Watery

The month of June was dominated by the element of water. We've had incessant rain, followed by an oppressive combination of heat and humidity. And some more.

On the upside, I've seen some pretty impressive clouds and I've felt, at moments, like living in London again (the London of old, when it used to rain all the time; now, it seems, they are having stuff like heat waves--go figure).

Menacing sky just before the rain--you can feel the storm building up in the air. This one was fairly mild, but just a few days before we had a really big one, with gushing winds and hale that pounded on our windows. I'm not afraid of thunder but I find all those sounds that accompany a storm much more frightening than the actual wind and rain.

This strange gray color is not a result of faulty camera or Photoshop-ing gone wrong--I tried to capture the rain. It's funny how everything looks as if covered in smoke.

On my way to the French Institute I made pictures of the Danube flooding the lower road (Rakpart). It doesn't happen often--once in a year or two--but when it does it becomes a magnet for tourists and natives alike. There is something strangely fascinating about Danube spreading like that onto a territory that should be off its limits--a kind of controlled damage.

More of the same, except in direction of Margit, rather than Chain Bridge.

From where I stood, it looked like the Parliament was floating on the Danube.

Danube, up close, neither blue nor particularly beautiful now that it's swollen and murky. These past few days I've seen countless people sitting by its banks and dipping their legs into the river. Why would you want to do that at any time, let alone now, is beyond me, although I appreciate that beach-y feeling I get just by looking at them.