What is Pálinka, and is it for Americans?

What is Pálinka, and is it for Americans?

 Hungary was one of the best experiences of my life! There were no poor experiences I can associate with my time in Hungary, oh wait there is one...Pálinka! Pálinka is Hungary's national drink. The reason I had the opportunity to try such a drink was because my roommate, Benu in Netherlands was from Hungary. He had brought me back to his home village on the Austrian-Hungarian border. The master of the Pálinka was non other than Benu's father. The reason I say master of Pálinka is because his father makes it from their home. Jugs, jugs, and more jugs of Pálinka were located around the property. This man absolutely loved his Hungarian drink. During dinner there were about six rounds of food that were served to the table. We happened to visit around the time of Benu's birthday; therefore, it was even a bigger occasion than normal. Plus, they really wanted to give their American guests a great experience...since there hadn't been an American at their village since World War II, says his father. This was the joke his father played around with the entire time we were there. This joke was translated to us by Benu, because his father spoke no English. The language barrier was an experience on its own. Never had I ever been so reliant on non-verbal language to communicate. A lot of my non-verbal communication was valuable to me when we visited the Buda Castle. There were things we could do, and couldn't do within the castle which I would have never known if I didn't pick up on non-verbal ques. 

Visited this castle in Budapest -Buda Castle

 Anyways, back to the rounds of food, after each round of food came out Benu's father expected us to take a shot of Pálinka prior to eating the food. It was kind of like when you pray before eating a meal, except the prayer was replaced with Pálinka. After the first round, I realized it was not for me. I kept my face straight and pretended to like it for cultural acceptance. Following dinner I told Benu "that is one drink I will never taste again." Benu responded to me by laughing very hard, saying the drink was for men. Regardless, the experience was a great one and I would not have changed one aspect of it. We were even lucky enough when we left, because his dad thought we liked Pálinka so much that he gave us two bottles each to go! This was very appreciated by my friends back in Wisconsin, I can tell you they enjoyed it just about as much as I did. :).
In conclusion, Pálinka is not for Americans or at least not for this American.