Zest for Budapest

I woke early today and sunk out of the hostel. Around the corner was an open bakery where I bought a chocolate croissant before waiting for my train to Budapest. Turns out that I needed to reserve a seat in advance for this particular train. Luckily, I was there early enough to reserve a seat and still have time before the train left to get settled. I shared a compartment with a nice looking German business man. We both kept pretty quiet. The train was a little late getting into the station, but had pulled up to another station at our designated arrival time. The man and I looked at our watches as packed our things fast as we rushed to get out the door until the train left. We had thought that this particular stop was where we needed to get off. We rushed down the hall to the exit, but then a giant group of young teens who had just boarded the train were coming the opposite direction. We were a little stuck. The train started moving and all I can think was, "Shit! Well, I guess I'll have go to the next stop and turn around somehow." The German businessman got on his phone and then he told me, "Nope, that wasn't our stop. It's the next one." We both breathed a sigh of relief. At the next stop I got off and was surrounded by people speaking very broken English with these name-tags around their necks saying, "Accommodation". They would say, "You need room? We have good price." I just reverted to speaking the little Spanish that I knew in the hopes that couldn't understand me. I'd say, "No habla English" and they would move onto the next person. I don't know if they understood me or not, but it worked! I made my way to the tourist office and asked for a map and if many people in Hungary spoke English. The young man said, "Oh, most every young person speaks English very well. The older ones not so much." Sweet! I walked to the bank and got some forints.....20,000 forints should be enough I thought. Then it was down into the metro to find my stop. The metro system in Budapest is EASY! There are three lines and they are numbered and color coded. The crazy thing about Budapest is that you'll find a ticket checker/guard at every metro entrance. In the main stations you'll walk past 4-5 and it feels like you are going through Customs.

My hostel was easy to find and it was right in the Jewish Quarter which is pretty close to many of the places of interest. To find the hostel I found the address and then followed the signs into a cool little courtyard and up some stairs. The hostel was tiny, but pretty cool. I thought of my mom while I was there because they were so organized and had everything labeled and neatly written. Reminded me of my days working at Memories with all of the scrapbook displays she'd make and post up on the walls. Eight people would share one room, but each room was pretty big and contained a loft so it wasn't too bad. The staff was overly friendly and super enjoyable to talk with. They had all sorts of ideas for me to do while I was here and were very helpful in offering me good tips on the city.

The Hostel

I walked down one of the main drags and found a nice little cafe for a sandwich and an early cocktail. It tasted like Sour Apple. Very good! Anyway, I decided to take a walking tour first because in Edinburgh I did it last and the information given to me would have been better if I had done it the first day. Just in terms of you know what your looking at and stuff. They also give you tips on finding cheaper alternatives on sights, not being a target to pickpockets, how to tip in restaurants, what are the local food favorites, etc. Also, the walking tours are free since the guides only work for tips. It's a sweet deal! Well, this walking tour was no different in its content. It was perfect! The tour only had three other people and the guide. Our first stop was at St. Istvain Basilica. Well, it's actually a church, but several decades ago the Pope came for a visit to the church and the first words out of his month were, "Wow, what a beautiful Basilica!" No one really wanted to argue with him so the name stuck.

St. Istvain Basilica

We made our way to the a central-type park which is more of a reflecting pool and some patches of grass. Turns out that under the reflecting pool was a pretty intricate night club. Walking on, we approached a medal fence in another park that had pad locks all over it with inscribed names on them. The fence was covered in locks! I guess locals when they fall in love they put a lock on the fence and then throw the key into the Danube River as a way of offering good luck in your relationship and showing that it was last forever. Continuing, we walked over the Szechenyi Chainbridge and up the mountain into the Castle District where the Royal Palace was located. It offered some good views of the city.

Top of Night Club

Fence

Szechenyi Chainbridge

A while later we made our way over to a statue of a man on a horse. The tour guide said that this was her favorite part of the tour. She asked, "What is noticeable about the horse?" For a couple of moments we looked at it and then I saw it. "That horse has big shiny balls!" I exclaimed. So, the horse on this statue had a giant set of cohonies and they were almost silver in color while the rest of the statue was like a bronze. Well, the balls where bronze, but have turned silver from too many people touching them. Apparently, Hungarians find it to be good luck if you climb up onto the statue and hold the horses balls with both hands. It's not only good luck, but they say that you'll soon enjoy a great sex life....or something like that. Well, this guy in our group who was from Spain was overly eager to get up there and holds those balls. Let's segue from the horses balls for a moment to talk about a Spaniard. Hmm, I never thought I'd ever say that! Anyway, this guy from Spain was an odd character. He wore dress shoes with track pants that had a strip all the way down each pant leg. His hair was very curly and he looked like an odd cross between Tom Cruise and Weird Al Yankovic.....mostly like Weird Al. His jacket was too big for him and so you couldn't really see his arms when he walked. He ate peanuts the entire time and when we walked he would discard the shells. So when I walked behind him all I could see were these shells dropping from his sleeves. He wasn't quite all there and was in his own world. My favorite part is when the guide was talking about how Hungarians love to socialize, drink, party, and have fun. She said, "Then were would be the best place to meet some great Hungarians?" I said, "In a bar of course!" and she pointed at me and said, "You're right!" The Spaniard pipes up and says, "Well, which bar? I only have one night left in Budapest so which bar should I go to?" It was funny! So, back to the horse's balls. Our eager Spanish friend gets up on the statue and is having a little too much fun while holding these balls. I was debating weather or not I'm going to go up. Well, the two others (Sam and Jack, who I'll talk about in a moment) one after the other go up and hold these balls in their hand. Now, I'm the only one left so I'm obligated. So I climb up this statue and I'm working my hands around this horse's balls when all off a sudden a big group of about 25-30 tourists (on another walking tour) come walking around the corner. Now, they probably haven't yet been informed as to the nature of this statue and they see me positioning my self as I'm "coping-a-feel" on this horse statue. The REALLY awkward part didn't come until they started taking pictures of me. I felt right!

The Statue

The Balls

I'm on a Horse!

The final part of our tour is when we were walking down a side street and then ducked into a door between two shops that contained stairs heading downward. As we walked down the step the walls turned into rock, it got really humid, and it smelled very musty. We were walking into a cave! We get to the bottom of the cave and there are all these table set up along the walls and in another room there is a bunch of chairs and a projector playing an old movie on the wall. In one corner of the cave was some water and tea which we were told was complimentary. I asked, "what is this place?" and the guide explained that Budapest has a giant underground cave system and this particular cave was used in the past as an ammunition storage. Now, it's a community place to relax and socialize. Very cool! This cave was all labyrinth that people could walk through and in the evenings they shut off all the lights in the cave and you can explore it with a lantern. Awesome!

The Cave

When the tour was done Sam and Jake asked me what my plans were and I said that I was going to go out and take some photos while the sun the setting and then come back in an hour when the lights were off in the cave and do the tour. I asked if they wanted to join me and then Jake said something like, "Oh yeah, let's go out and take photos, come back and do the cave, and then have dinner and beer." My kind of guys! We walked around the Castle District and took some photos. I even found an "Ugly American".

Me in Budapest

The View

Ugly American

A Budapest Sunset

After, we headed back to the cave and got our lantern. For the next hour or so we explored the vast cave system. One area had a wine fountain and another area had these random objects encased in plastic. Some parts of the cave were pretty spooky especially since they were pumping horror-type music into some of the rooms. It was very enjoyable!

It's Dark in Here

The Wine Fountain

The Wine Fountain

Oh! THERE is the Iron Curtain....I've been looking for that!!!!

I don't get it!

When we were done in the Castle District we walked back toward the Jewish Quarter and found a spot for dinner. It was in a random back ally and was recommended by the tour group. The food was amazing! We each had the same thing: chopped up pieces of chicken in a cream sauce with four fired mozzarella balls. The sauce tasted very similar to the Gemelli dish from Pasta Pomodoro. It was great! We also had a beer called, "Dreher" which has an alcohol content of about 7%.

We then decided to go hunt for a bar. We walked by this one place that had all of these "skinhead-type" bikers hanging out in front. As we looked into the door all we could see was grafetti all over the walls. It did not look comfortable. As we walk away we noticed all of these good-looking women, wearing respectible clothing, all walk in. It was odd. We kept walking and as we looked back anothher set of attractive and nicely dressed women walk into this place. Now I'm curious because you don't really dress up to go to a biker bar. Well, we continued on. We turned the corner and found a much nicer place, but it was pretty empty and it didn't look like a whole lot was going on. I said, "You guys pick: The graffitti place or this nice place". Jake wanted to do to the nice place and Sam wanted to go to the graffitti place. I had to be the tie breaker. I said, my curiousity has got the best of me. I'd like to go into the graffitti place. Also, we can leave at any time if it's not our thing." We walked back. As we entered the door we were in a all graffittied room.

Graffitti Room

We walked into the next room....again, more graffitti and a little scary.

The Next Room

The next room we walked into was beyond belief. This place was cool! It was nice too! The lighting, the people, the music, entire ambionce was awesome!!! We were in a courtyard-like atsmophere with tables and decor.

The Bar

The Bar

We walked up to the bar and ordered some beer. Jack said, "It looks like they have more seating upstairs." We walked up and this place became more awesome. We found a grouping of chairs and sat and socialized over beer. This is when I found out that Sam and Jake were brothers. They were from Bath, England and we had fun talking about accents, movies, and TV shows. They were big South Park, Family Guy, and Simpsons fans so we got along really well. Anyway, they were explaining to me that England has over 30 distinct accents and they can tell where people live in England based on their accents. I thought that was crazy! How do you keep track? I explain that in the US we really only have about 4 accents that I know about. You can kind tell if someone is from Southern California, but more on the words they use and maybe you can detect a hint of accent. Anyway, as we were chatting I saw these two good-looking girls walk by like they hadn't been there before and they were checking out the place or looking for a place to sit. One of them turned around and I said to the guys, "I think I've seen them before". I piped up to the girls, "Excuse me, but were you two in Vienna yesterday?" and they excitedly said in their thick English accents, "Oh yes we were! Where you there as well?" So, these girls I recognized form the hostel I stayed at in Vienna and you don't forget good-looking women with thick English accents. I said, "Yes, these guys are from Bath" and they got excited. I said, "Would you like to join us?" and they sat down with us. As if turns out, these girls (Chloe & Leia) were sisters and they were traveling Europe together for a short while. You should have seen the look on Sam and Jake's faces when they said they were sisters. They seemed very happy! My new British friends all seemed to have a lot in common with each other. They were also around the same age. I felt like an old-man-matchmaker. Over the next couple of hours or so (I can't remember how long) we chatted about everything. They both amazed me with how versed they were in politics. Smart girls! Also, they seemed to really like a US show called, "Breaking Bad" which I had never heard of before. Also, the group said I need to look up a band called, "Take That" and a film called, "Zeit Giest" which I think my buddy Jimmy would enjoy. We had a fantastic time and they all taught me something new. Did you know that England has a thing called, "Pancake Day?" How awesome! It has something to do with Lent, but then I asked, "What if you give up packcakes for Lent?" they were a little stumped. I said my usual joke, "Each year I give up Lent for Lent." Anyway, I say the US has a new day called, "Waffle Day".....we need something between the Fourth of July and Labor Day anyway. Well anyway, when it got late the girls left and the guys and I hung around for another round of beer. We talked some more and most of the conversation revolved around the girls we just met. They were a little too young for me, but they were rather cute and charming. I said, "You guys can thank me know for remembering them from the hostel" and I was expecting "Oh Thank you Matt!", "You are the greatest!", and "You are a God Matt".....but no. They said, "It wasn't you, it was holding that horse by the balls! That thing works!"

When we were done with the night we said our goodbyes and I began the LONG walk back to the hostel.

Leia, Chloe and I

Sam and Jack