Holiday in Hungary - for once it's not to commemorate a revolution...

Friday was a national holiday, an international one in fact, but in Europe it’s Labor Day. I don’t know that we do a ton with May Day in the US which is interesting because the idea of Labor Day originated there, though ours is a different date from the rest of the world. At any rate, I had the day off from school so we decided to head into Budapest to get some errands done. The Hungarian army, and the American army soldiers here had the day off too - so lucky for me Justin was free for a whole day of exploring!

I had a list, a mission and was ready to go. I needed to check on my seat reservation with the Eurail pass and then I wanted to go to Ikea and to the mall. Justin came with and we went over the route to the airport since he’s heading back to Ohio for leave next week. I had typed everything out for him (he seems to struggle when on his own...so I made the instructions for getting to and from the airport crystal clear) We got the train ticket taken care of, no problem. However, when we got to the area where Ikea and the mall are, my heart sank. There were chains drawn and locked doors over the entrance to the mall, and darkness inside the Ikea. They had closed the stores to celebrate Labor Day? Boy, I’m not in the United States any more. Sure, banks- mail- government… they can have labor day off, but what about all the missed opportunities for labor day sales?!?!?!? I was devastated since we made the trip in – but it was not all lost. Justin saved the day by suggesting we see a movie instead. He suggested "shopaholic" which I was thrilled about, but it wasn't in English. Damn. Strike two. We ended up seeing a new movie about Minnesota starring Renee Zellwegger. I forget what it’s called in English, but the translation in Hungarian is “Why Minnesota?” he he. Not only did we see a movie, we saw it VIP style. That means that we got free (with the purchase of the ticket) food and beverages, even alcoholic ones! We loaded up on sandwiches (you’re not surprised that there were sandwiches at this buffet…are you?) nachos, popcorn and other snacks and headed in. Much to our surprise, each person had a Lazy-Boy type recliner with electronic controls. It was delightful. The movie was cute too, though the blizzard like weather confirmed the fact that Justin never wants to live in Minnesota. He has been to training there and stated that he'd never move there, but he did say "maybe a couple visits" with a wink. Phew... there's hope.