My Summer Home

When I first arrived back in Budapest I was quite anxious to find an apartment and get settled, and as a result I took the first place that I looked at. When I was signing my rental contract I was thinking I should have maybe looked around a little more, but the location, flatmates, size of the room and price were all right making me confident in my choice.

Now that I've been here for a month my slightly run-down neo-classical flat has really grown on me and when I look out my window into the courtyard I can't help but admire the architecture and the way the sun shines into the courtyard garden. I'm sure it was probably far more beautiful at the turn of the century when it was built and before it lived through wars, revolution, and communism, but the fact that those events have tarnished the building slightly is part of what makes me admire it so much, similar to the way in which I admire the city.

I've even become quite fond of the other tenants in the building. I really like the old man who lives in the flat below me,who always has paint on his clothes and says a little "Halo" when I come up the stairwell, and the various old ladies in the flats beside me who make a profession out of gossiping on the terrace. But my favourite is the Roma family that lives on the ground floor, who practically live in the courtyard with their door always wide open. You can always smell what the mother is cooking for her family and the random characters who will be over for dinner each night, which judging by the volume of the conversation, always seems like such a party. It's my goal to get an invite at some point over the summer.