cave-ventures and a day in the life

Yesterday was our last true Hungarian class and quiz before the oral exam (which I'm not taking). After class a group of students (Sierra, Kara, Jane, Sam, and Jason) were planning on going to some caves in the Buda hills and invited me. Obviously I accepted. When class ended I stayed at the dorm for a bit, ate lunch and then we were off for the caves.

Sierra had looked up directions so we took the tram to Szell Kalman the end of the line and went to look for the 91 bus which was somewhere in the large square. After walking nearly the whole perimeter I spotted it pointed and we all started running towards it not wanting to miss it. Jason was the only one to make it on the bus before the doors closed but Kara was so close behind and ended up running straight into the door resulting in lots of laughter. Midst our laughter the doors opened back up and we were being yelled at in Hungarian and shooed off the bus as it turned out we were at the drop off stop a mere 50 ft from the correct pick up stop. So we walked over to the right place and sheepishly walked past the driver before remembering Kara and collapsing into more giggles. Another 20 minutes on the bus we were at our stop and looking to Sierra for direction but her map was all in focus except the square of where we were so we guessed and of course went the wrong way. We did however find a sweet playground where we meandered looking for moms to ask for directions. We found a few but none spoke very good english and we didn't have the Hungarian word for cave. Eventually we called my dad and got the word and then got directions and left. When we'd been walking for a while we thought we must have gotten faulty information so turned around and went back to the beginning and asked at a grocery store and found out we had been just short of finding it so back we went.

Luckily when we got there we only had to wait about a half hour for an english tour and in the mean time were out of the heat and able to look in the small exhibit they had. At 4:30 our tour started with a small Hungarian family and a super cool tour guide named Viktor, who was giving the tour in English and Hungarian so would first say it all to the family then us run ahead and do it all again. We learned that the air was so clean in the caves that just the 40ish minutes we were there would clear our lungs of 2 weeks of dirt, also because of the insanely clean air the caves are used for therapy for folks with asthma or other breathing issues. We also heard a bit about Viktor - a lot about where he had traveled, his recommendations for hiking and how him and his mom, who has waist length dreads, had practiced caving in that very cave. All in all very awesome guide. On our way out Jane asked where some stairs to the side lead (genius question) and he told us they were the original entrance/exit and we could go out that way if we like (boy did we ever like). So 104 steps later we popped out on top of the hill with a great view of the city. Then we asked how to get back to the city and since he was off the clock now he said he would just accompany us. What a guy.

Today without Hungarian class to wake up for I got up around 10 (not that late really) and was ready for the day around noon (okay not ideal but anyways...). A little more sitting around and then we decided to go out to the little cafe two doors down called Java Kaffe. I absolutely loved it. I had brought the computer and my school notebooks so after ordering (a frozen mocha - delicious) I settled in for some adv. algebra. Two hours and a brownie later I decided I should probably do the rest of my work at home and left. Then walking into our building I made a decision to take the back steps instead of the normal steps or elevator (we live on the 6th floor just FYI). After living here 5 months back in 2011 and being here another month now I'd never gone on those stairs. They're so cool! Our building is pretty old (but nice) and these steps seemed like a good adventure. They were much more spirally and there were doors more often. I don't think I'm describing them well but in any case I'm glad I finally went that way.

About an hour later my mom was back from I'm not really sure where and we decided to go back out first to the post office (to send my first postcard how exciting!) and then to this cool clothing/miscellaneous store both my parents agreed I would love. I asked my mom a bunch of times the name but I think it must be very hungarian or have some spell on it because I can't remember for the life of me. I did love it though, it was the perfect mix of old and new (mostly new but a few used things - like loads and loads of converse) and vintage and modern. They had lots of cute dresses, tshirts, tank tops, etc. I wanted to spend all of my money there but ended up just buying a pair of sunglasses (which I actually needed because I left my old ones on the back of a camp roger van before getting on the ferry to North Manitou Island).

Then we came back and had a medium/great dinner (it was a bit spicy for my taste) of couscous paella. Now I'm writing this in bed with earbuds in place and a cup of tea by my side. Overall I'd say these were two exciting (well if not exciting at least fun to live) days and I hope you enjoy this description of them as much as I liked living them.

Goodnight.