We arrived in Budapest at about 3:30 and made our way to our apartment. We have become pretty good at traveling and finding apartments to stay in. The cost is very comparable to a hotel and the apartments are much more comfortable. We bring our own shampoo, soap, food etc. And we eat in as much as we can. But here we have run into a situation that is not quite resolved yet. The first thing I noticed when we walked in the apartment was that there was a Christmas tree up. I thought it was strange that an apartment for rent would have a Christmas tree, but I thought perhaps they were unusually festive. Then I notice that the place is small and has many knickknacks sitting around. It is very common for these apartments to have art and sculptures around, but this place has every surface covered with things (cds, tapes, seashells, pine cones, plants, clocks, framed photographs.)...hmmm.
So I think all of this is weird but we were scheduled to meet some friends so we just left all of our stuff and headed out to visit with the Key Family! They are living in Kielce in southern Poland and are only in Poland through the end of February. In the US, they live in central Illinois but are originally from Alabama (their accents are unmistakable--southerners for sure!). They have a five year old boy and a not quite two year old girl. Trey so enjoys when we meet up with them. He and their five year old have a very good time together. We found a Hungarian restaurant for dinner and it was different and fun! Trey and I had a pork schnitzel that was as big as a medium pizza!
We went back to our friends' apartment and visited for the evening. When we returned to our apartment, we started to unpack our things. First I went to put our leftover dinner and some milk we bought for breakfast into the refrigerator in the kitchen. Imagine my surprise to find the refrigerator completely full with food. That's when we really started to look around. Every drawer is full of stuff. Some guy's underwear is folded in the top drawer of the dresser in the bedroom. The cabinets in the kitchen are filled with food. There are toiletries in the bathroom. What an awkward living arrangement! Myles contacted the property manager Monday evening (of course it was after hours) and told him that we have no room to put our things etc--the apartment is also much smaller than advertised so we are all crammed in two rooms. The manager responded Tuesday morning that he would send the owner over to get his stuff out. That's a tall order for as much stuff that is here!
On Tuesday we met our friends again and spent the day together. We went to the Central Market where there are all kinds of unique Hungarian goods and food. It was fun to see. Our friends have been here since before Christmas and they were telling us about all the geese that had been "hanging" for sale at the shops. We did not see any but we did see a whole pig hanging and quite a few pigs' heads sitting around. Abbie couldn't look!
We walked across a bridge over the Danube called the Chain Bridge. We are staying on the Pest side of the city and Buda is on the other side of the river. We walked over the bridge into Buda and had lunch. Then the dads and Ben went to take a tour of the Parliament Building. It is a beautiful building. The rest of us went to a park with some very long slides and the kids had a blast. Abbie had a jean skirt on and at some point at the slide park, her skirt ripped--a lot! So our next order of business was to find a shop with jean skirts. That proved to be an easy and cheap task and the new one is even cuter than the one that ripped!
We had dinner at an Italian/Hungarian restaurant and headed back to our apartment for the night. No one had come to take anything out. We are hoping to find someplace else to move to but we don't know how possible that is going to be. We are here three more nights and I am most unhappy about our current living arrangements! Today we are going to Castle Hill and will meet up with another Fulbright friend.
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