Budapest Christmas

Merry Christmas (actually, its Boxing Day, so I hope you're all out shopping and getting those great deals at every and any store possible, and not getting trampled by the crazy people who just have to shove you out of the way to get that brand new controller for their wii).

I'm in Budapest! You may be wondering why I'm in Budapest and spending time to blog.. Well, it's because my travel companion (along with many of the others who are staying at this hostel) is still sleeping. I'm assuming he had a late night last night as when I went to bed, most people were still up watching movies (or out partying). I was falling asleep to Hook at 1:30a.m., so I went to bed.

Let me start from the beginning and tell you what's happened so far:

Friday night I spent hanging out with some friends in Barcelona, spending a little quality time before I'd be gone for 5 days, so I cabbed home at 2:00a.m. and didn't make it to bed until about 2:30. I slept fitfully, waking up ever 20 minutes, either to a BBM message from the friend I had just left who was apparently also not sleeping, or with a start thinking "OMG did my alarm go off?! Did I miss my flight?!" I finally got up at 6:15a.m. to get ready, finish packing and head out to the airport. I left my house at 7a.m.Once at the airport, I kept having tiny panic attacks that my bag would be too heavy, or too big and I'd have to check it. Thankfully, no one even looked at my bag, even as I boarded the plane. I slept most of the way on the plane, simply because of sheer exhaustion, but as we were descending, the pain in my head was too extreme to sleep through.

As with the other countries I've been to, once you're off the plane, you need to navigate your way through the airport and to whatever train/bus/metro will take you where you need to be. In some places, the signs in the airport or train terminals are in two languages (typically, the language of the country, and English). This is not the case in Budapest. The signs are only in Hungarian. Being that I've never had to read a Hungarian sign of any sort, this posed a challenge for me. I exchanged money at the airport and found out where the train station is. I boarded the train that would take me into Budapest and arrived at the station. From here, I was on my own. The people in that area were somewhat sketchy and I wasn't sure I really wanted to make myself known as a lost tourist, so I walked with purpose with my bag strapped to my back, feeling heavier and heavier by the minute. I finally had to give in and ask someone where to go, because there were no signs pointing to ANY streets, let alone the street I wanted to be on. I had looked up directions and put a map in my phone so that I wouldn't get lost. The person I asked directions from didn't speak any English, but he was able to point me in the direction of the street, so I am thankful for that.

I walked about six blocks and then found my hostel. I won't post any pictures of the front of the hostel, because I suppose the first floor of this particular building is actually a sex shop. I'm not sure what the words say, but the articles in the windows suggest a Hungarian version of the Stag Shop. I was a little hesitant, but I rang the hostel and was let up to the 4th floor. The hostel staff are great. They're very friendly and very helpful. There were quite a few people in the place when I got there, because it is actually the Hungarian Christmas on December 24th, so they were preparing Christmas dinner with 3 other hostels in the Carpe Noctem family.

I put my things down in my room, met a few people and signed online to let my family know I was here and safe. There were Christmas movies playing, so I joined the people watching them. We played games (well, I watched) but the headache I got from the plane ride got too intense for me to stand it, so I went to siesta around 5:30p.m. Mike was to arrive around 7, so when he got there, we both napped for about an hour before heading back upstairs to the common room. My headache was much better by now, so we chatted with everyone before dinner at 9. I was first in line for dinner (I hadn't had anything but a peanut butter sandwich since waking up, so I was hungry). They piled a plate FULL of food, of which I probably ate half before I felt like I was going to die of over-consumption. We drank hot wine (a Hungarian tradition) and got ready to go out. I found out that the two Americans I had met from New York were staying in my room as well, as well as two Aussie boys, one of which had been attempting to chat me up earlier in the night, and the other of which was giving his friend approving looks. No thanks :).

We went to a bar about a ten minute walk from the hostel and danced the night away. I didn't drink too much, but shared my friend's drinks, which he was kind enough to share with me throughout the night. The bar was smokey because people are allowed to smoke indoors in this country. It's been a while since I've been exposed to second hand smoke in a closed in space, so I felt my eyes starting to water and my throat getting tighter as the night went on. Later, we walked one of our hostel staff back to the hostel because he was so drunk he was walking into walls. He kept saying how much he wanted a kebab. Or MacDonalds. Or a Kebab! It really was too funny. (I found it a little strange that the guests were making sure the staff were getting home, instead of the other way around, but as my friends in Spain have quickly found out, I'm the mamma bear who takes care of everyone, so taking this drunken aussie back to the hostel was not abnormal for me.) Once we got there, we stayed up and ate leftovers in the kitchen for about 45 minutes and eventually, I decided to go to bed.

Christmas morning I woke up and showered. The showers at this hostel are hot and wonderful. Its been a while since I've had a hot shower with decent water pressure, so I made sure to enjoy it and really scrub my hair. Besides that, I knew no one else was waiting and hardly anyone was up, so drying my hair after my shower would have to wait a bit anyway.

We all got ready and then had to wait for the staff to be ready to take us to Mongolian BBQ, the restaurant we'd be spending the day at having a buffet and all you can drink. Why we went to a Mongolian place in Hungary, I'm not sure, but it was good food! I tried goat. It was actually quite good. I also had potato doughnuts and pasta with goat's cottage cheese. Delicious. I had some wine with lunch, but I wasn't in the mood to be slamming back drinks, so I proceeded to watch pretty well everyone else get drunk beyond reason. (in the last half hour of being there, everyone started drinking anything that was on the tables and getting really really drunk).

Toronto and I at lunch. He's so cool with his wine! haha

The staff had a Secret Santa thing, and the one guy dressed up like Santa...

The New Yorkers... and our roommates!

We moved on to the next place after 5p.m. when the Mongolian place closed. We got a little lost on the way there because the staff that was leading us was drunk. Of course. If you haven't guessed, we're staying in a party hostel. This was the suggestion of my friend (by recommendation of his friend) and I don't mind too much except that I don't drink that much and would rather not spend my money on getting drunk at night and sleeping the days away in a hostel.

The National Museum. We were going to tell people we went there, but clearly it's dark out, and clearly that would have been a lie. But the building is nice..

I ended up leaving the bar around 8p.m. and heading back to the hostel with a few of the other girls. Movies, table futbol and more movies. People slowly started to come back to the hostel in varying degrees of drunk, and would either pass out in their rooms, or join us in the common area and pass out on some sort of bean-bag chair or the couch or even the floor. I again, went to bed somewhat early in respect of everyone else. I went to bed around 1:30 because I was falling asleep.

I am hoping my friend will be up by the time I am finished writing this blog as I'd like to get the day started. Its now noon and I've had two cups of coffee, a cold potato and four cookies. I'd like a real meal and to go on a walking tour of this seemingly wonderful city!

I should also mention that I've met some interesting people here, some of which I will talk to again, many of whom I probably will not. I'll stay in touch with the Americans, and one of the Brazilians I've met. I wish them safety and happiness on the rest of their travels!!

More to come later... have a great Boxing Day!