Dori and Renato

Through Enrique, I met Dori and Renato from Brazil. Enrique had meet Dori on the street a few days ago, and we all have since spent time together here in Budapest. Enrique left Budapest yesterday and Dori and Renato leave today, and since I have not blogged about our time together, looks like I have a little catching up to do. Wednesday night when I returned to the hotel, I ran into Enrique who was beautifying himself for a night on the town. After learning that I had no plans, he invited me to join him and his new found friends from Brasil. At their pre-established destination point, a restaurant that turned out to be Italian food (which no one really wanted since we were not in Italy afterall), we opted to try the restaurant Ruben. Ruben was the restaurant I had eaten at the previous night with Mark, the English guy I had met at my hotel. We got to Ruben right at eleven in the evening just as they closed the kitchen. Our tardiness resulted from Dori and Renato being late to the first place and me getting us lost on the way to Restaurant Ruben. As an aside, to anyone planning a trip to Budapest, this restaurant is not to be missed. The food, a nice mix of Hungarian food, reinvented and reworked for a world audience, sits in an alley street just behind the Astoria Hotel on Magyar utca 12-14. So far, I think I have taken three or four groups there - all of whom have loved the food and experience.

Renato knew of a restaurant on Vaci utca, the most touristy of streets, that served food until about 2 am. We made our way there, Renato and I talking in English and Enrique and Dori conversing in Portuguese (the native tongue of Brasil, the Portuguese spelling). It was pretty obvious to me that Dori liked Enrique and that I was to spend time with Renato, a development that suited me perfectly. Renato, a classically handsome Brazillian sterotype of a man, charmed me from the start. At dinner, we communicated mostly in English, with brief interludes of the three of them speaking Portuguese full throttle - so fast, it was beyond any ability of me to understand even a few words even with a basic understanding of Spanish, an almost entirely different language. Both Renato and Dori commented a number of times that I could not be American. After inquiring why, they shared what must be most people's stereotypical understanding of our culture. I was unique to them because I was taking a lot of time to travel (outside of the US), I had a sense of humor and was not uptight (that part I enjoyed tremedously), and that I was extremely passionate when communicating about my thoughts, beliefs, and ideas. My emotions, both pleased and a little sad about how Americans are perceived by others, traveled high and low duing our dinner. Overall, the diner with the three of them pleased me deeply. I find myself much more at ease with people from other coutries. I always have done so and tonight made me feel somewhat normal instead of foreign like I do in my own country. Toward the end of dinner, both Renato and Dori invited me to Brazil for Carnival in March - an invitation I plan to take.

Even without dessert, our engergy still soared, so we walked the Vaci utca with other tourists and endured both the vocal and physical pulls of men and women trying to attract us to the loud and brightly lighted strip shows. The irony, or futility of this situation, lost on the local Hungarians, gave me a grin from ear to ear. We made our way to a bar, for people like us, and checked it out together. I had ventured in alone the evening prior, so I really wanted to get their impression of the place. The system for drinks in these types of bars is an antiquated one. Upon entry, we were issued a slip of paper. Each time we took a drink from the bar, the barman would write the amount on the paper. Payment is taken upon departure after the doorman reviews the amounts on the ticket. Lost ticket pays maximum amount (about 6 - 12 dollars, depending upon which bar). Their system basically ensures they get at least a one-drink minium from each patron.

Bars, for peope like us, I learned are mostly in basements (really, in 2009?), and are dark, brick walled, smoke-filled holes in the ground the most part. I suppose I should be more culturally sensitive here, but my reaction is my perception. Some are decorated better than others, but remain basements nonetheless. This one seemed almost up to western stardards in the intial part of the bar, and it is not until one wanders around the bar fully that the experience turns decidedly Hungarian. I think culturally, people like me in Hungary, are living in a world stuck somewhere in like 70s America. As a result, the openness, though growing, is no where near where we are in the United States, and the United States is no where near other parts of the enlightened world. I guess everything is relative. Initially, I noticed people walking into another part of the bar and exiting all the time. Curious, I worked up my nerve to investigate. When I crossed the threshold of the dark doorway, I entered a space so shocking that I cannot blog about it (my mom is reading this). Suffice it to say that it was a place to see, I only wish I had had a pair of night-goggles. I found my way quickly back to the safety (teasing here) of the main bar and spent the rest of the time in a place in which I was much more familiar and comfortable. So much for being the dare-devil I pretend to be. Well, on this night (the next) I really wanted to see the reaction of Dori, Renato, and Enrique. I had to know if I was uptight, or if the place seemed normal to them. I grabbed Renato and took him into the darkness. His eyes widened as much as mine had the night prior and we held each other's arms as young girls sometimes do in haunted houses as we investigated the dark labyrinth. After a ten minutes, Renato too had had enough and we exited back to find Enrique and Dori.

Around 3 am, settled our plans together for the next day (Wednesday) and made our goodbyes. I decided against my better judgement and agreed to take the topless tourist bus the next day with the group. Although I had already seen most of the places and spaces something told me that it would prove new again with this group. Turned out, I was right. More later.