Thanksgiving in Bekescsaba

This Thanksgiving/Christmas season has giving me a new perspective on everything that I am grateful for. I am extremely grateful for my team and this wonderful opportunity I have had to play this sport I love with some incredible people. 

This Thanksgiving, I was able to participate in a Thanksgiving dinner with some great teammates and friends. I didn't really have enough time to make them a real Thanksgiving dinner with the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, so I made them mac and cheese. Our assistant coach, Zsoka brought some kolbasz which made for a great turkey replacement. She and her boyfriend make some really good kolbasz.

But this dinner wouldn't have been possible without some pumpkin pie. (Huge thanks to my mom for making it all possible. She even sent me some runts and candy corn from the famous "blessing mix")

Part of our season includes a five month tournament called the European Challenge Cup. Each month is one round of the tournament. The round consists of two matches. One match at the home of the teams. Whoever wins both matches moves on to the next round. If there is a tie, then a golden set is played to decide which team will advance.

Our first round of the tournament was against a team in Godolla, Hungary. Before the matches began, we had a huge press conference in the city hall. The press conference was broadcast all over Hungary. I think. We didn't have to say anything fortunately. We just sat against the wall and watched the important people speak in words I couldn't understand. 

We won the first match at our place in four sets. The second match was really rough. We dropped the first two sets to Godolla and then somehow we managed to pull out three won sets so that we will advance in the tournament. The next round will be played in January. The opposing team will either be from Serbia or Germany.

During our three free days, Lana, the setter was kind enough to take me to Novi Sad, Serbia. It was really incredible. In the picture below is Lana, me, and Doca (not really sure how to spell her name). We spent a lot of great time together that weekend.

This church is my favorite part of the city I think. It is beautiful!

This is a famous clock, the first of its kind. The hour hand is longer than the minute hand. They made it that way so that sheepherders could see the hour since it is more important. 

This is at the medieval fortress just across the river from Novi Sad. 

Kolbászfesztivál

This happened in October. It is the best thing that ever happened to Bekescsaba. Everyone from all over Europe comes to this tiny little city to eat sausage and get drunk. Here are some pictures from the festivities. We went on the first day of the festival so there weren't quite so many people. Thank heavens. 

Everyone buys their sausage and beer and then sits down inside of one of the tents. You had the option of listening to music in one or watching some Hungarian dancers performing in the other tent.

This was my favorite sausage stand. They had sausage made in different shapes. Well mostly just different pig shapes.

These creepy scarecrows were all over the place. I'm sure that many drunk people mistook them for people at times.

These delicious things are called kurtoskalacs. They are mainly a Christmas treat, but they also had them here at the festival.

New food experiences:

My favorite soup is this pumpkin soup. It is kind of sweet so they probably put lots of sour cream in it. Those dark things on top are pumpkin seeds. They don't have as much of a love for pumpkin out here so I am grateful that my mom sent me some pumpkin mixes so that I can still taste the holidays here.

Spenotfozelek bundas kenyerrel translated as spinach stew and furry bread. I think this was one of the most interesting things I tasted. The furry bread was I think buttered and fried toast. Not sure why it was called furry.

kolozsvari rakott kaposzta. This is a cabbage casserole with rice and kolbasz, topped with sour cream of course. It was very filling and I could barely eat half of it.

Pozsonyi kocka- this was real good. Its a sweet poppyseed casserole with noodles and cream cheese type stuff. 

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.