Hungry

Athens, Greece and Budapest, Hungary
Laying on the floor in the Athens airport, I got a few winks of sleep in as I tend to do. When the ticket booth opened we checked our backpacks and waited by the departure gate. I gave my sister a call to say hey, but she was in Minnesota so I spoke to her husband for a few minutes.

It was a two hour flight to Budapest, Hungary and I was passed out half of it. Ando had given us a brochure of a place to stay called the Backpack Guesthouse. I had emailed them earlier to set reservations but I had gotten no reply. After customs we got a ride from the airport mini bus to the Backpack Guesthouse. As it turns out it was a popular place and they had no rooms for us. So there we were at 7:30am in a secluded neighborhood in Hungary without a place to stay and without a clue. The helpful guy at the desk said there was a place just down the road. So we went.

It was the sketchiest place we’ve ever been to, but it had beds, toilets, and a locker to secure the packs. The house, called Nicholas Hostel, had a chain link fence wrapped around it so that their two dogs wouldn’t escape. The basement was where the actual hostel was located. The living area had two picnic tables and the two bathrooms had an indistinguishable acrid smell. One had to duck to get into the bedroom to avert decapitation from a brick header that was more than a foot too low. The dark bedroom had eight bunk beds that each had a clever feature that allowed the hosteller to enclose themselves in with a material shade on three sides of the bed making it seem as though they were in a fort or a coffin, as the case may be. We promptly dropped our belongings and curled up on the meager mattresses that had no pillows. For $5 I guess it wasn’t that bad. The nap was fantastic and we got all ready to do the town.

The Backpack Guesthouse gave us some good advice about where to go. First we had to book our tickets to Krakow so we headed for the train station. Before we got there, a Pizza Hut sign distracted our attention and we couldn’t refuse. The salad and pizza were brilliant. I had been craving it for some time and now. I was fulfilled. Our trip to Poland was set to leave in two days, which gave us three days and two nights in Budapest.

Walking around we noticed that this town was a bit cleaner and had a safer feel to it than most cities we had been before.

Budapest is really two cities divided by the Danube River. Buda is where our hostel was located and we were in Pest wandering around. We strolled through a park and saw some old buildings and we didn’t know their importance. After so many cities and so many landmarks, by this time we honestly didn’t really care anymore. We came across a huge building and tried to go inside but we didn’t really see anything going on it. (Later we figured out it was a bathhouse.) One of the more prominent sites we saw was a place called Hero’s Square. A long, straight road led to the good sized square that had a large statue in it. Apparently the communists would walk the stretch of road to the monument. Our Dutch friend, Yuri, told us that.

Trudging our way up several flights of stairs to Castle Hill rewarded us with a spectacular view of the city.

The sunset came as we posed by the brick wall. After some work and several bus rides, we landed back at our hostel. Again the helpful staff at the Guesthouse told us a good place to hang out. It was an open air dance club. The pat down by security at the door was our only cover charge. By day it was probably just a park, but by night there were several drink shacks, food, and tables with chairs. People milled around or sat talking while Hungarian house music played. The makeshift dance floor had a decent crowd.

We got some chairs and relaxed at a table taking in the culture that was so far away from our own. Then reality hit as the American rap began playing. Oh yes, the whole world is westernized. After some authentic food, rice, carrots, and peas, we ambled back home.