As part of my training to do the Balaton Swim this summer http://www.treehugger.hu/node/452, http://www.treehugger.hu/node/453 I joined the World Class Gym at the Marriott. During that time there was a membership promotion - the person who gets the most new members in 3 months wins a gift certificate for 500000 huf at Caprice Jewelers. I did not think I had a hope in hell, so ignored it at first. In the meantime, my friends Rich and Tara joined, and then Ben. Even so, I did not think I had won with only three people, but it seemed I had. After several weeks of pestering them for the actual results, I received the 1st prize during the August 20th party just before the fireworks started. Being single and not knowing or caring about jewelry, I let this scary thing sit on my kitchen table until a couple weeks ago. It expired at the end of the year, so I had to use it quick. Button expert and now local actress Sylvia Llewelen volunteered to go with me to the showroom in Szentendre and pick something that could be resold easily either as a piece or for its material content. The guard at the gate was a bit nonplussed when we walked through the entry rather than drive through in a BMW, as was the receptionist. But they provided us with a very friendly and efficient saleswoman named Susan. After examining about 25 display cases of gold, rose gold, white gold, watches, pens, diamonds, opals, sapphires and more...I learned a lot from Sylvia. For example, gold is measured in troy ounces and not normal ounces. 24 karat gold is pure gold, and too soft to make jewelry, so they mix it with other metals. This is why you find 9, 14, 18 karat gold jewelry - the rest of the weight is made up for with other harder metals like silver (white gold). I always thought star sapphires were sapphires in the shape of stars, but the stars are reflections of light in the gemstone, and the clearer the stars, the better the sapphire.

We finally settled on a heavy 18k gold ring of 16.9 gold ounces, hand-rolled gold wire and 12 small diamond chips for 390,000 huf; and a light white gold ring for another 100000. When we presented Susan with the gift certificate she freaked out. There are no price tags on the items - an illegal practice in any grocery store or market, so probably here too. The prices are determined by who they think you are. If you buy a train ticket in Russia or Ukraine, there are different windows and prices depending on if you are a student, retired, hero of the Great War, handicapped, foreigner from the West, foreigner from a former-Socialist country, etc. It was much the same here. Susan had to see her bosses in back, and returned to inform us that the big ring was now actually 512000 huf. Of course we complained that 500000 is 500000 whether or not it is in a gift certificate or 25 x 20000 huf bills. Her attitude was that it was found money and I should take what I could get - but it was MY found money and it is the same if I buy 1250 pints of beer with it or a gold ring. We got her back down to 500000, but the ordeal left a very bad taste in our mouths. I was so pissed off from effectively losing 100000 huf in the deal, I stuck them for the VAT bill which, even if I cannot use, they have to pay taxes on. I learned a lot, got to know Sylvia a bit better, had a nice day in Szentendre, and of course came away with a very nice piece of jewelry. Catch Sylvia at the Merlin Theater on February 3rd and 17th in Simon Stephen's play "Pornography." I have not seen it yet, but she was very good in Entertaining Mr. Sloan in May.