First impressions: part I

So, yea. I guess this is it. Since the start of september last year I've been working towards a goal, a goal which I'm about to complete. At the time of writing I am sitting in my 3rd floor, white-walled, two-bedroom, rented apartment in Budapest, about to start my first year in medical school.

Of course, this one goal is merely the first in a series of many that will become increasingly harder to complete. I feel confident, but I refuse to let my guard down. Not before it's even started, anyway.. I digress. I mean for this to be about my very first impressions of living in Budapest, and I'll try to stick with that for the rest of the post.

Our plane landed on saturday the 20th at about 2PM, and I immediately realized that the word summer has a different meaning down here. It was hot. In fact, it is hot right now, and it is going to be this way for quite a while yet.
Upon retrieving our baggage I felt the urge to use the restroom. The handling of my overfilled bags were somewhat clumsy, so I almost knocked over a woman who was in my way. I promptly asked her "oi, beklager, går det bra?". She looked at me funnily and moved along((edit: LOL, only upon proofreading did I notice the accidental double entendre. Oh well). Apparently they don't speak norwegian all that well in Hungary. Who knew?

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, which wasn't entirely unproblematic, but I won't go into detail. It seems everything is just a little more inconvenient down here, compared to Norway. Imagine going back to using Windows Vista after getting used to W7.

I initially planned for a trip to Ikea saturday evening, but we were both tired, and I was also a bit hungover from last nights festivities (even though I went to bed at like nine..), so we just went for a bite instead.

Come sunday, we checked out of the hotel and went to ikea. After spending an hour and a half and ending up only purchasing towels, we spent a few more hours looking at stuff at a shopping center at Ors Vezer Ter.(or something..) since our apartment wasn't ready until 4PM.
When 3PM arrived, we couldn't figure out what to do to entertain ourselves anymore, but we thought it was too early to get a taxi already, so we procrastinated for about half an hour. Getting a taxi, turns out, wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. We spent about an hour trying to get one before giving up, and getting on a trolley we had noe idea where went. It seemed to be going in the right direction, anyway. After a little while the trolley turned in a direction we knew was wrong, so we got off and started walking. We walked for around fifteen minutes in what we figured must be the general direction of our hotel, before finally getting a taxi. Cue five-minute ride that probably saved us >45 minutes of walking.
So, we spent about 7-8minutes getting to ikea, and a little over two hours getting back to our hotel.

The hotel receptionist ordered a taxi for us, specifically asking for a car with a big trunk to fit all our luggage. No surprise when the car that showed up barely even HAD a trunk. Oh well, I was pretty much too tired to care at this point.

We were welcomed into our new apartment by the owners, and they gave us an amazing tour as well as thorough instructions on how everything worked. This was actually really great, as a lot of things they could tell us were far from intuitive.
Also, the apartment is pretty amazing, if I must say so myself.. All appliances (except dishwasher, meh), and overall very well equipped and furnished. I chose to rent from a norwegian owner, pretty much just because it's easier that way (read: we speak the same language).

On monday we made another trip to ikea, this time by metro, and were able to make it back home in a reasonable amount of time. My visa card stopped working while at ikea, so I have ordered a new one from back home, which my father will have to send to me in the mail.. Heres hoping it will make it down here. Not sure if I completely trust the Hungarian postal system..
Tuesday we visited Westend City Centre, a shopping centre just north of where we live. I bought an iPad which I am using to compose this post. I was torn between getting a computer and an iPad, but in the end I went for the iPad because 1) it's cheaper, and I don't have all that much money right now due to fluctuations in the dollar currency(seriously), and 2) I don't want a computer with a hungarian keyboard. Looks like I will have to order one online when I get the money.

I cba to write any more right now. Stay tuned for part II.