There’s nothing much to talk about office, though the guys over here seem to have a quirky sense of humor. In the meeting room, someone had given ample display of his/her talent for drawing with pictures of a cat begging for food and highlighting the similarities between Berndt – whoever he was – and a sparrow. I failed to see the similarity though since Berndt – whoever he was – had a pair of spectacles and beard, neither of which the sparrow had. I try to be serious and somehow succeed. I fell asleep for a short time in the afternoon in what was a drowsy day. In addition to reading specification documents, I also spent a lot of time reading on the Ku Klux Klan (no! that doesn’t amount to Ego Surfing!).
My learning curve seems to be going up. Frank had asked us to confirm with the bus driver as to whether he would stop at the HEV railway station. For the past three days, he had indeed, and hence today we took it for granted that he would stop today too. To our utter surprise, he sped past the station, and finally stopped after the Arpad Bridge a full ten minutes later. To our delight we found out that this route took almost 20 minutes off our travel time. Tomorrow might be a day for experiments.
After dropping Pragati off at the hotel, I decided to head back into the city, with the idea of exploring the Elizabeth Bridge. I had somehow made up my mind that I had to get down at Kalvin Tere, without even consulting a map. It was only after I alighted from the metro that I found that I had got off a station too sooner. Ahead of me lay the dark green Liberty Bridge. But as fate would have it, the road leading to the bridge was blocked. I had to take a round-about way to reach it, during the course of which I almost managed to lose the direction and run over by a tram.
It was once again an evening to enjoy. Storm clouds were gathering and the sun was playing hide and seek and cast its golden glow all around. The Royal Palace was once again, a sight to behold, silhouetted against the evening light. The Szabadság híd or the Liberty Bridge is the third oldest bridge in Budapest, being built in 1896 (the chain bridge being the oldest, built in 1849), and is painted in a dull green color. Gellert Hill - which houses the Liberty Statue and the citadel - towers over the bridge on the Buda side, where as numerous piers dot the Pest side. I crossed over to the Buda side and as usual, walked along the river side to the Elizabeth Bridge. It was the first time I was walking across a suspension bridge. I had missed the golden opportunity (pun unintended) to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge last year, and the KR Puram Hanging Bridge does not exactly qualify as a suspension bridge in my standards. The bridge quivered uneasily each time a huge bus or truck passed by.
To my dismay, I found that my camera was running out of battery. Not surprising since I hadn’t charged it even since I had arrived here. So I decided to shut it down and conserve the battery for the big shot of the day (I would still go on and click 20-odd photos). Roosevelt square was as usual busy with crisscrossing cars and tram. One guy was so enamored by the sight of the trams that he was chasing every one of them for taking photographs – even walking into the tunnel under Roosevelt Square to click them. The place was thronged by tourists, and one look at the crowd confirmed the obvious – that they were all waiting for the same thing as I was – the lighting up of the Chain Bridge.
I sat there on the river side for an hour and a half – listening to the band playing classical music – for the magic to begin. And I was not disappointed. At Nine O’clock, the lights along the roadway blinked on (immediately followed by a long ‘ooh’ from the three girls who were sitting on the edge of the pier). A minute later, the lights adorning the cables came on, and a further minute later, the huge towers were lit up. In the meantime, the lights in the palace were slowly brightening up. A few minutes later, with the lights fully functioning the whole structure was lit up like in a fairy tale. It was another half an hour before I left the place – trying desperately to find a perch to keep my camera for shooting the spectacle. I succeeded only partially.
Pic of the Day: Once upon a time, there was a bridge...
Observation of the day:
Pragati had a look at all the applications installed in my laptop and exclaimed: “Yeh kya? Apne laptop ko Brigade Road banake rakha hai!” (You’ve converted your laptop into Brigade Road)
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