Can you imagine harmony between nature and the city?

I can.
I would love to live in  a city where this would be the rule instead of the exception:

These pictures were shot in Old Buda, close to Flórián shopping centre

On BKV

Last week I was travelling by tram in a remote outskirts of Pesterzsébet. It was tram no 52 I wonder how many people living in Budapest knows it. Suddenly I was struck by a certain sense of atmosphere that belongs only to Budapest public transport, just as a certain, and very definite atmosphere belonged to the tram rides in Prague or in Wroclaw. Probably it is true for every city in the world – that is those who has a functioning public transport system. I was moving in a completely unknown part of Budapest, in between nondescript one-storey buildings on a street without name in my head at least – and I felt very much at home.

I wonder whether this could have happened if the tram is not an old Ganz tram but one of the relatively newly bought German cars. I doubt it. Funnily enough, I have found that these type of trams are not supposed to be running any more. Who knows, I might have had a ghost experience.

Source: Villamosok.hu

For me, these trams belong to Budapest. Even now, as I'm writing this, I can feel the smell of some chemical, probably used for maintenance, that I felt so many times on tram 49. I can feel the hard bumps tram 19 produces, while you must sit on the wooden seats. I can hear the terrible squeaking noise it makes while descending into the underworld of the tunnel under Chain Bridge.

Source: Wikipedia

Have you ever travelled by these trams? Or No. 21 or 42 or 47? They run to obscure places in the outskirts of the city, where tourists have nothing to do. This is the hidden side of Budapest not known to even those who live and work in the inner city. In a way, I think, these parts belong much more to Budapest than the iconic images of the Parliament and the Chain Bridge and the Buda Castle.

I love to travel on these lines, and not just trams. Every spring I plan to try out all these unknown buses and trams. I remember once we went with a friend all along the route of trolley 74, this most typical vehicle of Budapest. We had nothing to do there, we only wanted to check what kind of place Csáktornya park is. It had a vague taste of romantic castles ('Csáktornya' = the tower of Csák) and nice walkways in parks. But it was only a little bit disappointing to learn that it is actually a big socialist-era housing estate with ugly blocks of flats. The weather was very cold and it was snowing, so we had a coffee in a small pub near the trolley station and went back. Still, I think it was worth going – I still remember where that route ends.

Forrás: Veledutaztam

However, most of the time this plan stay what it is – just a plan. I usually try new lines only when I'm forced to do so. This spring, since I moved to Pesterzsébet, I have discovered whole new numbers that so far I haven't associated with public transport at all. Tram No. 52 is one of them. Bus No. 148 is another. And buses No. 212 and 36 and tram No. 21. I love how the trams meander between small houses. It gives me a thrill when the bus I'm riding, and which crosses the inner parts of the city on a strange route, suddenly turns onto a street I probably have never seen before.

And then I realize that I will never know this city completely. There is always something new to learn and to explore. And it's a good thing to feel.

Demonstration tomorrow

There is going to be a demonstration tomorrow, commemorating the victims of the recent catastrophes in Japan. It starts at 20:30 in Kossuth tér. Beside comemmorating the victims and showing their sympathy for the survivors, the organizers also want to call the public attention onto the dangers of using nuclear energy, especially in comparison with renewable energy sources.

Go and light a candle if you can.

(The picture is from here)

Finally

I must admit that I haven’t spent much time with this blog lately. The main reason was that I needed time to get rid of all the parts of my life that was obsolete, and to make place for the new. And find a new place for myself, too. This is what has happened, finally, just 4 days ago, when I moved to my new place. It is a big change in every sense: after 10 years, I’m back in the world of rented rooms, shared kitchens and the excitement every month if I can pay the rent.

Funny that I don’t feel it as bad as that may sound. Yesterday, an old friend of mine has just appeared out of nowhere, at least with her blog. She has just moved to Australia, and she wrote this:

It really does exist after all. I don’t know what I’m feeling.  I feel like those colourful little bouncy balls in that Sony Bravia commercial, happily bouncing down the street of San Francisco.

Well, I feel a little bit similar. Except that it is not SF, not even Sydney, Australia, but the good old bitch Budapest. And I don’t know where the bouncing will end. The last half year saw many of my old plans and projects going down the drain. My marriage, for one. My plans to go and perform on Cyprus for the summer. My „unshakable” belief that I found the people and the community where I belong. Okay, the last one may still be true.

However, so many things are over now, and I feel that I’m ready to say good-bye to them. Welcome change. Welcome Pesterzsébet.

(The picture is from here)

On the one hand, I feel that I compromised one of my basic convictions when I moved back to the Pest side of the Danube. On the other hand, I feel that even this is better than stay inthe same old, comfortable nothing where I spent the last half year, or more. It’s a funny coincidence that now I live in almost the same block of flats where 12 years ago two of the most important people of my life had lived. They lived here only half a year after we met, but one of the most intense half years of my life. Who knows what comes now.

This morning I woke up that the Sun was shining into my face through the window. Something that could not happen in any of my homes for years.

Celebrating that Europe is Mine, Saturday night

Avoid going to concerts at the Fogadó if you can.

Okay, this sentence may be a bit too forbidding, so I modify it a little bit: you may go there if you don't mind huge crowds and a terrible sound system, and you are okay with either having to sit through a Palya Bea concert or standing at the fringe of the crowd where you do not see anything. I may not be right about the sound system – it may be the just shape of the room. I am not a music expert – to be honest, I strive only for the 'conscious consumer' label in this field – but my experiences suggest that huge, rectangle-shaped rooms with very high ceiling are the worst places for listening to loud music. But it does not change the essential point.

Palya Bea definitely had a good time last Saturday, and she sings beautifully, but I mostly know it from her Youtube videos and not from this concert. I understood the text only when I knew the song and even then it was not easy. And I really feel sorry, but I left Rotfront in the middle of the concert, because I realised that if I had not known them before (I didn't), I would not learn how good or bad they are now. It took me three songs just to decide what language they were singing. But so many people liked them and came to their concert, they may worth a second try.

The only sad thing about what I have to say is that generally I like Millenáris: they have very good programs, I love the big open park, and the whole event was free – that explains the crowd. But I can't help saying that it was not a good experience at all.