Since we were not scheduled to play a match today, Vicki Buholz and I practiced even earlier…around 7:30am (good thing too, since we are scheduled for 8am tomorrow for singles). We had a good practice till 9am. We both had racquets strung (15 euros/$17, stringing only), and I had a massage while Vicki went to the Szechenyi Baths, a Thermal Spa, and a large and famous one.
I walked down the long way from the club so that I could stop at a strawberry stand. I think I have overestimated my ability to eat strawberries in the next few days, but there is no denying that they are perfectly red, ripe and delicious! But I think I bought two kilos worth…I started on them this afternoon.
I went into Budapest, on the “Pest” side (where the Parliament building is), to go to the Market Hall, which is Budapest’s version of Barcelona’s Boqueria Market. There were lots of fruit and vegetable stands, many meat stalls (mostly pork products from feet to sausage and everything in between), and a lot of Hungarian paprika stands. I did buy some paprika but left the pig’s feet alone.
After leaving the Market Hall, I walked down Vaci street, which is lined mostly by souvenir shops and food shops…popular were the Kurtoskalacs shops (made from sweet yeast dough, wrapped around a truncated cone-shaped baking spit, rolled in sugar and roasted over charcoal while basted with melted butter till the surface turns golden-brown. In the stores I saw, the inner, tubular part was sometimes coated in chocolate and filled with cream or ice cream or other ingredients. They look good but aren’t a proper food to eat during a tennis tournament! The other popular item was “langos”. Langos means “flamed” and is a flat bread which is eaten fresh and warm, topped with sour cream and grated cheese, or Liptauer, ham, or sausages, or most frequently, without toppings, just rubbed with garlic or garlic butter, or doused with garlic water.
There were also many souvenir shops along this road, but I probably would not recommend this walk, there are lots of other places with more Hungarian charm.
It was warm today…33 C/around 91 F, and I had walked a lot so I took a taxi back to the apartment (I took a tram down to the river area).
We play at 8am for singles tomorrow and 4pm for doubles. Our opponents won a tight one today, 11-9 in a match tiebreak!