Dear Diary: Trip to Budapest 3 "Street"

> In Japanese

Paul Erdős, John von Neumann, John Kemeny... Because there are many geniuses from this country, Hungary was rumoured to be a place where Martians live.

Not sure if this is true, but I spotted some suspected descendants while I was doing subtitle for two Hungarian documentaries which revolve around tech/science.

Some time ago, I read a lovely story about "Gömböc" which was proven by Hungarian scientist, and there was a remark that their complex language might have something to do with their intelligence.

I don't know. I couldn't find any lead on this trip anyway. 

Here are the photos I took while I was walking around the city.

> Read All of “Trip to Budapest”

Dear Diary: Trip to Budapest 2 "Fast"

> In Japanese

There’s no direct flight to Budapest from Japan, so I flew in via Helsinki.

When a Mexican boy sitting next to me found out that I was heading to Budapest, he kindly gave me some advice. “Since you’re used to the safety level in Japan, you’d better avoid all public transportation, taxi and night walking in Budapest.” This makes me scared and I followed them for a while, but eventually broke them all. (But I didn’t take or walk alone after 9pm, as a basic rule for girl’s solo trip.)

Tram was nice and bus was easy. Metro was tricky though. Or I should say “a way to get to the metro platform” was tricky. Their escalator moves so fast (at least 3 times faster than Japan’s) and is very steep (felt like 70 degrees) and so long (felt like forever). Basically this freaked me out and I decided to avoid them if I could.

And their ferris wheel moves quite fast too.

> Read All of “Trip to Budapest”

Dear Diary: Trip to Budapest 1 "Night View"

> In Japanese

A few weeks ago, I visited Budapest, Hungary for the first time.

I arrived in the evening and Budapest looked very dark to my eyes; Smoky sky, glimmer street lights, tired looking walls, thin bright light coming from the gap of huge doors…

Watching its night from the taxi, I felt like watching a really heavy and closed love story movie. 30 minutes ride was not long enough. Fascinating view.

> Read All of “Trip to Budapest”

[Good evening Tuesday] Mind if I say yes?

Do you mind if I…?

When I’m asked a question starting from this sentence in person, I always get nervous a bit. Because even when I do want to tell that I don’t mind, I often ended up telling them “YES!” with a big smile and make them puzzled. 

ブダペストに行ってきました

->English version

先日、2.5日間という短期間ではありますが、ハンガリーのブダペストに行ってきました。

ハンガリーって名前はよく聞くけど、実際どこにあるの？どんな国なの？と思っていた私ですが、かつてハンガリー出身のルームメイトがいたことをきっかけに、何となく耳馴染みのある国になっていきました。

そして、このブログでも何度か紹介していますが、コンピュータプログラミングを使ったアート作品“デモシーン”やゲーム開発など、ハンガリーのサブカルチャーシーンを紹介したドキュメンタリーシリーズ「Moleman」の日本語字幕をつけさせていただいたことで、さらにハンガリーについて知る機会があり、映像や資料だけでなく、一度はこの地の雰囲気を体験してみないとなぁ、、と思っていたのでした。

そんなわけで、以前よりハイピッチで重くなる腰をよっこら上げて、いざブダペストへ！