Shortcut to Europe

Every year, the embassies of the European Union host a free open house. The event was likely started by the EU to give croc-wearing Americans a glimpse of what a sophisticated culture looks like. This year the open house was on Saturday, May 9th. Unlike most cool DC events, we actually found out about this one before it happened . {Katie’s insert:  Ironically, Ryan, the state department employee, had no idea this was happening.  I was enlightened about the EU day by the kooky old lady librarian where I teach—this woman often offers random pieces of information to me even though I am usually just trying to check out a book.  For example, she was trying to interest me in various cheesy bookmarks that she thought would be excellent mother’s day gifts.  For once, she actually had a great idea.}  Basically, every EU embassy in Washington DC opened their doors to the public for tours, food, drink, music, propaganda brochures, etc.  It was also a great way to see some of the historic buildings that many of them occupied. The event was from 10am to 4pm and included free shuttles to get to some of the more remote embassies. There was no way to see all of them so we had to strategize our route beforehand.

We started early near Dupont Circle. There were already huge lines for the Greek and Irish embassies so we skipped them and went straight to Bulgaria – where there was no line at all. Bulgaria had some nice wine samples, some cheese pastries and leftover pins from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Obviously they were using the event to clean out some old junk from the back rooms.  I was able to have a short conversation in Bulgarian with one of the diplomats there … my first speaking of Bulgarian in 2.5 years. He complimented me on my pronunciation but was probably just being nice.

Our next stop was Cyprus. I made sure to keep all my “I love Turkey” comments to a minimum while there. This was the only embassy requiring visitors to use hand sanitizer upon entering. Naturally an island country would be most paranoid about the swine flu. We weren’t in the embassy for long, as it was quite small. However, we were in long enough to make several passes at the cheese table. Yum.

After Cyprus was Romania. We weren’t there long because they didn’t have any food or drink (but looked like they were preparing to offer something later in the day). They had face-painting for the kids and were in an impressive old building. It was strange to think I was walking through an embassy that, 20 years ago, would have been impossible.

Off to Latvia. Latvia had a really interesting foyer and reception room. Basically the whole interior of the embassy looked like a gothic church or perhaps a medieval hall. It was built with stone and wood beams. There were some traditional Latvian singers performing as we came in.

Next was Slovenia. Slovenia was the lucky former Yugoslav republic to keep the Yugoslavian embassy when the country broke up. Because of this, Slovenia, a country with only 2 million people, now had a much larger embassy than they needed. As such, they took the third floor (top floor) and turned it into the ambassador’s residence. As part of the open house we were able to take a tour of the 3rd floor and see part of the residence. The sitting room had one wall that was all windows overlooking the street. I wouldn’t mind living there. Slovenia also had a tasty walnut cake we were happy to sample.

By this time people were flooding into Dupont so all the embassies were starting to get lines. We decided to high-tail it out of there and head to some of the more remote embassies and (hopefully) avoid the crowds.
We took the Metro to Van Ness and walked to the Austrian embassy. As I suspected, the crowds were too lazy to travel this far. Austria was the embassy Katie most wanted to go to. It represented her ancestral heritage, many of her favorite composers, but mostly she was hoping they would have food. Austria did not disappoint. In fact, they went one step further and had a live demonstration on how to make apple strudel. Austria had, by far, the largest reception room. In addition to the cooking demonstration there were passed hors d’oeuvres (mostly apple strudel), a wine tasting (five Austrian wines) and a number of photographs and pamphlets on Austria. We stayed here the longest so Katie could get multiple passes at the hors d’oeuvres.

Right across the street from Austria was Slovakia. Slovakia has a very new looking building. We stood in the food line, but they ran out right before we were to get ours. I thought Katie was going to cry. I’m not even sure what they were serving – it looked like a gnocchi type dish. Katie was able to satisfy her food craving with a Slovakian “3 Musketeers” mini-candy bar from the candy bowl.

In front of the Slovakian embassy was a shuttle bus stop with a free ride to the Czech embassy. The Czech embassy was my personal favorite for several reasons. First they gave tours of the Czech ambassador’s residence – a large house on a hill overlooking the embassy (it put the Slovenian residence to shame). It had two sun rooms on either end of the house (one of them being the smoking room) and a nice pool outside. Second, there was a demonstration of Czech German Sheppard police dogs. It’s always fun to watch a dog  try and tear someone’s arm off. However, the best part of the Czech embassy was the free Pilsner Urquell. I made Katie get a glass even though she didn’t want any so I could have more.

Across the street from the Czech Republic was Hungary. Hungary was the only embassy to charge for alcohol ($2 for a glass of wine). That didn’t stop me from sampling a glass. They did, however, have free Hungarian goulash that we both had a bowl of. Very tasty. Inside there was a performance of traditional Hungarian dancing.

After Hungary we hopped on the free shuttle to the Polish Embassy. Poland also had free beer. I don’t remember the name off hand (probably due to the Hungarian wine, Czech beer, Austrian wine, and Bulgarian wine I had prior to Poland), but it was quite tasty. They were serving polish dumplings. Katie only got one dumpling (where I got two) which upset her a bit, but I traded to her my larger serving and she was happy again. The back room had a tourism video we sat through – mainly because the narrating was ridiculous. They used about four adjectives to every noun. All music was described as having a “rhythmic tempo”. That pretty much describes all music … which I suppose would also include Polish music. Everything was a “wide variety of …” They also have “state-of-the-art cuisine.” They used this phrase to describe bread. I guess Poland has state-of-the-art bread. Next time I go to Poland I’m definitely going to check out their bread.

Our last stop was Lithuania. Lithuania had some impressive photography of the Lithuanian countryside. Unfortunately there was no local cuisine or beverages to sample.

Bottom line, it was a great event. We were able to sample some local foods and beverages, see the inside of some beautiful buildings and learn a bit more about some of the EU countries. I’ll be looking forward to the same event next year.

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