July 24th and what I did today

After yesterday's awesome research discoveries, I sat at my favorite bar and the German guys I met, Mario and Sebastian, came by and we had some drinks.  Then Candida and Lana came by and joined us.  Then we went to a couple more bars and I met some American's and Canadians and we chatted it up for awhile.  I got sufficiently drunk enough to have a bit of a hangover today.  

But I pushed through it and headed out to the city around 11.  I had to buy a new data card for my camera (great, another expensive addition to an already expensive trip) and then I wandered around for a while looking for antique stores and photo printing shops.  I'm looking for ornate, detailed wooden frames, the kind great paintings might be housed in and then I'm going to insert my modern photographic images into the frames.  Depending on the size, I'd like to make 3 different pieces.  The idea is that I'll juxtapose these modern images with the antique frames - as a comment on how I see Budapest and the culture in Hungary.  I found a really fancy antique place that was asking 35,000 forints for one frame!  That's crazy!  So, I'll head to the flea market at City Park on Saturday, and if I'm not lucky there, there's another flea market on Monday by the airport (apparently run by some very tricky gypsies!)  And if that fails, there's a framer who can make antique looking frames for me, but these will likely cost quite a bit. 

So, I shot a lot more photos today.  A lot of touristy stuff of architecture and buildings, but I got some interesting shots of Andrassy Utca, which looks a lot like it's about to explode into the next Rodeo Drive or 5th Avenue.  There's Gucci and Armani and Guess stores in these incredibly old buildings.  It's all very strange.  This modern shift in Hungary's economy and culture seems to take away from the city, rather than enhance it.  At least for me.  One thing I'm glad about though, is that there's no fucking Wal-Mart here!  And I hope there never is.  

I made it over the US Embassy, which was a total security nightmare.  I had to go through metal detector and hand over my phone, camera and iPod to the security guard.  All this just to find out that I need to go to the Hungarian Consulate to acquire about citizenship.  

Beata visited us today and she called the phone number I was given of the person who might be a family member, the one who paid the rent on the grave.  There was no answer.  But I gave her all my information, and she is going to try again for me tonight and tomorrow and help set a way that I can meet this person.  Hopefully, they speak a little english...but if not, Beata said she'd join us for coffee and translate for me.  This is huge...I've never met any of my Hungarian family, except the few who came with my mom in 57.  

I'm shooting a lot less video than I anticipated, but tomorrow I will go to the correct cemetery and hopefully find my grandma.  I am seriously going to have to come back with a crew, because I simply can't shoot all the things I'm doing. 

Can't believe this is almost half over.