Although I was born in Budapest, I lived my life prior to my university studies in a little town, Gyöngyös. Like most of the people who live in the countryside, I too thought that our capitol was a homogenous contraption, a huge, evenly designed machine; I also assumed that the citizens think in the same fashion, in a Budapest way. When I needed to move here I soon realized that instead of a clockwork, this city is more like you and me, in the sense that it is, in fact, an organic creature. It breathes, it observes, it thinks. Just like the living body, this city has different parts, strongly connected to eachother, with different functions. It has the same needs. And vices. It needs fresh air, although it constantly exhales poisonous gases. It craves food and water and it turns them into waste. It needs other cities to communicate with, for it is a social creature. Let’s face it: we are not in Budapest, we are Budapest.
What I mean with this farfetched metaphor is that this thing we live in has different areas which have different purposes. In the future, I shall examine each district with the accuracy of an anatomist, trying to identify the vital spots, those places which give a certain kind of characteristic, and the boundaries where these different parts meet and hopefully clash. I trust that instead of a Frankenstein’s monster I will find something magnificent.
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