After being home for a while now, I started to have a strange feeling. At the beginning it was hard to realise what is it actually, but now I know. I am homesick. Even though I spend most of my life here in Budapest and I spent only a month in San Francisco, I miss it. And I miss it a lot.
I tried to collect the random things I miss since I left San Francisco.
The Weather
It seems like a small thing. But it isn’t. If I would want to summarise in one sentence: I haven’t wear my sunglasses since I left the sunny California. It’s kinda hard to imagine now, that we had to use sun lotions when we went for a bike over the weekend—of course, strictly in shorts. Here we have scarfs and winter coats. I would give my right arm to anyone to see the sun again here in Budapest.
The City
I love Budapest. I’ve been to quite a few cities in the world, but I still think, Budapest is one of the greatest cities. But San Francisco is on the very same short list of great, lively and welcoming cities. I miss the Fisherman’s Wharf, the Mission Street, the street cars the the cable cars. I miss houses and the palm trees. I miss how people walk to their work places each morning with a cup of coffee and how they cheer for the Giants. I miss that city. It was wonderful to be there.
The Food
What is the first thing which comes to your mind, if I say American food? I bet it’s McDonalds. But you couldn’t be more wrong. Really. First of all: we have more McDonalds restaurants in Budapest, then in San Francisco. Second: basically no one eats at these restaurants in San Francisco. Well, let’s put it this way: a very different subculture goes to McDonalds in SF then in Hungary.
To be honest, I have never seen an American McDonalds from inside, but I’ve seen superb burger places (like Super Duper), true American burrito places (Chipotle), top notch sandwich bars (Half Bread and Merigan) and I could continue… And if we were bored with the “fixed restaurants” next to the office, we could always go to the always changing set of food trucks two blocks away. Yeah, I am already hungry…
People
But the worst of all, what I miss the most, are the people. Just during one month, I got to know so many wonderful people, that it is hard to imagine. I’ve spent most of my free time with the other Bridge Budapest guys (Luca, Gyuri and Marci), and I consider myself really lucky to met them. We explored the city together, we helped each other and we quickly became very good friends.
When I was not wandering around the city I was in the Prezi office with Prezilians. These are the people, who are working day and night to make your Prezi experience better. And basically all these people are just like as a happy family. Friendly, caring and always ready to help. I am really glad that I could be a part of that family, even if only for such short time.
