These last few days have been a bit up and down for me. My stomach is still on the shaky side, and in fact today, I had to come back to the apartment halfway through the Hungarian language school. :( But happier things first. The other day, my flatmate and I had an appointment with our landlady, so we went to see her at her house in Buda. Neither my flatmate nor I had crossed the river yet, so we were in for a first-time-in-Buda adventure! I'd have to say that, stomach pains aside, it was quite a pleasant trip.
There is a calmness to Buda that Pest doesn't quite achieve: it is quaint and welcoming and feels simultaneously cozy and open. I felt quite comfortable, I'd have to say, and it's also just independently lovely. One thing that sort of threw me off, though, was how close the metro ran next to the cars and the sidewalks. Here, you can see some pedestrians, and then a row of parked cars, and then the tram rushing by, barely a foot away from the cars' sideview mirrors.
And here, cyclists ride right next to the metro, as if it were one of their kin.
But there are also streets that are a bit quieter:
And streets that are still quieter, the late-afternoon sun reaching through trees to hit stone-tiled walls not unlike cinematic depictions of quaint European towns.
There are still new developments in Buda, and some of the apartments look quite modern with clean, straight lines and some balance between a soft and vivid palate.
Here are some steps that (I think) lead into a park.
This is the view from our landlady's balcony.
We had dinner plans with friends and so couldn't stay in Buda to explore the place, but we walked along the river to get to the metro station. Across the Danube, we could see one of the bridges:
And on the other side, the now-setting sun illuminated one of the most incredible buildings I have ever seen: Parliament.
As we walked, we took picture after picture, but the sun had passed so that there was no longer this beautiful, natural spotlight on the Hungarian Parliament Building. Still, it was quite an incredible sight:
Walking along the river was wonderful, and they had this great paved area away from the cars where people could walk or bike:
Much to my disappointment, we soon got to the station, where we walked down the stairs to take the metro back over to Pest.
I've been in Budapest for two weeks now, and though I would say I have figured out most of the basics of how to get around here, there is something that doesn't feel quite right. Most of my time is spent at the language school, where I try to cram my brain with as much Hungarian as possible and where I get the opportunity to meet some of the other BSM participants. And yet no matter where I am, or how much fun I am having, all I really want to do is to go back to my apartment.
When I am here, everything feels wonderful. It is comfortable, it is familiar, it is what I will regard as "home," in some sense of the word, for the next four months. I get to do whatever I want here: study Hungarian, maybe read some math, write in my journal, etc. There are no obligations of any sort, social or otherwise, and here in this "home," I feel most myself. It is quiet, it is calm, it is clean, and I am happy. When I think about traveling or exploring Budapest, I am only superficially excited: of course, I would love to see and learn and experience this completely new environment, but the comfort of "home" sometimes seems too much to leave behind, even for a few days or a few hours. Perhaps my stomach pains have some contribution to this mild case of agoraphobia. In my apartment, I can lie down if my stomach hurts, tend to aches and pains, and aside from that, I can eat foods that seem to tame my stomach. I can curl up on my bed. I can keep to myself.
But please don't take my words the wrong way. I don't mean to disregard everything in the complement of my apartment. Budapest is a place teeming with places to see, people to meet, things to explore. And my fellow BSM-ers are wonderful people and make wonderful friends. So maybe it's just that after two weeks of 7-hour Hungarian-language-learning days that end in impromptu hang-outs with friends, I am worn out from the demands of socializing. And also: I miss math.
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