Simple and honest.

Thursday I found my way to the huge cemetery that’s about 2 kilometers from our place. I do not consider myself a photographer by any means, but everything about that day came together so perfectly that I could hardly take a bad picture. It’s a strange feeling to walk through a graveyard as a tourist - not being there to mourn or remember, but just simply to stand in awe of the sadness and the beauty of the gravestones and the breathtaking monuments. The sun rolled in and out from behind the clouds as the leaves shuffled and crinkled beneath my feet. Fall has dipped the leaves in reds and golds, and softly blanketed the ground and gravestones with the ones that were dry, leaving the ones that were still wet hanging out to dry. This, more than any other thing since I’ve been here, reminded me of home. The cemetery is enormous, and parts of it feel as though you’ve stepped out of the city and into the woods - with more trees and overgrowth than gravestones. Here are just a few of the pictures:

Friday I had a job interview. I had directions to where I was going, but somehow I missed a street and ended up getting a little lost. The big problem was that the street I was looking for didn’t go through to the other major streets and was only two blocks long before the name changed. I ended up pretty much walking in circles around the periphery of where I needed to be. I finally used my very limited Hungarian to ask a doorman if he spoke English and then asked him where the street was. I was nearly a half an hour late to the interview, but the guys were very understanding.

That night we went to the ballet at the Hungarian State Opera House with a huge group of people. We were in the cheap seats, which wouldn’t have been that bad if we had been in the center, but we were off to the side where we could only see about 70% of the stage. I don’t know enough about ballet to speak definitively, but it seemed pretty “modern.” It was quite interesting and beautiful, but the best part was that, even though we were in the highest seats, we were still close enough to see that the performers were breathing heavily. I think it’s impressive that they can make such precise movements look so fluid and easy when they are actually working that hard.

Today JM and I went to a friend’s house to help him film a video for an internet contest. He’s a great mandola player and we ended up recording a song for the video. Levi played mandola, JM played mandolin, and I played bass. The video is pretty funny but being able to play bass for a couple of hours was the best way to spend an afternoon. Playing felt like home - like waking up in my own bed and knowing my way around the streets. It felt like slipping on my favorite hoodie. It felt good.

On our way home we stopped a vegetarian Humus restaurant. I had a huge plate of…stuff. I’m not sure what most of it was, but I do know that I had falafel for the first time in my life and it was pretty delicious. Their humus was really good too and I’m pretty sure they make their own pita bread. Tasty.

Tomorrow I plan on going to Margit island if it’s nice out. If I’m lucky a lovely girl might take me to her gym during “family” hour so I can do a swim workout. I haven’t done a workout of any kind since the marathon a month ago. This may be a new record for me and, consequently, I’m going a little stir crazy. At this point I honestly don’t know if I’m more excited about being able to workout or about getting to go with this very sweet girl. There’s also a good chance that this won’t happen, so I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

JM and I are going to have dinner at the Café in The New York Palace on Tuesday. Fancy. Other than that, I don’t have any plans for this week. You can be sure that I’ll be reading and writing, as always. I should probably find some other cool stuff to explore in Budapest too. We really need to decide where we’re going on our trip next month. I think Oslo would be cool, but we might end up in Belgrade because it’s close. We’ll see. I’ll keep you up to speed.

Cheers!

-E