Today is one of my favorite days of the year in Budapest. It's Throw Your Crap in the Street Day.
This is the day that each neighborhood gets twice a year to literally kick to the curb anything they don't want, regardless of size of condition, and the rest of it get to go picking through it in search of treasure.
Ok, the scavenging aspect is an unintended consequence, largely attributed to rising poverty, declining state support, and a society devoid of yard sales. I think the only people out there looking through the tat are me and a couple of ex pats and a lot of middle aged Roma people, many of whom strikingly spent the night on the abandoned couches on my street in preparation. Perhaps it's a cultural thing. I mean, there isn't the kind of thrift store culture here. People used to buy well made things and they lasted. And you would never think to throw out a desk or an armoire or a working but dated vacuum cleaner. That's what yard sales and the Goodwill are for! Yes, there are flea markets and of course antique shops, but one cultures' 1960 retro minimalism is another's 1980 Soviet socialist functionality.
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