Even though I haven´t worked a single day yet in my workplace in Budapest I have done other kind of activities which can be called working. Gardening in Miskolc have been nice physical activity instead of sitting in front of the computer inside. There was also a festival where Dóra had administrative role and I helped her. Taking care of a juice and snack site for kids was quite a different but it was also fun for me. I was a mysterious guy from Finland :-)

Next weekend should be the Balaton weekend. Balaton is a popular lake to spent summer days and it should be really nice place... we´ll see.

After being happy about new flat it was time to come down. First the flat. The shower hose broke down and it is now spraying water in random directions while showering. Also kitchen sink has a leak in over flow channel. Minor things but annoying ones. Luckily the landlord is coming to see those defects and hopefully he manages to fix them.

But the real killer was reply from a relocations service which is dealing with my work permit. Somehow they have screwed up with papers and I am not able to start working 1st July but 13th July earliest. This was surprise also for my boss so there are at least two persons now pretty pissed off to that service. This is also direct financial loss for me. Besides the half month salary I could have also signed the rental contract to start from 1st July instead of 15th June. To put it in numbers it is around 125 000 HUF = 500 euros.

Well, now I have two weeks more holiday...

Friday was the long waited day - I was able to move in my own place in Budapest. We took a train from Miskolc to Budapest around 4 pm and we arrived here a little bit past 6 pm. My really nice landlord picked us up from the railway station and then we headed to the flat.

The flat looked same as it was while signing the contract with exception of a new washing machine, a cable modem and curtains in the kitchen. Unfortunately we were not able to find a 24h shop nearby so we ended up eating junk food in Burger King.

Saturday was then full of shopping. This flat had some kitchen equipment ready but also a lot of necessary items were lacking. Food, kitchen tools and misc stuff... Of course one day was not enough to find everything. On the other hand it is wise to give some time for ideas to develop long lasting solutions.

Surroundings of this building are mixed. There are brand new houses or recently renovated old ones next to buildings barely standing. Those might have bullet holes from WW II or 1956 uprising. So nobody has repaired them in last 50 years but there are many families living in those.

I still have many roads to explore here. Also the metro reconstruction causes some changes to my routes but luckily it will not affect too much. I am also particularly happy about the quietness of the road under my window.

The lack of foreign languages in everyday life in Hungary is something that I have been wondering about lately. In Finland you just can not avoid hearing and seeing English no matter where you go. Maybe marketing people find it better than our own language. Product and brand names are often strange mixes of Finnish and English.

Another thing is the subtitles. Only the cartoons and movies meant for small kids have Finnish voices instead of originals. So during the time you sit in front of your television you will hear English in movies, German in krimis and Swedish in a home improvement show. Of course few lines of text can not describe everything but at least you have original voices and right content.

Some time ago I read a story about the reasons why many countries decided to dub or voice-over the television content. Cost savings wasn't the reason because adding subtitles is cheaper (maybe that is the reason for why Finns have subtitles) but the author of the story suggested a different reason. Controlling the content used to be important in old times and what is better way to control content than replacing the voices. Anyways, that is not the reason anymore I assume.

Today I visited a book store while I was wandering around a shopping mall. Naturally I ended up in to IT-books section but for my surprise I did not find a single title in English. Even though Hungarian population is only twice the Finnish, every one was in Hungarian. Maybe the cost of the translation is so much lower than in Finland, where you can find only the most common IT-books in Finnish. Or perhaps Finns are so used to read technical books in English so there is no demand for translations.

It will be interesting to keep observing this native vs foreign language matter and how it develops. Personally I prefer to have content mentioned above in original language if possible. Unfortunately that is only either Finnish or English for me at the moment as my Swedish and German are not that fluent due to lack of practice. And I definitely can not read Hungarian magazines or books at the moment...

This was a weekend of music. On Friday we had a St. Martin's concert. He is a Hungarian artist playing various instruments but mostly he performs with saxophone or pan flute. This concert was held outside in downtown and it gathered many important looking persons of Miskolc. His music is good for relaxing so I really didn't get too much out from live playing - it is much better to listen on cosy sofa at home.

Saturday was then a little bit different. The NOX was performing at the Miskolc castle area. This band represented Hungary in EuroVision contest and it is also really popular around here. Originally this band was supposed to play inside the castle but the demand for the tickets was so high they decided to move it outside. This band works pretty well on live shows as their performance is partly theatre with magician acts and torches. Their music is based on traditional folk music and they also utilize classic instruments.

St. Martin

NOX

Yesterday evening we set up a fire for preparing some kind of food. And I was surprised because the food we ate was different. Instead of frying meat or sausage we fried fat. A big block of pork fat on a stick and an onion on top of it. The idea was to warm up the fat so it starts to drip and then pour that liquid fat on a bread slice.

This grease dripping bread was then eaten with cucumber and different kind of onions. Also other kind of vegetables can go. Yesterday beer and Vilmos were involved too. Today we had left over breads with some additional fried fat and espresso coffee.

Of course people are not eating this everyday. But for someone who has tried to look for more healthy food it might be a small shock =)