Safe arrival and exploring the neighborhood

Our trip started well when the gate agent for United at Grand Rapids' Gerald R. Ford airport asked for our visas. For those of you we haven't talked to recently, this question has been the subject of several months' preparation, angst, and a low-burn fear for the start of this semester. The gist of the issue is that the airlines generally want visitors to European Union countries to have a visa, and the Hungarian government has a process whereby visitors enter the country visa-free, and obtain residence permits within 30 days of arrival, for stays longer than 90 days. So we have been at a strange impasse as we've prepared for this departure, obtaining certified consular letters from both the Canadian and the US Hungarian Consulates that state clearly that we don't need visas, but not really sure the airlines would honor them. When our agent asked this question, I was distracted and didn't hear her, but Don DeGraaf, our good friend and Calvin's Director of Off-Campus Programs, quickly turned my attention to the agent and her question. When I produced the letters, she looked them over and said something like, "Wow. I have never seen anything as clear and well-prepared as these." And that was it. We waltzed through, our baggage was all within a pound or two of the weight limit, and we made our way through security and into the skies. As an unexpected gift, we had the best views of the Holland/Saugatuck lakeshore I have ever seen from above, and could see clearly the beautiful blue water we had jumped into only a day before as a physical farewell to Michigan and its summer. In Chicago, we had to hustle to get from one gate to another, and when we arrived at our gate for the flight to Frankfurt, they had already boarded, and we were among the last to board (no waiting!), and off we flew out over the Atlantic. An August flight in this direction means only about 3 hours of darkness, so we didn't see the sunset until we were somewhere near Greenland airspace, and we were in daylight by the time we reached mainland Europe, with wonderful clear views of red/pink/orange sunset and sunrise skies. We were in Frankfurt for only an hour or so, and boarded for a 75 minute flight to Budapest. Our luggage arrived in its 6 big pieces, and we carted it out to the shuttle bus that took us to the apartment. After we figured out which keys open which doors, we made three trips up to our sixth floor apartment (many thanks to Paulina and Zoltan, with whom we have made this wonderful arrangement) and met our new temporary home for the next several months. After deciding who would sleep in which room, we did some minor unpacking, and then took a short rest period - not too long for fear that we might not be able to sleep in the night if we slept too much in the daytime - our bodies are adjusting to 6 hours' difference.

Later we took a short walk around our neighborhood, which is just off Szabadsag Ter (or Liberty Square), very near to the Parliament complex and Kossuth Ter, and much that defines downtown Pest, which is the side of the River Danube we find ourselves on. The photo of Abi above is about two or three short blocks from our apartment, with the Parliament building behind her. After a short walk along the river with views of the Habsburg castle and Castle Hill along the Buda side of the river, we walked to WestEnd Mall, a massive monument to capitalism just under a mile from our apartment in the other direction. It is located next to Nyugati Railway Station, one of two large train stations in Budapest.