The biggest change for Merrill and I is to live in a large metropolitan area and use public transportation as our sole means of getting around. The church we have attended the last two Sundays is 2 buses away or 1 tram and 1 bus. We weren't really sure which stop we were supposed to get off at, so rather than get off one stop too late, we got off early and could have riden more stop. The ride back to the library was interesting because last week we took a long evening walk up Gellert Hill and when we got there nothing looked familiar and we thought we were getting farther away from the library. On the bus route on Sunday, we recognized where we had climbed to and we could have ridden the bus back down - now, we know!! We decided that the church is really not very far from the library, but it is uphill all the way! The Buda side of the river is very hilly, while the Pest side is flat.
These pictures were both taken from Castle Hill, which is on the Buda side of the river. You can see how high our vantage point is in taking these pictures and how flat the Pest side of the river is.
Monday the library was closed and so we decided we needed to try to find an office and a shopping mall that we had been to with Andy, the first week we were here. It was cold and rainy and so it didn't make the nicest conditions for waiting for the bus. Then of course, on the bus, everyone had dripping umbrellas. I noticed one woman who had a plastic bag to put her umbrella in so that it didn't drip all over. I took note and put my umbrella in a bag I had in my purse. I now always carry extra bags in my purse because some places have bags for you and others don't. It's a little like trying to decide which produce to weigh and which is just a standard price.
We found the office we were looking for and after studying the brochure that I had from the shopping mall, we decided that we could ride the Metro(subway) to get to the shopping mall. We had to go through the subway stop where all the subways (3) come together. We managed to get to the next Metro line that we needed and then had to decide which way to go. We guessed right because the name of the mall is the same as the subway stop, Nyugati pu. I am having a hard time with the name of this mall, West End, because it is on the east side of the Danube River. I was so excited when we got off the metro and it looked familiar!
This is the biggest mall that I have ever been to for shopping. It is 4 levels, has a huge water fall and hundreds of stores. We were quite warm once we got to the mall. It was warm on the metro and we didn't have to go outside to get into the mall, so we both felt overdressed there. Until we had to stand on the street to wait for the bus, we were both very warm. We didn't do very much shopping, just looking and trying to get familiar with the stores that we might use sometime.
The funniest thing that happened was eating in the food court. For a long time, Merrill and I just looked and we both thought we would never be able to step up to the counter and order. How would they understand us? We give these people too little credit - they are used to dealing with Americans and other visitors. We got our food and looked around for a table. They all seemed to be full except in this one area, so we sat down. After we sat down, I noticed a menu on the table and it wasn't long until a waiteer came to the table. He started to tell us we had to move and realized that we spoke only English, and so in his best English, he told us that we needed to order something from the menu or move. Merrill was thinking fast and asked if we could order coffee and he said we could. So we ordered cappucinos and stayed at the table, eating our lunch.
Merrill had visited another market nearby about a week ago, so because it was still raining we decided to try to find that market. Merrill wasn't really sure where it was so we got on the tram and headed down the street. We got off and started walking and Merrill said nothing looked familiar. We came to a bus stop and waited for a bus to take us back to another place where we could catch a tram going another direction. We did find the market and bought a little produce and some kitchen tools I was looking for. There were some permanent stalls but also some that looked more like our farmer's market in Davenport. One of the vendors got a little aggravated with me when I started taking apples off the top of his display. He let me know that I could have some out of the box that wasn't so full and nicely displayed. I did find some blueberries but they were very expensive - so we will really enjoy them! I almost forgot - the best part of public transportation is it is CHEAP!!!!
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