Day 6: Work/Dinner Party Day (Thursday, November 17)

We wanted to take a bunch of Rachel's friends to dinner while in Budapest, but we decided that it would be easier and nicer to have them over for a home-cooked meal. I finally got up early (getting tired of the sleeping-in way of life) and accompanied Rachel back to her apt to pick up a few things I thought I would need to cook in the apartment and got to see the bakery she loves (Vaj, pronounced "voy") right across the street from her apartment. There is no shortage of pastries in Budapest!

We were cutting time close for Rachel to make it to school on time given the long commute, so Rachel picked up one of the ShareNow cars that are all over Budapest — you can pick them up anywhere and drop them off anywhere -- so convenient! The only catch is that you need an international driver's license to use the app, so Rachel was our only driver. She dropped me at the house and drove to school, making it in time for her 9 am class.

Jim, Julia, and I headed out to find a place to work for the day — Julia is officially working this week, and Jim and I always have stuff to do. We went to the cafe highly recommended by Juliana’s friend Maya first but it only gave out Wi-Fi passes for an hour, so after that we headed back to the bookstore cafe Rachel and I had gone to earlier in the week. As we had before, we first stopped at Aran for more bread and sandwiches to bring with us and enjoy our hot apple drinks. We also picked up a delicious loaf of bread for our dinner that night.

On the way back to the apartment, Jim and I stopped to do grocery shopping for our big dinner (Julia still had work to do). I had seen big eggplants in the market so I thought it would be easiest to make a big tray of eggplant parmensan. Surprisingly, we were able to find all the ingredients we needed, though identifying them took time. Jim walked around with his google translate photo app making sure we found the right spices. One of the things Rachel has had trouble finding in Budapest are fresh greens (other than cabbage). She has been craving them, but I guess she hadn't really checked my upscale neighborhood. I found a little store that had some beautiful kale tucked in the back and bought it all. We paid a premium (probably $15 dollars for the bunch), but it was well worth it. The three of us cooked together: Jim in charge of vegetables, Juila the salad, and me the main dish.

In true Rachel style, the guest list kept creeping up during the day but we ended up with a nice number of 10 that we squeezed around our table for 6. We loved spending time with Rachel’s delightful friends, and I think they really enjoyed a family meal served at home.