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.

Bureaucrapest

This week brought a whole new appreciation of the word bureaucracy. I made my first steps to holding a resident's permit. This document allows me to legally stay in Hungary for the year, so it is pretty important.There is  long list of requirements: bank account statements, application forms, photos, copies of passports and proof of insurance, documents from the school and the dorm, and several  of the most expensive postage stamps I have ever bought. Ninety dollars worth (18,000 HUF) of payment became four little postage stamps to be affixed to my documents. I gathered all these materials in a purple, plastic folder and made my way to the office on Tuesday. 

Here is an example of Hungarian Forint (HUF).

Thank you photo machines.

I climbed on a tram that brought me to a bus that brought me to a communist era building that is really a black hole. In this black hole you must line up and you must wait and wait and wait to take a number. Then you must find a seat in a big room with at least fifty other people and you must sit and sit and sit. You need to look hopefully at a small electronic board and watch as numbers spring up and pass. In the end when your number arises you go to a one side of a glassed cubicle. Show your papers and sign and sign and sign the documents. I have never seen so many stamps to validate a single piece of paper before. All-in-all a four hour experience not including travel. sigh. Hopefully in 15 or so days they will decide to let me stay in the country and send me a registration card. Keep your fingers crossed. 

Despite this bleak experience the sun shines down in Budapest. My soggy Washington blood can barely take all the sunshine. I find my self looking at the endless sun symbols with despair on the Weather Channel. It was with some joy that last week I had my first rain shower. It came as the light was fading and the sky became lovely and grey and the wind began to pick up. The weather is pretty muggy here so it felt like I could breath again. I opened my windows wide and tried to capture it.

Speaking of taking a breath, my classes have officially begun. I will be officially be up to my ears in readings, presentations and essays. I am excited and terrified by the challenge but I hear that many people live through it and so I hope to as well. I went to the Central Market, the largest fresh market in the city, to prepare myself for this diligent learning. Think Pikes Place times two and insert the Danube instead of the Puget Sound and you sort of get the idea. I have not been able to find Kale so I may die a small death but there are other pretty  vegetables to sustain me. The most ubiquitous vegetables are: kohlrobi, cabbage, celeriac, tomatoes, potatoes,carrots and paprika (peppers). It is pretty fun to see so much Kohlrobi. 

Descending into the Metro.

I liked the monkey on this door.

Brassica central!! The kohlrobi is front and center !

A display in the market.

 I hope the weeks brings good things to you and I'll keep you update on my scholarly life and explorations of Budapest!