First Day in Budapest

Things to be covered in this blog:
1) My first impressions
2) My new roommate
3) Mrs. L
4) Mester Utca
5) Spar and the Feline sandwich meat and sour cream yogurt and flat Perrier.
6) Hungarian Television

To organise my thoughts and mind (and given the fact that I am still awake, having only slept a couple of ours last night), I thought I would write in numbers.

1) My first impressions.

Driving from the airport to my flat was interesting. Hungary is a developed country and everything, but the wear and tear on the country's infrastructure was pretty clear from the drive in from the airport. From what I read about Bpest before I left, the crumbling infrastructure is remnants of the communist era, and that slowly but surely the city is turning around. but in the 'burbs' is still pretty crumbly and it was odd to see so many houses with holes in their roofs, broken fences, walls that need be repaired, etc. BUT there seems to be alot of construction going on, which also means upgrades :).

The city centre (of pest at least), is very nice. Its a bit grimy, but not more than Parkdale. But it does have the European flare! Its funny though because even though I am a bazillion miles away from Ottawa, there is a schwaema place right across the street from my flat. When I learn some more Hungarian words maybe I will venture out and attempt to order a schwarma! (I saw a bunch of locals eating there....which is always a good sign!). I wonder if it compares to Schwarma Palace? probably not...but who knows!

When I got into the flat, it was a bit more worn down than I thought. It still perfectly nice, but more worn. The building was built in 1900 or something (and there is still alot of the original moulding etc), so I guess it looks good for its age. When I walked into my room, I noticed that the couch/bed looked more like a couch then a bed. I didn't really know what to do, or how to react, so I decided to make my bed. When my mom dropped be off a 1st year uni, the thing I remember the most of that day is her telling me to 'make your bed first' then go from there. (I also seem to recall that my grandma Logan also used to say that about cleaning my room, make the bed first). So, that is what I did. I don't have sheets that fit the couch/bed, so I used three sheets of various sizes. the douvet cover looked dirty, and well, i just don't think i really want to use it anyway (the apartment is a bit hot anyway). So i am now using a couple of empty duvets for now. I don't' have a pillow (okay, well, the pillows are the hard 'couch' pillows'). Ana, my roommate ended up lending me one, but I may acutally go an buy one for the summer (its nice to have a new pillow!). I actually went to look for one, but I couldn't find a store on Mester Street, and I didn't want to venture too far at dusk, in a city that I do not know, with out a map (I doubt the map would have been of use to me, but still).

2) My new roommate. Ana, she opened the door to the flat for me. She seems really nice, she too is writing her thesis. so we already have something in common. that's all I really know about her, but that is to be expected seeing as we have had about 5 minutes of conversation. She took me to meet Mrs. L. The women who 'watches' over the apartment.

3) Mrs. L doesn't speak english. at all. and all I could remember in Hungarian is Utca. that means street. so when we tried to get the keys from Mrs. L, it was a bit of a gongshow. I said 'hi, I am the new tenant' she responded in hungarian. I said "can I have my keys" she said words in Hungarian and something that sounded like "english" (I think she was saying she couldn't speak English). This went on for about 5 minutes, then we left. We waited until a second neighbor could come home (who then translated for us). Meeting Mrs L made me realize that I really have to try and make at least and EFFORT to communicate with everyone here. There really aren't a lot of people who speak English (and to be frank, I really should be making an attempt to speak their language (even just words) as I am in Hungary! I bought that phrase book, I should use it!

4) Mester Utca is the street that I live on. And at first glance it seems like nothing. But I took a walk out (looking for the pillow), and well, i noticed all these little bakeries and fruit markets, and dizcount shops! They are tiny tiny but really cool. Again, when I get that phrase book out I will have to go to them all. There is also a couple of cool restaurants and several tram lines. Basically, its a pretty good location!

5) Spar. For most people who have been or lived in europe, you will know what Spar is. Yes, they have it in Budapest too! I was walking along mester street looking for a pillow and walked by a spar. i thought it might be a good idea to grab something for dinner, so I went in to pick up some groceries. It was pretty funny. Firstly, as the prices are all in HUFs I was trying to figure out the prices of things in the fresh veggies section. Then I saw a couple of scales near some of the veggies and like a good people watcher, I watched what people did with the scale. I noticed that for all lose veggies you have to weigh and barcode yourself. So I got my tomato and did just that (one "living like a local" point for me!). Then I decided that I should get some yogurt (As Kyla would say "for the bacterias", and well all the labels were in Hungarian. and there weren't clear 'favlours' either. for example, the strawberry yogurt had something that looked like a cookie beside it (does this mean it is a dessert thing?). I saw 'kefir' and thought it was plain greek yogurt, so I thought I would get that. turns out it tasted more like sour cream. pretty sour when you're thinking you are getting yogurt! Did the same in the cheese and bread section (picked the nicest looking packages, but really had no idea what I was buying (with cheese, really how can you go wrong though?). Then I went to the meat section and was totally overwhelmed. As most people know, I am not the biggest meat eater or meat fan, or meat anything, but I thought a sandwich would be the easiest thing for dinner. I couldn't read the labels, and it was really hard to decifer the difference between them all (beef and salami was easy!). Then I quickly glanced at a label, and read the Hungarian label as English, and thought it read Feline as the 'type' of meat. That did me in on trying to choose a meat, so I left meat less. But as I am not a meat person, I wasn't too annoyed. Before I left I went and grabbed a bottle fo water. It said 'still' i thought this meant water without gas. nope. it is this weird tasting water that is basically carbon less Perrier. It's gross...but I will drink it because I am thirsty, and I haven't ventured to tap water just yet.

I will save hungarian TV for later (but I do want to say that the first channel I flipped to, CAKE BOSS was on, in hungarian).

Also, does anyone know the allure of Britain's first High Definition elections?