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Last night’s Index of Metals was held at MaFilm on Rona ut in the XIVth district. That’s one thing about the autumn festival I appreciate: they look for unusual venues for their events, so not only do we experience the avante garde, we also get to experience and explore parts of Budapest that some of us (especially foreigners) don’t usually venture into.

I’ve been into this district before: for a film audition and a voice recording for a film, and I think Endre Huszar recorded Momentary Fame (which I contributed my voice to) in a studio in the same district. On all of those occassions I went by motor vehicle: once in a car driven by Endre (who knew his way like the back of his hand) another time driven by a friend, and the other time by public transport. The latter two were chaotic journeys.

My friend, a born and raised Vth district Budapester, was confused by a maze of one-way streets. By public transport I had to change from underground to bus, and sort out whether I could use an express bus or a regular, and used the regular - a slow mistake complicated by a phone call I received just as I was getting on, which made me forget to punch my ticket and then was greeted by a BKV controller! Fun, fun, fun!

I’d also been into another part of the district on a bike ride with a friend, who took me along a maze of cycle paths and main streets and carefully concealed short cuts, eventually leading to a shopping plaza and then back along streets shared with trams, across gulleys and railway lines, along a main road, somehow eventually arriving in City Park.

So, when I went on my bicycle last night I was prepared for an arduous and confusing journey and gave myself an hour to get there from the World Press Photo Exhibit at the Ethnographic Musuem behind the Parliament. I was delightfully suprised when it took only half an hour along mostly quiet and always flat, tree-lined streets: after weaving through the backstreets of the Vth, coming out by the Opera on Andrassy, I followed the clearly marked cycle path to City Park, where I started following my nose and cut through the park to Stefania where I consulted my map, then made a left onto Ajtósi Dürer, then straight up to Rona. The only nasty bit was getting across Mexikói ut - under which on the way back I found an underpass, with stairs on one side and a ramp on the other (not wheelchair friendly!). None the less, the pleasant and easy ride made me think maybe the XIVth would be a good part of the city for someone like me to live in!

The area I was in last night is mostly residential with small apartment buildings and detached and semi-detached homes. It’s close to City Park where one can run, and the Széchenyi baths where one can swim and relax. The only problem, of course, is the public transportation - which would be a drag in bad weather and which might discourage students coming for private lessons. Also people who live in the district and don’t use a bicycle tell me they spend a lot of money on taxis getting home at night after the main buses and trams have stopped running!