From the Ground Up: Albuquerque's Renovations

"Conventions"


"Tetris"


"Moto/Motel"


"Cleaners (Part I)"


"Cleaners (Part I)"


"One Fool"


"Two Fools"


"Crossing"

From the Ground Up: Albuquerque’s Renovations

I set out to photograph Albuquerque’s crowds, and ended up joining them instead. I was a flâneuse, but behind the camera, I was a voyeuse. I wanted to get a sense of Albuquerque’s people, and I originally thought that the best way to do this would be to photograph crowds. Instead, I ended up taking a picture of our environment, yet I felt that I was still able to capture the people. I found that the settings that I chose to photograph represent Albuquerque and its inhabitants.

I decided on the theme of renovations as I photographed. When I went downtown, I decided to explore the plaza and the convention center, as I had not had the chance to walk around it since they renovated. On this sunny albeit cold winter day, the colored banners, relatively new to the plaza, gave the whole square a sense of energy. I drove up to Nob Hill still without the intention of photographing Albuquerque’s renovations, but as I parked, I remembered a recent Nob Hill adventure. My friend and I had followed a back alley parallel to Central Avenue, and come across a ruined building that we climbed onto the roof of, opening up to a full view of Central. We sat there and observed undetected (well, we did drop a french fry on a passerby). What was funny about this abandoned building was that it was the back of a pop-arty dry cleaners, so central to Nob Hill’s vibrant aesthetic. So I decided to take a photograph of this building and its front, as well as its adjacent deteriorated buildings, and make a series on Albuquerque’s renovations. The Convention Center and the plaza fit in as an obvious choice for this series, as they had been one of Albuquerque’s most recent large-scale facelifts. I also chose two photographs of Nob Hill that I thought represented the mix of its historic and contemporary character. “Moto/Motel” captures one of Albuquerque’s classic motels, and it looks like it could be a picture from a handful of decades ago, save for the modern cars. My final photograph, “Crossing,” captures Albuquerque’s urban sprawl, as it seems that Central leads right up to the Sandias. This photograph is a much less literal interpretation of renovation than the other ones in the series, but I wanted the final picture to give viewers a chance to reflect on what this could mean in terms of renovation. How would this street have looked one hundred years ago? What will in look like a hundred years from now? How have we changed the land? How has the land changed us?

Photographing can be a lonely business. Although I was photographing my home and my city, for the sake of being a reporter I took on an act of an aloof foreigner, unfamiliar to Albuquerque’s ways. Yet walking up and down Nob Hill, I melted into Albuquerque’s groups of people. I crossed the street with a family of four, greeted a couple standing outside a tattoo parlor, and thanked a stranger after she complimented my bag. I was honked at and stared at—and whether these actions were hostile or amiable remained ambiguous (very Albuquerque-esque indeed).

Any place that has had inhabitants for 10,000 years[1] is bound to need renovations. Santa Fe and Albuquerque both share deeply rooted Hispanic history, but Albuquerque is different in that the city itself is more eclectic (an argument for Santa Fe’s people can be made). Where Santa Fe has restored, Albuquerque has renovated. The city sprawls across the desert and crawls to every boundary, from mountain to valley to mountain. Although it is incredibly historic, it is distinctive in that it is also New Mexico’s urban hub and most forward-looking city. Consider its geography: downtown, only three minutes from Old Town, is Albuquerque’s hub of modernity, and one of the only places where you could confirm that Albuquerque actually has a night-life. Old Town, with the historic San Felipe de Neri Church and grand selection of museums, is its beating heart. This is how I found that Albuquerque’s architecture, constructions and renovations reflected its people. Old Town’s brown stucco; the inhabitants whose Hispanic families who have always been in New Mexico. Downtown; professionals whose careers rooted them here. Civilization on the brink of the Sandias; artists of all kinds whose hearts were drawn to the breathtaking landscape. Freeway entrances; those who wound up here because they lost their way. There are places for each of these groups of people in Albuquerque, yet they are for all of us. Albuquerque doesn’t ask that we only take on one of these identities—it wants us to take on all of them. This is evident in the city’s multifarious culture; it repels homogeneity, and people and places of different times and places stack up against each other, sharing spaces. The people here and the history here can cooperate, collaborate and coexist without encroaching on each other. We can appreciate, accept and adapt. And in the same way we are always building on tradition, we renovate.

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[1] "Albuquerque". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. 

Fri, August 1: last day

Friday, Aug 1

I cannot believe it's August, and I cannot believe it's our last day. The morning started off with a dilemma: where do we eat dinner on our last night? We had made a reservation at a restaurant that came highly recommended by our hotel, but we finally decided to eat at the Museum Cafe because we had loved it so much, and we knew that we would have a great last meal there. After our decision making (and trust me, it took a while), we headed off back to the Jewish Quarter. We saw the Great Synagogue.

It was beautiful and covered in gold. There were levels, and women used to have to sit on the levels, separate. The guidebook mentioned that it was closed during the winter months because it was too big to heat, but we were surprised because it didn't seem that big. With our synagogue tickets we also had access to other parts of the Jewish quarter. We saw the museum which explained a lot about  Jewish customs, and included an exhibit on the Holocaust. 70,000 Jews were squeezed into the tiny ghetto. We also saw the temple and memorial for the Jewish soldiers that died in World War I, built in 1931. We looked at an art exhibit by Boró Józef, both an art historian and artist who was killed by a Hungarian socialist. After finishing at the Jewish quarter we walked to the river and got on a Danube cruise. It was a little boat that took us up and down the river. It was really enjoyable and we got good views of Budapest.

 From there we walked to cafe Gerbeaud, a cafe in the style of the New York cafe. After our nice "pick-me-up" (a momism) we had to go back to the hotel and pack a bit for our early flights the next morning. We went back out to dinner, and after the initial embarrassment of returning to the same restaurant, our dinner was perfect. The parents ordered a really nice bottle of wine and jack and I had awesome steak. 

Our ten days of travel went by so fast. This trip is something that I will remember fondly for the rest of my life. I know that I both want to and plan to return to these beautiful cities! 

Thurs, July 31: St. Stephen's, New York Cafe, Arzibeth

We finally went to see St. Stephen's basilica, one of Budapest's main attractions. We had heard some Spanish ladies at the opera house talking about how it was beautiful, but not (it) Spain beautiful. They were probably right, but it was awesome. They had a relic of St. Stephen's hand in one of the chapels. We also climbed up the tower to get an awesome view of Budapest.

We had to (had to) stop at Zara because father's shoes were completely destroyed and he finally agreed to let us buy him new ones. We stopped at a little chocolate stand and bought some marzipan covered in chocolate.

From there we walked to the New York Cafe, a magnificent cafe operating out of a hotel. It was incredibly expensive but totally deluxe. I had an ice cream cup bigger (and more expensive!) than any ice cream id ever had before. It was mainly tourists so we didn't feel too embarrassed taking pictures. Before heading home we walked through the Jewish Ghetto, in an area called Arzibeth. We planned to go back tomorrow to the area and look at it with more detail. We went to dinner at an older restaurant called Cafe Bouchon. It was supposed to have French influence but was much more Hungarian than anything else (most of the restaurants here insist on incorporating Hungarian cuisine in one way or another, even if they call themselves some other cuisine). Jack and I had amazing duck breast, different but as good as the one at the Russian restaurant. We were walking home through some streets when I noticed something peeking out of the window of an abandoned building. A little white kitten was sticking it's head out. It was the cutest thing we had ever seen, and we tried for the next half hour to coax it out of its window. 

We gave up eventually, realizing that we wouldn't be able to help it even if it came out. Goodnight buda, goodnight pest! (We are staying on the pest side of the river by the way, and did I mention that they were joined into one city in 1873??)

Wed, July 30: castle hill and the museum cafe

Every day gets better and better. The first stop was the indoor market, just to see the food and souvenirs. We crossed the chain bridge back to Castle Hill to get a better look at it. Before heading there, though, we stopped at the Gellert baths to see if it was worth it to go. Of course it's very traditional to go to Hungarian baths, but seeing them was good enough for us. We climbed up castle hill from the back. The main attraction was St. Matthias church. It's another one of those Hungarian buildings painted in gold on the inside. We climbed up the balcony and got a nice view of the whole church.

We wandered more through castle hill and looked out at the view. We eventually ended up at a nice cafe to have a little break. It ended up being one of the most expensive restaurants we'd eaten at in Budapest, but we enjoyed it. It was right next to the looming national Archives building. 

We were curious in taking a boat trip,  but there was no one at the station to answer any questions and the boat was coming pretty late. None of us were feeling especially energetic, and with the idea that this was a vacation after all, we decided to take it easy and rest in the hotel for a little longer. The walk home was still really long but enjoyable. We went back out to dinner at the museum cafe, about a 7 minute walk from our hotel. We had set up a reservation, but there were only four other groups in the restaurant. It was a beautiful little restaurant, completely old fashioned and with a live pianist who would've and could've played all night. We all decided to order the set menu, an amazing deal for a three course menu. I ordered the traditional "fruit soup" which turned out to be almost a yogurt smoothie. I'm not kidding: it was completely sweet and had cut up peaches, but it was really good. It was one of our favorite nights of the whole trip. Our waiter was great, the music was nice, the food was wonderful, and the wine was delicious (not that I could tell or anything). 

Tues, July 29: Parliament and Opera House

We woke up tired but ready to go. Breakfast at our hotel is awesome. I had fruit, eggs, salmon lox, yogurt, tea and coffee, bread and Brie. Basically a feast, and at 10 in the morning. We headed to parliament to book tickets for a guided tour. There were spots available in the 2 o'clock tour, so to pass a couple hours until then we walked to Andrássy Út, the so called "Champs-Élysées of Budapest". The street was big and had really nice stores, plus the Opera House stands on the street. We booked tickets there too for a 4 o'clock tour and a five minute opera concert. We walked back to see parliament. Parliament is one of the biggest parliaments of the world, and was completed in 1902 after 17 years of construction. From September to June, 199 members of Parliament meet to vote. In 1944, the two houses, the House of Lords and House of Commons, were abolished and the meetings were held as one. The highest dome stands at 96 m high, symbolic of the year the Hungarians settled  (896). The dome in St. Stephen's basilica is also this high, symbolizing the equality of church and state.

Parliament

After our tour, we couldn't stand the idea of walking back yet again, and in a surprising move, decided to take a taxi. Let me tell you, this never happens. The Apodacas always walk. It was a nice break though, despite the fact that the driver most likely gypped us. If he did though, it was clever, because the meter was running. We had a quick drink at a cafe and then went to see the opera house. We had our tour in Spanish because the Spanish speaking group was smaller than the English speaking group. We had a Hungarian tour guide who spoke great Spanish. We learned that the opera house was built by Miklós Ybl and opened in 1884. The Hapsburg emperor Franz Josef funded most of it, but he only visited once. What was most interesting to me was the actual opera concert hall. It's completely covered in gold detailing, but they only used 3 kg of gold. They do this by painting with an incredibly thin layer of gold.

We bought tickets for a "mini opera" and saw a guy perform a few nice emotional pieces. It was really a good time. We walked right next door to the beautiful Opera Cafe. Even though the inside of the cafe was beautiful, it was empty so we sat outside. Jack, les and pato had "opera cake" and I had a chocolate cake, and we all had hot chocolate.

Our walk to the hotel wasn't too bad, and we got to see a new area of town. After resting for a bit, we went back out to dinner. It almost doesn't count as "going out" because it was about 10 feet from the hotel. We were excited to try Russian food and Les and Pato had some vodka. The menu didn't have a lot of choices, but what we ordered turned out to be wonderful. We were completely surprised when our food came out. We had been expecting inelegant Russian food, but our plates all came out looking like art. It was by far the most refined cuisine we'd tried all trip, and it was delicious! We questioned the authenticity (did Russians really eat delicate slivers of duck breast atop a little hill of potato purée?) but were completely delighted by this nouveau cuisine. Our walk across the street was quite nice ;) 

Mon, July 28: walking tour of Budapest

Our legs hurt!!!! Budapest is a big city, and we walked lots and lots of it today. We walked to the area called Castle Hill, way across the Chain Bridge. We marched up a hill to see what was up there and to get a good view of Budapest. The National Gallery is there in an awesome monumental building housing all things Hungarian, starting in the Middle Ages. There was a little area where you could pay a small amount to try out some medieval weapons, and Jack,fafa and I all tried.

Nice shot?

We walked further along Castle Hill and stopped to take pictures of the beautiful Matthias Church, but decided that we really needed to come back to this area.

St. Matthias Church

We had a quick lunch/snack at a cafe overlooking the beautiful city. It was a great moment made even better by the classical musicians serenading us. 

The view 

We meandered further around the hill and looked at the view more before climbing down. We decided to go to Margaret Island, a nice piece of land in the middle of the Danube. The island used to be a royal game reserve in the 12th century, and then began housing monasteries. Then all the religious buildings were destroyed by Turks. Now it's basically a massive park with some old historical monuments. They had these four person bikes that we decided to rent, and there we were, the Apodacas riding a massive bike cart thing around a tiny island. It was fun, needless to say.

No caption necessary 

The walk both to Castle Hill and Margaret Island was super long, and we walked back to our hotel exhausted. We spent a little time there and then went to dinner around the neighborhood. We found a restaurant called Don Leone, serving both Hungarian and Italian food. I had a Monte Carlo steak, which came with an egg and tomato sauce all over, plus potatoes on the bottom. Yum! Good first day in Budapest

Sun, July 27: train to Budapest

Sun, July 27

Not gonna lie, this morning was quite a drag. We had to pack and say goodbye. Breakfast was still great, though. A driver arrived to take us to the train station at 10:30, giving us a lot of time to catch our 11:39 train. It turned out to be too much time, especially after our train was delayed by 40 minutes. We were left standing in the middle of the train station waiting for a platform to be posted for almost an hour. Finally we headed to platform 4, and that's when the bizarre events began to unfold. We were some of the last people to get on the train, and two girls were pushing behind mom and cutting jack off from getting on the train. There was little remarkable about this event (we were used to pushy tourists), and the only thing I noticed about one girl was her polka dot scarf and something green in her hand. It took a while to settle in: we had to kick people out of our reserved seats, the hallways were stuffed, and our huge suitcases were a pain to stow. Our seats were in a cabin of six. Our cabin mates included two Germans, one old and the other no more than 21. They weren't traveling together but spoke some German among themselves. Then a guy approached mom and asked, "are you Leslie?" It was totally bizarre because we had never seen him in our lives, and he really didn't look like a guy who would know Les for any reason. Seeing her confusion, he held up a New Mexico  ID and her green wallet. He explained that he had found it thrown on the platform. Emotional Leslie was totally in shock and incredibly grateful to this stranger who had spent time walking up and down the cabins looking for a Leslie. He left and she checked inside her wallet-- not surprisingly the cash was missing, but that was it. In all the pushing to get into the train, someone must have slipped her wallet from her purse. Then I remembered stupid polka dot girl who I had thought nothing of at the moment, but who definitely had been holding something green in her hand and who was unnecessarily close to mom. The ride was long and we didn't have a lot of cash since the rest of mom's crowns had been stolen. We sent jack and Patrick to look for lunch and see if they accepted credit card. They returned an hour later, after they had a sit down lunch. The train accepted US dollars which was wonderful news for us, because otherwise we would have actually starved. Mommy and I went, then, to have our lunch. She had a beer and I had some chicken paprikas. It was pretty good for train food and I really liked the experience because I'd never been in a dining cart in a train. There were lots of rowdy Europeans on the train. The hallways were also littered with people not sitting in seats whom we had to climb over. It's all an experience right? The train ride wasn't bad at that point, but then it started stopping unexpectedly. At one point we were stopped for an hour, in the middle of Slovakia. Jack and I followed the example of the weird European backpackers and stepped outside. 

Somewhere in Slovakia

There's no doubt rough experiences bring people closer, and in this cramped cabin, our old little German friend finally started talking a bit after we offered him one of the sobaos jack had stolen from the breakfast in Spain (yes, really). The little guy was dressed in a suit with suspenders and all. I can't even begin to imagine how bored he was. He had boarded the train at 6 am, and stared out the window the ENTIRE time. He didn't even sleep. 

Our little friend staring out the window

The only things he had besides his suitcase were glasses, his ticket and an ancient cellphone. The girl next to me was pretty interesting. She was traveling to spend a day in Budapest and then was heading to a music festival an hour out of Budapest. We kept stopping and it was frustrating not knowing why or when we were going to get to Budapest. 

Our train pulled into Budapest at around 10:30, a whole 4 hours later than it was supposed to. We were tired and hungry, and we couldn't find out driver. We figured he knew that our train was delayed, but he just wasn't there. That left us with the task of finding a taxi. We first had to leave the station and go to an ATM to get cash for our taxi driver. We saw a taxi pulled over to the side, and knocked. The driver was possibly homeless and most definitely "out of it" (drunk or something). Weirdly enough, he told us he wouldn't drive us, and believe me, we didn't want him anyway. A much more respectable cab driver pulled up and we got in. Our hotel was beautiful-- modern, luxurious and elaborate. We checked in with a girl who spoke perfect English. After explaining our missing driver story, she asked how much we had paid the taxi driver, fearing that as it so commonly happens in Budapest to tourists, we'd been ripped off. Our cab had been a fair rate, and was actually cheaper than what we would've paid if our original driver had taken usz We settled in and went out in the search of food. All the kitchens of the restaurants were closed, but we saw a tiny gyros shop run by a really nice guy and we got take away gyros and ate in our room. Goodnight Budapest