43/50: Budapest
My restless soul loves this song.
“Hold me fast
’Cause I’m a hopeless wanderer
I will learn, I will learn
to love the skies I’m under”
In a continuing series of favorite places, a few notes about Budapest.
When I was a girl, the heroes of my life were missionaries. We read books about missionaries. We hosted missionaries in our home. My family traveled to Europe when I was 11 and I was hooked. I loved being in a different country. I loved the thrill of the cultural and language difference. I changed my major to intercultural studies in college with hopes to move to Europe. I took to my studies learning how to adjust to new cultures.
My best friend’s parents were missionaries in Central Europe and invited me to work with them. I raised money from friends and churches and landed in Vienna, Austria in February 1994 where I stayed for three months. I lived with CIA agents (I only discovered this later) and dropped 50 pounds from the walking and healthier food. I felt more alive with the adventure of each day.
I moved to Budapest in May with other missionaries who were moving into that city post Communism. It was still gritty and a little depressed, but the young people were learning English instead of Russian, and the future was on its way.
I made a conscious decision to live in the city itself and not in the suburbs with the rest of the missionaries. This was one of the best decisions ever. The solitude and simplicity of those days allowed me to create a life that was open to new experiences and new people. I learned to get lost in a foreign city and trust that I would get re-oriented around the corner. I learned to absorb a new language in real time.
I didn’t have a car and walked or took public transit. One day about three days before Christmas, I took the bus and tram to the pottery shop from which I was collecting a set of dishes. I picked up a few pieces and put them in the bottom of my backpack. I then went to the grocery store to buy some groceries for friends visiting for the holiday. This topped out my backpack and added two grocery bags to my hands. On the way out of the grocery store, I picked up a small Christmas tree. So, I was then on the tram and bus with a backpack, 2 overloaded grocery bags and a Christmas tree under my arm marching up to my hillside flat. And it started to snow.
But. There was nothing like the sense of satisfaction in getting all of that into my flat all by myself, settling in before an enormous snow storm, and feeing like I’d won the invisible game of life.
I still am at my absolute happiest in a new city with nothing to do but explore. Budapest is where I became an adult. Instead of converting the world, it converted me to beauty, adventure and the possibilities of what happens when we walk out with an open heart.