A Morning in the Immigration Office (or not)

This is a story about how I did not spend the morning at the Hungarian immigration office.

I was supposed to spend my morning there, to file for my residence permit, but unfortunately I was missing one document. The guy at the check-in desk took one look at my files, and shook his head. Better luck another day!

So there I was, early in the morning on the other side of town, with no plans for the rest of the day. So, with nothing else to do, I began walking. I knew I was somewhere in the vicinity of the city's Városliget, or central park, and I headed in that direction.

I walked. And walked, and walked, and walked. For the longest time, I saw nothing to suggest a park in the vicinity except these two cats lounging in the grass.

I wondered where the city park might be, and I started to get the feeling that I was walking all the way around it -- but there was no entrance!

At one point, I looked down at my feet and thought "Is that elephant poop?" Now, I have seen a lot of animal poop in my life, and I felt pretty confident in my assessment of this particular feces. I wondered why there would be a pile of elephant poop in the middle of a Budapest sidewalk.

Well, my answer came when I rounded the corner. Turns out, I had not been walking around the park,  but around the Zoo, which is inside the park. I thought about going into the zoo, but I was more interested in exploring the city park itself. So, having finally found it, I crossed the street and was greeted by these lovely mermaids near the entrance to the park.

Doesn't look like they are super comfortable.

I walked past the mermaids, and was greeted by a view of a lovely castle.

Straight out of a fairytale!

This is Vajdahunyad Castle, and it's actually a faux-castle. It was built in 1896 to commemorate a thousand years of Hungarian history, and different sections showcase architectural styles from throughout Hungarian history. Originally, it was built of wood and cardboard, but Hungarians loved it so much that it was reconstructed from stone in the early twentieth century, and now is a permanent fixture in the park that houses the Agriculture museum.

Another view of Vajdahunyad. I love how the foliage is growing on the building, although I'm fairly certain it's not supposed to be like that.

I spent most of the next hour wandering around the castle and around the park itself. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people walking their dogs, having picnics, and enjoying the fresh air.

As I walked, I kept looking for the lake that I had seen in photos and maps of the park, but I couldn't seem to find it. I kept running into this parking-lot looking thing instead. You can't see it in this photo, but there were a bunch of utility trucks and workers in reflective vests wandering around.

The "Lake"?

It finally dawned on me that this was the lake, and it had been drained. Every year, this large area gets turned into a giant open-air ice skating rink, so that's what they must have been working on. I made a mental note to come back here when the rink is open. I might even bring my ice skates back from the U.S.! I love skating.

Having exhausted my time in the park, but not my wandering-energy, I made my way out of the park and down Andrássy Ut. This is a large boulevard where many countries have their embassies. I walked down the green median, noting the different embassies, like Serbia, Turkey, Bulgaria, and more.

Further down, Andrássy turns into one of Budapest's main shopping streets where most of the luxury shops are. As I walked, I looked through the windows at all the fancy watches, fur coats, and jewelry that I will never, ever be able to afford.

However, just a few steps later, I found a shop that did have something I could afford and also wanted. It was the perfect way to finish my morning walk.

Yum!

Well, my morning in the immigration office turned into a three hour walk through Budapest, which was much more pleasant anyway. But now it means that I'll have to go back to the immigration office next week...