April 23, 2010 – 12:24 am
Anita Kiss and András Petruska – my Budapest guides
I’m in Hungary, giving a couple of lectures and talks over the next few days. I wasn’t very clear about the details of what was going down, but it sounds pretty action-packed.
I was picked up at the airport by Anita, given CDs, a rail pass, and lots of tourist information – and then taken to my hotel – actually a penthouse apartment near the centre of town with a view overlooking the Danube (a bit of it anyway) – in order to dump my bag. Then we went to a concert where some students from the popular music school were performing – including Anita’s boyfriend András, who was actually pretty amazing (video to come).
Afterwards, we had the Hungarian equivalent of a kebab, and then went for a stroll around the central part of the city, and across a couple of the bridges. There’s some amazing architecture, fortresses built into the side of sheer rock cliffs – and we saw a bat, which I thought was cool.
Tomorrow, I’m being taken record shopping, and then there’s my lecture. On Saturday, there’s a lunch, another concert – and apparently, I’m being sent on a bike ride around the city with the Critical Mass people. These guys have thought of everything.