Fall Treats

A few weeks ago, sitting in the library I got a hankering to get up and go. My friend Jonathon, who is from Chicago, came with me. We decided to make our way to Buda.Budapest has only been a united city for a relatively short time since the mid -19th Century. Pest  is the flat, more expansive, part of Budapest where the CEU is located. Buda  is the hilly side of Budapest and the Danube winds between these two areas keeping them separate.  Winding up its streets was a great way to leave behind readings, essays, presentations, ambitions, and worries. The streets were narrow and steep but at the top laid endless treats.

Paprika!

 When your stomach rumbles like mine does, you can suddenly find yourself having an  incredibly fancy lunch for no other reason then because its a beautiful day and nothing seems so bad in forint. Although my wallet was lighter, I have to say it was a perfect beginning of Fall. It was a treat to sit high above Pest and fill my stomach with the delights that you can see below.

                                                     

Sometimes the chef just gives you little treats.

Best soup ever.

                                                     

 Moving back down to our real lives at the Central European University, we managed to cram in a few more sites like St. Mathias church with its Gothic spires and zig-zagged roof.

                                                                     

  

Perhaps because I am so foreign to this land and there is so much to adjust to but now more than ever, I realize that it's important to pull out and see what is around me. It is easy to walk your eyes straight head, making your way to the next step up and up. But I find when I can stop myself even a little bit and take my self on an adventure, even if it is just walking down another street to the metro, I feel brand new.

A day in the life

I decided to make a little photo collage of a normal day for me. You can find  me skyping Patrick, take a peek at my favorite coffee shop  right around the corner of CEU and my usual paths to and from school. You can walk through the park with beautiful fountains made of stone women  who sit and silently watching the people go by. See the CEU in all its glory and my metro trips home in the relics of communist transport. Enjoy...I most always do.

These shoes where made for walking

I look at the forecast and I finally see some much desired grey clouds on the horizon. School has been quite the revelation. I didn't think it would be easy but I didn't know it could be this hard. The week had been a really test to stay grounded which I failed. However, you have to fall to learn to walk and so that is what I am doing, falling on my face an learning how to stand. To shake myself out of these blues I tried to get myself into the woods. Sat and Sunday where trips to the wooded parts of Budapest. On Saturday I went solo on the number 22 to bus to the second to the last stop, on the edge of the city. I found a whole trail system and so did some investigating.

Good omens for my first hike in the city

Dried out river bed

Treefitti

Its important to fancy up nature

I love adds on the Bus stop

On Sunday Denis, a new friend from Italy who is getting his PhD in cognitive science, and I went on trip to Margret Island which is a small island in the Danube filled with parks, petting zoos, and ruins. We wandered around and saw all kinds of new angles on the city as well as infinite joggers and bikers flowing past. It was a good way to warm up and enjoy the sun before heading into the library to cocoon for hours.

Deer, deer everywhere!

Denis got really excited about the deer and squirrels...don't ask me why 

Storks! 

The edge  of the island

So all this walking put me in a better state of mind and I am looking forward to another week of falling and rising.