pista, I couldn't eat much. It tasted too much like feet.

Makos Metelt- The Hungarians love using poppy seed. I was able to pack this meal for my post MTK meal. My teammate, Andy, informed me that when they serve this dish at the elementary school cafeteria, they always supply the kids with an apple to clean out the poppy seeds from their teeth.

Lana found frozen gomboc that we made from home. Some might say we are a little too attached to this delightful dessert, but I think it is a healthy relationship where all members involved have been benefited. 

My first experience with a pomelo. I could have sworn it had a slight taste of fish, but it might have just been the smell of the China label rubbing off onto the fruit. After a couple bites, I couldn't taste the fish.

More from Bekescsaba

That little blue dot- that's where I have been living for the past two months. I am really loving this new adventure. 

This is the Svent Istvan University. I live in the hostel just next to it with all the students. I went and explored the campus. It took me about ten minutes total. Definitely the smallest campus I have been on yet. Most of the girls on the team go to school here during the day (while the rest of us practice) and then we all practice together at night.

The days here don't change much. Ivana and I start off each day after practice riding our bikes to "center." I decided to name my bike Fanni because about half of the girls on the team are named Fanni or have a sister named Fanni.  Sometimes Fanni has a really hard time. Actually always. The hand brakes are broken and sometimes the gears don't work too well. But Fanni hasn't failed me yet. 

I got caught pretty bad in a rainstorm. Right in the middle of my ten minute bike ride home, the clouds started pouring buckets of water down. I am grateful that my dear Fanni has made it through the storms. You can't really see it, but I am making a puddle right there in the middle of my room. It took about two days for all my stuff to dry. And by some miracle, my Hungarian phone made it through the ordeal (my iphone was heavily guarded from the rain)

Most days we spend quite a bit of time relaxing at the cafe (Cafe One). Fortunately it also has wifi and delicious juices so I don't have to drink coffee. On this particular day, it was Cafe One's third birthday so they gave us free cake. These cakes have murdered my nutrition plan.

We had our first match of the Hungarian Championship on October 4. We just smothered them. I served almost twenty-five serves in that match. To celebrate, Lana, Ivana, and I went to Cafe One: Ivana with her martini and me with my hot chocolate. 

And of course we had to celebrate with some cake!

-While the people next to us celebrated with some big container of apple juice. They probably would have invited us to join them, but didn't speak any English.

Oh and here's the ball that we play with. (The Gala ball) The other one you should recognize and there's a handball there two.

Whenever I tell people I am American, they always ask me to make them pancakes. On a nice Sunday afternoon, I made them for Ivana. The only thing missing was the maple syrup. I spent a couple days looking in every store for maple flavoring. I ended up making vanilla flavored syrup instead and it worked just fine. They won't ever know the difference. Lana got jealous of our pancake picture on Facebook so I told her I would make them for her at our next girls night.

So we had a girls night three days later complete with death by mayo grilled cheese sandwiches, coffee (or cockta for those of us that don't drink coffee) and pancakes.

It was a marvelous night with delicious food and splendid company.

My days at the FEK still continue. Here's the menu for one of the weeks. The words are beginning to look familiar, although the week's menu has not once repeated itself. I am thoroughly impressed with their creativity.

Now that school has started, there's always kids hanging out in front of the restaurant smoking their hearts out. 

Here's some of my favorite foods that they have served recently.

My go-to meal is meatloaf. They cook a mean meatloaf and when all the other dishes are fried or breaded or doused in oil, I default to this meatball meatloaf. This particular meatloaf is sitting in pea pottage. Sometimes they throw an egg in the middle

Or they will put egg in their potato soup.

Or tasty sausage in the soup

Or cauliflower and corn puffs.

Or they fry the cauliflower. Hungarians can make some killer fried cauliflower with tartar sauce. Served, of course, with fries.

Or sausages with fries. But this is a Serbian dish called Cevap

I can't forget about my favorite fruit soup. This one is forest fruit soup with currants and blackberries.

This is lentil stew. Every time I see lentils, I order it rarely with a moment of hesitation. It reminds me of home. They make it with a little more sour cream though.

On Saturdays they have these nice rolls. I first tried them plain and it tasted like a mouth full of sour bread. Don't worry, it tastes delightful with a little sour cream smothered on top. The policy here is that if some food doesn't taste good, smother it with sour cream till it tastes good.

Every Thursday they have their dessert dish as their fourth meal. I always order it, even if lentils is the third meal. Above is plum ravioli and below is their version of apple pie with a meringue on the top. I am fairly certain they will enjoy some god old dog food pie.

I had the unfortunate occurrence of happening upon these watermelon haribo snacks. Because of my undying affection for watermelon candies in America, I was surprised to find out that these taste a lot like laundry detergent. Don't be fooled by the sugar coating.

Plum Gombotz! Lana's Mom made these for us.

Some Poppyseed pastry. I'm pretty sure I would have failed a drug test after this delicacy.

More cake of course!!!!

And I learned that Pottyos (the Hungarian famous treat) comes in multiple flavors. This is the peanut flavor, or that's what I guessed after examining the peanut picture on the package.