“To feel one’s attachment to a certain region, one’s love for a certain group of men, to know that there is always a spot where one’s heart will feel at peace – these are many certainties for a single human life. And yet this is not enough. But at certain moments everything yearns for that spiritual home. ‘Yes, we must go back there – there, indeed.”
Albert Camus
We first started coming to Budapest because the flights were cheap.
Now it feels like coming home.
Everything is familiar. We have our regular spot for breakfast and coffee where the same staff remember our order.
We can walk the city without directions.
As soon as we landed, a sense of relief washed over me. No amount of sleep deprivation can diminish the joy.
The cold hits just like the heat. Where heat suffocates, cold invigorates. Then you just shiver.
Home and bed. It is 2.00 am in Budapest. 5.00 am in Dubai. Even if my eye was not infected, I would have tired red eyes.
“I decided to stay in bed until noon. Maybe by then half the world would be dead and it would only be half as hard to take.”
Charles Bukowski
I wake up at 8.00 am and my eye is not good.
In reality, I woke up around 6.00 am and forced myself back into a strange, dream filled half sleep.
My eye is worse. I don’t think being awake for 24 hours and the air on a plane helped.
We head to Zërgë Coffeeshop for our usual breakfast.
They get it wrong, but it is so busy I can’t muster the energy to complain.
After breakfast, we walk across town to Mountex to find Shell a winter jacket. There is a nice Patagonia 3/4 coat in olive green. We decide to think about the purchase.
We head back across the Danube for Shell’s hair appointment.
She has a supermodel vibe when it comes to her hair. I don’t think there is a city in Europe or SE Asia we have visited where she has not had her hair styled.
Right next door to the salon is a library. 400 HUF later I am now a card carrying member of the Török utcai Könyvtár.
Library card in hand I head to the small English section. I don’t get past the letter B. Bukowski – Burgess – Burroughs. Incredible.
Factotum by Bukowski is the choice. I sit in a comfortable chair and read half the book in 90 minutes.
We decided the Patagonia jacket is a good choice. Back at Mountex, Shell also spots a black Patagonia lightweight puff jacket on sale.
It is 2.00 pm and I am starving. Oriental Soup House for Phò and a beer.
Walk home. Shell sleeps.
Dinner is at Kiskakukk Étterem.
Our regular wine bar, MyWine, is closed. It may be closed for winter, but as we walk past, it looks like permanent closure—murmurs of anxiety for a creature of habit.
We stop in at Drop Wine Bar. It has a cool feel and plenty of wines to taste. The proprietor has the charm of a dead horse but knows his stuff.
We try ten wines, the pours are a little small, and choose some wines to take with us to Gamlitz for Christmas.
We both know that we will drink these before we even get there.
The whites –
2023 Weingut Alzinger Grüner Veltliner Mühlpoint Smaragd (Wachau, Austria)
2021 Weingut Pichler-Krutzler Grüner Veltliner “Supperin” (Wachau, Austria)
2022 Weingut Gebrüder Nittnaus Tannenberg Furmint (Burgenland, Austria)
2022 Weingut Prager Riesling Achleiten (Wauchu, Austria)
2022 Bodegas Palacio de Fefiñanes Albarino de Fefiñanes (Rias Baixas)
2022 Weingut Emmerich Knoll Grüner Veltliner Ried Schütt Smaragd (Wachau, Austria)
The Reds –
2016 Kovacs Nimród NJK (Eger, Hungary)
2020 Sauska Siklós Villány Cabernet Franc (Tokaj, Hungary)
2018 Weingut Umathum Blaufränkisch Kirschgarten (Burgenland, Austria)
2021 Weingut Nittnaus Jungenberg Blaufränkisch (Burgenland, Austria)
Wines for Christmas –
The walk to Kiskakukk Étterem is short. The temperature is down to zero but there is a chill wind. It is nice to be out.
We have been to Kiskakukk Étterem before. The goose here is special.
For starters, the goose foie gras with grilled apple rings and Tokaji sauce. One for each of us, there was some issues of sharing the last time we were here.
For mains, crispy goose leg with onion mashed potatoes and stewed cabbage for Shell. I order the duck breast fillet with currant sauce and gratin potatoes.
Desert is another return to favourites. Poppy seed cake with vanilla sauce and chocolate soufflé with orange sauce and vanilla ice cream.
We stop in at Drop Wine Bar to pick up our wines. It seems a bit much to carry the case the 2 km home so we order a taxi.
Home. Bed.
A perfect first day.
“And I can’t be running back and fourth forever between grief and high delight.”
J.D. Salinger
Tonight’s wine –
2020 Gróf Buttler Pinot Noir (Eger, Hungary)
Easy drinking and a good match to the liver, duck and goose.