When I first told people I was moving to Budapest, I was asked many times questions such as 'will you have internet there?' and even 'do they have electricity?'. I'm not sure where most people think Hungary is, but I can assure you it is quite a civilised place. To prove it, I will share a few pictures with you.
The first, is a picture of our water pump:
This is where we get our fresh water supply, and also clean ourselves up in the morning. Refreshing!
The second picture was taken after I borrowed the family vehicle to get to the shops:
Doesn't look too comfortable, but after the first 6 or 7 miles you really do get used to it. Here is B at the petrol station:
The first couple of weeks in Hungary have been great. The weather has been unbelievable, even surpassing 40 degrees at times. We have spent a lot of time arranging, and rearranging, the new flat. We still haven't finished everything, but we have all the time in the world to add finishing touches, and we are quite happy with how the flat looks now.
We have a modest one bedroom flat on the 6th floor. The floors are wooden throughout the living room and bedroom, and we even have a little balcony where we can sit and enjoy a beer, or even dinner, on these warm summer evenings. Here's a few pictures of the place for you:
This is the living room. Sorry for the poor quality but it's hard to get a nice one with the sun shining through the window. That double door opens out onto the balcony, and on the right is our bedroom. Special guest appearance by Dibby in this one.
Here is the dining area, which joins on to the living room:
We are still waiting for the dining chairs to arrive, but hopefully they will come this week. Finally, this last picture is of the kitchen:
You can see from the bottom right corner I have been sampling the local breweries' offerings. It's a beautiful kitchen, and on the right out of shot there is a little door which opens out onto another tiny balcony, where we are currently growing some herbs and plants.
We live in the XIIIth district of Budapest in an area called Újlipótváros. It is right in the middle of the city, and we love our neighbourhood. There are a lot of nice restaurants, bars, and more importantly, great ice cream parlours all around us.
I love the architecture of the buildings in Budapest. They range incredibly, from the drab blocks built in the Socialist era, to magnificent masterpieces such as Parlament (the Parliament building, obviously), and Nyugati train station which was built by Gustave Eiffel. I still walk around the city gawping with my mouth open at times, it's hard not to act like a tourist. Hopefully in time, I can walk around with cool indifference just like the locals.
There are many tall buildings here, especially in the city centre you have apartment blocks which are usually 6 or 7 storeys high. Most apartments have balconies and it seems quite a popular past-time here to decorate the balconies with beautiful arrays of flowers. Quite often we will be walking along the streets, in the blistering sunshine, when all of a sudden it appears to rain out of the bright blue sky. Of course, it is just someone watering their floral displays, but it always takes me by surprise when it hits me.
Something else which I love about Hungary is the food. When I first met B, I was quite a fussy eater I have to say. I always have been, although I got more adventurous as I got older, there were certain things I just could not bring myself to try. Being with a Hungarian girl though, you just cannot afford to think this way. The Hungarians love their food, and they love to feed their guests too, so it would be just rude if you were to refuse to eat something they had spent hours preparing.
Since we've been together, B has slowly knocked most of the fussiness out of me. But, I was not quite prepared for the first big family meal since we moved. On the menu - goat. Now I'd not eaten this before, and I still get palpitations when I am told I am about to eat something new. What if I don't like it? Worse still, what if I involuntarily spit it out? Well, I told myself they eat goat all over the place, and it's probably no different from pork, so the jitters soon went away. But then, B's uncle took great delight in telling me what the starter would be. 'What's the word for the inside of bones?' he asked me.
'Errrr...do you mean bone marrow?' I replied.
'Yes, that's the one. We're having bone marrow on toast.' he said.
Palpitations came back with a vengeance.
I had a good couple of hours to worry about this one as they slowly baked in the oven. But when the time came to try it, weirdly, I found some courage. Maybe it was the pálinka. Or maybe I've just changed. But anyway, I scraped out some bone marrow onto a piece of toasted bread, and ate it. And would you believe it, it tasted amazing. After that, I wasn't worried about the goat any more, and neither should I have been, as that was also delicious.
Next on the agenda for me is language school. I have enrolled on a 2 week intensive beginner's course, which I start this week, so hopefully after this I will have a few more words in my vocabulary and a better understanding of the language. Wish me luck!
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