So let's see... I departed my home in Phoenix on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. so I could arrive early at the airport. I arrived at my apartment in Budapest at 5:30 p.m. There is a 9 hour time difference, which means I arrived here at Friday 8:30 a.m. Phoenix time, so my whole travel time here door to door was 22 hours. Actually, that's not too bad. And I feel pretty functional.

After getting my bags I waited on the street in line for the taxi service that I was told was reliable. I was rather astonished that everyone outside the airport seemed happy and in a good mood. I have never encountered that before at an airport. Seriously, everyone was smiling and happy. The whole feel of the crowd was just excellent.

Of course, I was already practicing my Hungarian by that time. I started by trying it out on our stewardesses on the way to Budapest, but those ignoramae didn't understand me. Hmph, one would thing that all Dutch women speak Hungarian to Americans, yes? Well those underachievers sure didn't, but I didn't let it spoil my mood.

Practiced Hungarian with the woman processing my taxi request. Damn, but the taxi stand was freaking efficient. I found myself thinking that I couldn't picture Russian public service personnel doing that well. And I practiced with the taxi driver. And of course with my landlord. It's amazing how much use you can get out of 50-60 words if you just keep using them. No, I'm not kidding.

After meeting my landlord I sought out for the nearest bank for a load of cash for the next few days. New cards worked great. I had had to replace them because the magnet strips on the old ones weren't working so well. Returned to the apartment, stashed the majority of the money. Started to explore the area my landlord said would have a bunch of restaurants nearby.

Preliminary observations:

• It's a hot, humid day, and most of the men are wearing shorts. In Bishkek people don't wear shorts except at the gym or the beach, never around town. Damn, I should have brought my Tevas: no one in Budapest would have cared.
• Women mostly wear dresses. I'm old-fashioned enough to really like that.
• The most common cheap fast-food seems to be Turkish, just like in Bulgaria and Kazan. I expect it to be the same in Bishkek.

I was hungry, but I didn't want Turkish food, cuz I can find that anywhere. Then I passed this place:

Notice especially this bit:

I definitely want to explore typical Hungarian food, so I went in and ended up order dorohebdakamlekobanbebol (or something like that):

This is a dish of chicken, baked with chunks of cauliflower on top, covered with a crust made either of pure baked cheese or perhaps cheese and mayonnaise. Then add a side of mashed potatoes that is so enormous you want to sleep under the table even though you haven't finished them. On the whole, the dish was entirely unremarkable. Filling. Nice tasting. But unremarkable. These Hungarians are going to have to work harder if they want to gain my culinary admiration.