A few days in Budapest

Blog points for anyone who can name the Budapest locations.

Freedom

I have lived in Budapest for 83 days. I made it through my half term alive and happy and now know in my heart that I live here, it will be my home for at least a couple of years, maybe more, who knows? I woke up this morning with sunlight streaming through my wooden shutters, knowing that I have a whole week of freedom ahead of me. Naturally, my brain is still mush from work, but another day of silence will fix that and give me room to breathe.

This morning I walked down to Nyugati to get my monthly pass and a couple of weekly tickets for my guests who arrive tomorrow. My pass ran out yesterday so I walked down the korut and watched the Saturday morning life pass me by, it is getting colder so next time I step outside my apartment, gloves are a must. After that I went to the big supermarket next to the station to get a few supplies and found that this place sold pierogi ruskie, my favourite polish dumplings, which made me giggle with joy in the freezer aisle. strange looks abound, but what did I care? I am free of work, free of time constraints, free to enjoy the city that has been my home for the last 83 days.

I have big plans for the next few days, I can't wait to be a tourist with my friends. One of the things that I love most about having people to stay is the mornings. Waking up when there are people around me, having some-one to cook for and some-one who makes you coffee because they are awake and you are still asleep. Living alone is amazing, but so is the novelty of some-one to talk to you when you are normally wandering around in a morning brain fog. The sun is shining and life is good today, bring on the freedom.

Kaisers

My local supermarket is named Kaisers, and there are a few across Budapest. When I walk through the courtyard I am greeted by a few fruit and veg stalls and a shoe seller. Inside, there is a whole world of Hungarian culinary wonder. I love watching what other people by, you get a great image of what people at home are eating and cooking.

Even when it is cold outside and I want nothing more than to go home and curl up in my flat, somehow the supermarket seems warm and safe. I never mind waiting in line because the people watching opportunities are just so amazing.

Wide open yawn

I have spent the whole day working with 3 year old children and it is totally exhausting. They are gorgeous little bundles of love, of course, but they do suck the life force from you. There is only one more day before my bed and a whole week of lie-ins beckon me, so I am feeling grateful and happy that I get a chance to recharge my batteries and spend time with my friends. I have lots of work to do, but it is making me feel happy and useful at work.

Colder and colder

The cold and stuffy nose is nearkt gone so I am feeling less like hiding and more like frollicking in the sunshine. The air is crisp today and you can see your breath in it, you need a thick cardigan to stand outside now. I love the weather, cold and clear, it is my favourite type of day. I will be going to work with the little ones today pleased to have the chance to stand and puff in the cold.

Now that the last week is officially under way I am getting excited too about seeing N and her daughter Z, they arrive on Sunday. Little do they know that I will be taking them biking around Margit Island, to get the most out of the autumn leaf falling weather. I hope they realise that they will be feeling the cold on bare skin when we go to the baths and sit outside in the steaming thermal pool. I also can't wait to go to the Synagogue and a couple of museums that have so far failed to appear on mu Sunday agenda.

After all this, I get to go back to York. I will be eating a full English breakfast and chatting to J about her new boyfriend before you know it.

Truly autumnal Sunday

I didn't take my camera out with me today. I am always snapping away when I go out, but today I wanted a different feeling in this city. I wanted to walk and not be noticed, to wander and maybe fit in, look like I live there and am not an English girl with her guide book tucked away but still an air of being lost.

Budapest is truly autumnal. Some-how all the trees are still green, but the air is cold for the first time and crisp, golden leaves line the paths and roads. Andrassy still has shadows twinkling from the bright sun through the leaves. Everywhere I look I see guidebooks and city maps and I have noticed in the two and a half months that I have lived here that this seems to be a year round thing.

There is only a week left of school before the holidays and my yearning for York has not gone away. Still, I like the cold and the changing seasons is what I am here for, to watch Budapest through the year. To get to the end of the school year and look forward to knowing what will be coming again next year. I am lucky that I get to experience this new city and watch her change, but I will be just as glad when Budapest is not new any-more, when it is familiar and feels like home.

The unbearable lightness of being

If I had to choose a favourite book of all time I think I would be in a bit of trouble. There are quite a few books that I go back to again and again. At the moment I am re-reading a book that had a real impact on me when I first read it and on closer inspection I find it just as spellbinding as ever. I have read quite a few of Milan Kunderas work and 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' remains my firm favourite.

It is essentially a book about love, about the choices that people make and they way that they wrap their minds about what is going on around them. Maybe this is a poor explanantion as the book is so much more than this, but I just can't find the words to explain. I remember making K go up to Petrin Hill when we were in Prague so I could be in the place that Kundera talks about in one passage of the book. As a Czech writer who has lived in France for years I was amazed that there were tributes to Kafka everywhere I went in Prague but not much to celebrate Kundera.

The other book that I adore is called 'Ignorance' and is about the return to the homeland for two people exiled from their home country. I read it when I first moved to Poland and found much to relate to when I had just imposed on myself a move from my home. If you have never read any Kundera I would heartily recommend it, I find his writing distant and infused with feeling at the same time. He has made these few days being ill a little better as it has given me the time to read again.