Dispatch From LA

drifting

26 chatterboxes

100 degrees

first day of school

electricity goes out

i drifted back to budapest...

i did not remove this apartment directory and bring it home to hang here in moss cottage.

 i didn't.

but i wanted to.

this was not today's lunch.

but i wish it had been.

you'll see a lot of these same photos in my travel journal.  and just like here some of them will go with my writing and some of them won't.

most of them won't.

apparently i love duck.  this one is in a mango orange sauce.  and served with nut covered potato bready puff balls with a bit of plum jam inside.  can one of you come over to my house and roast me up a luscious duck breast once a week?  please.

i'll make you one of these:

whaddayasay?

happy september

Collecting my Danube water sample was not nearly as difficult as I feared it would be.  It involved a low-impact run across 2 roads.  Climbing over one guard rail.  Picking my way down 1 stone staircase covered in broken glass.  Scrambling down to the water. Bending over and dunking the big measuring cup I brought from the apartment into said river.  Filling up old water bottle while sitting on a step.  My sister stood at the ready with rope and small inflatable raft just in case I took a tumble. Giant Buck kept watch from a nearby bridge in case he needed to pluck me out of the river with his kitty mouth.  

No need!

It's really September. 

I'm printing photos to add to my travel journal.  

Have you seen The Pioneer Woman's cooking show on Food Network?  Love.  It.  

I step back into school marm shoes tomorrow.

I need to apply for a new passport.

late summer in budapest

 

 

over and over you collapse with wonder

i miss budapest.  i miss buck.  today i took a nap with his box of ashes next to me.  maybe tonight i will put my bottle of carefully collected danube water under my pillow. 

i sat next to a dear hungarian woman named erzsébet on the flight home.  she told me about growing up in hungary after the war and communist times and leaving her country and family behind.  making a new life in new york.  eventually returning with her american husband and buying an apartment in budapest.  and about the priest and his mother who live in the apartment when they are not in budapest.  

we had a fascinating conversation.  and as we talked the plane swam through fields of wispy clouds so beautiful i wanted to cry.  

meeting erzsébet on the plane was such a sweet conclusion to my trip.  she had ice-blue eyes with beautiful lines all around them like a fine map.  i felt like i was looking into the radiant soul of hungary.

and i also want to tell you about this tiny bookstore crammed full of books.  and the owner.  and how i told him i would do a post on his charming store, but i lost the bag with all of the information printed on the outside.

if he somehow stumbles across this post i hope he leaves a comment with a link to his bookstore so i can add it.  because it really was a special place.  i told you before that budapest is a city that appreciates books.  as well as the bookstores, small and large, new and antiquarian, there are the book kiosks on many large corners.

...anyway this little store crowded with books was enchanting.  just a few doors down from Nándori Cukrászda on Ráday utca.  here's the pile i left with:

and look, a small outdoor library on the square just outside the apartment:

these are the things you discover about a city when you spend a couple of weeks wandering the streets.  small things bow before you. revealing themselves.  wish i was still there, tramping around.  lingering.  my heart misses budapest.

 over and over you collapse with wonder.

 the books, the people, old busses and trams, a certain melancholy in the grand faded buildings, small scenes all coming together.  i wish i had photos of the 2 stars of the movie i wrote in my mind.  one, a girl on the tram.  hefty, frizzy mound of hair pulled back, perfect ringlet sideburns, pink lipstick, awkward, kept pulling down her shirt, licking her lips. strangely applied black eyeliner, odd, quirky, mental capacity slightly diminished.  the young man another misfit.  very small, kept his towel around his waist, asked my sister to take his picture at the baths, nervous, shy, sweet, alone.  tram enthusiasts.  they're going to enter a chess championship and win! 

but in the end we had to leave budapest behind and fly back west, back home.  me still writing scenes, flying through clouds, my movie still looping through my mind.  sweet erzsébet dozing in the seat next to me.

good bye budapest

headed home.  carol is already flying out over the atlantic and i'll be following behind her in a couple hours.  my last post from budapest.  i have plenty more posts coming about  my time here once I get home and get settled.

loved having all of you here with me.

just going to shrink bucky down to regular cat size and put him back in my head.  will let him back out to wander LA once home.

xo

tic tac

If you come to Budapest you'll read about all the regular tourist stuff to do, but you might want something a little further afield.  Something not in most of the big guide books.

Somewhere out in the Buda Hills say...out in Zugliget.  You can catch the #291 bus from Széll Kálmán tér (formerly Moszkva tér).  Take it all the way to the end and look for signs for the Libegő  (chair lift) ascending János hill - tallest in Budapest!

The bus rambles through the hills bumping you along in a most pleasant way until you feel like you're far out of the city.  Only you're not.  Not exactly.

Don't expect any long-winded safety instructions.  Nope.  You stand on 2 yellow circles and before you can say "maybe this isn't a good idea" the chair lift comes speeding towards your arse and just like that...

you're in the air.

Sister was instructed not to move, laugh, shake the chair, put arms out, or breathe.  She ignored me and immediately started fooling around.  I was...well the truth is, I was a little bit terrified.  And the ride lasted 15 minutes.  And we had a round trip ticket so that's 30 minutes.  And the way back was super steep and the ground was a long way down.

I got her back good yesterday by dashing on the tram and leaving her behind.  ha ha  Okay it was an accident and she caught up with me at our usual tram stop.  But still..  ha ha.

Eventually I relaxed enough to enjoy the lush green woods and take a few pictures.    Mostly we traveled through the woods, but there were a few cool houses close to the bottom of the hill.

Sister continued with her hijinx.

Afterwards we rambled back down the hill on the #291

Stopping for lunch of course.  More fizzy lemonades.  Mango lemon for me and kiwi lemon for Sister.

mmmmmmmmmm

Sister's fast asleep now.  Her flight leaves first in the morning and she will rise before dawn to head to the airport.  I think I'll go stick a tic tac in her mouth.

Ecseri Flea Market

You come to Budapest.  You go to Ecseri Flea Market in the XIX district of Budapest - Kispest.  Take the M3 metro, exit at Hatar Ut., leave the metro and walk upstairs to catch the busses.   Several will take you where you need to go.  We caught the 294E and exited at Naszod.  

By this time you have left the city centre of Budapest far behind, but you're still inside Budapest.  In other words your 7-day transportation pass will still work out here. There are interesting red-roofed houses with gardens.  Go up the stairs and cross the highway bridge.  You'll see the signs.

High five yourselves.  You've ignored the warnings about pickpockets, the incredibly long length of the trip, and all the crap you'll be surrounded with.  All lies.  All written by sissies.  This is a FABULOUS treasure trove full of quirky characters and nice people.  One of the largest in Eastern Europe.  If you go on a hot day in late summer you may find the nice lady with the giant water mister apparatus who will come over unbidden and soak your shirt.  Think of it as a wet t-shirt contest Hungarian style.  You'll enjoy it.  Don't wear your pink & black Hello Kitty bra with your white shirt.  But if you forget and do, it's okay.  You'll fit in fine.

You'll probably do a better job of haggling than we did.  But even if you're no expert, you'll still pay less than their initial offer.  As the saying about Ecseri goes:

"How much of a discount would you give from half your price?"

We made a bee line for the embroidered linens & fabric table.  Each of us got a tablecloth.  I may have picked up a half dozen smaller pieces.  I can't remember.  This seasoned Ecseri shopper & his wife have been coming here for the last 15 years.

We have not.

I tried to maintain some degree of aplomb as I sifted through the bright baubles and soviet trinkets.

It was an absolute embarrassment of riches.  

I was filled with wild delicious excitement.

I thought these babydolls were so so sweet.

We left the way we came.  The shopping bag we'd brought loaded down with our loot.  Climbed back on the bus and headed for home.

Did I mention that Ecseri is free to attend?  It is!

 

ecseri flea market sneak peek!

super quick post of some of the loot we brought back from the ecseri flea market!

i had to get some a small animal menagerie to keep baby buck company.  carol brought him with her when she came.  my cookie!

more tomorrow, but in the meantime... go HERE to read more about our flea market adventure!

good night from budapest.  thanks for all the comments.  we read them aloud to each other in dramatic voices.  v.v. fun!

 

adventure intrigue pleasure

yesterday evening we went back to the baths.

anyone who says disneyland is the happiest place on earth hasn't been to the  Széchenyi baths on a warm evening in budapest.

heaven

the atmosphere is charged with history.  and pleasure.

we sampled all the pools.  and found them to be good.  sigh.

our headquarters have become v.v. messy!

today we're off to a flea market on the outskirts of town which promises to be full of adventure and intrigue.  more later!

hey you

it's me mary ann.  right where you left me.

iced coffee in a shaded courtyard.  yes please.

continuing to absorb the tastes of budapest.  now with my SISTER to share it all with.   

she's going to do a post on the baths soon.  we went yesterday to escape the soaring summer temperatures.  100% refreshing cool splashing effervescent cultural experience.

trying to capture some of the city's lovely residents, quirky characters, and proud citizens.

i love their bold fashion sense.

this pretty young woman was heat wave ready.

back home on the balcony sister and i plopped our sweet plates over our journals.  

earlier we explored hidden pockets of green.  there are so many ways to lose oneself here.

a shady park.

beauty salon.

hidden apartment building courtyards.  someone left the gate open.

we entered into another world.

of overgrown vines and ramshackle garden.  a cobbled path.  quiet.


hello, sleepy paradise.

 

i'm a girl reporter who's gotten woefully behind.  but since it's 100 degrees here today we're taking an air conditioned interlude this afternoon in the apartment.  getting caught up on journaling, blogging, napping, reading, whistle practice.

my first hungarian cat.  he's a big black & white like my buck.  my buck...  i have conjured him up here big and tall.  the 100 foot cat.  following me through the streets.  there's his ear over the top of that distant building!  look a swoosh of his tail!  he drinks from the danube.  naps on the parliament lawn on his back.  legs in the air.  good boy.  good cookie.

hungarian festival of folk art

when i travel i become a complete night owl.  for example right now it's nearly 1 am and i'm wide away having just finished working in my travel journal.  in the light of the early evening i sat out on the balcony and wrote everything i could remember about my day.

about attending the hungarian festival of folk art up on castle hill.

about wandering the cobbled paths snaking over the castle grounds.  booth after booth of master craftspeople from craft unions,  craft schools, and guilds all over the carpathian basin.

hungary of course, but also special guests from lithuania, latvia, and estonia.  oh eastern europe where have you been all my life?

the festival towered over the banks of the blue danube.  i kept going over to the palace walls and gazing off into the distance.  at the water and bridges. at the city sprawled over the hills.

i kept wanting to slap someone or myself and say, "can you believe this?!  isn't it awesome?"  because you know, really really...it WAS.

every crafty second of it.

there were lace makers, embroiders, woodworkers, felters.  so so many craftspeople.  and there were workshops where they eagerly taught their skills to anyone who was interested in learning and trying.

i felt my journey to budapest deepening

growing richer.

this sweet man patiently showed me how to use the 2 handmade whistles i bought from him.   i'm going to be sort of annoying to be around for awhile LA friends.  just sayin'

i really want you to come to budapest.  it's so magnificent.  some of you need no encouragement, but some of you might be nervous or timid.  it's YOU i want to encourage.  i will send you a special badge of courage to sew onto your shirt.

don't be afraid of getting lost, or not knowing the language.  it's okay to be lost.  someone will set you back on the right track.  someone else will hear you struggle with words and will jump in to help.  you will feel brave, wonderous, alive.

you might be rescued.  

today a stout white-haired hungarian woman put a lightening-fast steel grip on my upper arm and yanked me back from the tram tracks!  I had absent-mindedly started to cross with a tram 20 feet away.   i must have been thinking about cream cakes.

there was strudel.  every kind you can imagine and some you can't.

dough rolled onto hot irons and turned over the coals.  then taken out and rolled in cinnamon & sugar and other things.

and beer.  lots of beer.  i want!

and of course i was ravenous and needed a big half circle of sausage and scoop of mustard to go with.  each succulent bite better than the last.  i stood up at a tall table to eat.

i kept roaming.  bought some great gifts and a few things for myself.  the prices were unbelievable and the quality impeccable.

found this drawstring bag the perfect size for my travel journal.  those are my whistles on top.

i meandered down the hill.  jumped on a bus that magically landed me at the exact right bridge to catch the tramline home.  and this time i didn't stray onto the tracks.  my sister arrives in the morning!  i'm leaving the apartment extra early to walk to get hot fresh strudel that comes highly recommended.  will have coffee & strudel all set up on the balcony table when carol arrives!

food glorious food

I accidentally stumbled upon these Italian cakes which I mistakenly thought were Hungarian.  But I didn't realize it until I got back to the apartment.  Here I was trying to provide you with a descriptive post on Hungarian desserts.  Drat.  Well I guess I'll just have to take one for the team won't I? 

Mimosa Csokis

Sacher

Dolce della Casa Hero

Need some coffee to go with?  Here in Budapest it's served with a glass of mineral water.   I have yet to find any spring water or drinking water in bottles that is not either carbonated or "still" mineral water.  I keep getting surprised when I take a drink.  It's not unpleasant, I'm just not used to it.  At the apartment I drink tap water.

I went to an old school fancy schmancy coffee house the other day, Gerbaud on Vörösmarty tér, and accidentally ended up with 3 beverages.  The hazards of communicating through sign language.  By the way, in case I haven't mentioned it,  translated menus in  English are available.  Most of the servers know at least a little English.  Probably just in the city centre though.  Useful information for when you embark on your own maiden voyage to Budapest.

Oh.  And... uh...  You will be embarking.  I'm going to have to insist.

 
 I've noticed everyone drinking these delightfully fruity fizzy drinks.  The one on the left is fresh orange lemonade.  Very tart, not extremely sweet, and quite refreshing.  On the right is a fantastic hot latte.  

Creamed curd cheese, crisp delish pickles, citrus, a strudel-like breakfast roll.  What you don't see is the ham & cheese omelet to the right.  I held my head proudly and pretended that it didn't look like I was eating a breakfast for 4 with drinks for 3.  This particular breakfast was preceded by a 2 tram 1 bus go forward-take-3-steps-back sequence.  In other words, I worked up a healthy appetite.

And on another day...strawberry ginger soda with crushed fruit & citrus.   Which accompanied this:

My favorite meal so far in Budapest:  pork medallions with plum sauce and buttered mashed potatoes.  I die.  From IF Cafe on Ráday utca.  The menu said "duck breast".  Maybe they were out and substituted pork instead.  Maybe this isn't pork.  If it looks good I don't ask questions, I just eat!

Of course this goulash with homemade potato noodles from Menza on Liszt Ferenc tér was also quite fabulous:

Notice the homemade elderflower soda in the glass in the background!  The waiter kindly advised me to select the cucumber salad with my goulash.  I nodded YES very vigorously.

The sweet cucumbers sour cream salad was perfect with the savory beefy goulash stew.  and you can't see it, but there were also thick slices of bread to dip in the goulash gravy.  sigh.

And this is what I'm using to pay for everything.  Click then click again for microscopic detail.  These are getting blown up on my scanner at home, printed, and inserted into my travel journal!

happy 1011th birthday hungary!

today i stepped out of the apartment in mid-afternoon.  a gust of wind met me on the sidewalk wrapping my skin in the perfect temperature.  i stayed close to home because i read that some of the public transportation wouldn't be running due to the big holiday.

i love this square where the apartment is located.  i spun a dial and it landed me here.  on this street.  in this neighborhood.  by this church.  it pleases me to no end when i get lucky with the big wheel.

come closer.  for me the beauty in everything lies in the details.  so many of the buildings in budapest look like the work of a pastry chef with a pastry bag of pale icing and dozens of decorating tips that squeeze out ribbons and leaves and floral motifs.  

and when the eye needs a place to rest there is the gingerbread tile and brickwork.  

here is my building.  last night i did my duty and placed the flag in its pole without incident.

i wonder what the entrance looked like 75 or 100 years ago.  i am convinced it could not have been more beautiful that it is right now.  

late at night when i stand on the balcony and peer through the leafy shadows on the street below i think i can here a horse clicking its way down the street. 

 someone coming to collect me!

i wonder if i should bring the flag...

oh the excitement and perils of time travel!

but anyway back to my square.  a building on one corner has a lovely onion dome...

and thickly iced panels under the windows.  sigh.

i basked in the light & air & beauty of my stroll through the neighborhood today.  absorbing everything i saw and heard.  old men walking dogs, women pushing strollers, talking couples on benches, a grandfather and his little grandaughter skipping ahead down the street singing.

seriously.

are you kidding me?!

now i understand the romanian woman in a kansas city department store who said about budapest:

prepare to be amazed.

i'm more than amazed.  i'm in love.

i missed the 10,000 slice mega birthday cake.  a recipe selected carefully each year by the national guild of hungarian confectioners.  

but i didn't miss the fireworks tonight over the danube.  

well, not the danube per se.  but a grove of trees next to the danube.

and i did manage to find in my wanderings today my very own hungarian confectioner.  thus my very own cream cake.

and all that my friends, is a true story!

 

slow travel

i like the way slow travel feels.  waking up whenever.  reading, studying maps, rifling through some travel books.   shuffling around.  wandering over to the windows.  good morning budapest.  

i make a cup of frothy milky espresso to drink while i read.  so lucky to have one of these in the apartment! 

by late morning i have usually left the apartment in search of some small adventure in which to lose myself, a vague idea of where i'm going.  on this vacation the gentleman i'm renting the apartment from has provided a booklet with some suggestions that are about my speed.  no lines to stand in.

i have been charged with hanging the budapest flag tomorrow at dawn.  the flag pole for the building is on this balcony.  i am taking my assignment seriously.  tomorrow is hungary's biggest national holiday (st. stephen's day) marking the founding of the kingdom of hungary.  it also marks the end of summer.   st. stephen was hungary's first king.  there will be throngs of celebrating hungarians all over the city and massive fireworks over the danube at nightfall.  st. stephens mummified holy right hand covered in jewels will be paraded through the streets.  right on!  there will be air shows over the danube.  i will try to catch the fireworks and hopefully will not be swept away by the crowd.

the ceramic stove in the corner is an old heating element.  

i arrive back at the apartment in the mid-afternoon for a cold shower and a nap.  then more reading, travel journaling, blogging, balcony sitting, hungarian wine tasting. perhaps a snack!

i leave the apartment again after dark in search of grub.   i feel perfectly safe walking around.  if i see anyone approaching wearing loafers with white socks i cross to the other side of the street.  this following a tip received long ago from a greek friend.

late at night i watch a little hungarian news.  such a puzzling and fascinating language!  i know not one single word, much to the chagrin of the lady working in the pharmacy today.  with equal parts charades and a rough sketch i was able to secure some lactose intolerant tablets and bandaids. 

where i get lost in the metro and get my sugar coma on

i have endeavored to ride as many forms of public transportation as possible here in budapest.

i began yesterday.  without the benefit of this handy map.  

not one to let small details like this obstruct my plans, i used my tried and true hop-on-hop-off method.  this generally works well.

better if your logic & reasoning skills are in alignment with the system as a whole.

best if you speak the language, or can use context clues to scrabble your way through.

and if all of the above fail, it is at least nice if the marked metro stops correspond with the actual posted stops on the actual train.

naturally, at the end of the day when i really felt i needed to get home quickly and collapse.

naturally that is when my metro stop disappeared.

this is the public library.  grand inside and out.  with reading rooms you need a special card to enter.  

i've been studying the locals.   people here seem to take inordinate pleasure in reading.  on benches, at restaurants, walking with a book in hand.

there are many green squares with shaded benches.   i stopped at many and looked about.  budapest is a city of trees.

for lunch i went to don leone's as recommended in the vast menu of apartment information.  i ordered the goulash soup with homemade noodles, a few small hunks of meat, root vegetables.   i dunked my bread in the hot soup and got to work.  everything was delish including the potato croquettes.  fortunately, i didn't get a single drop on my white blouse.  

   

 i lapped up my bowl of red soup.  occasionally pausing to glance out at the square.

there is a dizzying combination of architectural styles throughout the city.   ornamental doorways with detailed lacy ironwork.  faded evidence of grander times.  it's all here.

the tall ceilings of overlapping leafy boughs make it easy to avoid walking in the hot sun.

 

i stopped at nandori csukraszda (pastry shop) on my trek home.  put the nespresso machine in the apartment to work and settled in for a first rate sugar coma.

it didn't disappoint.

 

 

i've just been born

flew and flew and flew.  through mountains of cloud where i saw faces.  frozen expressions.  changing land below first organized farm land.  circles and perfect squares, rectangles.  

to a new continent where the land is like a crazy quilt with curves.  embroidered with shades of blue, grey, green, gold.  tiny houses below made of stone and slate roofs.  verdant summer lands.

all the way here to my new outdoor resting space.  so much flying left me stunned.  i sat and stared at all the big-leafed trees.  it is quiet in my neighborhood in the 9th district.  no tourists in the other apartments.

i drank milk from a carton and enjoyed a plate of cookies left out for me.  santa has arrived in budapest.  thanks for the welcome!

lots of windows letting in balmy mild air.

the apartment is gleaming white & pale blue walls.  lovelier than anticipated.

i napped then  grabbed the map and went for money.  no euros here.  the currency is FORINTS.  50,000 = 264 buckeroos.

my apartment is down the street on right at the corner.  churchyard on left.  peaceful.  haven't heard any english yet.  i am perfectly cocooned in a foreign world.

in a daze.  walking around and around.  looking up.  turning in circles in the middle of the street.  

hello new world.  i've just been born.  it's good to be here.

fruit so fresh you can smell the sweetness as you pass by.  i will return tomorrow for peaches, melons, berries.

i saw copper streetlights!

an old bookstore beckoned.  i carried my provisions home.

back home to the balcony.  and gothic night sky full of portent and drama.