| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Walking and Crawling the City
Budapest - 3rd July
The bunk I'd been given was surprisingly comfortable and I slept peacefully until about 10:30am. I'd been exhausted from the hours of sleep that I'd been missing over the past week as I'd been tidying up all of my loose ends. When I awoke, I found that everyone, except 2 guys who'd clearly been out partying all night, had already arisen and left the room, I must've slept well!
After getting ready at a casual pace, I went out to hunt for breakfast. I always find breakfast the hardest meal to do when travelling. In the mornings, my stomach isn't very receptive to foreign dishes, and so I prefer a nice Western breakfast.
After a short hunt, I found a fairly mediocre place, with fairly mediocre prices. They served breakfast till midday and they had an outside veranda, so I grabbed breakfast there.
 I then set about finding the famed Yellow Zebra tourist offices and their highly rated city tours. They're known for giving really fun and interesting tours and for being particularly good for single travellers because of their social nature (they do a pub crawl tour!),
Their office is hidden away behind a McDonalds on a small road off the main Deák Square. A young girl walking there told me about their tours and two caught my eye: the Walking Tour and the Pub Crawl Tour. They were both reasonably priced (though making me considerably over budget for the day - come on, it's allowed, the budget for the first week of travelling always goes to pot!), looked like fun and would be a good way to meet some fellow travellers.
The walking tour wasn't due to start until 1:30pm, so I had time to do a bit more wandering. I headed over to the main bus station to find out the departure time for the inter-city coaches. It's also quite useful to work out the route from your hostel to the bus station when you're not laden with bags and you're not in a rush.
It was relatively easy to find the station, but not so easy to work out the departure tines. As I entered the station, I was faced with dozens of timetables, plastering a whole corridor and a vast array of departure times and information. Unfortunately, it was all in Hungarian and I couldn't decipher the hieroglyphics. I thought I was making some headway when I worked out the word for "Weekdays" and "Saturday"...but 15 minutes later, that was still all I knew.
I wandered around the station, eventually finding a help desk area. The first lady I spoke too didn't really speak English, but she waved over her boss, an elderly man with thick grey hair and a wispy white moustache. His English was perfect and he gave me all the information I needed. Mission successful!
Back in town, I walked up to the stone steps in front of a gleaming church which was the meeting place for the tour. A tanned Mexican guy with black, short cropped hair sat talking in an American accent to a young girl with glasses and a brightly coloured headband.
As I approached them, the girl asked if I was there for the tour, when I nodded she welcomed me and explained that she would be our guide. She introduced herself, her name was Blanka (like the Streetfighter character!) and she was an Economics student who did the tour guide work alongside her studies.
Our group quickly built in size to include two sisters from Chicago, they were teachers and making the most of their long holidays, and a group of four retired people from New York city. I was the only non-North American and the youngest by quite a stretch!
The walking tour was really well done and covered all of the most interesting parts of the city. I'd definitely recommend it, especially if you're feeling too lazy to do it on your own. The guides are also really knowledgeable, explaining many aspects of the city, its people and the history. Our group threw a number of questions at the guide and she answered them all easily.
Budapest, is actually made up of two cities, separated by the Danube. On one side is Buda, it's focal point being a large hill with an old castle, palace and churches On the other side is Pest (pronounced Pesht) which contain the bulk of the modern city, the hotels, eateries, entertainment and many old buildings.
 The tour took us to the Opera house (nearly as impressive and L'Opera in Paris, and used in the shooting of the movie Munich), Heroes Square (impressive statues of Hungary's greatest leaders), City Park (a vast, relaxing area with the famous Széchenyi baths), the huge Synagogue (2nd biggest in the world) and finally the ancient buildings on top of the hill in Buda.
Seeing all of the famous landmarks and hearing the stories behind them really opened by eyes to Hungarian history. Hungary has had a pretty rough ride over the years and got through serious changes in a matter of years. Nazi rule during World War 2 (where Hungary joined the "bad side", as Blanka called it) was rough and cruel. The death toll, particularly of Hungarian Jews was enormous. They were then liberated by the Soviets, who in turn became the oppressors, and again 1000s were tortured and killed.
 Hungary didn't really begin to be a free country until the 1980s, and the last Soviet solider didn't leave until 1991. However, subsequent change has been rapid, and as one of the newest members of the EU, the country is really driving forward.
As the tour came to an end, it turned out that Raoul, the Mexican guy (actually American, but with Mexican heritage) was also going to do the Pub Crawl in the evening, so we decided the pass the couple of hours till then by dong a bit more wandering and grabbing some dinner.
At the recommendation of Blanka, we seeked out a restaurant called Szimpla, which sold typical and tasty Hungarian fare at good prices. Szimpla is a really nice place, a rustic, old-style eatery with two levels and an open front to the street. It's quite hidden away so doesn't get too many tourists, but just enough for the staff to speak English and for the menus to be bilingual.
Raoul was an interesting guy and a good example of the sheer diversity of people you can meet on the road. Raoul has Mexican parents who had emigrated to the US, with the hope of a better life, long before he was born. He had grown up in the States and joined the US Army before taking his expertise gained on the job to a private firm. He was currently working in Afghanistan as a type of Explosives technician, disarming devices and helping to "Bomb-proof" equipment. Obviously, everyone questions him considerably about life in Kabul, and even though it's a fairly short placement, it seems to have been a life changing experience for him. The stories he told me could form a book all of their own!
In the evening we met back by the old church for the pub crawl. As 8:30pm approached, our small group set off to the first pub. Looking around at the others, our group was very biased...both in Nationality and in gender. Besides Raoul and me, there were two Canadian guys and a high school teacher from Chicago, who's outlook on life and pot smoking made him seem more like a college student, and who was also a guy. The North American theme wasn't really a concern, but the male dominance was, and the two Canadians questioned our guides about this. Apparently, it was the luck of the draw, some nights it was all guys, some nights it was all girls and other times it was a mix! However, the guides insisted it wouldn't matter too much as we'd be in busy bars soon.
Actually, out first stop for the evening was in a private wine cellar. We got to try some traditional Hungarian wines, a very sweet white and a famous red - "Bull's Blood" from the town of Eger. The red was excellent (need to find some more), but the white was a little sweet for my palate. Nevertheless, after four glasses of wine each we continued on to the second drinkery.
The next bar was a great place, very "Hungarian", packed with locals, but the entrance was hidden away down a dark alley. One minute you're sneaking down an unlit stone corridor, the next you're in rustique, bustling bar!
As is quite common in Budapest the bar was actually the ground floor of a converted, derelict housing block. It had all been done in a very basic manner, a few walls had been knocked through, some simple decor had been put up and a ramshackle collection of chairs, tables and lamps made up the furniture. The fact is, it could easily have been an ugly mess, but it wasn't! The ambiance, created by a clever mix of the lighting, the crowd and the eclectic furniture, was great and it really felt like we were in a cool, relaxed bar!
After knocking back two shots of famous Hungarian spirits, then chasing them with a cool beer, we were back on the move again.
On the way to the next bar, our guides insisted we grab a can of Hungary's strongest beer from a supermarket to sample and drink on the way. We gladly obliged and find it was actually quite nice, despite the fact it probably should've been classed as a spirit at that strength!
The next bar was again hidden away behind a plain facade, but was a bustling and fun place inside. We grabbed another beer and also had a mid-crawl snack of some traditionally Schnitzel.
We ended the evening at an amazing outdoor club/party (couldn't work out which it was) on the Pest side of the river. Apparently, every night during the summer, a large empty field is turned into a multi-arena club and fairground which is busy all night long. The place was definitely busy...when we arrived we were faced with a sea of people and the busy atmosphere and the good music made for a great night. We'd all had sufficient drink to bring out the big dancing guns! I don't know quite how long we stayed there...or quite how I got back to my hostel, a good 40 minute walk away...but the next morning I awoke in my bed with a hangover to be reckoned with...
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