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Budapest
I really loved this city. Yes, even though it was miserably hot at times, I couldn't sleep at night, and couldn't speak the language. Actually, the latter really wasn't a problem-it was fun in its own way, particularly when we pretended to speak Hungarian. Which reminds me that at one point Eugene was actually mistaken for a Hungarian. Eugene managed to be everything but Japanese-funny.
After arriving in Budapest, we called numerous places trying to find a place to stay. This proved to be a challenge, because none of the numbers in the guide book worked-evidently they changed the phone system since it was published. Fortunately, Anna Stojevic had provided us with some numbers in Vienna-she also provided us with a wonderful amount of food-it was greatly appreciated. Even with these numbers we had some problems, because a few places only spoke Hungarian, and asking whether they had place available was well beyond my very basic skills of yes, no, good day. As it was, we ended up in Hotel Diaksport, a youth hostel up near Margaret Island. More about the wonders of this place later.
We had the misfortune of arriving in Budapest in a Monday-all of the museums were closed, so our tour of Castle Hill on the first day was rather limited. It was still lovely, nevertheless. We also visited the labyrinth, which wasn't worth what we paid, but fun in its own way. The labyrinth is a series of caves in the hill. The only reason we went inside was because it started to rain. Inside, they play strange music (I think it was supposed to be "caveman music")while one looks at various cave paintings and strange statues. They also had a cave where one can discover onesself, or something along those lines, but we couldn't go in, because it wasn't open yet. Nevertheless, we came out on the other side of the hill and after some disorientation, ended up walking all the way around it to take us to our original destination. It was very deceiving. Our desination was a restaurant called Sorozo a Szant Jusaphat (ok, I just made the spelling up, but it was something along those lines). This was a wonderful place to eat-although a bit hard to fine, I may add. But it was cheap, the food was delicious, and the portions enormous. I would gladly go back. Not surprisingly, we did the next day.
The Youth Hostel
But before we can speak of the next day, we have to discuss the night. Yes, the wonderful hostel. In itself, there was nothing wrong with it. Our room had numerous bunkbeds and the bathroom was fine, but some of our roommates left something to be desired. Actually, the second night, they were much better, but that has yet to be discussed. The people who stayed in this hostel evidently had no interest in seeing anything. They stayed up all night talking and drinking and then slept the entire day. I really don't understand that philosophy. If that's all you are interested in, stay home. It's much cheaper and convenient. So, noise was an unfortunate problem. The other unfortunate problem was our Japanese roommate. She was actually nice, and it was funny to see her reaction when Eugene suddenly joined the conversation in Japanese. It was even funnier when she then looked up at me and asked if I was Japanese as well. Well, not quite in those words, but it was inferred (no, I did not understand the conversation (although I picked out a lot of it)I had translators). Anyway, around two in the morning, she decided to read her guidebook. This is fine, but not when other people in the room are sleeping and there is only an overhead light in the room. After an hour, she finally fell asleep reading, so I jumped down to turn off the light. A few minutes later, she woke up again, and turned the light on. So I had to wait longer and she finally fell asleep again and I turned the light off again. I think this continued several times, until she finally stopped waking up and I could sleep again. Shortly afterwards, our other drunk roommates returned. It was quite a night, and I ended up being quite sleep deprived. Nothing new for a student, I guess.
The Lovely, Lovely Baths
The next morning resulted in a long search for breakfast. We went to see the National Museum and Square of Heros and hoped to find breakfast along the way. Little did we know that we chose a bad street for finding grocery stores. In the end, we came to early, so we walked down another street and followed people with grocery bags. It's a good tactic, and as usual it worked. And as it is, we were used to surviving on very little food. The rest of the day, we walked around town. Actually, after a bit of walking, we ended up sitting in a cafe, because it was about 36 degrees outside. Miserably hot. We also visited the market place to buy fruit and vegetables and then Yoriko and I visited the wonderful Kiraly bath. Wonderful does not even begin to describe it. It was lovely. Actually, we had problems getting in, because everything was in Hungarian, and we had no idea what the word for bath was. They only word we could make out was massage. And the lady selling tickets only spoke Hungarian. Eventually, Yoriko's imitation of bathing got us what we wanted. They were really nice though, otherwise, and helped us with everything. But it was the most wonderful and relaxing experience, particularly, the chamomile-scented steam bath. When we finally reemerged to meet Eugene, we were so relaxed that he thought we were on drugs, and walking to our restaurant was almost impossible. We made it eventually and had another great meal. Yes, Budapest was really wonderful, but unfortunately, we had to leave, all to soon.
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