A new life has started (!) (?)

We are after midnight so October has already started. Five weeks have passesd since I am back. I don't want to give here a detailed evaluation, but will rahter give a random selection of feelings and impressions I went through.

In general it has been a very hard time for me. I arrived to Budapest and from the first moment I had this wierd feeling that I was a stranger at home. You know, I know this city but I could not feel connected to it. I had all kind of problems with my mobile phone with my bank accounts, with my university etc. And people in general were really rude to me. I don't mean my friends, but those You get in touch running after Your tiny little business.

My best friend left the country for years within days of my arrival and I found it almost impossible to come on terms with this. I have been missing Kristóf every single day and I know that it won't change, I don't want to change it.

I was lost. I was talking a lot with people all over from my last year (and before) and felt that my place would be somewhere with them in Zambia, India, China, Norway, France...

If anyone had offered me a ticket anywhere I would have taken it!

That was the dark side. Of course I did great things. I was witness at Kristóf's wedding just a couple of days after my arrival (they had basically waited for me :-)) and it was such a wonderful and moving experience. I felt so so happy, and this was one of the few occassions I felt happy for others. I simply couldn't wipe the grin off my face. I guess I behaved a bit stupidly, I just felt this enthusiasm and I wanted to express, I wanted to share but I had no clear ideas how to... Who cares?! I was there! It was a moment worth to live for.

I spent almost a whole day with my ex-girlfriend who's expecting her first child and is in the last weeks. We spent some time in the maze of Hungarian bureaucracy then shared a lunch a coffe and after all those we had a shopping-marathon! We were buying napkins, all kinds of wipping towels and powders and baby shampoos and so on and so on... It was great fun, just everyone asked if I was the lucky father. I had to admit that I fucked it up quite some time ago so I missed this opportunity.

And also at the university I bumped into some nice guys who also decided to extend their studies and therfore we were familiar to each other. Of course we stick together ;-) And in this way I got into a whole new network of friends. Nice, very interesting and really bright people and I feel almost the same I felt in Norway and I was afraid that I would lose by coming home: that I am in an inspiring and interesting environment where I can learn and have fun at the same time. COOL!

And today I took my fist pics! As you might have recognized I like to boost my posts with some photos, so I decided to to take my camera with me eventually (what I never did before at home).
We went to the World Press Photos exhibition in the morning, then decided to go to Margaret Island to chill out. We lied down on the river bank enjoyed the autumn sun and was doing nothing in the whole afternoon but chatting, throwing leaves on each other, listening Kispál, U2 and Manu Chao...

Then in the evening I had my first theathre experience in this year (ok, ok.. I was not at home!). Riviera from Ferenc Molnár... well it was a bit disappointing. It just couldn't have a grip on me. I was a bit tired and the guys on the stage were not very convincing (to me, because my brother liked it). Oh, and it was an invitation from my Dad who used this little event to introduce me her latest girlfriend! Wow! What a busy day! She seemed nice but I was too tired to really socialize so I just kept it smooth.

The TAJ...

I don't want to fool anyone, and I wish to avoid exaggerating as well. But despite Agra is a beautiful city with plenty of monuments to see I will never forget what I felt when I had first had a look on the Taj Mahal. It really is a shock. As I had spent quite some time by that time India and I left Agra as the last station of my journey I thought that the Taj Mahal would be one more great monument just a bit better known. But in fact this guy is simply playing on another level.

I arrived to Agra after a really-really long and therfore exhausting bus ride. I was using local buses not those air-conditioned Volvos that cost four times as much. I am bit greedy on one hand on the other I was in India and it seemed more suitable. Anyway the show went on the same way: arrving, choosing a rickshaw driver, getting a hotel room and hiring the guy for my whole stay to drive me around.

I was very lucky because exactly in those two days I spent in Agra there was a festival taking place and for this occassion they made it free to visit the Taj Mahal. That usully costs 750 Rupees what is the amount I paid for my room for two nights. So I went there straight from the hotel and soon after my arrival in Agra I found myself on the walkway leading to the Taj. The park around the it is surrounded by massive walls. So I first got a sight of the dome only, and it believe it or not my heart started to beat faster. Then reached to the gate entered and it was laying right in front of me. It was breathtaking. It was around six p.m. the sun was to set the sky way wonderful and so the Taj. I simply couldn't turn my eyes away. I started to approach slowly, stopped every now and then to take photos but it was really... really... amazing... I feel a bit stupid writing about a building so much and in such a sacred tone it deserves all my praises. Please, please do a favour to Yourself, go and see the Taj!

Back...

The title is true in many ways I am back on this page with my little posts, I am back in Europe and even in Hungary. I have this old-fashioned attitude that I like to follow a chronological order, so first of all I would like to dedicate this post to my last days in India. So... after I completed my Delhi-plan I went to Behror to visit Natacha. She had been living with Chris, Martina and Matis. I spent the weekend with them trying also to convince a South-Korean girl to join me on my way to Jaipur and Agra.

Natacha is one of those few people whose presence makes the sun shine brighter on me. So there's no need to explain that I had a nice time. I was fascinated to see how popular she became there. I was glad for her and couldn't help feeling some sorrow knowing that she was to leave soon. She belongs to Behror and Behror belong to her and I was a lucky witness :-)
I couldn't find any travel-mate so I set sail on my own towards Jaipur. I must admit that I felt a bit nervous while sitting on the bus alone heading somewhere I had never been before without any plans. But I felt satisfied with my freedom. After getting off hired a rickshaw driver to take me to a simple hotel, then to an other (I did not like the first one) and I also agreed with him that he would be my driver in Jaipur. So things were going well and I started to really enjoy the situation. I found a nice roof-top restaurant where I had my dinners and breakfasts and I was out during the day to see the Pink City as Jaipur nicknamed after the old city center where most of the houes painted pink.
The thing I liked the most in Jaipur is actually not in Jaipur, but really close and called Amber Fort, a stunning complex, all-built in white marble and red sandstone sitting on a hillside in a beautiful valley. I took an elephant to get up from the bottom of the valley and had a nice ride, thanks to Joe my 27 years old "taxi" . It was really a huge complex and took me hours to explore the most of it and I spent two more hours just sitting and enjoying the magnificinet view in a corner most tourists (many of them in big groups following thier guides as a flock, finishing the whole thing in one hour!) did not even reach. On the way down I went into some bargaining with the local vendors and got some nice silk paintings. I found my driver accompanied by three other guys who started to complain me
that I stayed too long and so that I had to pay extra. It is really funny how theses guys cooperate with each other just to get as much out of You as they can. I was a bit hungry and had seen the same performance too many times so started to shout at them so they rapidly evaporated to the blue sky.
On the next day I continued my journey to Agra where probably the most famous building of India was waiting for me: the TAJ MAHAL...