I
am out of the habit of writing and am tired from
traveling. So little of travel actually involves
moving nowadays that it makes me stiff. Traveling
is mostly standing in line - for airline check in, for
security, for boarding... - then sitting for hours
squished into tiny airplane seats on a full airplane,
then more standing in line for security and immigration
and baggage... I think my legs have forgotten how to
walk! Writing, walking, what else am I out of the habit
of doing?
Writing presents the challenge of
what to write about, how to make ordinary things
interesting, or how to find some extraordinary things to
write about. Buying a subway pass? Grocery shopping? How
tired I am? Might as well just plunge in.
Yesterday I went to the
Kálvin tér metro station to buy a transit
pass. I had neglected to bring passport size photos with
me so went first to the Fototex store to have some
pictures taken. The Fototex store is about big enough to
hold 2 customers and the employee. There were already two
people in there but István and I squeezed in. The
woman in front of us in line was picking up photos of
food, dozens of them, gorgeous cakes, crisp vegetables,
sandwiches... who takes photos of sandwiches? I decided
she must be in the food business or the advertising
business. By the time it was finally my turn I was even
more tired than when I walked in and so hungry I wouldn't
have minded eating that woman's sandwich photos. I look
pale in my transit pass photo, very white, whiter than
white...
Then there was grocery shopping.
Grocery shopping on an empty stomach and no sleep can
lead to some interesting choices like ice cream and
instant soups but I did manage to get some peppers,
tomatoes, bread, cheese, oranges, and a cantaloupe. And,
of course, paprika. The hot stuff that comes in a jar
with a picture of a guy with a huge mustache on it. The
brand name is Erös Pista but the guy looks nothing
like István. The morphology of the mustache is all
wrong. Erös means strong. Does that refer to the
peppers or to Pista, whoever he may be? Strong Steve's
hot peppers? I bought two jars: one to consume here and
one to take home.
Picking out the cantaloupe was
entertaining. After all the melons I thumped picking out
the ones for my entry in the July 4 cook-off I am well
practiced in melon selection. Neither István nor
Marti had ever seen anyone thump a melon before so asked
me to pick one for them too. They mistook me for some
kind of melon expert! I tried to show them what to listen
for. I ate the one I picked for myself with breakfast
this morning and it was delicious. I hope I picked a good
one for them after all that performance.
Today's
project was to time the commute from where I'm staying in
Csillaghegy to the Botanical Department. The walk from my
apartment to the train station in Csillaghegy is 10
minutes. The train to Batthyány tér takes a
half hour. Metro from Batthyány tér to
Deák tér and transfer to the blue metro
line to Népliget tér takes 20 minutes.
Finally there's about a 3 minute walk from
Népliget tér station to the Botanical
Department. After verifying and timing all this, I took
the metro back to Deák tér and walked over
to the Danube. In the plaza near Gerbaud, I encountered a
Korean folkloric troupe in mid-performance. Naturally, I
stayed to watch.
The dancers banged drums and gongs
as they leapt around waving ribbons attached to their
hats. One guy had a really long ribbon (the program book
said 12 fathoms) with which he made huge swirling
patterns using only his head. That guy must have the most
flexible neck! Other dancers and drummers joined them, as
did the women's choir in their pink and white dresses for
the grand finale. Members of the audience joined in too
for a big circle dance with much rhythmic hand clapping.
It was a great show.
You never know what you'll run into
in Budapest.
