Life in Sarkad -- The "Flat"

Ahh, Sarkad. So, we made it -- now what?  It's difficult to put this into context, even now a few months later, because so much strange stuff happens everyday.  For now, and for this blog, we'll just focus on where (and how) we've been living on a day to day basis in Hungary.  

Over the last two months we have been living here on the fourth floor (I don't care what they say, I walk up 8 flights of stairs -- it's a disservice to me {and my legs} to say the 3rd floor) of an apartment complex in Sarkad, Hungary.  The flat is wonderful -- we truly have been very happy and comfortable with our living arrangements. That is not to say that we would be truly happy and comfortable with the same living arrangements if we were at home...but for here, and for what we expected, this has been terrific.

Welcome then, to our home. 

Apartment complex

Pizza place below our flat
You would think the name "Meno Mano" would have something to do with a menu--right?
It doesn't -- it means Angry Dwarf

From our flat door we can look down and watch the kids playing on the recycling bins
We've also seen this crew smoking.

Front door and entryway -- water closet on the right
(All pics as of today -- post cleaning)

The water closet -- or VC (should be WC, but all V's are W's, remember).

No bidet?  That's bush league Hungary -- but it does have a nice poop shelf, so that's good.

Our coat rack and place to throw crap from our pockets

From the entryway into the flat (dining room and living room)

Dining room table -- and drying machine/rack
Behind it is our wireless internet router/modem thingie.
Yep, behind the rack we have to use to dry our clothes is a router that allows us to get wireless internet.
WTF!

Ok, kitchen on the left -- entryway on the top right and hallway to the right-right.
Hallway: to the left -- shower and wash machine
Hallway: to the right -- bedroom

Storage -- quite handy
To the left shower, to the right bedroom

The shower...can you see something missing?

Washing machine...in German. It took awhile.

That box is how we heat our water. It is dangerously close to our soap holder.
Well, not for me -- but Melissa's hair could be an issue since flames shoot up a foot
and a half (or 32 meters) when we turn the hot water on.

This can not be safe.

The European King bed. We pushed these together.
(Yes Moms, we make our beds!)
Well, for the pics anyway

Gigantic pillows -- what they make up for in size, they lack in comfort

Back thru the dining room and into the kitchen

On our kitchen window (behind the uh, whatever color drape that is)
Sweet, right? If you look close enough you might be able to see the fangs she has.
I'm not kidding -- soooooooo creepy.

A bowl and a plate -- virtually no difference.

Microwave and a mini-frig

From kitchen into living room

Closets in the living room? Of course.

And....the futon, by the way that chair thing is really comfy

Our only decoration - and no Sarah, we have no plate to
"bring it all together" 

Out the big non-screened wide open window to the balcony

To the right

To the left (that's the big, loud church)

From the balcony: horse cart picking up leaves

So that's where we live and it IS much more than we expected.  We just went to Romania a few weeks back and that was what we imagined our life to be (blog coming soon). This is regal by comparison to Romania, which is literally a 15 minute drive (or 30 minute bus ride -- plus border stops) away.

Now, as to HOW we live...well that is a horse of a different color.

First -- The water...

By the way, this comes and goes. Meliss and I have both showered in brown(ish) water at this point. It doesn't smell bad or sewage like, so we figure we're fine. We do make sure sure to fill up our water bottles when it is not brown.

Second-- The kitchen. It's fine...but there is no real efficient way to do the dishes (and no, I don't mean a dishwasher -- we've never had one). As the sink fills up, there is nowhere to rinse the dishes.  So, you can wash all the dishes and set them aside and rinse them after all are finished (Melissa's method). Or, you can wash dishes and just keep the water running while plugging and unplugging the drain to make room for rinsing (my method, which Meliss says is a waste of soap -- but nem erdekel -- I don't care). It's not that big of a deal though, since we only have 4 and a half dishes (one has a crack in it which I am sure will be a mess soon enough).

Third -- The Church. I am pretty sure I could hit it with a rock from our balcony (ok, probably not since I played 2B and had to use an astroturf hop from there, but it's close). It chimes every hour, everyday.  Plus, it chimes songs for like fifteen minutes at random times during the day and night. I try to make up songs to the chimes (one sounds eerily similar to "itsy bitsy spider" **no, it doesn't -- Melissa) but Meliss doesn't like them. 

Fourth -- The open windows.

Oh, how beautiful --- how European! How shitty is what I say.
It's like camping...but in Europe.

Look, we can deal with most of the stuff thrown our way but lack of air-conditioning could have been a real problem for me...and may still be when Spring and Summer roll back around.

However, Hungary has what has been described as a "dry heat." I guess it's like Arizona from what I've been told -- but I would never move to Arizona because they have scorpions (which are third on my "Real Things To Be Scared Of" list. First and second on that list are spiders and sharks...and fourth is clowns -- first on my "Fake Things To Be Scared Of" list is spiders with scorpion tails that can fly, just so you know).

Anyway, what was I saying....Oh yeah, so the windows are wide open all day and night -- it's cool enough...and then this started happening.

These things were vicious! You may be wondering why there are no pictures of my bites from the Hungarian Über-Mosquito. That's because I didn't get bit. Considering it was 36 degrees Celcius, I slept in a pair of shorts and a bit of sheet. Meliss was covered from head to toe.  Then in the morning, she would show me all the new bites she got (which she still has scars from in some cases). 

Our mosquito fighters
1 -- Off
2 -- Some kind of Raid Plug In that was supposed to emit
a smell that kept mosquitos away...we bought 8 (and only have 5 outlets)

Meliss began dousing herself with Off every night, we closed the windows at dusk, and killed mosquitos for the next month. The plug in thing worked ok, I guess -- but mainly it was closing windows and hunting mosquitos throughout the evening.

We have seen houses and other flats with screens but now it's cold and the mosquitos are gone. We did see a huge spider on the balcony the other day, though.

Dusk in Sarkad -- Quick! Close the door before more mosquitos get in!

As of this writing it is November 12th - and there are many more blogs coming as we try to catch up (again, blame the Cardinals!). The future blogs will be about our schools, bus rides, pig festivals, and us trying to survive in a town of 10,002 people (10,000 of whom  don't speak English).

However, we are getting ready to move to Gyula (go ahead -- try to pronounce it. Yep, you're wrong. I still can't pronounce it -- more on the Hungarian language later). But, we have really enjoyed our time in Sarkad.

BTW this is our vacuum cleaner that doesn't pick up a bit of Melissa's hair...
but she does the vacuuming so...