"My little Hungarian stories" a Budapest Travel Page by IngaA

Well, I was thinking to go to Poland (and I still am but the story is not about that). Going a bit ahead, I couldn't do it. But let's start from the beginning. I had 3 free days and wanted to visit Poland. For going via Ukraine (which would be ideal case for me) it was too shirt, I would have spent about 2 days in the road when going via Lviv. So the only way for me was to go by train via Slovakia.
The problem is that I need a Slovack transit visa. So I decided to go to Slovack embassy. I looked for the address in Internet, put it down and asked at the reception in my dormitory where the street is. We found it on the map, the receptionist told me how to get there and I went.
I found the embassy but it turned that the visa department is in absolutely different place, not even in the same district. OK,,, I copied a new address and undertake another attempt with the receptionist. We spent a half of hour on studying the map. NOTHING... Jezus Maria, as Hungarians sometimes say. I was puzzled. It was too late to phone there.
The next day I came to the university and asked my Hungarian friend Viktoria to help me. Having looked at the address she defined that they put the wrong district there. Without going into details of Hungarian address system, I'll just say that she defined the right district by zip code. Finally we found a street itself but Viktoria didn't know that district at all (she lives in Buda, another side of Danube, far from that place) and couldn't prompt me with the transport. But now, having an exact location, I defined that it seems to be is not too far from my dormitory.
I called to the embassy, asked about the reception hours and since I had free evening I decided to try to find this place just not to waste time the next day. And here the story begins..... (see chapter below)

I borrowed a very detailed map and started my researches. The problem is that at that time tram line was under reconstruction and I couldn't use it (I disclosed that it's not far from that place). So I approximately chose the needed bus. I took a bus but when we reached the final station I was not really sure where I am. An aged lady was looking at me starring at the map and asked what I want. In Hungarian of course... poor me. But I knew what she was asking simply because it was not so difficult to guess. I showed her the address. She said "follow me" and lead me to some another bus. I remembered the number ,just in case. She showed me to go in, we said good bye to each other and I came into the bus. It was the final station too and the bus was waiting for the depatrure time. Some time later that lady came back, stepped into the bus and started speaking Hungarian fast, loudly and showing at me. All the passengers turned their heads and were looking at me with curiousity. She told the address that I needed and other say smth like "OK, we'll show her". We were "talking" with mimics and signs of course :)
Then bus left, and the passengers starteed to discuss loudly my possible itinerary (I understood it because they spoke the address). Some time ago they asked me if I'm English... I said "yes" just to avoid quentions for which it was too complicated to answer,, smth like "where I studied english", etc.
Then a teenager came to me and also asked smth, which I sure did not understand. He asked in English "are you the girl looking for Gervay utca"?. .. I said "yes" and he told me that he knows where I should go out and will show me.
He and another aged lady with a big bunch of flowers really showed me the stop, moreover they both needed the same stop too.
I looked around... Jesus.. Cottages, garages, gardens, flowers,,, quite place, typical, as we say "burger paradise". The place where nothing ever happens. Sure seeing the girl with "lost" look, starring at the map, knowing only "igen" & "nem" in Hungarian was like an entertainment for them :))) I still wonder what could be the reason of placing the visa department of the embassy in such a place :)
Anyway,,, that guy asked me about the address and lead me to the right direction. On the way we talked a bit, he asked where I'm from, etc. Since he spoke English it was not a problem. And he was also quite surprised that there is a visa department there. He even didn't hear about that :)) Well,,, thanks to the Hungarian passengers I finally found the embassy but the price for transit visa was too high :((