So yeah, I went to Budapest. Or should I say Buda and Pest. Trivia Fact: Budapest is not one city, it's two different cities, seperated by the Danube. Anyway, we got up at the ass crack of dawn on Saturday to be at the bus station for 7:15 just to wait around for what seemed like forever. Cat got the crap beaten out of her trying to put her bag underneath the bus. But it worked out. Even though we were the last people on the bus we still got the coolest seats. It was a double decker bus and we got to sit on the top level in the very front. It felt like we should have been driving. No one was sitting there because the seats were a little damp. What's a little ass moistness when you have a great view!! There was more foot room too. Anyway, we got to Budapest at about 11 and were immediately confused. We had NO idea what to do from there. We went to a little mall thing and got some Hungarian money. Their money is crazy!! 1 American dollar is equal to a little more than 200 Hungarian Forints. Then we went back to the bus station to catch a cab to our hotel. Holy expensive Batman. I think the non-English speaking cabbie got lost and we ended up paying over $60 for one freakin' cab ride. Our hotel room was really nice though, when we FINALLY got there. But holy crap are the people nosy!!! Tom almost wasn't allowed to come back to the room one night because it was after midnight and we got charged extra for having "guests" in the pool because we didnt' register Tom and Stacy to the room because you're not allowed to have more than two people to a room. We saw why when we say the miniscule beds. They were TINY. We ended up shoving them both together and Tom, Stacy, and I slept on the beds while Cat slept on the floor. It wasn't too bad, kinda cozy. =) We didn't do much the first day, just found another mall, grabbed something to eat, went swimming, and went to bed. We slept for almost 12 hours, we were so wiped out.
Yesterday was cool though. We hopped a bus to downtown and wandered around. Cat and I climbed a mountain (not exaggerating) in our flipflops but it was SO worth it to see the view. There was a huge monument to something or other on top. Stacy and Tom didn't want to make the ascent so Cat and I hauled our out of shape asses up there by ourselves. It was cool though, there were alot of vendors up there selling cool Hungarian stuff. After awhile we decided to go back down. We told Tom and Stacy about all the cool stuff and they had the balls to suggest that we go back up. NO F-ING WAY was that gonna happen. My lungs hurt just thinking about it. Oh, did I mention it was about 85 degrees? And that Cat and I were wearing pants. That's right, feel sorry for us. We were forced to climb mountains to see beautiful views of a European city on a gorgeous day. I'll be throwing a benefit dinner for myself when I get home. All are expected to attend.
After that we crossed the Danube over to Pest and walked along the streets there. They had a bunch of vendors selling the exact same stuff down there. SO glad we refused to walk back up the mountain. We made it to the Parliament building, which was SUPER cool, and got some cotton candy from a lady whose hands were covered in nasty looking sugar. Then it was time to head back to meet Tom and Stacy. They had gone there seperate way for awhile, Cat and I shop too slow. I think they needed some "couple" time anyway. We headed back to the mall because there was a Tropicarium and Oceaniarium. That was pretty cool. They had some big sharks. And snakes. Really big snakes. *shudders* After that we went and got something to eat, had a few drinks, and headed back to the hotel room. We decided to check out the hotels bar. I'm using the term bar VERY loosely. The front desk dude made the drinks...at the front desk. We sat there and talked for awhile then Cat and Stacy went to bed and Tom and I had a heart to heart about my most recently ended relationship. Well, it wasn't a heart to heart, he kept asking prying questions that I didn't want to answer and then when I finally did he said "I can't believe you dated that dork". Like a hundred times. Thanks Freud, I can't believe it either.
Today we didn't do a whole lot. We went to the bus station to drop off our bags and then went back downtown for a little while longer. It was a nice trip, just long enough to form some opinions of Hungary. Budapest is a beautiful city but it's really really dirty. The people there seem pretty poor. And hygeine is NOT a big thing. There was grafitti EVERYWHERE. Some of it was pretty artistic and it was all very colorful. The language was really confusing. I didn't pick up a single Hungarian word. They had 's over all their vowels. I mean seriously, is that really necessary??? I'm pretty pissed that such a small country seems to think they need their very own language. I mean really, who do they think they are? America doesn't even have their own language. And it's huge!!! =) Just kidding...sort of. It was such a relief to get back to Austria and the familiarity of German. Not that I understand any of it, but at least I can pick out some things. Vienna is SO much cleaner too. Although Hungary was WAY cheaper. I went to the grocery store and bought a bag of chips, a huge bottle of water, tic tacs, and 4 beers for like 900 Forints. That's less than 5 dollars!! Does anyone else think that's crazy? But yeah, I'm happy to be back in Vienna, I frickin' love this city. I'm starting to feel a little sad that there's only a week left. Everyone else seems to be getting pretty antsy to be back. I'm still waiting for that feeling. I guess I really don't have alot to get back to. I really miss all my friends and my family but I'm dreading going back to the salt mine and I'll be living in Marquette so I won't even be by Harley. Stacy and Tom have become my, Cat's and Carrie's really good friends now, it's going to suck to be away from them all summer. But I guess all good things must come to an end, eh? I'm sure I'll be back someday, maybe even to live. I can definitely see myself over here at some point in my life. But anyway, I'm sitting on a concrete block because they took the tables away outside of Burger King and my ass is REALLY starting to hurt. It's gotten alot of abuse lately. Along with showers, Hungarians also do not believe in shocks. And I know what some of you sick bastards were just thinking. Go wash your brains out with soap. Oh, and it's not cool to be gone for three days and have NO EMAILS FROM ANYBODY. Seriously people, I know you're not that busy, drop me a line. You've gotta have some good stories. Please? =) Auf weidersehen!
- posted by Jaime @ 1:29 PM