Today.

Today was another one of those 'typical' days. It actually felt kind of nice, and I am really starting to feel as much 'at home' as I possibly can. I even read and understood my first advertisement on the metro today. Okay, fine, it was only two words Uj Nissan! (which means New! Nissan), but hey, I still read it, right?

On the language front, listening to the radio at night has also improved my ability to at least decipher words in Hungarian. Sure, I very little understanding, but I figure that perhaps recognizing when one word ends and a new one begins is a good start. I also always know when they agree as they say Egen, and of course Kosonom (sapen), which means thanks very much!

Riding home on the metro, I had my first interaction with a real European footie. Okay maybe he wasn't a professional soccer player, but he sure looked like one. He was a bit taller than me, wearing a black long sleeve nike soccer shirt like was slightly dusty, green and yellow shorts, dark green high socks, white soccer shoes and was holding a green soccer ball in both in hands. He was clean shaven, his hair was neat and clean cut. His feet were shoulder width apart. He didn't make eye contact, or move until he made a three step pivot to get off the tram. He looked like he was a poster for nike soccer. I almost poked him to make sure he was real. It was spooky. (don't worry, I didn't poke him, I realize that is not socially acceptable, and well just weird to do that..and..I also think it could be considered a form of assault....).

Work today was also good. I finally moved into my office with a functioning computer. The weather has been utterly crappy (it reminds me of Ottawa...in the early spring...cold...wet...on and off showers....). So today, I decided to take advantage of the overcast sky (which is the best we've had all week), and go for a walk at lunch. I ended up at the Danube, and it was nice, even if it is terribly residential. Oh well. I also got a few new tasks, and am starting to work on some stuff for Bosnia and Her. (BiH). That should be cool. I really want to try and get to Sarajevo while I am here, but it is pretty far, too far to go by train for a weekend...perhaps if I can find flight I will try and fly there....

This weekend is a long weekend here! yay it's may 2-4. Richard gave me some suggestions of places I could go, and while they all seem very nice, I actually think I just want to stay here. I am sort of tired of being 'lost'-at least for now. Plus there is so much to do here! I still haven't made it to the baths!

After work I dropped by Spar, and they had a tray of veggies on sale for 50% off, from 399 HUF to 200 HUF. I decided that 1 dollar for cut veggies that 'expired' today was a good deal so I bought them. When I got them home I wondered what to do with them. I had about three cups of chopped carrots, a whole onion, one clove of garlic, some green herb that I couldn't figure out, four long pieces of parsnips and some cabbage. I decided that I should make soup with then (and bought a potato (for 20 HUF) and zucchini(60 HUF) to add to the mix). I got home and cut up the onion, potato and zucchini, threw in the veggie plate, some water and a veggie bouillon cube, two types of paprika (sweet and spicey) and 30 mins later I had soup! I also used up the rest of my fel kilo of kolbasca, by cooking it, then adding it to the soup kind of like bacon (this is the fel kilo that I bought the second day I got here. the one that was the length of my arm and then some! Finally it's gone!!). While it was cooking, I decided to Google what the packing said on the 50% off veggie plate, and it literally translated to "perfect vegetative soup". I laughed. Cheap dinner and funny coincidence. I like it :)

Hope all is well please send me updates on your lives. There is only so much fb stalking I can do!

Toodles from bpest!

P.s Catherine, on andy's FB group there is a photo of a pet ambulance. It made me think of fred and laya.....and their dates with pet taxi cabs.

Gittyness, MRPs and Hungarian Music

First work night. Today at work was pretty cool as I experienced/participated/wrote/completed my first and second diplomatic task today.....to was pretty exciting for a nerdy person like me. But I am allowed to be tickled pink to get an email from the Ambassador saying that he liked and approved something that I co-wrote. right? This excitement made me realize that I should put my eloquent writing (and horrible editing) skills to work....so now I am acutally spending the night focusing on my MRP. For those who are unfamiliar with the MRP...it is the Major Research Paper component of my degree and the last thing I need to do in order to get my degree. I have been 'writing' this since January.....and it is due AT THE LATEST next April, but I don't want to be writing this in Australia. So for me, it is DUE ASAP!

As MRP is starting....this post will be short stints of thoughts from the day....like an extended FB/Twitter post:

1) Listening to hungarian radio in the background. All the English music is from the 1980s and 1990s. and I just heard Bon Jovi's "It's my life" in Hungarian. At the moment, it must be a Bon Jovi marathon of some sort because now they are playing living on a prayer. Its Tom Jones Sex Bomb!

2) This makes me want to research some information about Hungarian Pop stars to present the blogosphere (and everyone who reads me :). The Hungarian top 40 is currently populated with many of the songs that are on the top 40 around the globe, with some Hungarian additions. (for those interested, Number one is Fight for this love. BUT the top album is the Hungarian singer pop start heart throb.....Tabani Istvan (or, in English Istvan Tabani as in HU they reverse surnames and given names). I am listening to a song called Ments Meg! it's and intense love song. or a song about something desperate....it reminds me of 'hopelessly devoted" from Greese. It probably shouldn't but it does. But then again, Ments Meg literally means Save Me! so who knows eh? But I would caution this analysis as most people know, my brain makes very odd connections to try and recognize and remember things. Remember cicero and cereal?

Bon Bon, who hold the highest chart song (sitting at 2) is a softer sound, this one sounds like it should be in a Disney movie...scored by Phil Collins or something..... The lead singer of Bon Bon sort of looks like bono (he wears the dark sunglasses). The lead guy also plays the flute. kind of cool. there music seems very wholesome and just fun. I feel like I should hug someone at the moment....too bad the only person here is my roommate, who might think it odd that I go into her room to give her a hug....

The Weekend :)

Well, Yes, I have been away the past three days, but I had my first visitor!

Yup, that's right, I was a quasi tour guide this weekend to Max. It was great fun, minus the rain! and boy did it rain! However, as I have three WHOLE days to catch up on, I will spread the posts out over the week! (it will also save me from posting 'interpretive' grocery store conversations...).

Anyway, to get you up to sped on the meticulous details of my life since I last posted. Here is it, in one paragraph. The weekend was great, as we went to a museum and a cool club (to be covered in their own blogs), to the castle and we also went to a couple of really nice restaurants. It was nice having a visitor to be able to go out at night with (and explore the city). I no longer had to talk and converse with RS (Rick Steves).

So this is the play by play:

Thursday night Max arrived. Arrival didn't go as smoothly as possible because he didn't know what buzzer number to call at my apartment. I think I remember sending it to him, but I also sent him a million other things, so chances are it got lost in passing. Anyway, I was on FB doing nothing in particular (except for stock people, of course). Suddenly, i got a message from him asking me to message him my buzzer number. He was at an internet cafe up Mester Utca...he found the internet cafe by asking a man in Arabic where 'internet' was. Who would have thunk. The Schwarma (here they call them Gyros actually) man, speaks Hungarian and Arabic, and since Max knows some Arabic (internet being one of that 'some'), he found me! The world is a very globalized place.

When he arrived he brought with him a bag of presents! These presents included 100ml of peanut butter (which you cannot buy in grocery shops, and which I think of as comfort food). On that note, I think I could probably get it at the expat shop. I will check it out, but a box of crisco sells there for something like 25 bucks, so who knows how much PB would be. While the PB is not kraft (it's the health food store kind), it is still super yummy! (I have to ration it as 100 ml is really not enough to a Canadian who normally keeps three different types of PB stocked in her pantry. Smooth, Crunchy AND natural .... you never really know what type you'll crave). It was only 100ml, because checking bags on cheap European flights is very expensive, and 100 ml is the maximum you can bring of a liquid.......

He also brought me a pair of very warm socks (which will be super useful as the weather at the moment is rainy and cold).

He also brought a new Hungarian phrase book, as I misplaced mine last week and have been sans linguistic aid since then....

and....an old cell phone that I could buy a sim card for, so I would have some form of communication beyond my computer....

and...an alarm clock that has a radio. Now I can put to rest my little blue travel alarm clock that makes a very annoying noise in the morning, and has a very unreliable snooze button....

and...and...

finally....
he brought me a hard drive. a tetragazillion gigabit hard drive filled with ENGLISH MOVIES and TV shows. yay! I am not really a huge movie and TV watcher, but I tell yah, alone in a city with two English TV channels (both are horrible news channels that repeat every 49 minutes), really makes you miss English media.

He also said I could hold onto the hard drive to store all the movies. We watched two this weekend (as the rain barred some of our outdoor 'city park' activities).

So right, back to the story.....Friday I went to work. The IT guy J was finally there (he was out of bpest for the last few days). He was able to fix and sort of some stuff with my computer, and I also got a cell phone. yay. Now I have two phones. One isn't hooked up yet though. However, email me and I will send you the number and then you can call for any emergencies. Apparently it is free for me at least if you call me :). I can also trans-continental text....but I am not sure if that will cost a kazillion dollars or not.....anyone want to test it with me?
After work (which ends at 1 30ish on Friday), I met up with Max and we went and toured Castle Hill. This time I got to be the RS and show him everything (it was fun!). We went for coffee at the Kavehuss called Ruszwurm, which was really nice. It is really neat and small. You feel like you are in someone's parlor having coffee and pastries. I sort of screwed up the ordering (confused gram with decagram), and we ended up with too many of these 'salty' scones, but that meant we had extras for dinner and snacks the whole weekend. I didn't take any pictures (because the place was so small and quaint that I felt weird), but check out the website! I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I will definitely have to go back! (for those interested, I chose a Tirol Strudel with Meggyes (cherry), we also tried these things called pogácsa, which are called 'salty tea cakes'. They were salty alright. very salty, but flaky and pretty good....the pogácsa, was also the thing I got the weights confused with...so we had ALOT of them).

After that we continued walking around the castle. This time there was no wine festival so we got to walk around the other side and see a great view of Pest, including the parliament (that square building is one of the baths!) and the chain bridge (the centre and left photos!). We then walked over the chain bridge over to pest, down through Roosevelt Square, through to Vaci Utca (which is the main tourist drag). It has a bunch of shops and 'traditional' Hungarian restaurants. (by 'traditional' I mean they are targeted at tourists, so the food isn't truly 'authentic', but the prices are!). After that we made our way back to the apartment so I could change (out of my work clothes) and then head down to the Okotogon for dinner. We also were going to meet up with some people who work at the embassy. We went for dinner at a hungarian restaurant called 'Menzes'. It was a 1970 deco place that served traditional hungarian cuisine. I had pork and sauerkraut. and well all I can say was that it was incredibly salty. In fact, I really only ate the pork and a bit of the sauerkraut for my blood pressure's sake. Max had a Hungarian version of steak and mushrooms. We also had some Hungarian beer (which is nice and light, and a good summer beer! (no more ales!)). For the starters we had PICKLED PEPPERS and a garlic soup that came with a smaller version of a Lángos. It was very....Hungarian....

After dinner we met up with some of the younger people who work at the embassy (both Canadians and some Hungarians too!). We went out to this bar called "" which is a ruin pub, a type of pub that is apparently really known in Budapest, and well not so much outside of Budapest. The pub is not really a pub persay...it was actually an old three story apartment building 'converted' to a pub. I use converted very losely as all they really did was remove the doors from all the rooms. You are free to roam around and choose a place to sit and drink your drink (the two photos on the right are the main courtyard (which becomes out doors as the roof slides off), and an example of a 'room' you can just sit an have a drink in!). There was a hug bar on the ground floor and one on the second floor. In the basement there was a dance floor placing Hungarian folk/dance music. It was pretty cool. here are a couple of pictures of the bar. I will post a full blog devoted to it later on this week!) There was also an 'American hot dog stand'.

We left the bar around 1 30, and the trams had stopped running so we had to take our first 'night bus'. It was basically a bus filled with young pepper at various levels of intoxication. We weren't worse for wear, having eaten a large meal and had only one beer. It was interesting though! There were a couple of English speakers on the bus (and sadly a pick pocketer). He didn't manage to get the girls wallet but max saw him try!

Saturday we got up in the morning and headed for the Museum of Terror (which will be another separate post). In a nut shell, the museum was really interesting and very well presented! I brought RS with me (as he has a chapter on this Museum), and it proved to be very useful (it also meant that I didn't have to buy a head set!). Max thought the RS book was very 'American'. and well I guess it is (as all the humour and cultural references, focus on 'cheapest' things are American-related). But, I get the jokes and gladly translated :).

After the Museam of Terror we went for lunch/coffee/cakes and a Hungarian Canadian owned, newly restored, coffee house in Andrassy Utca about a block from the Museum. It was wonderful! The place was recommended by the trade commissioner at the Embassy (just doing her job :)). It was fabu! Here's what it looked like inside. We had a Lesco stew, which is a traditional Hungarian stew made of sausages, paprika, onions, tomato, and egg. the bread was made on the premises! It was actually very very good, and I am going to try and recreate it! For dessert we had a chocolate moose bomb that was milk chocolate with chocolate, caramel and peanuts and a poppy seed cake with lime icing. Both very good (however, I liked the poppy seed cake the best). I took pictures of them all, because I am a nerd.

After Luckas we went to the mall. It was raining and we didn't really want to go home yet, and well most things in Bpest at 4pm on a sat were closed. Except for the mall. So there we went. We wondered around. I showed max all the interesting stores (and he gawked at all the German owned ones). Then we came home, had dinner (which was a hole bunch of 'Hungarian' things we got at Match, one was a 'prepared egg' that turned out to be a deviled egg (I added paprika to it as we do at home!) point for me!).

Sunday we went to the grand market hall. But it was closed. I thought it was open on Sunday but closed on Mondays (here it's either or). Turns out this market is closed on Sundays, open on mondays! SO we walked up Vaci utca again...this time it was POORING rain and well it was a bit cold and rainy. I thought max had a plan, and he thought I did, so we both 'followed' each other for a hour. Then I got really cold and was already wet so I demanded we stop and figure out a plan. We went to a coffee shop to warm up and decided that seeing as it was pooring rain we should just go home and watch a movie...by pooring rain I mean POORING, WINDBLOWING.


just finished dinner and am going to start to watch Chocolat from my new hard drive. Work and MRP tomorrow!!!

Jess

p.s catherine---send me your address!
Mum, did you get the floors done? (I saw millie's post of FB).
Dad, kelly, pat,,,send updates!!!

It's a Rainy Day In Budapest!

Well, like the title of this post says....it is a rainy day in Budapest. This means that there were ample amounts of crazy people out today (and on the metro, one man was passed out and I swear I saw about a dozen people that just looked drunk).

I stopped at the store today (I seem to go everyday, I can't handle too long in those stores, as it actually takes a very long time just to find even one thing!). Anyway, right, so I was in the line to pay, and there was a guy in front of me who looked a bit too young to be buying beer, which is of course available at every supermarket, dizcount store and corner store in the city. The check out lady was thinking the same thing. Although the conversation between the guy(G) and the check-out lady (COL) was completely in Hungarian, I feel as if I understood it all based on their non-verbal communication. it went like this:

COL: You are too young to by discounted beer (the can was very dented), let me see some ID
G: Oh common, really? you think I am too young? I am not too young.
COL: I won't scan the can until I see ID, you don't look old enough
G: really? I think that's silly, I don't really want to show you id, just let me pay (hands the money to her)
COL: Nope, I won't let you leave with the beer until I see ID
G: fine (shrugs, goes into his wallet and gets his ID out, shows the COL).
COL: Good, that will be 310 HUF
G: takes the beer
COL: shakes her head (and to me says something in Hungarian). I sort of envisioned it being something like "That guy was already drunk(which it did seem as if this were the case). I can't believe he was of age"
Jess: Smiles, agrees with a head nod, and says Kosonom! THen leaves.

That is my story.

Today was a good day at work, I met the ambassador, which was really neat. Then I found out that the IT guy will be back tomorrow, so perhaps I will be able to move into my office!

Yay!

Also, Max comes tonight! He's here for the weekend (and I promise, that while blogging might be limited, I will def. have some great new tourist stories and pictures for posting). THis will make the blog a bit more interesting too!

Toodles!

Jess

Day II

Day II,

I think as the days past, and the novelty of a new place wears off, I am starting to really settle in to living here.... while I've only been here for almost a week, I already am starting to become a bit more comfortable in my surroundings. My 'traveler' mentality is starting to fade....and I hope to get into some sort of routine (or else my MRP will NEVER get written!).

While yesterday was my first day, today was really my first day, as the time for meet and greet was over, and well it was my turn to get down to business and start working, applying what I have learned to the real world. So far, the most important thing that I have been given is to become acquainted with the country level and regional politics. Learning the political structure, names and faces is perhaps the more fascinating- and most confusing part learning about a country. It also made the day feel very long... all this 'newness' is pretty exhausting!

SO far, so good.

I also got another phrase book today (which is good, because I lost mine on SUnday and have been sans linguistic aid since then!). I think I might have left it on a bench outside Ikea.....oh well. I have decided to concentrate on learning numbers now...because those are important...especially 1-10 and perhaps 1-100. So far a similarity be French, English and Hungarian can be found in their number system, (yes!). as after 10 the next number is literally 10-1 (eleven), 10-2 (twelve), 10-3 (thirteen), 10-4 (fourteen). So knowing one to ten, then each multiple of 10 after that to one hundred will vastly increase my vocabulary! I also found out today that the measurement system here uses kilos and decagrams (which are multiples of 10). This might explain why I got a funny look when ordering 10 decagrams of something....).

For those of you who wish to read about every detail of my live, after work I went to the DM, which is the German equivalent to Boots and Shopper's Drug Mart. Goal: Mouth Wash, teeth flossers, and shampoo. Outcome: success. Actions to achieve goal: analyzed the German words on the mouth wash bottle (thank gosh you can actually read German out loud in English, and it sort of sounds like either some odd accent in English, or something very literal. (to do this I had to peel back the Hungarian language sticker that was plastered on top of the German). For the shampoo, I smelt them, and settled on Dove...as it smelt most like home, and well frankly the mouth wash translations were tiring enough. The tooth picker floss things were easy...just had to look for them.... Max comes tomorrow (yeah!), I may take him back to DM to be a free translator!

After the DM, I stopped at the Spar for a snack ( I still haven't gotten the nerve up to going to the very scrumptious smelling pastry shops that are at every metro stop, and every other street corner, I really need to hurry up and become more confident in Hungarian!). There I also bought this bread that looks like Challah, but there seems to be dark and light bread mixed together, its marbled!. That was exciting. Then I ended up on the red metro line instead of the blue, only slightly changing my route home.

When I got home I wrote a 'article' for the uOttawa 'blog' that I have to contribute to, and now, well I am writing on this one. the uOttawa blog was actually harder than I thought....I didn't really know what to write about! When it is posted, I will post it here...but I promise you, it's not as exciting or photo-laden is this one is!


I also started to do some laundry....and of course, the laundry machine is vastly different than north American versions of laundry machines...how to describe? well, for starters, the machine is top loading, but the barrel that the clothes go in is actually in the same position as a north American front loading laundry machine. You have to physically 'open' the barrel (after you open the separate lid), and put in the clothes. The lid has 4 different dispensers on it...and the pictures don't really say much regarding what goes where...I decided to wash the towels first....just in case.....I am fearful of putting in the rest of my clothes...not because I am afraid that they will be ruined....more that I don't want to have to deal with shopping for new clothes....its no fun shopping when you need something!


It is getting late here, so, in the vain hope that I can get to bed early tonight....I should head off!

Happy rest of day everyone!

Jess

First Day on the Job

Today was my very first day on the job. The embassy is in the Buda side of Budapest, and when I exit the metro I have a beautiful view of the Hungarian Parliament (the photo on the right is my view when I exit!). It takes about 30-45 minutes to get there in the morning. Maybe less. There are about a million different ways I could go, and well I haven't figured out which way is the fastest. Today I took the metro and then walked. I actually ended up walking to the metro station (because I missed my tram). It turns out that the trams literally run every 3 minutes, so I should have just waited for the next one (I guess I was thinking of OC transpo and the TTC schedules....lol). The metros run every 4.5 minutes (they have clocks in the stations that measure the time!).

The people at work seem very nice and eager. It was also nice to talk to people in English, and ask the burning linguistic questions to an anglophone who might understand my confusion....I did find out that the proper pronunciation of my name in Hungarian is literally YEA-shi-saw. yup. that's right..I guess my name isn't exactly as 'international' as I had hoped it could be. I also made a new tea friend! yay!

Starting my first day I was a little nervous. I mean first days are always a bit nerve racking, but I had the added stress of the potential for getting lost (which of course I did... I would like to call it an 'unanticipated detour' through central Buda....hehe). When I got there I also wasn't really sure what to say other than 'Hi I am the new Intern'. I mean I have started new jobs before where the person at the front wasn't aware that I was coming,It's always a bit awkward.......oh well, I made it through the day. As per usual, as an intern, you are sort at the bottom of the totem poll. This means that I have yet to get a permanent desk or space as of now. I actually think it might be nice to move around for a while in order to get to know everyone.

So far, I haven't really made any real 'friends' but its only the first day.

After work, I decided to take a small detour across the Danube to check out the Hungarian Parliament up close. It was beautiful! As I carry my RS book pretty much everywhere, I decided to see what he had to say about the nearby surrondings. I didn't go through his whole tour (I was waaay to tired to attempt that), but I did read about several interesting monuments that are near the parliament. I shoud say that Hungary has a unicameral parliamentary system of governance, and the head of state is the Prime Minister (who is elected by the Members of Parliament, who are elected by the people). In order to become a MP the person has to win at least 50% of the votes in their riding, so there are several rounds of voting (where the bottom candidates in each round are cut out, etc). The parliament is mix member proportional. This means that some of their MPs are directly elected by the people, while others are nominated via party lists according to each party's percentage of the popular vote.


Across the street from the parliament there is a neat statue standing on a bridge (left photo). He is meant to 'watch over parliament' to ensure that they are law abiding (the photo on the right). His name is Imre Nagy. He was a famous politician whose job it was to made Stalin's communist regime less harsh. He wasn't beloved by the Soviets, who arrested and killed him. After the fall of communism in 1989, he was named a national hero, and a statue was erected in his honor.

I also walked by liberty square, which is a controversial square commemorating the Soviet liberation of Hungary from the Natzi's. The significance of the square is a bit perplexing though, as while the soviets did liberate Hungary from the Natzi's, the soviety reign on the country for the next 40 years wasn't exactly warmly regarded either. But as RS questions, " Does their leader's oppression of the Hungarians make these soldiers' sacrifice less worthy of being honoured?" (pg 125). Its quite a question, eh? I can say that the monument is fenced off.....so you can't get up close....or so others can't destroy it...

After that I walked around the area a bit more (beautiful buildings!). Then stopped for a too-roh -rodi (this one has a Hazelnut centre, which was a bit nicer as it wasn't pure cheese). I am now home, exhausted from the day....and trying to figure out if I really want to attempt to make dinner on the one element that currently works in my apartment....you wouldn't think this would be a problem, but making rice or pasta + a sauce of some sort it a bit of a challenge with only one element (and no microwave!). oh well. Hopefully I can get this fixed.... I am out of Listerine.....so tomorrow I have to attempt to find some......

Last day as a tourist.....Andrassy utca and Hero's Square

Well, today, I am sad to say was the last day of my little vacation. Yup, that is right...tomorrow I start my internship- the reason why I decided to pack my bags and move to the land of the Magyars.

It is also the day when reality will sink in...

After sleeping in a bit, and organizing some things in my new room, I decided to try another Rick Steves walking tour. I am a bit tired of navigating, so I choose the "Andrassy Utca" walk, because it required that I walk in a straight line.

Andrassy Utca is the Budpest version of the Champs-Élysées, in Paris. I have been to the Champs-Élysées, and well, while Andrassy Utca is very long (3.2 KM, the CE is 2 KM) and home to several high end retailers like Gucci, DG etc, and is definitely nicer than most streets that I have been on in Budapest, but I thought it lacked the splendor and grandiose that I felt walking up the champs in Paris. It could have been the weather too... but I think it may have been more that Budapest is still a city making up for years of neglect.

I started out pretty good, I made it to the 'start' of the tour Deak Ter, and fumbled a bit on the directions. You see, Deak ter is where all three metro lines meet, and well there are about 8 different places to exit (it is one of those 'choose your own stair case metro stops'). Rick just says "Start at the Ter". This left me to wonder, which part of the ter?. I exited at the wrong exit three times. (you see the photo? that is one of the failed exits. I had to get across the ter...which was past all those cars). Eventually I exited at the right stair case, and was able to properly follow Rick's instructions to the second "stop". (I should explain how his books work. Basically, he has written out 'walking tours' that start at one part of the city and end at another. Throughout the 'tour' he gives you instructions from stop 1 to stop 2 etc. While I was able to find Deak Ter without any issues. His instructions to get to stop 2 is where the I fumbled because I wasn't at the right part of the square). Gah. The annoying things about moving to a new place!

Anyway, I did end up on Andrassy Utca. On the left is a photo of the 'bottom of the square'. Again, this is supposed to be the CE in Paris...not exactly...but to be fair, near the top it did get nicer. As I walked up the Utca, I walked by the Postal Museum. It is closed on Mondays, but I will have to make a note to go back. It looked pretty cool! Then, as the street went on, I began to see all the 'high-end retailors' like Gucci. Man, if I ever wanted (or hell, if i ever could afford) to shop at Gucci, I think I would shop at this location. Who wouldn't want to enter a store with statues like that guarding the door? me!. Across from Gucci was the grand ole' opera house.

It actually has a neat history. It was built because the Hungarians of yesteryear wanted to make Budapest a real European city, and well, apparently the only way to do this is to ensure that your city has its own opera house.This was during the Hapburg's Rule . King Josef agreed to finance half of the construction (as Budapest was the co-capital of his empire, and, well, I guess a co-capital of an empire does need its' own opera house.). However, in agreeing to pay for half of it (the state paid for the rest I guess), he put the condition that the physical size of the house be smaller than the opera house in his hometown, Vienna. This was agreed upon, however, much to the chagrin of Franz Josef, while the actual building is physically smaller, the architect, Miklos Ybl, made sure that everything else about the place (i.e. the interior decor, design, acoustics, 'opulence' as RS says in his book etc), was better than the opera house in Vienna. It was reported that Josef wasn't exactly happy, but you must give credit to the designer who did follow the directions. to a Tee. I popped inside (hoping to pick up a flyer for the upcoming operas and ballets, which I want to go an see), and well, it was very posh. As a result, I thought I should be on my best behavior......until I had an urge to act out. And so, the reason behind this picture.

At the Opera House I did manage to get a show schedule. Although it is in Hungarian, the beauty of schedules is that they only use basic words, that can be figured out quite easily!. Don Carlo, The Barber of Seville and The Clemency of Titus are amongst the 7 operas current being shown/staged here. I will most definitely catch a few. Tickets range from 400 HUFs (2 $) for a seriously obstructed view, to 12 100 HUF (60 $) for the best seat in the house). I have always wanted to sit in the balcony. you know? where are the important people sit? In all the old movies where the posh people gossip?

After my (self) entertaining jaunt and photo opt at the Opera house, I crossed the street and walked about 100 meters to a lovely little cafe called Muvesz Kavehaz . Apparently this cafe (literally translated to 'coffee house') is where all the cool ackTors go after their stage rehearsals and such. (The opera house is in the 'Broadway district', home to several Hungarian play houses). As their was an English menu, and the waiter could speak English, I decided that it was a good time to stop for a coffee and my first Hungarian Coffee House Pastry. How these coffee houses work is that you sit down, acknowledge your presence, then get up and go to the showcase and pick the yummy treat you wish to have. I picked a yummy looking mille feuille called the Francia Creme. It was 6 layers of yummy ness. The top was this sugary hard icing (it was brown-ish, I thought it was caramel, but it was just brown icing). then there was layers of filo-type pastry that was slightly saltly. Then after that there was a layer of white creme, then a layer of vanilla custard, then a layer of sweet soft marange. The bottom layer was a second layer of filo pastry (the mille feuille part). The whole thing had a hint of lemon (which seems to be very popular). It was yummy!

I also tried to order an americano. but failed even when I tried to order it the 'correct way'. Let me explain. The last time I attempted to have an americano at a restaurant here was on my first day and I just asked for an Americano. The person corrected me, saying yes, I will make you an espresso longo. I clued into the possibility that an Americano is also called an espresso longo. So, here, I ordered and espresso longo, saying espresso with hot water (when the waiter looked a bit confused). The guy brought me an espresso and perrier. close but no cigar. The espresso was lovely though. I can't (and am not) really complaining. :). It's Just funny how important language is for getting what you want.

After my 'lunch' break, I kept making my way up the street, past the Oktogon, (which is a huge street crossing shaped like an Oktogon) and the Museum of Terror (a museum about the recent history of the occupations of Hungary (Hitler and Stalin). Another thing on my 'to do' list. Then made my past a smaller version of the Oktogon, called Kodaly Korond ter, named after the man who lived in the mansion on the square (see the photo on the left?). This ter used to be called Hitler Ter, during the Natzi occupation of Hungary. Oktogon was called Mussolini Ter at that time too.

Finally, after hours of walking (and several detours), I made it to Heros Square. (the photo at the top of the Blog). The square is the end of Andrassy Utca (which reminded me more of CE than the bottom of the Utca). The square is home to several statues that pay homage to Great Hungarians/Magyars of the Past. The statuein the centre is the king of the Magyar tribe, Arpad. The Magyars are the 'ethic' tribe that first arrived in Hungary way back when( like the 'anglo saxons' or 'celts'). He is known as the 'granddaddy' of all Magyars. (the photo on the right). In the back of the square, there are statues of the 'Heroes' of Hungary dating back to 967 with St. Istvan, the first son of King Geza to be baptized Christian, and consequently marking the beginning of the Magyar's integration with Europe (apparently before they at war with their neighbors), all the way up to 1894 with Lajos Kossuth. He was the man who attempted to lead an independence movement to free Hungary from the Hapsburg Empire. He even put a call out for help from the U.S.A, speaking to congress on the matter. Too bad the US was still in its isolationist FP era, or that at the time of his speech the US was fighting it's civil war. Apparently, according to a NY times article that I found, the Kossuth speak wasn't exactly received as whole hardheadedly as it could have been....apparently congress "...refused to "commit" the country to sympathy with nations struggling for liberty...". Kossuth ended up dieing in exile. But, on a interesting fact note, apparently there is a statue of Kossuth on Capitol Hill in Washington (one of only two statues of non-Americans!).

The two statues that I liked, I took a picture with them. See? The one on the left is a guy named Kalman, he apparently traded a bloody sword for a pile of books to read (point for pacifism), AND he was the first ruler in Europe to ban trials and burning of women accused of being witches (point for women's rights!). The guy on the right is Andras II. He was the Hungarian king who decided, er, realized, that absolutism was not the best way forward, and accepted to share his power (albeit only with the nobility, but it was a start!). His gold medallion represents the Golden Bull of 1222, which is a decree similar to the Magna Carta. (point for sharing power!).

After Hero's Square I headed home, with a 'short stop' to grab some things I still needed for my house. I found a kitchen store and decided to go in to see if they had any cheap-er knife. The ones in my apartment are just not cutting it. (sorry for the pun, I couldn't resist). But in actuality, last night the knife I was using BENT as I cut into a piece of BREAD. Anyway, I got my knife (a cute yellow one), and headed to the shops to get something quick for dinner, then home. I forgot I was in a foreign country. again. and trying to find plain ole 'pasta' sauce was of course a challenge. They don't exactly have a 'pasta sauce aisle'. hell, they didn't even have a 'pasta sauce shelf' (I did find 'Lumber Jack Maple Syrup' (apparently, imported from Canada)). The closest thing I could find was a can of crushed tomatoes, on the bottom shelf below the four shelves of ketchup (non were Heinz by the way). Then I thought, 'this is okay' ill just grab some spices and everything will be in order. wrong. the spices were in Hungarian and I am not so good as deciphering pictures of green leafs. The guy who lived in my room before me left some spices in the cupboard. They are green. I am not sure what they are, but I guess I'll try'em. I forgot that I should always travel with my pocket language book.......which I forgot today...

Tomorrow is my first day at work! This also means that my blogs will most likely be shorter. (or perhaps more to the point!). I hope everyone is doing great, I like all your comments too (it makes me feel less far away from 'my world'. I am having fun here. Yes, there are trying times, but really, it would be super boring here if I didn't venture out into this foreign land!

tata for now!