When President Bush visited, the first domestic McDonald’s turnover was fired
George HW Bush arrived in Hungary on July 11, 1989, five days after the death of János Kádár, the former first man of the disintegrating socialist system. In doing so, he became the first incumbent American president to visit Hungarian soil. (Richard Nixon traveled to Hungary in 1973 before his inauguration and twice in one of Budapest’s iconic restaurants.)
George Bush Sr., President of the United States in 1989 in front of the Parliament / Photo: Fortepan – Zsolt Szigetváry
Accordingly, during 38 hours of Bush’s stay here, he was surrounded by an army of journalists and “civilian” curious people. The increased interest is well illustrated by an excerpt from the July 12 article in the Veszprém Diary: “On Tuesday, the weather did not welcome the inhabitants of Budapest, thousands of whom gathered along the roads from Ferihegy Airport to Kossuth Lajos Square and in front of the Parliament. Shortly before the arrival of the President of the United States, a huge storm rushed to the Hungarian capital, and it was also the case that the Danube shore could not be seen from the entrance of the Danube Intercontinental Hotel, for example. ”
As it used to be, the newspapers had been killing each other for days before obtaining and sharing crumbs of information about the visit. On July 8, Népszava published the complete menu for a gala dinner in Parliament’s Hunting Hall on the day of its arrival: “Dinner was put together by Gundel Restaurant. A mixed taste of the Great Plain is served as an appetizer. It is a very tasty cold dish with goose liver slices, salami cake, meat goose stew, caviar quail eggs, mushroom salad, circular tomatoes and salmon stuffed. now they put Hungarian national soup in front of the guests, then stuffed their veal with Danube style. Vargae garnish is served as a dessert with vanilla sauce. The drinks include champagnes and wines from Balatonboglár, red and white, and a 1981 five-ton Tokaj aszú. ” Two days later, Népszabadság even put a shovel on it when it provided more details about the menu: “The drinks are supplied by the Balatonboglár State Farm, including BB champagne, 88-year-old Duna Chardonnay white and 86 bottled Cabernet Sauvignon red wine.”
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However, they did not manage to find out what the “Hungarian national soup” mentioned in the first quote meant, even though it was very busy for the public, so to speak, it launched a nationwide toto. A journalist from Népszava caught a conversation on one of the BKV flights, the participants The combination of “Újházy chicken soup, beef in it, whatever” was suggested behind the mysterious name. The most authentic source, Ambassador Dr. József Hajdú, the head of the protocol department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who was in charge of organizing the visit, did not sell it in his interview with Képes 7, he also mentioned it only as a national soup. THE During the conversation, he said that the presidential couple lived in the guest house of the Hungarian government on King Béla út, the other guests were accommodated in the already mentioned Danube Intercontinental and in the Atrium Hyatt (today Sofitel). It is said that the first domestic turnover of a previously opened Old Post Street in McDok has even increased, because American journalists were looking for “domestic flavors” in Budapest as well.
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The first Hungarian McDonald’s restaurant on Régiposta Street in Budapest – traffic increased dramatically during the presidential visit / Photo: Fortepan – Chuckyeager tumblr
On the second day of his visit, George Bush gave a speech at the Marx University of Economics (now Corvinus). And if he had been there, of course, he did not miss the neighboring Great Market Hall for high-ranking foreign guests. Incidentally, this point in the program was not smelled in advance by the press, but afterwards the unexpected event was reported in a separate “article”: Then he went into the stands and, stopping at one of them, showed with ten fingers how many peaches he was asking for. The saleswoman handed the fruit to her unusual customer in a plastic bag. President Bush wanted to pay with a banknote at first, but it was too large, so he picked up a small one and handed it over to the booth owner. The top of the bag containing the peaches had just begun to be folded by President Bush when Secretary of State Baker stepped in, indicating that he was also asking for the peach and then taking two out of the plastic bag. ”
The Adventure in the Market Hall (also) certainly left deep traces in Bush. At least this is indicated by the statement issued the next day, already on the way to Paris, on the presidential special plane, in which the Hungarian Nation called its meeting with “ordinary people” “disturbing”.
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