it really is a cabbage festival

I don't think I'd believe it if I didn't see it for myself.  A cabbage festival.  It sounds like a schmenge brothers joke.  It was actually a lot of fun!  Oh, I wish I could upload my pics.  I may be able to in a few days.  There were giant vats of cabbage.  A cabbage pyramid.  Cabbage people.  Is this where cabbage patch kids came from perhaps?

Kaposztafeszt is pronounced something like: kah-posta-fest.  Cabbage fest, yay!

I tried a few things.  In a can that looked like a cola, I enjoyed a fizzy apple drink (that actually still tasted quite a bit like a cola.)  I had a sweet treat that I thought was named after a flute, since it was flute shaped, but I just looked up the word for flute and I don't recognize it.  It was pretty good, fresh baked, but a bit too sickly sweet, covered in rock sugar.  Of course, I had to try the cabbage!  I had something like a roti, with white paste spread on it, fresh red onions on top, and cabbage from a big vat.  With great effort, I explained that I wanted it without meat - "hús nélkül".  They normally put a sausage or diced pork in it.  It wasn't too bad, but I think it really counts on the pork for its flavour.

Music is a big part of the festival, that's for sure.  There were a few bands playing in different areas, some of them large orchestras, like highschool bands but they looked older and sounded better.  On the main stage they had big choirs in traditional clothes, and then a band playing all of the Hungarian favourites.  I didn't recognize anything except for LaBamba, which didn't excite the crowd much.  They later played some folk song which made dozens scream in excitement when it started, and had most of the hundreds there singing along and dancing passionately.

It was also a bit like a country fair back home.  There were booths with new machines for slicing, smashing, and doing I'm not sure what to cabbages.  No animals though, except for those that were getting cooked.

One thing I'm realizing more and more that I took for-granted about Canada is that you never have to pay to use a toilet.  In public places here, you always have to.  And despite paying for them directly here, they're usually a lot more run-down, dirty, and smelly.  I'm drinking a lot less than I used to...

At the home where I'm staying, my host made a big deal out of her creation of a big bean soup (bab leves) for me.  This was before I found out about the kaposzta-feszt.  So I missed her soup due to the festival, and had cabbage there.  Of course, I felt so bad when I came back and she said "what about my bean soup?"  I pretended to still be hungry and she gave me a big salty bowl of bean soup. I'm dealing with a bit of acid indigestion currently.  Cabbage and beans for dinner - I hope I don't light the couch on fire or blow-up the house tonight!