My Christmas Story

My first Christmas here in Hungary was a good one! Gabi and I left Bp after cleaning the flat. We packed the gifts and put them in the car and headed for Szarvas. The weather was cold, but no rain or snow, yet. We arrived in Szarvas and soon after we had our Christmas Eve dinner, duck. Actually, before dinner we had several shots of Palinka w/ her dad :). After the dinner we exchanged gifts. I bought Gabi this Swarovski necklace and she got me these nice ass leather gloves w/ rabbit fur and a robe. I'm all ready for winter! Her parents gave us money for Ikea furniture...they found out that I really liked the Poang chair and gave us money to buy one for the flat.

After exchanging gifts we rested up before heading out to Gabi's godfather's house. When it came time to leave it had started snowing! :) The streets were covered with a small layer of snow, it was so nice. My first white christmas!! When we arrived at the house, there were more xmas cookies and sweets along with more champagne, palinka and other alcohol. I ate and drank a lot. We stayed there for maybe an hour or two and then went back home. As we left, the snow was still coming down steadily. I wasn't dressed warm enough and by the next morning I caught a cold. :( I had a sore throat and my nose was running. Not a good way to spend the holidays. Needless to say, that didn't stop me from enjoying my time there.

Christmas day was more quiet. Gabi's sister, Kata, and her fiance, Andras arrived that day and we exchanged gifts again....Gabi refers to it as Baby Jesus came by and dropped off some gifts. I got a nice nail cutter from them from Germany. We ate dinner and then just stayed in. We were supposed to visit her cousin, but postponed it for the following day. Her cousin lives in another town called Csongrad (chon-grad), about 45 mins away. On the way there, her dad (Istvan) asks me if I wanna get a beer afterwards at the local pub. Of course I say yes. It was just a guys night out. Istvan, Andras, myself and a friend of the family, Janos all go to the local pub for some beers and palinka. If I haven't already explained what palinka is, it's the Hungarian version of moonshine. Usually made in the countryside, it's now produced commercially and consumed by many Hungarians. It's strong ass shit. We decide to all have a shot of palinka w/ honey and then beers afterwards. The funny thing is, Istvan, can't speak any english, so we were using Andras as the translator. He taught me a new Hungarian phrase, "meg egyszer", it means another round! So everytime the bar maid came by, i'd just shout, "meg egyszer!"

Now I knew palinka was strong, but didn't anticipate it being that strong. I forget how many rounds we had, but it was plenty. Usually if you drink palinka you don't mix at all. We kept mixing w/ beer.....ugh...beer was a bad choice! The next morning I was sooooo hungover. It was the worst that I've ever felt and i've drank a lot before. But I couldn't eat anything the next day until 6pm. Gabi told me I'm not allowed to drink palinka w/ beer anymore. I was ok with that.

In spite of the hangover, it was a good guys night out. I missed that. I asked her dad what he really thinks of me. He said he was embarassed that he can't speak to me in english. He says we have similar sense of humor and sees I really love Gabi. I think I made a good impression.

**sorry no pics available