so around 8 i finally left the apartment and when i opened the door to the street, was relieved to see the police were dismantling the barricades. whew! and i congratulated myself on great timing.
then i turned the corner and saw that that had merely MOVED the barricades. so i followed a wee squad of riot police down toward the new and improved barricade and when i was approached by one of them just pointed at myself and then pointed at the street past the barrier...as in "me go out? yes?"
as i tried to pass another cop said something to me in Hungarian and i replied "nem maygar, angolul?" which means something like "no hungarian, english?" this came out extra-meek without my even trying...heavily armed people just do that to me i guess.
so they let me pass and i walked down to the main avenue, through some old-ish clouds of tear gas. it wasn't so strong anymore but the air tasted like shit and my eyes were watering. at that point i was a little past Oktogon already and couldn't see many police anymore, just people out in the street. the street was shut down and there were lots of people with flags, some wearing balaclavas....one large garbage bin was on fire in the middle of the street and i passed some people in the process of lighting another one on fire as well. there were also plenty of people who just looked like they were out for a stroll.
just as i was turning the corner toward Phil's place i heard "pop-pop-pop" and the rushing sound you get when a lot of people start to run. turned back to see several tear gas canisters start to steam and a big crowd of people heading toward the train station. it felt a bit undignified to run, especially since i was on a side street and more especially since i was clutching a package of paper napkins in one hand. but i sped up. two men dressed in waiter-style tuxedos stood outside of a doorway, watching what was going on.
then i went up to watch Benedicte make crepes (which were impressively delicious). other arrivals spoke of seeing a car on fire, people being sprayed with water cannons...however this was apparently much much better than the situation back in October, and it would probably be over by midnight.
sure enough, when i walked home 5 hours later there was no sign that anything at all had happened. the sidewalks were cleared of debris, the street was being sprayed down and cleaned, and i had no trouble getting back into the apartment.
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