Last night’s meal was lovely. We went to the Bagolyvár Restaurant. it is right next to Gundels and owned by the same people.
The restaurant is staffed totally with women, manager, cooks, waitresses etc. It is apparently a long standing tradition. The only man on the staff was the cimbalon player. He seemed to quite enjoy being surrounded by women. The food was excellent, perhaps not as posh as we will get at Gundel tomorrow but very tasty.
Afterwards when I showed an interest in his music the cimbalon player offered to teach me a few basics. He said I had real aptitude.
Today being John’s birthday (he’s now as old as Maria) we were going to go to Gerbeaus’ for breakfast. By the time we got up and left the hotel it turned into brunch. It was very nice for all that.
Then we had a short walk (or as Maria puts it ‘we walked and we walked and we walked..’) to a shop called Eclesiastika. John has lost his St Christopher and Maria is trying to replace it for him. In the event they didn’t have anything suitable, but Maria did spot a nice bit of old Zsolnay porcelain, which she collects, so she bought that.
We then had to hurry ‘cos we were due to see a cousin of Maria’s, Ili, at 2.00.
I’ve met Ili lots of times and always enjoy seeing her and I know Maria is very fond of her. We spent a nice hour or so chatting.
The only problem is, she lives in a convent that is rather out of the way. We always take a cab there but then walk back. By the time we got back to our hotel we were all shattered. Even John said one of the problems with this hotel is it’s just a little further from the tram than he would like.
We had tickets for the opera this evening so we had to smarten ourselves up a bit and head out. Honestly it’s non stop.
This was my first visit to the opera (I think Maria’s too). We went to see Fidelio by Beethoven. It was a very modern production, the music and the singing were beautiful but I found the story a bit confusing (the singing was in German and the surtitles in Hungarian), so I did have to ask Maria what was going on rather frequently. Half the time I’m not sure she knew either, I think she just made something up, it all seemed rather implausible.
We sat in a box, and the opera house was truly amazing. Gold leaf and chandeliers everywhere. I’m glad we dressed up.
We grabbed a bite at a rather nice wine bar and didn’t get back ’til late. We’re supposed to be up early tomorrow. I’m sure we will be.