Day 2

Well day 2 was an eventful one. I got it in my head that since I was positively giddy at the prospect of holding an actual conversation with someone, I should look for work in this neck of the woods.

Ummmm......750 dollars a month (pre-tax) sound good to you? Me neither. On the bright side I took the trams all over Budapest and got to see all the sites. Sure there was the Danube, the Opera, the Parliment....but they all paled in comparison to the majesty of

Grace Korean Baptist Church. I kid you not. Right there on Kiscelli road not far from one of the international schools I was badgering. I was informed that Reverend Soo's Hungarian language skills were "not bad" according to the overly generous staff. I wish I could have stayed until Sunday to meet him. We could have gone out for some kimchi jiggae (rotten cabbage stew) at one of Budapests' Korean restaurants which number 3 at the moment. Yes, there is a Chinatown and supremely unhealthy-looking Chinese fast food buffets abound. I went for supremely unhealthy Hungarian instead. Potatoes.............. ('nuff said.) I lost about 18 pounds in the last 8 months but after this week I probably gained 10 of them back.

Met with my sociopathic cousin and slightly revised my opinion. He is not completely sociopathic because he is aware that he should have some sort of emotions, but has no clue 1) what emotions are and 2) how to express them. Also met his current girlfriend, a young lass of Portugese descent. Budapest, in addition to the Chinese, now has a large number of Indians, Pakistanis, Africans and Spaniards. I sat down to watch the tube at night and saw the weather being forecasted by an African woman whose Hungarian was infinitely better than mine. Quite a feat considering.

Oh, no photoblog (is this a photoblog?) chronicling Budapest can be complete without shots of graffiti , including those defying all forms of authority . And lest we forget to mention, random shots of old people who went through hell and survived.