utca means street.

Arrived a few days ago via London-Heathrow. Wandered around Heathrow a few hours beyond exhausted and absolutely dazed after not sleeping at all on the “red-eye” over. Passed out on the tarmac on the way to Budapest. Came to when we landed. . Took a tram to a metro. Nothing was in English except the Exit sign . Wandered around in circles above ground when I got out of the metro station. Found two Spaniards who finally directed me to my street. Couldn’t even pronounce my street name, still not sure if I can. Didn’t know which apartment it was. No payphones. So I asked a guy in a bodega to use his cell and phoned Ursa (read: Ursha). “17, third floor.” So I hopped in the elevator [yes!!!!] pressed three and found myself on the fifth floor of the building. Walked down two floors til I reached the floor marked 1, despite the fact that it was really the third floor. Found the apartment. Vera greeted me at the door. Ursa was at the kitchen table with Orsi (Orshi) talking political philosophy. Ursa had her oral phd exam on Thursday, so she was flipping out and I told her I could fully relate when she apologized in advance if she acted like a bitch.

Moved into my room. Three times bigger than my old room, with an armoire, some shelves, a nightstand and a nice view of the courtyard. Really high ceilings in the apartment. Moving into Ursa’s room in two weeks – that room is like 5 times bigger than this room (really massive). Vera moved out to her boyfriend’s in the hills. The other roommate is Dorian. He’s from Albania. Ursa is Slovenian. And Vera is Montenegran. We live in the Jewish district, which was the Jewish ghetto during WWII. There are two massive synagogues nearby. Since tonight is the beginning of Shabbat, I saw a few people in ultra-orthodox garb walking about, but I’m told that most Jews don’t live around here. There are many Jewish bookshops in the area. There are also some Koser restaurants (s = sh). It’s a really beautiful district, replete with cobblestones, balconies, etc. Also close to all the bars, “posh” restaurants, etc.

I passed out at like 9 and woke up like 13/14 hours later. I don’t have a watch yet. And without a cell or a clock in this apartment I really have no conception of time anymore, which is great.

Next morning, had morning tea with Vera and Ursa. The torrential downpour stopped by 9/10ish. Walked to Central European University (CEU) - where Vera and Ursa are phd students and where I’ll be taking the summer course – with Vera. CEU is in a beautiful part of town right by St. Istvan’s (Stephen) Basilica. Really nice building. Even has a roof terrace, and a Japanese Garden. Then we met Orsi and Ursa for coffee at Terv – a cute place full of kitschy Communist items and photos.

Discovered that utca means street after asking Vera. Felt pretty sheepish, yet for some reason I’m telling all of you about it. Found my way home after walking down Andrassy Ut (the “Champs Elysee” of Budapest). Marge – we will never escape the ugliness that is Louis Vuitton. There is a massive store here. Right by the Opera House and the Gucci store and the Nike store and the Omega store. Dropped in at an electronics store on my block looking to get a converter for my US plugs. “Nem irtem” (I don’t understand…you…) said the woman and so began my first game of charades. My tiny dictionary also supplied the words “plug”, and “conversion”. Five minutes later I walked out with a converter in hand. Getting toiletries was a blast. Took me ten minutes to figure out which was shampoo, and which was conditioner.

Next day torrential downpours again. They ended by tenish. Walked to the Museum of Applied Arts. Beautiful building. Went to the Great Market Hall – a very old very massive building, with a great glass ceiling. TONS of fruit, vegetable, meat, and baked goods vendors. As much if not more meat than Argentina, which is saying a lot. Tried something called egres (egresh) – sour grape?? – sour, tough, neesh nit (not good). Upstairs, TONS of uber-kitschy souvenirs, tablecloths. Those Russian dolls with more dolls inside of them – instead painted with GW’s face, Osama’s face, and Tony Blair’s face. Downstairs, underground – putrid odors. Pickled goods. Too many to name. Fish. Fish. More pickled goods. I quickly escaped. Back on the ground floor: Lots of paprika. In a can. In a box. In clear plastic vials. In tubes. Beautiful produce. The cherries here are awesome. Again, lots of older people. Generally, I have not seen many little kids. Vera says this is because of the negative mortality rate. Not unusual by Western European standards, but here the rate has been like this since the 70’s (longer than usual). Also, this country has one of the highest rates of depression. Great.

Walked up Vaci Utca . It parallels the Danube. Touristy nonsense. Walked around the Jewish quarter a bit, passed by Budapest’s idea of “Broadway”. Shopping and Fucking. Romeo es Julia. Café Eklektika. Walked through Liberty Square. Really nice massive buildings. At some point saw a word with 4 accents and 3 umlauts. Yup. This is a goofy language. At three ish, met up with Ursa and some of her colleagues at Terv. Ursa just got out of her exam, and each of the phd Philosophy students went straight to Terv after their oral, to drink beer and wait to hear whether they were going home or staying another 2 years. Vera’s in PoliSci – her dept sent home 3 out of 6 students two days before. By fiveish the last person – Gergur (I’m not making these names up) – came out. It was another hour before David, an American professor dropped by to tell them they had passed. Another student – not there – had failed. Then the rest of the professors dropped in and we drank for another few/many hours. Lots of beer. Lots of cigarettes – a 6th and primary food group here. Some pizza was ordered. It came out with Ketchup and I watched as Gergur and Agy adorned their pizzas with Ketchup – EEP.
When I said I was cold, Katy, a professor, instructed me to order plum-flavored palinka – clear, tastes like alcohol, rubbing or otherwise. But I started feeling warmer instantly. Then we headed to Szimpla kert (read: Simpla, b/c Sz is like “s”, but s alone is like “sh”). I think kert means courtyard bar. Here in the spring/summer established bars take over abandoned buildings, and typically leave after a summer. This kert is different and klas, meaning “cool.” Szimpla is hidden, like most of the bars are here. Meaning its on an uber-side street and you would never find it unless someone told you where it was. Didn’t take photos b/c my camera died. For anyone from WashU, it’s like Joe’s bar, only cooler. There’s a movie screen in the back in the garden. 7 different spots to get alcohol. Good music – although at times beyond kitsch – think Motown/reggae/house all at once. Walking through to get to a W.C. looked to my right, saw two people sitting in an oldschool bathtub sawed through. Foosball. Wire and vines dividing the floors (so above the courtyard). Food upstairs. Food downstairs. Graffiti on the stairwell walls. Lots of sitting/standing room. Lots of people. The streets are empty during the day. I couldn’t figure out where all these people came from. Talked to Mike – a philoprof from VT for a while. He’s been here for years and doesn’t speak Hungarian. Though most locals don’t speak English he says he gets around just fine.

Learned some more words, like Kerak (please), pezgo (pejguu), c-veshem (yourwelcome)….Talked to Adam for a while – He’s Hungarian. His name has an accent over each A and sounds not too much like Adam. We spoke for a while which is surprising considering that he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Hungarian. When we got hungry at 1am he asked the bartender if they had anymore bread with duck or goose fat. They had no more bread, cheese or duck fat. So we had palacintash (somewhere between a crepe and a pancake) with nutella. This is bar food.

Went to bed at 4. Woke up at 2 something. Left the house by 4ish. Walked to some galleries. Closed. Closed. Open. Got to a tiny museum. Didn’t know that it was a museum solely about the work of Miklas Roth – a mosaicist and stained glass artist who lived and worked in the latter half of the 19th century. The museum is in his old family home. I was the only one there. The lights were opened and closed for me alone.
Walked by some second-hand clothing stores. Not good. Boutiques. Not good. My wardrobe is unlikely to expand while here, which is very good news for my closet and my wallet.

Some odd news: saw three black people today. It was the first time I’ve seen anyone who wasn’t Caucasian all week. Buenos Aires was a more diverse city. And that’s saying a lot.

Haven’t really been using any public transport since the day I got here because I prefer walking. Vera says the bus is preferable b/c no one ever checks your ticket. On the way home from a bar/party last night Ursa and I took the bus. No ticket. No problem. We rode the metro earlier in the night, which was funny, b/c Bratislav had a packet of tickets he handed to each of us like candy, which we then inserted into these funny machines that cut a piece out of them as 7 police officers looked on. After we rode the escalator down to the track, which moves like four times faster than any escalator in the states, someone else approached us ordering us to show our tickets.

The bar last night was attached to an alternative arts center. I think one of the phd students rented the courtyard out for us to drink in. Tried this bizarre herbal liquor with tonic, great. Leaving heard a Hungarian speaking to an American about how Sunset Park was his favorite park when he lived in NY because it was fun to get high in. Also liked Washington Square Park. Delivered food to a wrong address once and found people scrubbing a floor on their knees. Said he felt paranoic because 6 mos. prior in Budapest he had been arrested for shaking cars one night while he was drunk.

Grey out today. We might go to Margaret island later in the afternoon.

Sorry if this was a rather dull post. Shorter more exciting ones to come hopefully soon. But I am fully enjoying sleeping and lazing about. I think this is Ursa's doing.

Likely going to Vienna and possibly Prague next week.

vistlat! (later!)
amie

P.S. mom - tried the stuffed peppers here. yours are much better. what's with them sweetening tomato sauce to the point that it tastes like candy here? blech.