How Not to Impress Girls in Budapest

During my first week in Budapest, I asked someone from my hostel what the most surprising thing about Hungarians was to them, and without missing a beat, she told me "at bars, people mix red wine and coke." I filed this away in my database of "quirky things about Hungarians." A few weeks later, my visiting friend asked me the same question I had asked the girl from my hostel, and I responded to his question the same way. His eyes lit up. "We have to try that right now," he said.

I took him out to one of my favorite ruin pubs, not far from where we were staying. We ran up to the bar like anxious schoolchildren to the ice cream truck, and asked for two red wines with coke. The female bartender looked at us curiously for a moment, so my friend repeated our order, a little more slowly. She turned to the other bartender, who said something to her in Hungarian. A moment later, she produced two tall glasses with neon-colored straws. At our table we took a few hesitant sips. “It’s not bad,” my friend said. I agreed. After a moment, though, my friend looked around, and I saw his smile fade a little. I asked him what was the matter and he told me to look around. Then I realized: almost every woman in the bar was drinking red wine with coke. We quickly, wordlessly finished our drinks, and then ordered a round of beers, partly to convince everyone else of our masculinity, but mostly to reassure ourselves.