Getting home

My first day in town was spent walking around the inner city of Budapest with Zsuzsanna, a rental property manager for a local real estate company I'd emailed from New York, to look at a number of apartments I'd chosen from a list she'd emailed me. I settled on the first one we'd stopped at in the morning (and have so far been thrilled with it). 

Most of that afternoon was spent going over the rental contract and then trying to figure out how I'd pay first month's rent and deposit since, come to find out, they only take cash or bank transfer. (I've since learned quite a few places here only deal in cash -Hungarian Forints or Euros.) So I spent a while walking from bank to bank trying to withdraw enough cash, then on the phone with my bank in New York to find out there's a limit on what I can withdraw in a day and they won't do a bank transfer unless I'm there in person (in New York). Thankfully, I'd just opened an online account a week earlier with a worldwide bank with whom I was finally able to transfer the money and move in! Let that be a lesson. I'd felt bad hogging almost a whole day of Zsuzsanna's time, but she admitted that one of the perks of her job is that she gets to walk around the city so much like that. 

The photo is in Erzsebet Ter (Elizabeth Square), a few blocks from home. This spot always has a lot of people hanging out at all times of day and night. A booth selling beer, etc. is out of the frame to the right, and on weekend nights it seems the place is packed like a giant outdoor club. The other night I was walking through with some groceries and stopped for a while to listen to a band that was playing, when I realized a lot of other people were doing the same -sitting with a beer or a glass of wine next to their work bags or shopping bags, as if hanging out and enjoying city life is just a looong pause on the way home.