VickyC.me

I’ve been in Budapest for about 2 months now and  I think it’s fair to say that the initial culture shock has worn off. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no longer “weird” things from time to time.. Because there most definitely are!

I apologise in advance if this post is a little too much information.. But it’s something that I really have to vent about. So, sorry!

Ok, so as a member of the female species, there are 2 things that are absolutely necessary for life: tampons and toilet paper. I have found that in Hungary, these two items have one thing in common – they are available in chamomile scented form.

I’m going to start with tampons (sorry, guys). I was at the store the other day, and being a Sunday, all of the drugstores were closed, so I had to go to a 24 hour convenience store type establishment. I didn’t expect them to have a wide range of feminine products, but when I saw the box of chamomile scented tampons, I thought to myself “you have GOT to be kidding me – Chamomile tampons?!”.

The alternative that they had, was a smaller box that was 3 times the price because it was organic – and that too (of course) was chamomile scented.

Also, the thing that *really* irritated me was the fact that they do not seem to have applicator tampons anywhere.. Which, quite frankly, is barbaric… Fact.

And as if chamomile tampons aren’t enough, there is chamomile scented toilet paper.. So you *really can* smell like a flower or a freshly steeped cup of chamomile tea… (I’ve never had chamomile tea, so I don’t know if that is gross or not)

Now, I’m not sure if there is scented toilet paper anywhere else, because to be honest, it’s not something that I would ever have looked for.. Nor had I seen advertisements for it in the UK or North America while I was there.. But here, there is plentiful supply of scented toilet paper. It’s very strange.

Another thing in abundance is wedding dress stores. Out on the main road, it’s ridiculous. Every other building has a wedding dress store in it. I can only conclude that there is a huge demand for bridal gowns. I really want to go in to a few of them to see why on earth there are so damned many of them everywhere. And, I’d be curious to see the prices – maybe they’re all super cheap!! Not that I need a wedding dress or anything – don’t go getting ahead of yourselves here people.

In addition, it seems that for every wedding gown store, there is a gyros joint, a tanning salon and a dance studio.

OMG, I get it now!! So you’re on a wedding dress hunt, and all the running between the stores makes you hungry, so you buy a gyros.. but then you’re scared your dress won’t fit.. so you take a dance class – which serves as weight loss and “first dance” prep, and then you’re tired, so you hit the tanning bed for a few minutes of lying down! All the while, smelling like a freshly plucked chamomile flower.

Sounds delightful doesn’t it!

Tags: Bridal Gown, Budapest, Camomile, Chamomile, Gyros, Hungary, Tampon, Toilet Paper, VickyC, VickyC.me, Wedding Dress

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 6:29 pm and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.