A Week and a Half in Budapest!

Sziasztok!

I've been in Budapest for about a week and a half now. Math classes don't start until September 8th, but I'm here early to take an intensive language course. About half of this semester's Budapest Semesters in Math students are already here, including both of my roommates. I live in District VII, so I'm within walking distance of most things in Pest in addition to being near a couple of metro stations and several bus and trolley lines.

St. Stephen's Day
August 20th was St. Stephen's Day, which is a national holiday. I went out for the afternoon with a group of BSMers. We ate street food (lángos and ice cream) near Deák Tér, then walked over to Parliament. We didn't go inside, but we watched the changing of the guard at the flag and the a short ceremony on the building steps. After going over to the Buda side, we walked a bit until we ended up at Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion, where we watched part of another ceremony and listened to music. Then we went to Clark Adam Tér and listened to more music!

Parliament!

The Parliament decorated for St. Stephen's Day

Going back into Parliament after a ceremony.

Matthias Church by the castle in Buda.

Celebration outside Matthias Church

Concert in Clark Adam Ter

Food Adventures
I feel like I've been going to the store every other day! There are lots of small convenience-ish stores that sell fresh produce as well as markets and chain grocery stores, so I go to different places for different foods. The apartment came with an odd assortment of kitchen utensils, and using the oven takes a bit of guesswork, so cooking can be a bit of an experiment. So far I've made pesto chicken, lots of pasta, scrambled eggs, cinnamon toast, and pancakes.

The produce here is fantastic, and that also means there's good fruit juice and jam. So far I've had apricot, peach, and cherry-plum-apple juices and strawberry and apricot jams.

There are a lot of restaurants, especially bakeries and gyro stands, near the language school. My favorite lunch place so far is a sausage restaurant. The school is also next door to Fragola, one of many wonderful gelato places in Budapest.

Exploring Budapest
I've walked around Pest a lot, especially in Districts VII and V. I walk to language school most days, though there's a tram that would cut about ten minutes off the trip. I like seeing the city, and the weather has been good for walking.

The Anglican church I've attended for the past two Sundays is in District VII, so I can easily walk from my apartment.

I live near Városliget, or City Park. For the first few days that I was here, my grandsibb Marguerite was also here for Sziget Festival, so we met up a couple of times, and once we walked around the park. It's huge; we spent more than an hour making a circuit that only went around about half of the park. The zoo is also part of Városliget, and inside the zoo is Hungary's one roller coaster, Hullámvasút.

Hungary's one roller coaster is a 92-year-old woodie. It's lots of fun. I heard a little girl get off behind me and tell her parents, "Nagyon jol! Nagyon jol!" (Very good! Very good!), and I agree.

Last Sunday, I went on a free walking tour of Budapest that focused on Hungary under communism and what has and hasn't changed in the past 25 years. It was really interesting to think about the similarities and differences to Soviet and post-Soviet Azerbaijan.

Picture of everyone on the Communism Tour in front of the one remaining Soviet monument in the city center.
Photo by Free Walking Tours Budapest.

Language Class
I've only had six days of language class (about thirty hours in the classroom), but it feels like a lot more. Hungarian isn't related to any other language I've learned, but structurally it has a lot in common with Azerbaijani, which has been helpful in picking up grammar. I go back and forth between feeling like I can still barely communicate anything and being surprised at how many words I recognize when I walk around. At the zoo, I spent a lot of time looking at signs, and even though I couldn't read most of them, I could pick out a lot of words and reason out a few others, which was exciting!