The last month was really quite eventful. My girlfriend's mother and her life partner came to visit. Since my girlfriend came over to Germany it became a tradition for them to stay in Berlin for 2 weeks in may. This time we did a little trip through europe with a rental car and since I was the only one able to drive stick I had to do all the driving. We went to Vienna and Budapest and back to Berlin through Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Vienna was nice but I have to tell you that I am not such a great fan of the city. The spanish riding school was definitely the highlight. Otherwise the city feels kind of altmodisch (dated).
Budapest was wonderful. I really loved the city and the friendly people there. Everything was just wonderful (weather, food, etc.) For me Budapest has this metropolitan touch I sometimes miss in Berlin and which I also missed in Vienna. One reason might be the US-like sirens of the police cars and ambulances which still give me the thrill because for me this is the sound of American movies and therefore the sound of a fantasy world. When I was in New York for the first time it always felt like being part of a movie when a police car passed by. The German "tatütata" is kind of boring.
In Budapest the life partner of my gf's mother got food problems and so I offered to walk to the nearby pharmacy to get something for him. I was just there the same morning to get some cooling. When I arrived the pharmacy was already closed (saturday at 8 pm) and so I asked people on the street if they would know an open one. They sent me to a big square just 15 minutes away and since I already knew the direction I did go there. When I arrived it was closed, too. So I had to ask again. Let me tell you that happened 3 times and all the people said the next one would definitely be open. I walked for almost an hour and got totally lost. I came to a huge shopping mall where I finally found an open pharmacy just to hear that you would need a prescrition for that in Hungary. The woman did not give me the medication and so I had to return. I did not want to walk so I decided to use the Metro (underground). The ticket machine was out of service and the metro guy standing there to controll the tickets sent me somewhere around the corner and up the stairs to find other ticket machines. To make a long story short, I did find these machines but I couldn't read anything since it was just in Hungarian. The problem with Hungarian is that it is a totally different language. There is no similarity to any other european language. I just watched the busy people acting totally normal knowing what to do and I failed some basic thing to do, buying a ticket at a machine. Let me tell you expats now I really know that it feels scary sometimes and you feel kind of like an idiot when you don't understand anything of another language.
I drove almost 1500 miles within a week and I loved it. Driving a car makes me feel free and independent. You don't get that with the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn here in Berlin;-). I must have done to much driving since I developed a really terible bursitis in my right elbow which is still not totally gone.
Whatever!!! a "relativly" small price to pay for wonderful memories.
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