A Brit in Budapest

It's now the 18th September and I've just got home from lunch with church friends. I'm pretty sleepy as I got up to practice before church and I'm going to a concert later, maybe I'll have a nap after writing this...

Liszt Academy Grand Concert Hall

The weeks are flying by! I realised on Wednesday that it was nearly 2 weeks since I last blogged and just can't keep up with where the time is going! However, that means I've had significant progression in terms of sorting out my timetable and getting settled into some sort of routine and it's lovely to be feeling settled into the Academy as well now. My first proper Monday with classes was a shocker - 4.5 hours of music theory with only half an hour break! Yes, that was intense. Luckily I won't have that every week as I'm only going to take one music theory class and I can go to the other one if I want to practice simpler stuff or learn solfege. Thank goodness Erasmus allows for freedom in that respect! I am also really fortunate to have 2 individual trumpet lessons per week - that's definitely a motive to practice regularly! My teacher plays with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and really seems to know what he wants so lessons are challenging but also very rewarding when I've put the work in. We're currently working on the Haydn trumpet concerto and I had never before realised how difficult it is to play well! Technically it isn't that hard but style is key to creating a good performance. I will also be learning the Böhme trumpet concerto in preparation for a competition against trumpet students from all over Hungary in December - scary but exciting!
I experienced the Liszt Academy main concert hall on Thursday - Hungarian Radio Symphony orchestra performed Brahms symphonies 1 and 3. The acoustics were fab and you can see how beautiful the hall is itself!

Of course, alongside all the studying I have had a bit of time for socialising and eating in many different, lovely places. About a week ago I went with my good friend Ellé to a small Hungarian restaurant near the Liszt Academy main building.We each tried a typical Hungarian dish with "noodles" - Chicken paprika for Ellé and Beef Goulash for me - and we each had a drink. TOTAL price was 2745Ft, sounds a lot right?
But when 330 Ft = £1, work it out... We couldn't believe it either.
Mind. Boggled.

Wood carving, photo
credit; Elle Crowhurst

I love trying new food, especially when it's cheap, but this stuff was cheap and absolutely delicious and I'll definitely be going there again! Or maybe every week...

Anyway just yesterday some friends and myself decided to be cultured and we went to Bela Bartók road in search of a Polish festival we had seen advertised. Unfortunately the weather was miserable and in true Hungarian style, no-one had any idea what was going on... Never fear, we wandered around and found a wood carving place so decided to have a go, but we didn't anticipate how hard it would be! Following this, I had my first experience of a Hummus bar and I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not usually a huge hummus fan but when coupled with mushrooms and lots of pitta bread I was very satisfied! Following this we visited the Sweet Days Chocolate Festival held outside St Stephen's Basilica which looked and smelt amazing. I only had a little pot of melted chocolate but there were so many different types including donuts with a variety of chocolate toppings, YUM.

That's all for now folks, time to head off for some more practice and a possible nap I mentioned... Have a good week!

S x

CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!