My classes are really way out of town for some reason... at least 75 mins of travelling (which involves changing of buses). It really sucks travelling in winter when you're shivering in the cold waiting for the bus to hurry up and come to the stop. That was me on monday. People might find this funny, but it was a bit wierd at first dealing with three different modes of public transport here. I'm usually just used to two. But here, we have the tram, metro and Bus. To get to some places, we might actually have to use all three different types. I think any tourist's first time to budapest might find it a bit confusing travelling especially if they're buying tickets for the first time. I'll explain why. Ok, first off the metro. So back home, I'm really used to automated machines, an easy one for all card, just tap and go. But here... you can almost miss the machines where you feed the tickets into. There are no barriers to keep anyone from sneaking in without a ticket, it's like an open space. So what they've done is to hire people to stand at the sides of the escalators and watch people do it, or flash their weekly/monthly passes at these metro controllers. Can you imagine like rush hour traffic where everyone is rushing through!!! Plus, there's been many times when I flash my pass at them and they barely take a glance at it.. like ok...

So this stopwatch signboard really intrigued me. Instead of counting down to the next train, it actually counts to the next train. Like that helps me know when the train is coming? All I know is how long it took for the train to come..

Metro is really the underground train. I wouldn't say train because people might confuse it with the train that people take to travel across the country. These trains are really built DEEP undergroun, judging from the high of these escalators... and they are really built at quite a steep angle too...

Trams: I would refer to trams as trains on land in the city. haha.. I still don't know where does one purchase tickets to get on the tram. Everyone just hops on and off. I've been told that inspectors do circulate and check passes... but in my three weeks here, I've never really had to worry about being caught without my pass on the tram (though I still bring it with me everywhere I go). The tram is the main mode of transport for me... my apartment block is right outside the tram station, so i'm connected in some sense :P

An older tram...kinda obvious here.. the bigger ones are much spacious..constructed with much more modern materials and don't need to be strung on a wire.

Bus was one of the last forms of public transport I took. I expected the driver to be the one who makes sure everyone pays... I means it's like that in Singapore, NZ and the States! But no... the best part.. the driver seat is actually like this small glass room and it's totally locked or something... I did wonder if they had some bus driver bashing incidents before or something... the buses are usually quite long, they have about 3 doors, and anyone just hops in from either door into the bus. I'm like ok.. just go in and sit down! Once again, i'm still not sure where to get an individual ticket for buses and I have yet to be checked for my pass. The good thing is that if you absolutely speak no hungarian (like me) and have to take the bus somewhere, the bus stop will have a list of the streets it's stopping at and you just count the stops. It also tells you how regularly the bus comes at each stop, which is handy when you miss the bus or just wondering whether you have time to run into the bakery and grab a bun.

So how do I travel? With a monthly pass! It basically allows me to travel all around Budapest. For any first time tourists to Hungary, I would definitely recommend you buy this pass if you want to make your life simpler and with as little hassle as possible. They are sold in like weekly/monthly or even three days and family passes (I do remember reading it on the bus). And, I must really thank the person (Alice or Ting or Rucha?) who bought me that Hungarian phrasebook... really useful my first week here especially when I had to buy food and I was like starring at un-english words.... haha.. picture this.. me at the supermarket, huddled over the meat section, with the phrasebook open in my hand.... it's true.. it happened.

So I was walking to the office today. And I noticed something growing...

Ohhh... little signs of spring... plus the increasing days of sunshine..... Budapest looks so much better in the sunlight... These are all pictures around the Selti office (main office)

I should probably mention that this is the Danube, Parliament

This building is right opposite my office and guess what (ok you'll never guess), it's a prison... on Buda... the expensive side of Budapest... so.... while we are surrounded by heaps of police cars... we are also potentially surrounded by heaps of erm..... I wonder if there's some famous person being released, because the past few days, I've been walking out of the office and catching many tv reporters hanging outside the building....

From the opposite side of the river:

Picture of freedom statue from afar..

I'm actually quite fascinated by the buildings here. I sometimes wonder if they have been left in disrepair on purpose. I took this picture because the plaster that was covering the brick building has broken off and exposed the brick wall opf the building. But obviously, no one has done anything about it, so it's like a smattering of yellow (original) paint of the building and the greyish tone of the bricks... wierd but feels really authentic for some reason. Notice too that they love to build statues here... every spot they can find literally.. there's a statue somewhere..