Moon River

"Moon river, wider than a mile. I'm crossing you in style someday. You dream maker. You heart breaker. Wherever you're going, I'm going your way. Two drifters off to see the world. There's such a lot of world to see. We're after the same rainbow's end. Waiting 'round the bend. My huckleberry friend. Moon river and me."

The rhythm of today reminded me of this song, sung so beautifully by the lovely Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, a movie that I must confess I have a soft spot for. After a morning spent in the classroom of Katalin Fugedi, our smiling Hungarian language professor who also likes to refer to ourselves as our grandma, we caught the number 6 tram out of Moricz Zsigmund Korter to Margit (Margaret) Island, an island park in middle of the Duna Folyo (Danube River). Although at first it seems almost eerily pretty, like a tiny piece of sunshine floating in the middle of the river, the island grows on you with each step you take. Not long after stepping on the island, we saw an enormous water fountain complete with cool mist and water shooting in all directions, including straight up into the sky. Children played in the fountain. One boy in particular to a liking to us, especially to myself and to Kyle. The boy had a ball and alternated between throwing the ball into the water, throwing it at us, and trying explicitly to splash us. The water was cool and refreshing and pooled around my feet. The boy and Kyle teamed up against me and splashed me, completely soaking me, but I really didn't mind since the little boy liked it so much and I was having fun as well.
The island is full of flowers and trees, including one tree twisted and shooting up in different directions. We all climbed on it. I could feel its knotty surfaces beneath my feet as I attempted to climb in a dress. Everything around us was vivid, green or yellow or brown. Couples smoked hookah on the lawns or kissed indiscretely beneath trees.
We crossed over to the banks of the Duna and sat looking out over it at Pest, watching boats cruise by and ducks float along with the river's current. Although the Duna is dirty, there is still something peaceful and elegant about it, something remaining of Strauss' "The Blue Danube". Looking down the river, I could see the Freedom Bridge and the Elizabeth Bridge (Erszebet Hid) stretching across the river and couldn't help but wonder at the ingenuity that must have gone into creating such a piece of architecture to support the weight of numerous cars and people. We sat there for over an hour, laughing and talking and listening to the music of the river and the life of the people around us.
At around five o'clock, we took the tram back to the dormitory to meet the rest of the group, then took the metro over to Pest to find a place to eat dinner. We passed St. Stephen's Chuch (?) as well as several other truly spectacular buildings. It is a bit surreal to look at these buildings, these giant, undeniable pieces of the past looming over the city, as if guarding the passersby, your view of them obscured by stoplights and telephone wires and grafitti. I wonder what those who worked on constructing these buildings, on designing them would think of the city today.
We found a quaint szendvics (sandwich) shop and cafe where we all sat outside under dimmer lighting and watched the city move and change about us. I ordered still water (Hungary seems to prefer fizzy waters, making it important to distinguish if you, like me, don't like carbonation in your water) and vegetarinus szendvics (vegetarian sandwich) with cheese, tomato, basil, and garlic on ciabatta bread, followed by mint ice cream. It was nice to eat and talk softly outside. I need moments like that, where I feel slightly apart from the random chaos of a large group. Even though the group was there, perhaps it was the relative quietness of the evening that had quieted the voices or maybe it was my introspective state of mind, but whatever it was, everything seemed for a few minutes more peaceful than it had.

Anyways, after taking a walk around the dormitory area, I still haven't shaken off this introspective frame of mind and will likely indulge myself with my own daydream thoughts until I drift off into sleep.

Oh. And I saw another hedgehog. It appeared to have crawled into a plastic bag and wouldn't leave until we left it alone for awhile.

-Abby-