First week in Budapest and some notices

Some notes about cultural differences and the ways things are organised here.

1. Here is lots of waiting. Waiting in lines to get some papers or ESN-card or to register to the University. Nothing starts at the time even though they might say 'Be accurate, don't be late!'. For example yesterday we had this Get to known party in a bar called Mad World, which was actually in the same building with Student dormitory where lives many Mechanical engineers from BME. The party should start at 18:30 but we waited 30 minutes for them to get the place ready. Also at first day I was send from one line to another and then to another when all I wanted was just this ESN-card they were selling there. I understood it was because all of those 15 people who were selling them only one was allowed to sell just the ESN-card without hungarian sim-card! I don't understand why they has to make it so hard. Also they didn't tell at first which line is which and there wasn't any sign too. Why do the easy way when you can make it hard?

2. Food is cheap, and so are the drinks.

3. Cycling is easy beside the river in the centre area, but the cycling roads stop if you want to go out of the centre. Also some of the roads in the city are in quite bad condition. There are some big holes and bumps.

Roman amphitheatre I saw when I was cycling (Buda-side)

4. Every day there are people outside having fun and somewhere is a party.

5. The German people are probably most similar to Finns and its easy to speak with most of them.

6. Some of the people, like groups of German, French and maybe also Finns like to stick together and speak their own language. Some do it also when in company of other nations, which I think is a little rude. I don't understand them, I think this time abroad is good time to learn foreign languages and make international friends.

7. The weather is warm and the air is were moist here. It feels like the moisture ratio is almost 100% all the time. Like every time I walk the stairs to my flat in third floor I sweat so much I need to change my clothes immediately.

8. The University is very old but beautiful also. There is a church-like library, big corridors and parliament-building like main hall!

Main hall in BME

9. Public transport works very well. Every tram and metro comes like every 5 minutes so you don't need to check their schedules. Also the metro/tram-lines extends well to the centre area where I live and where everything happens. There is four lines and the line four is really new build just opened earlier this year. The others are older and I need to use line three and four to go to the school.

Stairs to the he.. to the metro line 3

What next?
Tomorrow will be a tour to Budapest where ESN-mentors take us to look the most famous and beautiful places in Budapest. I will also probably go to play basketball with some new German friends if we have time for that. At the weekend there will be a freshmen camp to a lake Balaton to eat Hungarian food and to taste wine. There will be probably also possibility to go sunbathing and swimming if the weather is fine!