Budapest!
January 28, 2007
Jó napot kívánok! (I wish you a good day)
I only have two more days of my Hungarian language class. My brain cannot process anymore Hungarian for awhile; whatever I learn now goes in one ear and out the other. For Friday class we had a scavenger hunt in the area around my language school. We were given clues in Hungarian and we had to de-cypher the clues and find what they were talking about on the street, including signs, items on a menu in restaurants, or counting the number of steel street poles around the block. We know enough grammar to know what the sentences are saying; but, it’s our vocabulary that’s lacking. Unlike English, Hungarian is a suffix-oriented language. Even more than Latin with its conjugations and declensions, because in Hungarian, even prepositions are suffixes to the object of the preposition; Hungarian is an object-oriented language (in a grammatical sense).
This was my St. Olaf weekend. St. Olaf has an interim program in Budapest, and last Thursday I attended their banquet at a fancy, traditional Hungarian restaurant. There was a live roma (gypsy) band including a violinist who serenaded many women throughout the night. Afterward we took some pictures along the Danube. The Danube is a wonderful sight at night with the reflection of the street-lamps and the illuminated buildings in the water.
On Friday, Jackson (who was on the interim trip) and I picked up Laura (who was studying in Geneva) at the airport, and she stayed with me in Budapest for two nights. Because of this, I got my tourist-fix last weekend.
On Saturday morning, Laura and I went to the central market to have some Lángos for breakfast. Then we walked around the city park and Heroes’ Square, and then walked down most of Andrássy út, which is the Champs-Élysées of Budapest. There are many embassies on this street and it is where the aristocracy of Budapest used to live. We walked into the State Opera house. We could only see the lobby, but the lobby is one of the most beautiful rooms I have seen. Its architecture consists of marble, vibrant colors, decorative ceilings and frescos. It does not seem like a place where you can see a $2 opera.
After Jackson was done with his final, the three of us went to a Van Gogh exhibit at the National Museum. The exhibit contained many of his early drawings and quite a few paintings, though none of his really famous works were there. The exhibit was in two big, dark rooms and each work was lit up in its own cubby. The place was packed with people, because there were so many paintings in these two rooms; it would have been a fire hazard in the US. After that we had Greek food with some other Oles and hung out at their hotel for awhile. Then at 2 am, we decided to go to the non-stop pancake shop (well…crêpes). I had two Nutella crêpes. So Laura and I got home about 3:30 and got up at 6:30 so she could be on her way to Prague. Because of that, I mostly slept on Sunday. It was great to see so many Oles last weekend, but I’m glad they are gone now, because now that comfort is gone and I have to meet people on the BSM program. It’s been hard getting to know people up to this point, but today I went to a random teahouse/internet-house with some fellow BSMers, and it turns out that about 10 other people from the program stopped by. So I spent three hours after class in there talking to people, and I’m at least starting to get to know some people.
Some quick and random observations about Budapest:
You have to pay for garbage bags in grocery stores. A lot of people smoke in Budapest—evidence from the general air quality on the street and in restaurants. It seems like the foods are more natural and many foods are grown locally in Hungary. For example, the egg yokes are orange. Which reminded me of Michael Pollan’s description of egg yokes from Polyface farm—a sustainable farm. Many people use public transportation, don’t own cars (and they’re smaller if they do), don’t have dish washers or dryers. Also the city has renovated many of the old buildings instead of tearing down the old for the new. From what I have seen so far, people in Budapest (and maybe Europe in general) are more sustainable than the US in their daily lives. Though that does not explain the air quality and haze.
There is a subculture in the subway system. At each stop there are many mini-shops in the subway stations. There are also restaurants and even clubs. Every weekend night after the subways stop running at 12, there is a club called Cha-Cha-Cha at Kálvin Tér (my stop). The club is very small cafe during the week, but they put up fabric walls into the subway station on the weekend to expand the size. My landlord’s boyfriend is the DJ at this club. There are street performers, beggars and homeless people also. It’s one thing seeing a homeless person once at a stop, but when you live in a city and see the same homeless people day after day, it really gets to you.
Elevators are sketchy and may crush you if you’re not careful.
I’m putting some night shots of Budapest on Flickr, so check them out!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/webmoof
Viszontlátásra!
Daniel