Thursday, June 24, 2010

Hello from Budapest

Thankfully yesterday arrived without torrential rain. I walked part of the way to the train station in Pecs, but picked up a taxi from the first taxi stand I could access. Taking teaching materials with me has added weight to my luggage and I have both a bag to check and one carry on. That made it all cumbersome for a long walk. I got to Budapest OK and elected to take a taxi to the hotel rather than having to carry those bags up and down two different sets of stairs. (The Metro has escalators, but getting to the Metro access requires a flight of stairs from the street level.)

After checking into the hotel, I went over to the Fulbright Office to get my June living allowance, and also to say thank you and good-bye for my wonderful experience here. I stopped at a McDonald's to eat -- since it was now nearly 4 PM and I was hungry. Then I grabbed the 4/6 tram and when over to the West End Shopping Center. I had very good luck in finding a handwork store and got exactly the materials I needed for projects I plan to do at home.

I called Richard and Wendy and we met at Moskava Ter. From there we walked just a short block to a wonderful, neighborhood type restaurant. I had tomato soup which was finom (a very proper Hungarian word for excellent food), and dessert that was out of this world. It was cone shaped poppy seed cake. On one side of the serving dish was hot cherry sauce in a little jar. On the other side was a very small dish of whipped cream on the top and underneath, a custard sauce called madertej that was cold. Oh heaven!

We walked back to Moskava Ter and just decided to go tram hopping. We went through a delightful neighborhood of beautiful houses/flats. Then we grabbed teh 4/6 tram back to our hotel. A very good day and evening in Budapest.

Today our plan to go to Godollo. I'm heading for the castle, while they will explore where they lived there in 1992.

Hard to believe this wonderful adventure is coming to its last days.

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