landed

So, I arrived in Budapest Sunday around 4:45. I then proceeded to spend about an hour in the line for customs, as a 250-300 person tour group had arrived just before me. Got outside the airport, where I was greeted by someone from my program. I hopped in a taxi and arrived at my apartment.

Which is BEAUTIFUL.

You walk in the main door

and go through a short passage way

to an interior courtyard

It seems like most old apartment buildings in Budapest are built like this. It really creates a very nice effect, in my opinion. Less stuffy and impersonal as many apartment buildings in the States. My apartment is up a flight of stairs. You come into a hallway. To the left is the kitchen

and dining area,

which is quite spacious and very well supplied with pots and pans and everything else you could possibly need. To the right, the hallway continues and comes to the huge - probably 10 foot tall - doors

to our shockingly large living room.


The whole apartment has great high ceilings - probably 15 or 18 feet, I'd guess, though I'm not very good at guessing things like that. My bedroom


is on one side side of the living room. Those aren't as spacious as the rest of the apartment, but they are very, very comfortably sized. I was expecting a small, cramped apartment, so I was VERY pleasantly surprised.

The one drawback is that I have yet to get internet in the apartment. This is difficult as I was planning to communicate mainly through skype, which is an online phone service. However, I have (through only somewhat hacker-like techniques) managed to, I hope, set my computer up so that I will have internet. I'll be testing this in just a few minutes after I go home from the university. EDIT: It works!

I haven't done too much exploring of the city yet, as I've been largely stuck in orientation-type activities. However, the rest of the week is relatively free, so I'm looking forward to exploring!