On the day we did laundry in Budapest, we ate at a great little restaurant located right across the courtyard from the laundromat.
Antré Étterem offered an inexpensive and varied breakfast buffet. The restaurant was clean, modern, and well attended.
At one point during breakfast, I was looking for the salt and pepper shakers. I touched and moved everything on the table trying to find them. I eventually had to resort to calling over a staff member - who wound up being the manager - to ask him if he could provide me with a set.
Imagine my surprise when he pointed out that they were right in front of me. These were the salt and pepper shakers. Boy, did I feel stupid.
I had seen them but immediately dismissed them. My mind was telling me they were other things - a microphone (Why would they have a microphone on a table?), a set of speakers (Why would they put speakers on the table?) - and since I wasn't really looking closely at them because it never occurred to me that they were salt and pepper shakers, I didn't see the "S" and the "P" on the side of each shaker. That would have been a big clue.
I immediately wanted them and asked the manager if they sold them. He said "No. People usually just steal them." So I asked where I could find them and he told me they were made by a company called WMF (Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik) - a German company founded in Berlin in 1880, and the same company that made the coffee machine I loved on the cruise ship.
I needed to find a store.
We looked in each town we came across after that and saw more than one WMF store but due to countrywide holidays, they were closed. Rats! I figured I'd have to hunt them down online and pay a crazy price to have them sent to me once I was back in the United States.
But then, as luck would have it, my friends Marlaina and MacG were out on an excursion one day and came across a place that sold these very salt and pepper shakers and picked them up for me! They now sit on my kitchen counter at home.
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2018: Hot And Sweet
2017: My Kind Of Salad
2016: In Disguise
2015: Hawaii Five-O
2014: I Like Big Boteros And I Cannot Lie
2013: The Young Never Have Trouble Screwing
2012: Making Tracks Across The Country
2011: Eddie Is The King Of The Dome
2010: Do It For Half An Hour A Day
2009: Sipping In Nyack
2008: The Tink Tink Tinkle Of Recycling
2007: Ralph’s Service Station
2006: The Isle Of Capri
2005: Sorry, no post on this day. The blog didn’t start until May 2005!