Budapest Christmas Market

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. That was me sharing the Christmas spirit and spreading that Christmas joy to all of you. I mean after all these entries aren’t the same if I at least don’t try to annoy you guys. Anyhow I know you all keep wondering where I disappear into and I'm going to reveal that secret today; I keep disappearing into this place called the library. *Gasps*, yes I know that was totally climactic. And yes it's that time of the year again, and I know for most of you that phrase has a totally different meaning but the truth is, for us medical students, it only means one thing: the examination period; one of the most dreadful periods of the year, where we practically turn into nocturnal zombies, high on caffeine and red bull and we all suddenly start to believe in miracles. But that’s not what this entry is about. Don’t worry I'm not going to write a whole piece on how hard exams are or rant anymore, although that would be a great idea. But no, this piece is all about spreading joy and sharing that Christmas spirit.

Let’s go back to the phrase “it's that time of the year again” and try to give it a new definition, one that is not given by an exhausted med student. This phrase, which should win an award for being one of the most over used and mainstream phrases of all time, refers to the time of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. We millennial people spend the whole year looking forward to Christmas and new Years and when the time comes we complain by saying oh wow this year went by so quickly, where did all the time go? I'm sorry for this critical paragraph; let’s bring back the happy vibe.

Christmas in Europe is short of magical, it's everything you expect it to be and more and honestly Budapest is no exception. Budapest which I can dare to say is one of the most beautiful cities during this period. Imagine this scenario, taking a stroll down the Christmas market, drowning in all the lights and decorations, hearing the sound of people laughing and chattering; the world truly stops for a second. You feel warm inside even though you’re freezing and might be wearing 3 different layers all together (if not more). Sipping hot wine and watching the precipitation of your breathe as you speak. Let me give you another scenario in the next paragraph.

Nothing short of breath taking, the city is sprinkled with joy and is drowning in lights; of course not to forget the bone breaking cold that seeps through the smallest holes of your clothing sending you chills down your spine. As you can see I'm not a really big fan of the cold, I'm not Elsa, the cold has always bothered me. Again please let’s move on from my Frozen reference, oddly enough I've never even watched Frozen. The queen of going off topic strikes again; it's just that I have so many ideas in my head and I constantly wanna share them with you guys but okay I promise to stay on topic. Yes so Christmas times hold a special place in everyone’s heart. Pretty much every single person let them be young or old looks forward to the holiday season. I'm no different and even though I don’t technically celebrate Christmas itself, I was looking forward to see how Christmas in Europe is. Given this is my first year celebrating Christmas in Budapest, I decided to go for the whole Christmas experience and try everything out, it turned out pretty rewarding and even more fun than I expected.

All the lights, the joy and jolly feelings, the warmth, the steam coming out of your mouth, the laughters, the camera flash, the people, the happy vibe and lots and lots of delicious treats is what Budapest’s Christmas atmosphere is all about. I have never felt a sort of warmth in the city as I have around this time; it's surreal and it's heartwarming. This week I decided to visit the Budapest Christmas market on my free Friday afternoon. I was quite lazy to get out of bed and actually do something, you know how winter is, you just want to curl up in bed and watch Netflix (I have recently started watching Riverdale), anyways I had promised a friend that I would go with them and so I couldn’t back out the last minute.

Wearing my thermal tights, about 4 layers of clothing and my power bank fully charged I was ready to go towards the market. You guys see how I make a big deal out of every experience and amplify the feeling? It's great isn’t it? As you can guess the Christmas market is near Deak Ferenc ter; obviously where else could it be? I swear now you guys are going to think that Budapest only has this one area. It's just that Deak is pretty much the city center and so a lot of events are always happening around here. I mean there is another Christmas market in another part of the town but I haven’t been there yet, I will write about it as soon as I go there.

Anyways don’t forget that you can get to Deak Ferenc ter by metro lines M2 and M3, and get off at the station named “Deak ferenc ter”, I know brand new information, how shocking. There are a few small shops right in on the other side of the metro station; you can take a walk there but then go towards Fashion Street. For those of you who don’t know where Fashion Street is, just follow the crowd of people and you’ll end up in a well-lit street full of brand shops. You can see a lot of decorations as you pass by the street.

The first shop we went into was Lush. I'm a huge fan of lush so if any of you want to send me a Christmas gift please choose something from lush (worth a shot). Anyways we were really freezing and my fingers were about to stop functioning so we entered the magical shop of Lush where I could spend hours and hours. The staffs in the lush fashion street are so friendly, some might it even irritating but truth is I enjoyed the friendliness. I even made a new friend and she explained all of the products for us. We were told that lush will have a sale after Christmas and so you know where to find me after Christmas. I’ll upload some pictures on the magic of this lush store and you can check them out but we should move on to more important parts of this piece.

(Lush magic baby)

First and most important items to try in the Christmas market:

Two words, Hot wine. It was my first time ever trying out the hot wine here, I had heard about it so many times and so I was more than intrigued to try it out. It is something a Christmas market must have here in Budapest. It's basically either red or white wine with some plums. It has a sweet taste so it's not really bitter and it's kind of diluted with I don’t know what so it's not so thick. We got a cup of it for 500 forints which is less than 2 Euros. The price was cheap and it was a total must have, plus it really warms you up from the within and makes the cold much more bearable.

Next must have item, something to cross off your list. There is this traditional Hungarian bread/cake; I don’t really know what category it belongs into. I think it's more of bread than a cake. Sort of something like sweet bread covered with cinnamon sugar or vanilla sugar. The original Hungarian name is Kurtos Kalacs, so let’s not butcher the Hungarian language and call it like it is. The original one is actually made on hot coal fires which makes it all the more delicious. The ones I usually buy are made in ovens and so they lose the originality but they are nothing short of delicious. The ones in the Christmas market were extra special man, there was this lady making the dough right in front of us and then putting it on those long metal sticks and putting it on fire. It reminded me of how Persians make kebab, this was pretty the same but instead of barbecuing meat they were making Kurtos Kalacs. Oh by the way as I mentioned before “S” in Hungarian is pronounced “Sh” and “Cs” is actually “Zh”, so good luck trying to pronounce that. One kurtos kalacs costs about 1500 forints which is basically 5 euros, the size is pretty big and definitely two can share one. That is if one of those two people isn’t me, because I can finish one all by myself in no time (I’m a true sweet tooth).

Anyhow a bunch of other things which I'm going to recommend you guys to purchase in the market. First thing the artisan chocolate booth was fantastic, the chocolates taste amazing, and since I've tried them before and honestly it just looks too beautiful. We usually buy one of these every time we want to go somewhere and take it as a gift. They are elegant and not costly. The bars cost less than 10 euros and have different toppings. I like the one with all those dried berries on it.

Merry Christmas guys, I will continue this piece later. As soon as this exams finish.

Cheers

(To be continued)

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