Right now I am taking the optional 2.5 week Hungarian language course, which I have yet to write about (but I will), leaving evenings free to pretty much do as I please. The problem is that it gets dark 1 hour after classes end.
On Tuesday evening, some of my classmates and I decided to go to a local pub to see a Roma (Gypsy) folk band. We entered the pub and were the only non-Hungarians in the place, probably because the pub can't be seen from the street. It was snowing outside and I hadn't had dinner, so I ordered gulyas and hot wine. You can't really get gulyas in restaurants, only pubs; this was to be my first bowl. It was a soup (not as stew-y as I had imagined) packed with vegetables, potatoes, meat, and paprika. Combined with the hot wine, I was very full and very warm.
The pub had a bar as you walked in, a sitting area to your right and a door to your left. Through the door was another seating area in a long, dimly lit, room with couches and chairs galore. At the front was the stage where the band was setting up.
The band: 2 violins, 2 violas, an accordion, an upright bass, and a singer. The music was usually very fast and festive with a very involved bass line. The band would back the singer up for a few minutes and then start playing faster and faster, with the violins with a unison melody line that was so fast it was hard to see their fingers moving. The violas played with the instrument held against their sternum vertically (okay, "vertically" is ambiguous, but if you try to imagine it, only one orientation will really make sense). The music made you want to dance, but (a) there was no room and (b) I don't yet know how to dance to Roma folk music.
The closest thing I could find is linked below, but our band was bigger, faster, and our bassist wasn't using a bow.
Webpages that may or may not be relevant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEPZ06fX5rw&feature=related
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goulash
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