Greetings from Budapest!

So here I am in an internet cafe by the Octogon train station in Budapest, a bit over 24 hours after I arrived. I nearly didn't make it. I woke up Monday morning, ready to pack and make final preparations for the next day's journey, only to be run over by a sudden attack of some pretty nasty flu. Within an hour or two, I had a high fever, terrible body aches and so much fatigue that I could barely stand for a more than a minute. I got into bed and fell into a feverish (but rather comforting) sleep. The next morning, I was just barely better, but because I couldn't get another flight to Budapest, I decided to keep mine anyway, promising myself that I would sleep the whole journey through. I didn't, but it went OK and I met SB at Frankfurt. (Our other friend and fellow traveler SP had to stay home due to sickness at the last minute and we are still waiting for her to get better.)

We were greeted at the airport by Andres, our super friendly Hungarian guide, who has the interesting job in the medical school's international department of guiding lost medical students like us who come to visit Semmelweis University. He took us to our hotel, bought us our transit passes, and has patiently tried to teach us some basic Hungarian. I have to say, however, that even for a bilingual Polish girl, this is a tough language. Lots of syllables (even for simple words) and not similar to any other languages out there.

Budapest is, of course, beautiful. Most buildings were built in the 19th century and have that stable, decorative architecture. There is this amazing public transportation system that allows you to get by tram, subway, lightrail or bus pretty much anywhere anytime, and you usually have to wait 1-2 minutes for your choice of transport to arrive. That means that since we are staying 2 minutes walk from the subway station, we are minutes away from anywhere else we want to go in the area, and since we have these handy little passes, we pretty much go as we please.

Today, we had our first day organized by our hosts at the international department at the University. It was a great day, which began with an introduction to the history of Hungary and the University, an overview of the current health care system (and the flux) it is in, and ended with a really interesting talk with prominent Hungarian psychiatry professor about how alcohol abuse is approached in Hungarian society and health system (which is kind of our research project.)

Tomorrow, we have a few more of these discussions and we'll end the day at a local bar, watching the handball tournament between Poland and Hungary, and awaiting SP's arrival.