It seems as though fall has finally decided to arrive here in Budapest. For a while the temperature had been flirting with the idea of making its promising drop, but only just recently has it actually happened. At least for me. I think the locals and anyone who has never spent any amount of time living in an "arctic region" would say it got cold here weeks ago. However, since the leaves have been changing colors only just recently, now everyone can agree that it is officially fall.
Last weekend I took the opportunity to treat myself to a movie. Since it was an American movie (Julie & Julia and absolutely adorable) I'm very much guilty of not submerging myself in Hungarian culture. For my defense though, I did try to speak as much Hungarian as I could when purchasing the ticket, and there were Hungarian subtitles written on the screen which I tried to match the spoken English words to them from time to time, so there.
The next day I invited Darjana and her boyfriend Peter, who was visiting from Serbia, to go to the Fine Arts Museum with me. Yes, it's the same museum I went to a few weeks back, but there was a whole new temporary exhibit up and I wanted to see it very much. It's called "From Boticelli to Titian- Masterpieces of Two Centuries of Italian Art." I couldn't live with myself if I let an exhibit like this get away from me. There were several of Boticelli's religious paintings on display. Until then I had only seen ones such as Primavera and the Birth of Venus, so this was really exciting. There is speculation that Boticelli had traveled to Hungary when he was a young art apprentice, so there's some fun trivia for you. The exhibit had a number of impressive paintings by Titian, Veneto, Il Sodoma, Tintoretto, as well as many others. The painting I was most excited to see was Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci. Beyond knowing that it would be absolutely gorgeous to look at, in the back of my mind I remembered that it was what inspired Philip Pullman to use daemons (animal companions) in His Dark Materials oh which I became obsessed with in 8th grade. Despite the fact there were a butt-load of people there wanting to see the same things we did, overall it was a nice experience going to the museum.
After the museum visit the three of us walked down Andrassy ut in search of coffee. It was raining of course, yet it wasn't cold enough to find the atmosphere miserable. The wetness made the varying colors of the leaves stand out, and I found enjoyment looking at them against the fashionable embassy buildings along the "Broadway of Pest." We found a place for coffee on Nagymezo utca and I ate some amazing Serbian food called Plazma that Peter was so kind to bring from home. We were on the same street where Cassandra and I saw a photo exhibit when she was here. Unfortunately the cute little elephant sculpture she posed next to is no longer there, but I still have the memory. 
I'm not sure what is in store for this weekend. There was consideration for some travel to another city, but with the rain happening everywhere in Central Europe it might be better to wait another week. I am feeling a little sick as well- I've been dealing with a sinus infection off and on all week and today I'm feeling particularly week. Luckily it's Thursday (laundry day!) so I don't have to do anything too stressful today- although I have yet to look at the Sartre reading for tomorrow so maybe the stress level will change! (I kid, I kid...)
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