the UNIX garage

July 11, 2003

The landmark for finding my way back to the apartment is turn left at the UNIX garage. At least for the first couple of days I thought UNIX was the name of the garage, which is funny enough and adds a whole new meaning to UNIX drivers. Then today I saw the same UNIX sign on another garage on Bartók Béla út downtown so I figured it must be something the garage sells. When I walked home past the garage tonight I looked more closely at the sign and saw the work autóalkatrészek in smaller letters underneath the UNIX logo. So, the garage sells UNIX auto parts! Somehow that's even funnier than being named the UNIX garage. UNIX auto parts!

 

 

I'm getting to know the sights and sounds and even fragrances of my little neighborhood. There's a fragrant mint plant growing on the sidewalk in front of the house. I can smell the pleasant scent from two houses away. This is how I recognize the house because there's no number on it. Just open the gate with the "beware of dog" sign next to the mint plant. There's a beware of the dog sign on the gate here but no dog. This may be the only house on the street without a dog. The neighborhood dogs really get a good chorus going around 10:00 at night. They bark at me individually when I pass each of their gates in the morning. At night and in the morning the predominant sounds here are dogs barking and collared doves cooing their long coo-coooooooo-cuh song. At night there are also amazing numbers of crickets singing.

The train I take every morning goes past the Roman site at Aquincum. A military amphitheater looks pretty imposing on one side of the tracks. Foundations and a few columns, plus the museum that explains it all are across the highway on the other side of the tracks. The remains of a Roman aqueduct are preserved in the median strip of the highway. Ancient and modern. Commute through history.

Besides Roman ruins, the commute on public transportation provides lots of people watching opportunities with little vignettes of life. The first night that I took the #19 tram from out by where István and Marti are house sitting, I watched a young man dancing with a middle-aged woman in one of those Sörbar (beer joint) places along the tracks. There's a whole strip of little beer bars and wine bars and tiny casinos near many of the stations. The bar was brightly lit and they were dancing in front of the open doorway. The thumping bass penetrated everything. The young man was exaggeratedly polite and the woman quite stately. The man danced around the woman doing gyrations and sexy moves while the woman just kept dancing the same sedate step in time to the music.

Another night some weirdo in the metro station kept trying to kiss me, exclaiming "Csok, csok!" (Kiss, kiss!) in between sucking his thumb and trying to get his hands on me. When the train came, I made sure he was on it and the door closed while I waited for the next train. There are nut cases in every culture. It certainly makes for an interesting commute.

Today's Reading
In the Land of the Blue Poppies by Frank Kingdon Ward

This Year's Reading
2003 Book List

Photos:

Garage with UNIX Auto Parts Sign

Collared Dove on TV Dish