Yesterday, to reward myself for half an hour of cultural misguidance related to purchase of contact lens solution, I headed to Java Caffé. Serving coffee to “take away” (since every one here learns English from a Britt) is Budapest’s new thing, and Starbucks look-alikes are opening everywhere. Java Caffé is a chain but cool despite the whole confusion with the word café in the title. Read more…
My first official cross-bridge trip to Buda commenced on possibly one of the worst weather days in Hungarian history. My beloved visitor Joke and I, naively umbrella-less and optimistic, headed for the tram stop. I have related to Joke the “riding the tram without a ticket theory” that has been passed down by generations of Budapest expats – apparently it costs less to ride the tram for free and get caught than buy tickets. Content with our righteous choice of payment avoidance we rode the number 6 to Moszjva Ter and were spit out in the middle of a large track, road, and people crossing. Read more…