I arrived at the train station in Salzburg at about half past midnight. Unfortunately, I didn't get very much sleep on the train, partly because I'd stayed up writing last night's blog, and partly because this particular train's breaks were just awful, and screeched an ear shattering tone at every stop, which was loud enough to drown out even my iPod.
Exiting the train, I was absolutely delighted at the sight of the station. It was a big station, full of people and trains departing and arriving all night long. There were open park benches, guards and even a couple cafes still open. It was well lit, and everyone seemed pretty level headed and friendly. I set my stuff down at a park bench near the tracks. I was a little hungry, because I'd skipped dinner, but all I had on me were Czech Crowns, and there weren't any currency exchange places open this late. Fortunately, there was a vending machine right next to me, and since most currency exchanges won't exchange coins, I still had a little bit of change in euros. I found what seemed to be the most filling meal, which turned out to be some kind of apple tart (actually quite good), and bought that. I set up, laying along the bench in the way I've learned works best for sleeping, and tryed to get some sleep. I couldn't seem to get any though, because now it started to rain, and the wind grew colder. I bundled up with what I could find in my backpack to put on, and as I'd done before, tried to wrap my blanket around my legs. However, still I lay shivering. I tried hard, to look past the cold and just fall asleep, but everytime I began to nod off, a train would come roaring past and wake me up, and then it was too cold to go back to sleep. I decided to get up and see if I could find myself a place which was a little warmer and quieter. I hauled around the station until I found a little tunnel leading to the ticket office and waiting room for departure. There were already several backpackers sprawled out along the benches sound asleep, so it seemed like it might be a good place to stay the night. It was quieter than the platforms upstairs, and substantially warmer because it was inside, out of the rain. However, it had high ceilings over a tile floor which made it still uncomfortably cold. Also, all of the benches were already full of people, so I had to find a spot in the corner laying on the cold hard floor. With my blanket, I made kind of a mattress by folding it a couple times and laying on top of it. This helped keep part of my body off the cold ground, but now I had no blanket to cover my legs. I tried a couple different setups, until I finally found one comfortable enough to at least nod off for a bit. Later, one of the benches opened up, so I moved myself there, and got about an hour of sleep. I was still inexplicably cold though, everytime I'd wake up, and I couldn't get back to sleep even though I was utterly exhausted from my 7 hour train ride. I stared at the clock, and counted down the hours till someone would be at the information booth. I paced when I got too cold, and it helped, but as soon as I stopped moving, the cold came back. The rain outside had still not let up, and I began thinking about how miserable I was in Rejig, trying to walk through the city all day in the rain without a hotel or hostel to thaw out in. I started toying with the notion that I might just find a cheap hotel for this next night, and then I could take a nap in a warm bed, walk around all day, and then worry about getting a train ticket to Zermatt at my leisure. It certainly seemed like a good plan, and as the clock ticked on, It began to seem like the right thing to do. I'd seen a map of the city near one of the platforms, so I figured out roughly which way I needed to go to find the center. Then from there I was sure there would be some hotels I could afford. I got walking at about 5:30am out in the rain, trying to make sure I ducked under every shelter so that I didn't get myself soaked before I could find a warm place to stay. I asked a petrol station for directions to some hotels, and they pointed me down the right road. I passed by a couple hotels I knew would be way out of my price range (The Crowne Plaza for instance) and continued of to find a more moderately priced one. Unfortunately, they were all booked full, but the front desk clerk pointed me to a youth hostel which was just down the street. It was just the place I wanted to be, it was friendly, warm, and cheap. Unfortunately, when I got there the front desk said I had to wait till checkout at 11 before I could get my room assignment. However, he must have noticed that I was cold and now sopping wet, because he let me stay in the lounge and get some rest, and watch a little TV till checkout. I was so relieved to be in a nice warm place, and I curled up on a bench next to a table and fell asleep. When I woke up, only a couple hours had passed, and I heard breakfast being made in the next room. I waited for some others in the hostel to get down for their breakfast, then I got some of my own. Someone put on The Sound of Music on the TV in the lounge, so I watched that while I ate.
After I finally got my room key, I went up to my room and met my new roommate, Chris. Chris is from Arizona and travels around fairly often. He's on what he calls sort of a "best of" trip of his favorite places in Europe and Salzburg happens to be one of them. We talked about places we'd been and swapped travel stories, and then he showed me some cool places to see on the map. He favored heavily his right leg, because he said he somehow did something terrible to his left leg a couple weeks ago, and now he could barely even stand on it. He'd been keeping off it mostly, for the last couple days, hoping the pain would subside, but he says it's not getting any better. I suggested switching ice and heat to keep the blood flowing, and keep any swelling down, and he said he'd try that, but he figures he'd just bear it for the next month and a half he's got left on his trip, then deal with it when he gets home.
After settling into the hostel, I went out and explored. Immediately when I'd gotten here, I'd noticed that people were extremely friendly. People said hello, and smiled at me as I walked by, and when I asked for directions, I always got their best attempts to help me. It's like I'd felt of the people in Ireland, it's a very helpful community vibe that just makes you feel welcome. However I was also stunned when I entered the center area, and saw the absolute beauty of this place. The hills are a deep green color, and fall off into jagged cliffs which vale themselves partially behind the fog. Flowers are in bloom, and dripping beads of freshly fallen rain. The whole city smells of roses, and wet stone. I walked through some of the areas featured in The Sound of Music. The little park they road bikes through in "Doe a Dear", and the Abby where Maria was from. I also walked past where Mozart was born, and a house that he'd lived in. I walked through the old town on the other side of the river, and bought a huge chocolate covered pretzel at a vendor near a huge cathedral. I wandered all the way through the city through a tunnel carved out of the mountain side which lead to a little local suburb behind the mountain. I got myself lost among the amazingly cool houses, and beautiful gardens. Finally, The clouds opened up slightly, and I turned a corner and stopped in my tracks as the Alps slowly emerged from behind the clouds. They were snow-capped and majestic, exactly how I pictured them to look, but far more beautiful seeing them with my own eyes. When I found my way back to the city, I took a tram up to the Castle on top of the mountain. There I got a spectacular view of the whole city, and the Alps in the background. I explored the castle and walked through a Marionette Museum inside one of the towers, which was a lot creepier than I anticipated. When I got off the mountain, I walked past an old Goldsmith's shop, and then into the huge church where Maria was married to Captain Von Trappe.
When I got back to the hostel, I took a long nap, while letting my phone and camera charge. Then in the night, I walked along the river and bought a huge sausage with melted cheese and spicy mustard from a city hot dog vendor. By nightfall, the sky had been cleared, and stars shown all over. The city was lit up, and reflected in the water. I sat and admired the beauty of it all, and took in long deep breaths of the cold cleansing air from the nearby Alps.
Tomorrow there's a night train to Zermatt which I've reserved a seat for, so I'll check out from the hostel in the morning, and leave my bags in their luggage room. I can hang out a little more in the city till midnight when I have to catch my 9 hour train to Zermatt, Switzerland.
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
The Road to Salzburg
This morning the dining hall was closed, I must have missed the signs that said breakfast was being served next door, I just thought maybe they weren't doing breakfast. It was fine anyway, because it gave me a chance to try to look for a nice pastry shop of some sort. India and Nerida had gotten up earlier to go to work. They'd recently both gotten jobs in the city teaching English. I said goodbye to them before they left, and Nerida gave me her email address to stay in touch. She said if I was ever in Australia, I'd have to look her up.
I'd bought my ticket yesterday for my trip to Salzburg today at 5, so I figured I had till about 4 for one last stroll around the city. I took the metro to city center as I usually do, and first went looking for food. I found a couple things that looked somewhat appetizing, but I like to cover as much ground as possible and see everything before deciding what to eat. Suddenly, in passing I noticed a store that had on it a big sign that said "Supermarket." I thought, this has to be where I'll find toothpaste and a thurmos. I entered the store and looked around for a while, but did find anything like it. It seemed this particular supermarket on sold food items, and not toiletries things of that sort like every supermarket back home. At last my hunger got the best of me, so I bought a pastry at the supermarket pastry counter. It really wasn't all that good, and it didn't do much to filling me up, so I mostly regarded that as a bad decision. I walked around, and waited for lunch before buying my last Czech hotdog which was much more satisfying. I worked a little on last night's blog, and sat at a bench in old town square before deciding it was time I should get back. Then I packed up the rest of my things, and left for the train station.
I didn't have a lot of trouble finding where I needed to go. I was there a little early, and I'd done this enough times to sort of know how things are supposed to work. My train left promptly at just after 5, and isn't scheduled to arrive in Salzburg till midnight. I had tried to get a more accommodating trip, but this was the only train going to Salzburg today. I figure I can sleep on the train (It's 7 hours anyway), then I'll have to wait in the station at Salzburg till things start opening up. I'll find a train or bus leaving to Zermat Switzerland later in the afternoon, or a night train perhaps, then spend the day in Salzburg. I doubt that Salzburg is going to be somewhere I'll want to stay. I keep hearing it's really expensive and touristy because of the whole Sound of Music thing. I just want to see the green hills, and the little town like in the movie, which I'm sure they'll have kept (at least part of it) exactly the same as it was for all the tourists. Zermat I hear is very pretty, and worth staying in. Plus I'm excited to see the Matterhorn in real life, and not just the Disneyland attraction we have back home. This is gonna be another rushed through sort of couple days, but I'm prepared for it. I don't even know how exactly I can get to Zermat from Salzburg, it's not on my Eurail map. As for staying in the rail station for another night, I think I'm ok with it. If I sleep on the train, I won't need to sleep so much there. I'm only going to be waiting 4 or 5 hours till the morning staff comes to work, and then just like an hour or two after that to when shops and things start opening up, and I can begin exploring the city. In terms of safety, I'm pretty sure the rail station in Salzburg's going to be a lot friendlier than Gyor, Hungary. It's a popular enough place that there should be a fairly big station, and people around all the time. Regardless, this is what I do. I jump head first into the situation and figure it out as I go. It's an adventure.
My greatest comfort always harps back to my adventure to Jerusalem. God didn't leave me in the sands of the desert, or even stranded in Jordan. He provided for me. He gave me transportation and shelter. Even in Gyor, God allowed that train to get there just when I needed it. It's my guess that God figures I do more good alive, so I worry little about provisions. That's not to say I don't prepare at all. God's not going to intervene every time. Sometimes it's up to me to make the right decisions. I can't think of God like an over protective mother, doing everything for me; but more as a guide telling me which way to go.
I think my story has become somewhat valuable in reminding people what it's like to be a lonely, confused kid looking for answers. The God I've come to know seems to delight in making my story worth talking about. I'm not just talking about the epic journey anymore. The life that God has allowed me to live is worth talking about. It's often hard for me to do, but it's more because I don't know how to tell it, than that I don't want to. I'm still in the middle of it. I don't know where this story leads to, or if it has a happy ending. Parts of it, I can't even remember. How am I supposed to tell a story that's not finished yet; which has pieces missing all over the place? How are the jottings of my random though processes going to help anyone? Or lead anyone in to the right direction? I don't even know which direction I'm headed right now, I have no compass!
I'm really pressured by the idea that I have to enter this journey as a representative of christ. I've been told all the eyes of my church are upon me, as well as my family and friends. I feel some pressure of disappointment were I to go through this journey and not change someone's life. The truth is simply that I'm not a saint, or missionary or Jesus Christ. I'm just some kid who's looking for some certain things to learn from life. I'm a terrible preacher, and I hate doing it. It's awkward for me to sit down with someone and talk about Jesus. I feel like I'm selling something, and I was never any good at that anyway. I'm much more comfortable just talking about my experience. What I've seen and heard, and felt in this world is all I know. I wasn't at the birth of christ, I wasn't at the crucifixion. I wasn't there. But I was in Jerusalem and I met an amazing Jewish couple who made me dinner, and talked and laughed with me. I was in Bethlehem and met my tour guide's family who brought me into their home and made me feel welcome. I know that there are some people in this world who hurt like I do, and sound like me when they complain about things, and who find the same things funny who don't even speak a word of my language. I don't know how to be an example of christ. I just know how to be me, and I have faith that that's enough for God to work with how he pleases. If it wasn't, I think my journeyed be over a long time ago.
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I'd bought my ticket yesterday for my trip to Salzburg today at 5, so I figured I had till about 4 for one last stroll around the city. I took the metro to city center as I usually do, and first went looking for food. I found a couple things that looked somewhat appetizing, but I like to cover as much ground as possible and see everything before deciding what to eat. Suddenly, in passing I noticed a store that had on it a big sign that said "Supermarket." I thought, this has to be where I'll find toothpaste and a thurmos. I entered the store and looked around for a while, but did find anything like it. It seemed this particular supermarket on sold food items, and not toiletries things of that sort like every supermarket back home. At last my hunger got the best of me, so I bought a pastry at the supermarket pastry counter. It really wasn't all that good, and it didn't do much to filling me up, so I mostly regarded that as a bad decision. I walked around, and waited for lunch before buying my last Czech hotdog which was much more satisfying. I worked a little on last night's blog, and sat at a bench in old town square before deciding it was time I should get back. Then I packed up the rest of my things, and left for the train station.
I didn't have a lot of trouble finding where I needed to go. I was there a little early, and I'd done this enough times to sort of know how things are supposed to work. My train left promptly at just after 5, and isn't scheduled to arrive in Salzburg till midnight. I had tried to get a more accommodating trip, but this was the only train going to Salzburg today. I figure I can sleep on the train (It's 7 hours anyway), then I'll have to wait in the station at Salzburg till things start opening up. I'll find a train or bus leaving to Zermat Switzerland later in the afternoon, or a night train perhaps, then spend the day in Salzburg. I doubt that Salzburg is going to be somewhere I'll want to stay. I keep hearing it's really expensive and touristy because of the whole Sound of Music thing. I just want to see the green hills, and the little town like in the movie, which I'm sure they'll have kept (at least part of it) exactly the same as it was for all the tourists. Zermat I hear is very pretty, and worth staying in. Plus I'm excited to see the Matterhorn in real life, and not just the Disneyland attraction we have back home. This is gonna be another rushed through sort of couple days, but I'm prepared for it. I don't even know how exactly I can get to Zermat from Salzburg, it's not on my Eurail map. As for staying in the rail station for another night, I think I'm ok with it. If I sleep on the train, I won't need to sleep so much there. I'm only going to be waiting 4 or 5 hours till the morning staff comes to work, and then just like an hour or two after that to when shops and things start opening up, and I can begin exploring the city. In terms of safety, I'm pretty sure the rail station in Salzburg's going to be a lot friendlier than Gyor, Hungary. It's a popular enough place that there should be a fairly big station, and people around all the time. Regardless, this is what I do. I jump head first into the situation and figure it out as I go. It's an adventure.
My greatest comfort always harps back to my adventure to Jerusalem. God didn't leave me in the sands of the desert, or even stranded in Jordan. He provided for me. He gave me transportation and shelter. Even in Gyor, God allowed that train to get there just when I needed it. It's my guess that God figures I do more good alive, so I worry little about provisions. That's not to say I don't prepare at all. God's not going to intervene every time. Sometimes it's up to me to make the right decisions. I can't think of God like an over protective mother, doing everything for me; but more as a guide telling me which way to go.
I think my story has become somewhat valuable in reminding people what it's like to be a lonely, confused kid looking for answers. The God I've come to know seems to delight in making my story worth talking about. I'm not just talking about the epic journey anymore. The life that God has allowed me to live is worth talking about. It's often hard for me to do, but it's more because I don't know how to tell it, than that I don't want to. I'm still in the middle of it. I don't know where this story leads to, or if it has a happy ending. Parts of it, I can't even remember. How am I supposed to tell a story that's not finished yet; which has pieces missing all over the place? How are the jottings of my random though processes going to help anyone? Or lead anyone in to the right direction? I don't even know which direction I'm headed right now, I have no compass!
I'm really pressured by the idea that I have to enter this journey as a representative of christ. I've been told all the eyes of my church are upon me, as well as my family and friends. I feel some pressure of disappointment were I to go through this journey and not change someone's life. The truth is simply that I'm not a saint, or missionary or Jesus Christ. I'm just some kid who's looking for some certain things to learn from life. I'm a terrible preacher, and I hate doing it. It's awkward for me to sit down with someone and talk about Jesus. I feel like I'm selling something, and I was never any good at that anyway. I'm much more comfortable just talking about my experience. What I've seen and heard, and felt in this world is all I know. I wasn't at the birth of christ, I wasn't at the crucifixion. I wasn't there. But I was in Jerusalem and I met an amazing Jewish couple who made me dinner, and talked and laughed with me. I was in Bethlehem and met my tour guide's family who brought me into their home and made me feel welcome. I know that there are some people in this world who hurt like I do, and sound like me when they complain about things, and who find the same things funny who don't even speak a word of my language. I don't know how to be an example of christ. I just know how to be me, and I have faith that that's enough for God to work with how he pleases. If it wasn't, I think my journeyed be over a long time ago.
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Laundry Day
I got up, trying to sleep in as long as I could without missing breakfast. I'd gotten to sleep just after 4am when my Polish brothers decided to take a late night/early morning stroll through the city. I was glad they left, otherwise I might not have slept at all.
After breakfast, I decided I'd try to be responsible and do some of the things I needed to get done. My dirty laundry had piled up in my backpack, and I was down to one clean change of clothes. The clothes I was wearing, I'd been wearing for the past week. Jeans are great though, because you can wear them forever and they don't smell or look dirty. I've changed my pants only once this whole trip. Everything else though, starts to look and smell lived in after a couple days.
I took a shower and changed into all new clean clothes. When I got out, I felt like a whole new person. Then I gathered up all my clothes, and put them into a bag I borrowed from the front desk upstairs. At breakfast I asked the hostel tenant how much it costs to use the washing machines, and she told me I could just pay them 99 crowns (about 5 bucks) and hand them my laundry, and they'd wash it and dry it for me. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal, so I handed over my bag of dirty laundry. At 3pm they said I could come pick it up, so I had some time to wait around for it. While I was waiting for my laundry, I thought I'd go into town and see if I could find a place to get toothpaste, I was running low on that as well. I also needed to find some pipe tobacco, pipe cleaners, matches, and some kind of thermos so I didn't have to keep buying water bottles everywhere I went. So I had my little shopping list, and I took the metro into City Center to see if I could take care of some of it.
Literally right around the corner from the metro station, I found a smoke shop specialized in pipes and cigars. It was pretty cool, and I found everything I needed for my pipe right away. There was a whole wall of all different selections of pipe tobacco, but I didn't see the kind I usually get at home, Captain Black. So I asked the man who owned the shop which was his favorite. He pointed me to Black Vanilla, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I walked a little ways through old town and sat down on a bench near a park in the square, and tried out this new tobacco with my new antique pipe. It was glorious. This new pipe, smokes like a dream and the aroma of the tobacco was wonderful. I always get interesting reactions from people walking by as I smoke my pipe. Everyone seems to love it, it's a lot more pleasant than the wafts of cigarette smoke you usually get in a city, and I think it reminds most people of a happy child hood hearing stories and playing games with their grandfather. They're usually surprised to see my face behind the smoke rings, because I'm a bit younger than the average pipe smoker, but they all so far give me their nod of approval for being cultured and bringing back the traditional. It's much more classy than a cigar or cigarette, and smoking a pipe is really an art form. Plus it goes perfectly with my whole look right now, with the long scraggly beard, Scottish hat and my fiddle, Mr. Windlehatpee. My Grandma Sutliff suggested the name.
I kept on walking towards the river, looking for some kind of Supermarket/Wallmart equivalent, but couldn't find anything. I know there must be somewhere that people buy the things I'm looking for, but they probably don't look like they do back home, so I don't know what to look for. When I arrived near Charles Bridge, I noticed a stage being set up in the park. Several people laid out on the grass in front of it, and I noticed crew members tuning instruments, and hooking up sound equipment. Obviously these were the makings of some kind of concert in the park. I found a nice place up front and sat down on the grass next to two Irish guys. I heard them talking with some excitement about waiting for the concert to start, and so I asked them who was playing. Lenny Cravitz, they told me. They'd heard that Lenny Cravitz was giving some sort of secret free concert here in Prague, so they'd been sitting out here for a while waiting to see him. James was the one sitting on the far side of me, and Nole was his friend next to him. James looked like someone you might meet at a concert. He had long dark brown hair which he was constantly pulling out of his face, and he wore a well lived in black Linkin Park t-shirt, and jeans. He asked where I'm from and I told him California, and then I guess correctly that he was from Southern Ireland. He asked how I knew, and I said it's the accent which is slightly different from the Northern Irish. It's not as Germanic, I guess; a little less harsh sounding. We talked for a while, as the stage was being set up, and the mics sound tested. He said he wanted to study to be a director, and so we talked about good schools in California to do that, and about the film industry. I looked at my phone a little later and noticed that it was after 3 and I had to go pick up my laundry. I didn't want to leave my spot because people were already starting to figure out what was going on, and in a couple minutes the place would be swarming with people. When an experienced concert goer finds a free concert, he waits there all day, and doesn't move from his spot. I've been to enough outdoor concerts to know that up front can get brutal for people who leave and try to come back. However I figured I had still a good couple hours before the concert began. I saw them set up some lights, which meant they're planning on the concert either starting at, or going into the night. Night here doesn't fall until probably 7:30 or 8:30, so I gathered I still have some time, if I hurry, to go back and sort my laundry, and then get back here and still get a good spot.
I powered it to the metro, which took me forever to find. It seems, just walking around, I pass a metro station every couple of blocks, and here I was frantically looking for one and couldn't find it anywhere. I walked all the way back to the City Center where I was sure where one was, and took it back to my hostel, picked up my laundry, and sorted it. I packed up my backpack, so it was all together, clean and ready to go, then I raced back down to the metro station again. I tried to remember, once I got out, which way I'd gone to get to where the concert was. It took a little while to find my tracks again, but I eventually found the spot. There were a lot more people now than when I'd left, and it looked like security had cleared, and taped off the whole front area where I was sitting. I pushed through to the tape barrier, and asked someone near me if they were going to take the tape down when the concert started. The guys next to me looked at me disappointedly. "Naw" they said, "apparently it's not even a concert, there're shooting some kind of music video." I looked around, and did notice a whole lot of film crew. Soon after, Lenny Cravitz walked by me with the rest of his band, and a small crowd of producers and makeup artists. He seemed pretty nice, talking and laughing with the band, and giving a little wave to the crowd. I tried to take a couple pictures, but they kept him pretty well hidden, and I felt bad because I was acting like the paparazzi, trying to get a clean shot.
For a long time, we all just stood there and stared at Lenny, who was also just standing there, until the stage was set, and they were finally ready for him. They'd hired some people to act as the crowd in front of the stage, which was what that area was sectioned off for, and then they played the song (Love Revolution) through the speakers while the band sang along into dummy mics and the crowd pretended to go wild. It was interesting to see how a music video was made, and it was pretty fun to get to see Lenny Cravitz, but I stuck around hoping that maybe at the end of the shooting, they'd do a little concert for the fans waiting around. I still remembered those light's I saw them put up, and they did sound check the instruments. Why would they do that if they were just going to lip sync to a track? I sat nearby, and waited watched them till the end of the shoot, but after they were finished, they just tore everything down and left. It was kinda disappointing, but it was still cool to see a Lenny Cravitz video being shot in Prague. Now I can look up that video when I get home and say I was right there just out of frame while that was being filmed. I sat and watched the sun set by Charles Bridge, then I went off to find food.
I found an amazing Italian restaurant with priced which were decent, but a little more than what I was paying for a hotdog on the street, but I decided to splurge a little since it was my last night in Prague. The pizza was absolutely amazing at this restaurant. Better actually, than most I'd had in Italy even! Then for dessert I had a big gelato sunday, which was indescribably delicious. I've said before, that ice cream over here is so much better than in the states, and it's true.
When I got back to the hostel, I'd had to change rooms for this night because the other room was booked full for tonight, so my new room mates were India, and Nerida. India was from England, and Nerida from Australia. I told them about seeing Lenny Cravitz, and showed them my pictures and we were all a little star struck together. They told me about our other roommate, who wasn't back yet, who snores like mad. I said it couldn't be any worse than Vietnam flashbacks, but it was. We stayed up talking and laughing, and telling stories. We had a great night.
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After breakfast, I decided I'd try to be responsible and do some of the things I needed to get done. My dirty laundry had piled up in my backpack, and I was down to one clean change of clothes. The clothes I was wearing, I'd been wearing for the past week. Jeans are great though, because you can wear them forever and they don't smell or look dirty. I've changed my pants only once this whole trip. Everything else though, starts to look and smell lived in after a couple days.
I took a shower and changed into all new clean clothes. When I got out, I felt like a whole new person. Then I gathered up all my clothes, and put them into a bag I borrowed from the front desk upstairs. At breakfast I asked the hostel tenant how much it costs to use the washing machines, and she told me I could just pay them 99 crowns (about 5 bucks) and hand them my laundry, and they'd wash it and dry it for me. It sounded like a pretty sweet deal, so I handed over my bag of dirty laundry. At 3pm they said I could come pick it up, so I had some time to wait around for it. While I was waiting for my laundry, I thought I'd go into town and see if I could find a place to get toothpaste, I was running low on that as well. I also needed to find some pipe tobacco, pipe cleaners, matches, and some kind of thermos so I didn't have to keep buying water bottles everywhere I went. So I had my little shopping list, and I took the metro into City Center to see if I could take care of some of it.
Literally right around the corner from the metro station, I found a smoke shop specialized in pipes and cigars. It was pretty cool, and I found everything I needed for my pipe right away. There was a whole wall of all different selections of pipe tobacco, but I didn't see the kind I usually get at home, Captain Black. So I asked the man who owned the shop which was his favorite. He pointed me to Black Vanilla, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I walked a little ways through old town and sat down on a bench near a park in the square, and tried out this new tobacco with my new antique pipe. It was glorious. This new pipe, smokes like a dream and the aroma of the tobacco was wonderful. I always get interesting reactions from people walking by as I smoke my pipe. Everyone seems to love it, it's a lot more pleasant than the wafts of cigarette smoke you usually get in a city, and I think it reminds most people of a happy child hood hearing stories and playing games with their grandfather. They're usually surprised to see my face behind the smoke rings, because I'm a bit younger than the average pipe smoker, but they all so far give me their nod of approval for being cultured and bringing back the traditional. It's much more classy than a cigar or cigarette, and smoking a pipe is really an art form. Plus it goes perfectly with my whole look right now, with the long scraggly beard, Scottish hat and my fiddle, Mr. Windlehatpee. My Grandma Sutliff suggested the name.
I kept on walking towards the river, looking for some kind of Supermarket/Wallmart equivalent, but couldn't find anything. I know there must be somewhere that people buy the things I'm looking for, but they probably don't look like they do back home, so I don't know what to look for. When I arrived near Charles Bridge, I noticed a stage being set up in the park. Several people laid out on the grass in front of it, and I noticed crew members tuning instruments, and hooking up sound equipment. Obviously these were the makings of some kind of concert in the park. I found a nice place up front and sat down on the grass next to two Irish guys. I heard them talking with some excitement about waiting for the concert to start, and so I asked them who was playing. Lenny Cravitz, they told me. They'd heard that Lenny Cravitz was giving some sort of secret free concert here in Prague, so they'd been sitting out here for a while waiting to see him. James was the one sitting on the far side of me, and Nole was his friend next to him. James looked like someone you might meet at a concert. He had long dark brown hair which he was constantly pulling out of his face, and he wore a well lived in black Linkin Park t-shirt, and jeans. He asked where I'm from and I told him California, and then I guess correctly that he was from Southern Ireland. He asked how I knew, and I said it's the accent which is slightly different from the Northern Irish. It's not as Germanic, I guess; a little less harsh sounding. We talked for a while, as the stage was being set up, and the mics sound tested. He said he wanted to study to be a director, and so we talked about good schools in California to do that, and about the film industry. I looked at my phone a little later and noticed that it was after 3 and I had to go pick up my laundry. I didn't want to leave my spot because people were already starting to figure out what was going on, and in a couple minutes the place would be swarming with people. When an experienced concert goer finds a free concert, he waits there all day, and doesn't move from his spot. I've been to enough outdoor concerts to know that up front can get brutal for people who leave and try to come back. However I figured I had still a good couple hours before the concert began. I saw them set up some lights, which meant they're planning on the concert either starting at, or going into the night. Night here doesn't fall until probably 7:30 or 8:30, so I gathered I still have some time, if I hurry, to go back and sort my laundry, and then get back here and still get a good spot.
I powered it to the metro, which took me forever to find. It seems, just walking around, I pass a metro station every couple of blocks, and here I was frantically looking for one and couldn't find it anywhere. I walked all the way back to the City Center where I was sure where one was, and took it back to my hostel, picked up my laundry, and sorted it. I packed up my backpack, so it was all together, clean and ready to go, then I raced back down to the metro station again. I tried to remember, once I got out, which way I'd gone to get to where the concert was. It took a little while to find my tracks again, but I eventually found the spot. There were a lot more people now than when I'd left, and it looked like security had cleared, and taped off the whole front area where I was sitting. I pushed through to the tape barrier, and asked someone near me if they were going to take the tape down when the concert started. The guys next to me looked at me disappointedly. "Naw" they said, "apparently it's not even a concert, there're shooting some kind of music video." I looked around, and did notice a whole lot of film crew. Soon after, Lenny Cravitz walked by me with the rest of his band, and a small crowd of producers and makeup artists. He seemed pretty nice, talking and laughing with the band, and giving a little wave to the crowd. I tried to take a couple pictures, but they kept him pretty well hidden, and I felt bad because I was acting like the paparazzi, trying to get a clean shot.
For a long time, we all just stood there and stared at Lenny, who was also just standing there, until the stage was set, and they were finally ready for him. They'd hired some people to act as the crowd in front of the stage, which was what that area was sectioned off for, and then they played the song (Love Revolution) through the speakers while the band sang along into dummy mics and the crowd pretended to go wild. It was interesting to see how a music video was made, and it was pretty fun to get to see Lenny Cravitz, but I stuck around hoping that maybe at the end of the shooting, they'd do a little concert for the fans waiting around. I still remembered those light's I saw them put up, and they did sound check the instruments. Why would they do that if they were just going to lip sync to a track? I sat nearby, and waited watched them till the end of the shoot, but after they were finished, they just tore everything down and left. It was kinda disappointing, but it was still cool to see a Lenny Cravitz video being shot in Prague. Now I can look up that video when I get home and say I was right there just out of frame while that was being filmed. I sat and watched the sun set by Charles Bridge, then I went off to find food.
I found an amazing Italian restaurant with priced which were decent, but a little more than what I was paying for a hotdog on the street, but I decided to splurge a little since it was my last night in Prague. The pizza was absolutely amazing at this restaurant. Better actually, than most I'd had in Italy even! Then for dessert I had a big gelato sunday, which was indescribably delicious. I've said before, that ice cream over here is so much better than in the states, and it's true.
When I got back to the hostel, I'd had to change rooms for this night because the other room was booked full for tonight, so my new room mates were India, and Nerida. India was from England, and Nerida from Australia. I told them about seeing Lenny Cravitz, and showed them my pictures and we were all a little star struck together. They told me about our other roommate, who wasn't back yet, who snores like mad. I said it couldn't be any worse than Vietnam flashbacks, but it was. We stayed up talking and laughing, and telling stories. We had a great night.
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Sunday, April 27, 2008
Prague, Czech Republic
I woke up even before my alarm went off, so I just decided to get up and get an early breakfast. I walked upstairs to where breakfast was served, and checked out the selection. It was a modest meal; a bowl of cereal, ham with a slice of cheese, and a bread roll with jam. I ate it happily, trying to get as much a fill of it as I could (you have to take advantage of every free meal). When I headed out for the day it was around 10am. I began walking along the bridge across the train tracks, the way I had gone the night before. Perhaps the way looked different in the light. Although easier to see where I was going, the light made little difference. It still looked pretty sketchy. My roommate Tom, who's also a music student from New Jersey, told me that just a little ways from where I was last night, there's a little dirt path that takes you up the bridge and over into the main city. I looked for the little path he was talking about, and eventually found it, but it took my walking like 4 blocks through backstreets to find it. I would not have done that at night on my first night out. Down the path took me right along the river where several old men were fishing, and then as he said, up to the bridge across to the city.
I was really interested to see what so many people in the states were raving about Prague. It seemed to me just like pretty much any other city in Europe, only a lot filthier. When I got across to the other side of the bridge, my impression of the city hadn't changed any. This side seemed just as dirty, and sketchy as the other. On my way through to City Center, I passed a number of smoke shops and what seemed like thousands of bars, and besides an occasional clothing store, that was about it. After an hour of this same old thing, I was wondering to myself what the big deal of this city is. It had a couple beautiful churches, I'll grant you that, but so does everywhere else here. If the appeal is that this city is a place to get wasted and high, and hang around in clubs, you have Amsterdam for that.
Back home, Prague was like the city everyone wanted to study in. It's the hip, trendy place in America to say you were going to. It seems every American, even over here, says it was their favorite stop on their trip. "It's such and interesting city" they all said. "So cultured, and beautiful" I'd hear them say over and over again. Was I in the right Prague? All I saw so far was a homeless population that seemed even slightly larger than the normal population, some grafitti, and a whole lot of concrete. I might as well be in downtown LA. As I kept walking, I eventually found City Center next to the National Museum, and things started to get a little better.
The main street in City Center is quite beautiful, and there are lots of things to do there. There are clubs all over the place, and shops with little interesting trinkets. Food stands are everywhere in the Center, and they're really nice and cheap too. It seems the further up north and closer to the river you get, the better Prague gets. I came out of the Center and just grazed by the old town on my way to Charles Bridge. Across that is the beautiful Castle Gardens, and a little winding path leading into a small medieval-looking town at the foot of Prague Castle. Walking through the town was a whole lot of fun. Antique shops are everywhere. It seems people in Prague don't throw anything away, they just sell it to tourists. I went in, looking for a cool antique compass. In fact, I'd been looking for one since Venice. I can't seem to find one that fits my journey yet though. Everything I've found (if they even have a compass, which most places don't) is really big and bulky. I need something I can haul around, and maybe wear on my neck, like locket sized. There's a wide variety of old pocket watches, which are pretty cool, and I did manage to buy myself an old antique pipe I really loved, but no compass anywhere.
Up the Castle steps, the walls opened up into a lively city square. There were street musicians all over, playing classical masterpieces or a little bit of traditional Czech folk music. The guards at the Castle gate stood motionless as endless tourists tormented them. Food here was overpriced, and it all seemed like you might imagine a tourist attraction to be. I'm not complaining though, I love walking through beautiful places, watching street performers and listening to musicians. It's nice that the Czech people try to give us tourists a little of an adventure into the traditional culture, even if it is just for show. Also along the way, were several of these handmade marionette shops, which were amazing to look through. It's baffling to me how people can control these little puppets to do the things they can do, and some of these controls were so intricate! I walked all over the city for hours, trying to make sure I got a fair look at Prague so I could judge honestly how the city really compares to the others. I headed back to the hostel before dark because I'd decided I had to try the nightlife of Prague, and go clubbing. So I had some time before dark to take a quick nap, and a shower before heading out for a night on the town.
Before I left, I asked the lady at the front desk of the hostel which clubs were really worth seeing. She gave me a list of 4, which she thought were the best in Prague, and showed me where they were on the map. Two of them were right across the street from each other, so I thought I'd start there, and see what I liked. I took the metro to right near where the two clubs were.
The first was called The Rock Cafe, and I figured that might be close to my sort of scene, so I walked in smiling like you're always supposed to walk into a new place. I did a quick stroll around the place, figure out where everything is, and seeing all the sorts of people. There's a club technique I learned in which you're supposed to mentally mark how many in each group clustered together, and how many of them are men and how many women. You're supposed to look for groups of girls together, never a single one sitting alone. Girls alone are either waiting for someone, or want to be left alone. So I did my walk around the club, and then realized there were stairs leading down to a lower level, but there was a bouncer selling tickets to go down. I asked a group of people what was down there, and they said it was some kind of battle of the bands. It sounded pretty cool, so I paid the entrance fee to go down and have a look. As soon as I got down there I noticed something interesting. Everyone all of the sudden Seemed really young. In fact, I think I was probably the oldest guy in the room other than the few 40 somethings who sat in the corner. I found a nice group of kids to talk to, and asked what the average age is of people who go here, and they said somewhere around 16 or 17. Ok...well that changes some things. I'm not gonna hang around and be THAT guy. Although, I already payed for the entrance fee down here, so I might as well listen to some Czech high school rock bands. I ordered a drink from the bar, and stayed through the first band. They were actually really good, I thought. They weren't quite great yet, but they were definitely good. As I stood there I thought about how proud Brandon Hughes would be of me right now, and how much fun we'd be having if he were here.
After about an hour, I left there to go try the one across the street. However, as soon as I entered, I noticed everyone in this club was twice my age. I thought to myself, this must be where all the parents of the kids across the street are. I left there abruptly, and started over to the next one on the list, The Duplex. This club was located right on the Main Street of City Center, right on top of a huge hotel. The entrance was at the bottom, and you had to take the lift up to the top floor. It was perfect! It was just what I expected from a Prague night club. There were lights, and loud music, and even hired dancers on platforms in the center of the dance floor. The club was 2 stories, with a bar and lounge area on the bottom floor, and the dance floor up above it. There was also a balcony on the lower floor with a couple tables and a view of the whole city. I started slow, doing my rounds, and figuring out who was with whom sitting where, as well as first making sure there were people my age (which there were). When finally deciding I was going to stay, I checked in my jacket and ordered a drink. Hanging by the bar is never a good idea in a party event. You have to keep moving, and mingling. When people see you talking to other people, they assume you must be worth talking to, as apposed to the random guy in the corner who just watches everyone have a good time.
The first thing I notice after ordering my drink is a huge group of really, really good looking girls sitting at a table, and not a single guy present. At first I thought, this must be a trap, maybe all their guys are somewhere else or something. How could all those beautiful girls even get in here without (it seems) even being approached. Well why not, I decided, I might as well go over and say hello. I'll most likely be eaten alive, but it's a good learning scenerio, and I can't sit here all night. I grabbed my drink, and smiling confidently, I asked if they were all here together. I knew they were, but it didn't matter what I said as long as I said it confidently and started the conversation. They had some trouble understanding me, as it often happens, but rather than fall back and start again, I went with something simpler. "Are you from here?" They understood that, and all answered no. "We're from Sicilly" the one of them said who could speak some amount of English. "We're here on holiday." What a coincidence, I thought, and did a little dance in side my head. I now had something to talk about. I told the one girl, who acted as my interpreter, about my journey, why I was now here in a Prague night club. They were delighted by the concept that tried so hard to dumb down my english for them to understand, and in some cases tried to speak what little Italian I could. However, they were even more delighted by the fact that I was from America, and California at that. They were all over me as if I were some kind of celebrity right from Hollywood, and they about peed themselves when I mentioned my profession as a Cinema Composer. There were 8, (trust me, I counted very carefully several times), 8 gorgeous Sicilian women huddled around me all night long inviting me to dance with them, and making eyes at me whenever I entered their sight. Every other guy in that whole club hated my guts, because when I walked onto the dance floor, I had 8 beautiful Sicilian women with me. It was amazing. One of them in particular I really took a liking to. Her name was Julliana, and she was gorgeous, of course, but she also had this very feisty flirty air about her. She barely spoke any English, but somewhat more than most of them, so I could have very small conversations with her, and she understood me. I had an absolute blast hanging out with the girls, and then towards the end of the night they introduced me to the professors of their all girls school who were traveling with them, and whom had apparently been sitting just off to the side all night making sure the girls were ok. That was a litte awkward (and perhaps answered the riddle as to why no one else had approached them before I did). However, I sat down with the professors too, and we all talked for about an hour more, and they all really liked me. One of them said I had really kind, honest eyes which made her sure I was a good person. They said they'd love to one day travel to California and made it seem like such a glamorous place. I told them next time I go to Italy, I'd have to make sure to go to Sicilly, because truly from what they told me, it sounds amazing.
At about 1am we all had left the club. They went off back to their hotel, and I started walking back to my hostel. The metro lines stopped running some time around midnight, so I had to walk. Walking was much more fun though anyway. I walked along the river, and felt like a million bucks. I had so much fun being the American celebrity in a Prague night club. I'm glad I got to go clubbing in Prague, it's definitely one of those must-do things when traveling Europe. Mostly Prague locals aren't really all that friendly, but find yourself some Sicilians, and you'll be all set.
When I finally got back, I was surprised to find some new roommates. That is, if you can say surprised; I heard them from 3 blocks away. My 5 new Polish roommates had gone through 3 bottles of Vodka, and a bottle of Rum, and were sitting on the couch drunk off their asses. When I came through the door, they all greeted me excitedly with a loud yell as if we'd been old friends for years. Then they introduced themselves, one at a time, and then the first one would go again because he forgot he already went, and so the whole thing would start over again. We went through that a couple of times, and then they insisted I sit down with them and have a drink. Needless to say, I already knew where this road was headed, so I respectfully declined. Still they insisted, not taking no for an answer, they poured me a glass of Vodka. I pushed the glass away, and said I'd take a rein check, and promised to sit down with them and drink all night tomorrow, knowing they'd forget all about that tomorrow. I entered the room where the beds were, and tried to get some sleep. However, my new Polish friends drank and sang Tina Turner songs at the top of their lungs till 4 in the morning.
Prague's a pretty nice city. It's beautiful as long as you stay in city center, or near the river on the northern side (which are all the big tourist areas). Both me and Tom were a bit disappointed with the music scene here, though. I did see some interesting teenage Prague rock music, and there are several jazz clubs which put out decent sounds, but I was expecting the vibe to be a whole lot more bohemian than it is. I didn't see the culture here that I did in Greece, Italy, or Austria. I couldn't find any sort of Artsy village area that wasn't made to look that way for tourists. I also didn't find the people to be all that friendly. There are a couple of exceptions, of course, but most people I met who I liked came from elsewhere.
On the upside, This city does have some absolutely beautiful sights. The whole city is all lit up at night, and the Castle looks like right out of Cinderella. The little shops are very charming, and things (even in the tourist places) are usually reasonably priced. The Club scene is great here, and you can find a tobacco shop on just about every corner. I think Prague's a great city to stop into every so often, but frankly, if I were going to live somewhere abroad, I'd much prefer Belfast, Florence, Athens, or Cairo.
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I was really interested to see what so many people in the states were raving about Prague. It seemed to me just like pretty much any other city in Europe, only a lot filthier. When I got across to the other side of the bridge, my impression of the city hadn't changed any. This side seemed just as dirty, and sketchy as the other. On my way through to City Center, I passed a number of smoke shops and what seemed like thousands of bars, and besides an occasional clothing store, that was about it. After an hour of this same old thing, I was wondering to myself what the big deal of this city is. It had a couple beautiful churches, I'll grant you that, but so does everywhere else here. If the appeal is that this city is a place to get wasted and high, and hang around in clubs, you have Amsterdam for that.
Back home, Prague was like the city everyone wanted to study in. It's the hip, trendy place in America to say you were going to. It seems every American, even over here, says it was their favorite stop on their trip. "It's such and interesting city" they all said. "So cultured, and beautiful" I'd hear them say over and over again. Was I in the right Prague? All I saw so far was a homeless population that seemed even slightly larger than the normal population, some grafitti, and a whole lot of concrete. I might as well be in downtown LA. As I kept walking, I eventually found City Center next to the National Museum, and things started to get a little better.
The main street in City Center is quite beautiful, and there are lots of things to do there. There are clubs all over the place, and shops with little interesting trinkets. Food stands are everywhere in the Center, and they're really nice and cheap too. It seems the further up north and closer to the river you get, the better Prague gets. I came out of the Center and just grazed by the old town on my way to Charles Bridge. Across that is the beautiful Castle Gardens, and a little winding path leading into a small medieval-looking town at the foot of Prague Castle. Walking through the town was a whole lot of fun. Antique shops are everywhere. It seems people in Prague don't throw anything away, they just sell it to tourists. I went in, looking for a cool antique compass. In fact, I'd been looking for one since Venice. I can't seem to find one that fits my journey yet though. Everything I've found (if they even have a compass, which most places don't) is really big and bulky. I need something I can haul around, and maybe wear on my neck, like locket sized. There's a wide variety of old pocket watches, which are pretty cool, and I did manage to buy myself an old antique pipe I really loved, but no compass anywhere.
Up the Castle steps, the walls opened up into a lively city square. There were street musicians all over, playing classical masterpieces or a little bit of traditional Czech folk music. The guards at the Castle gate stood motionless as endless tourists tormented them. Food here was overpriced, and it all seemed like you might imagine a tourist attraction to be. I'm not complaining though, I love walking through beautiful places, watching street performers and listening to musicians. It's nice that the Czech people try to give us tourists a little of an adventure into the traditional culture, even if it is just for show. Also along the way, were several of these handmade marionette shops, which were amazing to look through. It's baffling to me how people can control these little puppets to do the things they can do, and some of these controls were so intricate! I walked all over the city for hours, trying to make sure I got a fair look at Prague so I could judge honestly how the city really compares to the others. I headed back to the hostel before dark because I'd decided I had to try the nightlife of Prague, and go clubbing. So I had some time before dark to take a quick nap, and a shower before heading out for a night on the town.
Before I left, I asked the lady at the front desk of the hostel which clubs were really worth seeing. She gave me a list of 4, which she thought were the best in Prague, and showed me where they were on the map. Two of them were right across the street from each other, so I thought I'd start there, and see what I liked. I took the metro to right near where the two clubs were.
The first was called The Rock Cafe, and I figured that might be close to my sort of scene, so I walked in smiling like you're always supposed to walk into a new place. I did a quick stroll around the place, figure out where everything is, and seeing all the sorts of people. There's a club technique I learned in which you're supposed to mentally mark how many in each group clustered together, and how many of them are men and how many women. You're supposed to look for groups of girls together, never a single one sitting alone. Girls alone are either waiting for someone, or want to be left alone. So I did my walk around the club, and then realized there were stairs leading down to a lower level, but there was a bouncer selling tickets to go down. I asked a group of people what was down there, and they said it was some kind of battle of the bands. It sounded pretty cool, so I paid the entrance fee to go down and have a look. As soon as I got down there I noticed something interesting. Everyone all of the sudden Seemed really young. In fact, I think I was probably the oldest guy in the room other than the few 40 somethings who sat in the corner. I found a nice group of kids to talk to, and asked what the average age is of people who go here, and they said somewhere around 16 or 17. Ok...well that changes some things. I'm not gonna hang around and be THAT guy. Although, I already payed for the entrance fee down here, so I might as well listen to some Czech high school rock bands. I ordered a drink from the bar, and stayed through the first band. They were actually really good, I thought. They weren't quite great yet, but they were definitely good. As I stood there I thought about how proud Brandon Hughes would be of me right now, and how much fun we'd be having if he were here.
After about an hour, I left there to go try the one across the street. However, as soon as I entered, I noticed everyone in this club was twice my age. I thought to myself, this must be where all the parents of the kids across the street are. I left there abruptly, and started over to the next one on the list, The Duplex. This club was located right on the Main Street of City Center, right on top of a huge hotel. The entrance was at the bottom, and you had to take the lift up to the top floor. It was perfect! It was just what I expected from a Prague night club. There were lights, and loud music, and even hired dancers on platforms in the center of the dance floor. The club was 2 stories, with a bar and lounge area on the bottom floor, and the dance floor up above it. There was also a balcony on the lower floor with a couple tables and a view of the whole city. I started slow, doing my rounds, and figuring out who was with whom sitting where, as well as first making sure there were people my age (which there were). When finally deciding I was going to stay, I checked in my jacket and ordered a drink. Hanging by the bar is never a good idea in a party event. You have to keep moving, and mingling. When people see you talking to other people, they assume you must be worth talking to, as apposed to the random guy in the corner who just watches everyone have a good time.
The first thing I notice after ordering my drink is a huge group of really, really good looking girls sitting at a table, and not a single guy present. At first I thought, this must be a trap, maybe all their guys are somewhere else or something. How could all those beautiful girls even get in here without (it seems) even being approached. Well why not, I decided, I might as well go over and say hello. I'll most likely be eaten alive, but it's a good learning scenerio, and I can't sit here all night. I grabbed my drink, and smiling confidently, I asked if they were all here together. I knew they were, but it didn't matter what I said as long as I said it confidently and started the conversation. They had some trouble understanding me, as it often happens, but rather than fall back and start again, I went with something simpler. "Are you from here?" They understood that, and all answered no. "We're from Sicilly" the one of them said who could speak some amount of English. "We're here on holiday." What a coincidence, I thought, and did a little dance in side my head. I now had something to talk about. I told the one girl, who acted as my interpreter, about my journey, why I was now here in a Prague night club. They were delighted by the concept that tried so hard to dumb down my english for them to understand, and in some cases tried to speak what little Italian I could. However, they were even more delighted by the fact that I was from America, and California at that. They were all over me as if I were some kind of celebrity right from Hollywood, and they about peed themselves when I mentioned my profession as a Cinema Composer. There were 8, (trust me, I counted very carefully several times), 8 gorgeous Sicilian women huddled around me all night long inviting me to dance with them, and making eyes at me whenever I entered their sight. Every other guy in that whole club hated my guts, because when I walked onto the dance floor, I had 8 beautiful Sicilian women with me. It was amazing. One of them in particular I really took a liking to. Her name was Julliana, and she was gorgeous, of course, but she also had this very feisty flirty air about her. She barely spoke any English, but somewhat more than most of them, so I could have very small conversations with her, and she understood me. I had an absolute blast hanging out with the girls, and then towards the end of the night they introduced me to the professors of their all girls school who were traveling with them, and whom had apparently been sitting just off to the side all night making sure the girls were ok. That was a litte awkward (and perhaps answered the riddle as to why no one else had approached them before I did). However, I sat down with the professors too, and we all talked for about an hour more, and they all really liked me. One of them said I had really kind, honest eyes which made her sure I was a good person. They said they'd love to one day travel to California and made it seem like such a glamorous place. I told them next time I go to Italy, I'd have to make sure to go to Sicilly, because truly from what they told me, it sounds amazing.
At about 1am we all had left the club. They went off back to their hotel, and I started walking back to my hostel. The metro lines stopped running some time around midnight, so I had to walk. Walking was much more fun though anyway. I walked along the river, and felt like a million bucks. I had so much fun being the American celebrity in a Prague night club. I'm glad I got to go clubbing in Prague, it's definitely one of those must-do things when traveling Europe. Mostly Prague locals aren't really all that friendly, but find yourself some Sicilians, and you'll be all set.
When I finally got back, I was surprised to find some new roommates. That is, if you can say surprised; I heard them from 3 blocks away. My 5 new Polish roommates had gone through 3 bottles of Vodka, and a bottle of Rum, and were sitting on the couch drunk off their asses. When I came through the door, they all greeted me excitedly with a loud yell as if we'd been old friends for years. Then they introduced themselves, one at a time, and then the first one would go again because he forgot he already went, and so the whole thing would start over again. We went through that a couple of times, and then they insisted I sit down with them and have a drink. Needless to say, I already knew where this road was headed, so I respectfully declined. Still they insisted, not taking no for an answer, they poured me a glass of Vodka. I pushed the glass away, and said I'd take a rein check, and promised to sit down with them and drink all night tomorrow, knowing they'd forget all about that tomorrow. I entered the room where the beds were, and tried to get some sleep. However, my new Polish friends drank and sang Tina Turner songs at the top of their lungs till 4 in the morning.
Prague's a pretty nice city. It's beautiful as long as you stay in city center, or near the river on the northern side (which are all the big tourist areas). Both me and Tom were a bit disappointed with the music scene here, though. I did see some interesting teenage Prague rock music, and there are several jazz clubs which put out decent sounds, but I was expecting the vibe to be a whole lot more bohemian than it is. I didn't see the culture here that I did in Greece, Italy, or Austria. I couldn't find any sort of Artsy village area that wasn't made to look that way for tourists. I also didn't find the people to be all that friendly. There are a couple of exceptions, of course, but most people I met who I liked came from elsewhere.
On the upside, This city does have some absolutely beautiful sights. The whole city is all lit up at night, and the Castle looks like right out of Cinderella. The little shops are very charming, and things (even in the tourist places) are usually reasonably priced. The Club scene is great here, and you can find a tobacco shop on just about every corner. I think Prague's a great city to stop into every so often, but frankly, if I were going to live somewhere abroad, I'd much prefer Belfast, Florence, Athens, or Cairo.
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Friday, April 25, 2008
To Prague
Last night Carolyn and I were up till late talking. She couldn't sleep because Charlie snored like a banshee in between frequent outbursts of Vietnam flashbacks, and I was still up writing last night's blog. She's a great girl, she reminds me somewhat of Ellen Paige. She's got a little tomboy in her, but she pulls it off with a lot of feminine wit. She's (as Janene would say) full of piss and vinegar. She asked about Budapest, being as I'd just come from there and that's where she and Kara were off to next. I told her about the hostel I really loved over there, and Buda where all the beautiful sites and parks were. She gave me some tips for Prague and Paris.
I asked when she and Kara would be getting back to Paris, and she said sometime around May 14th. I told her I'd probably be getting to Paris sometime soon after that, so she offered to show me around the city when I get there. Charlie was suddenly back in Vietnam again, kicking around and yelling out incoherent sentence fragments, so we turned our attention back on him. I told her to try and roll him over somehow, but she refused. I mentioned the technique Ryan and I always use on each other when either of us is snoring. You make a huge movement real quick and then lie perfectly still. The snoring person is alarmed half awake by the sudden movement (or sound), and rolls over, thus ending the snoring. She tried waving her hand over his face and then reeling it back quickly, but nothing happened. Then she tried pushing the bed, but still he kept on snoring all the louder. Finally, just as we gave up, he choked on a bit of saliva and rolled over. We took advantage of the silence to say goodnight and get to sleep as fast as possible.
In the morning we all awoke and said goodbye to Charlie, who was leaving Vienna early that morning. We were all leaving today at different times toward different directions. I had breakfast downstairs with the girls, and we all exchanged emails so that I could find them again when I get in to Paris. Then after breakfast, I packed up the last of my stuff and checked out. I tried the train station just across the street first, for a train to Prague. However, they told me only the southern station goes to Prague, which is what I figured to begin with (it's the larger station). So I took the local bus to the southern station and asked the information desk for the time of the first available train to Prague. Unfortunately, the soonest departure to Prague was at a 1:30pm, which was still 3 hours away. The good thing about just showing up at a train station is that you're never late for your train. You're very often sickeningly early, but never late. I had nothing else I could really accomplish in this part of town, so I found my platform and an open bench, and sat in the station for 3 hours.
The train finally came, and I boarded it. It was a lot nicer than the trains I'd been used to coming up through lower eastern Europe. It really resembled more of a commercial airliner than a train. I sat next to a really nice guy from Columbia who's living right now in Vienna. He wasn't much a fan of Vienna though, he said it was too perfect. He wanted to find somewhere that was a little more unusual, and he'd heard Prague was pretty unusual. I'd not seen Prague yet, but if it was anything like this guy described his "ideal town", I was in for some kind of adventure.
My Eurail pass, as it turns out, doesn't work in The Czech Republic, so as soon as we crossed the border they made me pay for the rest of my transit to Prague. Thankfully I had just exactly enough cash to cover the ticket, and two nights in the hostel I booked. However, this meant that when I got there, I was virtually broke. Like the majority of Eastern Europe (and most places I've been, in fact) no one takes credit cards, so all my dealings have to be in cash. As soon as I pulled into the station in Prague, I had the distinct feeling of being an outsider. It just looked like everyone wanted to rob me. I'd been warned that Prague is one of the pick-pocket centers of the world, and it certainly looked that way. I kept a careful watch over both my front pockets. Everything worth stealing was in those two pockets. Fortunately, I had no cash to speak of, but I still had my iPod, phone, passport, and credit cards still up for grabs. Whenever I could I kept my hands in my pockets, however this was a lot more difficult when carrying my fiddle in one hand. It left one pocket always vulnerable. I developed a crick in my neck trying to keep my eyes on the open pocket. In the metro, especially this was tough, but somehow I made it through without losing anything.
My first impression of the city is actually somewhat disappointing. It seems like kind of a crappy city. It's dirty, and rat infested. There are beggars and pickpockets on every corner. The streets are marred with graffiti, and the smell is terrible. My hostel is over across the train tracks on the lower west side, which is not really a great part of town. The hostel itself is rather nice, but outside seems pretty sketchy. After I took advantage of the free internet to upload my new pictures, I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I asked the front desk lady if there was a quick cheap fast food place nearby. I didn't really want to wander around too far here after dark, at least not until I knew the place well enough in the daylight. She showed me where there was a McDonalds just down the road, so I went there. I had to pick up some money from an ATM also on the way, and the only bank machine I could find was buried down in the metro tunnel. It's increasingly sketchy pulling out money from a bank machine at 9 at night in the ghetto of Prague, but I did it. I just have to try not to look lost or naive, keep my hands in my pockets and my head down. That's how you avoid attention. I tried to eat something somewhat healthy at McDonalds, but that's pretty near impossible. That's the thing about McDonalds, it never changes no matter where in the world. Other American fast food places are different in Europe. KFC and Pizza Hut are qualified as decent sit-down restaurants here. They're not super nice restaurants, but the kind of place you might have a birthday party, sort of on par with like TGI Friday's. Definitely worthy of a business function. However McDonalds is cheap, crappy food no matter where in the world it resides, and it does reside absolutely everywhere. Even in the Middle East where they don't even have their own crappy fast food places, there's still a McDonalds on every corner. However, I can't complain too much. McDonalds and Starbucks act as the American embassy when you're far away from home for so long. It's a comfort to be somewhere familiar, and you usually see a lot of other Americans doing the same thing, hiding out from the often overwhelming foreign lands. So thank you McDonalds for providing weary homesick travelers with the same crappy food and mediocre service we're accustomed to getting back home. It's good to know everything doesn't have to change.
Tomorrow I'll explore the city a lot more. I'll get out of the ghetto, and hang around the City Center. I'll see some sights, and figure out if this place brightens up any. Perhaps first impressions can be decieving.
I asked when she and Kara would be getting back to Paris, and she said sometime around May 14th. I told her I'd probably be getting to Paris sometime soon after that, so she offered to show me around the city when I get there. Charlie was suddenly back in Vietnam again, kicking around and yelling out incoherent sentence fragments, so we turned our attention back on him. I told her to try and roll him over somehow, but she refused. I mentioned the technique Ryan and I always use on each other when either of us is snoring. You make a huge movement real quick and then lie perfectly still. The snoring person is alarmed half awake by the sudden movement (or sound), and rolls over, thus ending the snoring. She tried waving her hand over his face and then reeling it back quickly, but nothing happened. Then she tried pushing the bed, but still he kept on snoring all the louder. Finally, just as we gave up, he choked on a bit of saliva and rolled over. We took advantage of the silence to say goodnight and get to sleep as fast as possible.
In the morning we all awoke and said goodbye to Charlie, who was leaving Vienna early that morning. We were all leaving today at different times toward different directions. I had breakfast downstairs with the girls, and we all exchanged emails so that I could find them again when I get in to Paris. Then after breakfast, I packed up the last of my stuff and checked out. I tried the train station just across the street first, for a train to Prague. However, they told me only the southern station goes to Prague, which is what I figured to begin with (it's the larger station). So I took the local bus to the southern station and asked the information desk for the time of the first available train to Prague. Unfortunately, the soonest departure to Prague was at a 1:30pm, which was still 3 hours away. The good thing about just showing up at a train station is that you're never late for your train. You're very often sickeningly early, but never late. I had nothing else I could really accomplish in this part of town, so I found my platform and an open bench, and sat in the station for 3 hours.
The train finally came, and I boarded it. It was a lot nicer than the trains I'd been used to coming up through lower eastern Europe. It really resembled more of a commercial airliner than a train. I sat next to a really nice guy from Columbia who's living right now in Vienna. He wasn't much a fan of Vienna though, he said it was too perfect. He wanted to find somewhere that was a little more unusual, and he'd heard Prague was pretty unusual. I'd not seen Prague yet, but if it was anything like this guy described his "ideal town", I was in for some kind of adventure.
My Eurail pass, as it turns out, doesn't work in The Czech Republic, so as soon as we crossed the border they made me pay for the rest of my transit to Prague. Thankfully I had just exactly enough cash to cover the ticket, and two nights in the hostel I booked. However, this meant that when I got there, I was virtually broke. Like the majority of Eastern Europe (and most places I've been, in fact) no one takes credit cards, so all my dealings have to be in cash. As soon as I pulled into the station in Prague, I had the distinct feeling of being an outsider. It just looked like everyone wanted to rob me. I'd been warned that Prague is one of the pick-pocket centers of the world, and it certainly looked that way. I kept a careful watch over both my front pockets. Everything worth stealing was in those two pockets. Fortunately, I had no cash to speak of, but I still had my iPod, phone, passport, and credit cards still up for grabs. Whenever I could I kept my hands in my pockets, however this was a lot more difficult when carrying my fiddle in one hand. It left one pocket always vulnerable. I developed a crick in my neck trying to keep my eyes on the open pocket. In the metro, especially this was tough, but somehow I made it through without losing anything.
My first impression of the city is actually somewhat disappointing. It seems like kind of a crappy city. It's dirty, and rat infested. There are beggars and pickpockets on every corner. The streets are marred with graffiti, and the smell is terrible. My hostel is over across the train tracks on the lower west side, which is not really a great part of town. The hostel itself is rather nice, but outside seems pretty sketchy. After I took advantage of the free internet to upload my new pictures, I realized I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I asked the front desk lady if there was a quick cheap fast food place nearby. I didn't really want to wander around too far here after dark, at least not until I knew the place well enough in the daylight. She showed me where there was a McDonalds just down the road, so I went there. I had to pick up some money from an ATM also on the way, and the only bank machine I could find was buried down in the metro tunnel. It's increasingly sketchy pulling out money from a bank machine at 9 at night in the ghetto of Prague, but I did it. I just have to try not to look lost or naive, keep my hands in my pockets and my head down. That's how you avoid attention. I tried to eat something somewhat healthy at McDonalds, but that's pretty near impossible. That's the thing about McDonalds, it never changes no matter where in the world. Other American fast food places are different in Europe. KFC and Pizza Hut are qualified as decent sit-down restaurants here. They're not super nice restaurants, but the kind of place you might have a birthday party, sort of on par with like TGI Friday's. Definitely worthy of a business function. However McDonalds is cheap, crappy food no matter where in the world it resides, and it does reside absolutely everywhere. Even in the Middle East where they don't even have their own crappy fast food places, there's still a McDonalds on every corner. However, I can't complain too much. McDonalds and Starbucks act as the American embassy when you're far away from home for so long. It's a comfort to be somewhere familiar, and you usually see a lot of other Americans doing the same thing, hiding out from the often overwhelming foreign lands. So thank you McDonalds for providing weary homesick travelers with the same crappy food and mediocre service we're accustomed to getting back home. It's good to know everything doesn't have to change.
Tomorrow I'll explore the city a lot more. I'll get out of the ghetto, and hang around the City Center. I'll see some sights, and figure out if this place brightens up any. Perhaps first impressions can be decieving.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Vienna, Austria
This morning I got up for breakfast at 9am, which I figured was a nice compromise to sleeping in a bit. I'm going to start trying to get up a little earlier now if I can. In the UK I used to wake up at dawn every morning and watch the sun rise, but since London, I got back into my old habit of sleeping in. Plus this seemed the right time anyway being as everyone else in the room was getting up at that time. Breakfast was very simple, just a bowl of cornflakes and a bread roll. Like prison, only what's needed to survive the day.
I decided to take the metro up to a cool looking ferris wheel I'd seen on the map, and a couple guys in my hostel said it was a nice area. I took the U3 underground to the U4 which took me out of the main city across the river. When I emerged from the metro station, I looked around to orientate my self to where I was. It didn't take long to figure out which direction I was pointing thanks to the giant ferris wheel I quickly found off in the distance, so I decided to head in that direction. I walked through a beautiful little suburban park where children played on a nearby playground, and snaked my way down a dirt path to where the giant wheel stood. It wasn't nearly as big as the London Eye, of course. In fact, you could probably fit about 10 of these in the London Eye, but it was big enough to be a spectacle worthy of a place on the map. Around it, a whole bunch of construction took place, as it seemed the people here were getting set up for some sort of fair that was to take place later, and all the final touches were being put on. I walked around the side of the construction to where I saw a fountain surrounded by beautiful blooming flowers. It seemed all of Vienna was in full bloom today, in fact. The sun shone brightly today, and saturated the landscape with flowers of every color. The breeze carried the seeds of dandy lions in huge streams like snow on a winter wind. I walked on down a main road lined with trees and little old men on park benches. The street lead me off to a smaller path where people jogged and couples walked their babies in strollers. The roads seemed endless at either side, but vast amounts of vegetation seemed to grow right out of from them. Every so often I'd pass by an arrangement of flowers set near an old looking fountain, or playground. There were so many flowers, honestly I felt a little overwhelmed at times. Whole fields of them, and all types. Scattered throughout them I spotted small clusters of Edelweiss which were shining white within bouquets of yellow, green, red, orange, and blue. Further down the little path I found a small lake with swans floating along the surface. I stopped and thought for a second, you've gotta be kidding me. Swans on a beautiful lake, flowers all over the place in perfect bloom, children playing off in the distance. Am I still in Vienna, or did I somehow wander into a 5 year old girl's fantasy world?
I took some pictures of the swans on the lake, and beautiful flowers, because I figured no one's gonna believe me. Then I continued on the path over the little wooden bridge into the woods lined on either side by patches of Edelweiss. The woods ended in a huge clearing where some were stretched out on the grass, reading or sleeping, and soaking in the sun. I stood and admired the clearing, and beautiful sun for a couple minutes, then I walked through to the other side and found myself in the woods by the main road again. Somehow wandering from there I ended up back at the fair, which was now alive with people. I spend another part of my day walking around the fair, watching the attractions and seeing the different carnival rides. I bought an ice cream bar, and sat down at a bench.
I wondered about how my life was like before the days when I use to just get up and go on a nature walk to a little carnival in Vienna, or visit a famous art museum in Florence. I still have dreams where I'm in my own bed back home, and in the mornings I wake up in Rome, or in Venice, or Egypt, or Austria. I've been living my dreams. How am I going to go back to life as I knew it before? I am excited to see my friends and family back home, though. I want to tell them all I've seen, and show them what I've learned of the world. I was telling my mom earlier in an email how it's so interesting seeing the progression in myself and my experience. I already have the best travel stories in my hostel, and I'm very quickly becoming the most well traveled. In the beginning of this trip I used to listen to the stories of where people had been, and wish that I could one day be that travel savvy. I've found myself talking the way those people used to talk, and seeing others listen to my stories the way I used to listen only months ago.
After the fair, I took the metro back into the old town, and walked all through the little parks there which were full of people throwing Frisbees, laughing and having a good time. In Sigmund Freud park, there was a live band playing while people watched and some danced. I walked through, covering the areas I missed yesterday, and eventually decided to stop into Vienna's art museum. I got to see some beautiful paintings, a couple I recognized from coffee table art books I'd looked at. After seeing all I needed to see, I walked back to my hostel and took a nice hot shower and a nap.
That night I stayed up talking with my roommates Charlie, who's a retired Vietnam Veteran from Florida; Kara from Ohio, and Carolyn from Long Island who are both studying in Paris; and Chinyow from Korea who we also learned, studies in Paris. They're an interesting bunch of people, but a lot of fun.
Tomorrow I'll go down to the train station and catch a train to Prague, so pray for a safe journey!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
I decided to take the metro up to a cool looking ferris wheel I'd seen on the map, and a couple guys in my hostel said it was a nice area. I took the U3 underground to the U4 which took me out of the main city across the river. When I emerged from the metro station, I looked around to orientate my self to where I was. It didn't take long to figure out which direction I was pointing thanks to the giant ferris wheel I quickly found off in the distance, so I decided to head in that direction. I walked through a beautiful little suburban park where children played on a nearby playground, and snaked my way down a dirt path to where the giant wheel stood. It wasn't nearly as big as the London Eye, of course. In fact, you could probably fit about 10 of these in the London Eye, but it was big enough to be a spectacle worthy of a place on the map. Around it, a whole bunch of construction took place, as it seemed the people here were getting set up for some sort of fair that was to take place later, and all the final touches were being put on. I walked around the side of the construction to where I saw a fountain surrounded by beautiful blooming flowers. It seemed all of Vienna was in full bloom today, in fact. The sun shone brightly today, and saturated the landscape with flowers of every color. The breeze carried the seeds of dandy lions in huge streams like snow on a winter wind. I walked on down a main road lined with trees and little old men on park benches. The street lead me off to a smaller path where people jogged and couples walked their babies in strollers. The roads seemed endless at either side, but vast amounts of vegetation seemed to grow right out of from them. Every so often I'd pass by an arrangement of flowers set near an old looking fountain, or playground. There were so many flowers, honestly I felt a little overwhelmed at times. Whole fields of them, and all types. Scattered throughout them I spotted small clusters of Edelweiss which were shining white within bouquets of yellow, green, red, orange, and blue. Further down the little path I found a small lake with swans floating along the surface. I stopped and thought for a second, you've gotta be kidding me. Swans on a beautiful lake, flowers all over the place in perfect bloom, children playing off in the distance. Am I still in Vienna, or did I somehow wander into a 5 year old girl's fantasy world?
I took some pictures of the swans on the lake, and beautiful flowers, because I figured no one's gonna believe me. Then I continued on the path over the little wooden bridge into the woods lined on either side by patches of Edelweiss. The woods ended in a huge clearing where some were stretched out on the grass, reading or sleeping, and soaking in the sun. I stood and admired the clearing, and beautiful sun for a couple minutes, then I walked through to the other side and found myself in the woods by the main road again. Somehow wandering from there I ended up back at the fair, which was now alive with people. I spend another part of my day walking around the fair, watching the attractions and seeing the different carnival rides. I bought an ice cream bar, and sat down at a bench.
I wondered about how my life was like before the days when I use to just get up and go on a nature walk to a little carnival in Vienna, or visit a famous art museum in Florence. I still have dreams where I'm in my own bed back home, and in the mornings I wake up in Rome, or in Venice, or Egypt, or Austria. I've been living my dreams. How am I going to go back to life as I knew it before? I am excited to see my friends and family back home, though. I want to tell them all I've seen, and show them what I've learned of the world. I was telling my mom earlier in an email how it's so interesting seeing the progression in myself and my experience. I already have the best travel stories in my hostel, and I'm very quickly becoming the most well traveled. In the beginning of this trip I used to listen to the stories of where people had been, and wish that I could one day be that travel savvy. I've found myself talking the way those people used to talk, and seeing others listen to my stories the way I used to listen only months ago.
After the fair, I took the metro back into the old town, and walked all through the little parks there which were full of people throwing Frisbees, laughing and having a good time. In Sigmund Freud park, there was a live band playing while people watched and some danced. I walked through, covering the areas I missed yesterday, and eventually decided to stop into Vienna's art museum. I got to see some beautiful paintings, a couple I recognized from coffee table art books I'd looked at. After seeing all I needed to see, I walked back to my hostel and took a nice hot shower and a nap.
That night I stayed up talking with my roommates Charlie, who's a retired Vietnam Veteran from Florida; Kara from Ohio, and Carolyn from Long Island who are both studying in Paris; and Chinyow from Korea who we also learned, studies in Paris. They're an interesting bunch of people, but a lot of fun.
Tomorrow I'll go down to the train station and catch a train to Prague, so pray for a safe journey!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
To Vienna
I arrived in the station at Gyor at about 11:45pm. To my dismay, the station was a tiny little local station as I feared it might be, as opposed to a main city station which might have trains running all night. There was a small office next to the tracks where I assumed tickets were sold, so I thought I might get some information on when I might possibly be able to continue on. Being a small town station, and not a big city station, I expected there might be a little communication issue. I did my best to sign out what I wanted to know, and we even got to writing out city names on a piece of paper, however all efforts proved fruitless because it seemed the train I was on was the last of the night. I'd have to wait till 4:45am to catch the first train out. To make matters worse, as I got outside it began to rain. Luckily the station's ticket office had an overhang which provided a little bit of shelter, and a couple wooden benches. It was well lit, and I felt safe enough there that I might just set up camp right there on the bench till morning.
I grabbed my heavier jacket out of my backpack, and put it on over my sweatshirt. Then I put on my gloves, and pulled my hood over my hat. The small Delta Airlines blanket was only large enough to cover my legs, so I tucked them in tightly, and held my arms to my chest as I set up my backpack as a back rest and rested my head on my tiny pillow. I saw the train workers and desk clerks lock up and leave for the night, and the last of the engineers caught his train home. I had not been alone at the station but 10 minutes when a homeless man wandered by. I watched him carefully as he sat down on the bench next to mine rummaging through a department store bag. He looked as if he was of Arab decent. A thick black beard covered his face, and he wore a black beanie with a black hood pulled over that. His shirt was a sort of turtle green and ripped at each sleeve. He wore two pairs of jeans, the ones on the outside were white, and he'd had to rip them slightly at the seam in order to fit them over the other ones. He was young, no older than 30 and every once in a while he noticed me staring at him and gave me a menacing glare and mumbled something inaudible to himself. I was very uncomfortable at first, so I kept one eye on him at all times, hoping he'd eventually just move on. After some time, he was still very much there and I was getting tired and wanted to shut my eyes. He lifted his legs up onto his bench and laid down as if trying to go to sleep. I felt a little better, because this gesture communicated to me that he had no intention of hurting me, but like me, just wanted a safe dry place to sleep. That was totally ok by me. I convinced myself that even if he wanted to do anything to me, or steal something while I was sleeping, he'd have to move out of that position which would undoubtedly wake me up, being as I'm surly not going to be sleeping very heavily on a wooden bench next to a train station.
I started to dose off when I heard another rustling of his bag. I shot up, and noticed he'd moved right back to his original position and was thumbing through things in his bag again, this time talking loudly to himself in some other language. It didn't sound Arabic, nor Hungarian. I began to believe this was just some gibberish he'd devised himself, and he began a full conversation with himself which didn't sound happy at all. Every so often, as before, he would catch me watching him, and turn his back to me a little bit and glare over his shoulder. He spoke at me slightly aggressively as if asking what the hell I was looking at, and challenging me to do something about it. This guy was obviously not stable, and not someone I wanted to sleep next to on a bench for 5 hours. I surrendered my spot, gathering my things and walking a ways further down the platform until I was out of sight. I found another wooden bench under an over hang from a neighboring building. This one was a little less lit, and the bench was much more comfortable than the last, so I was really glad I moved away from that guy and could now get some sleep.
I closed my eyes, and began to drift off again when suddenly I was disturbed by the sound of footsteps. I opened my eyes, and there was the homeless man walking down the platform carrying his treasured bag. He looked up and suddenly noticed me, and a glint of betrayal shown in his eyes as he shook his head at me. He walked past me, and again sat himself down on the bench just next to mine, and began the same routine of rummaging through his bag. I was shocked and disturbed, but my anger by the fact that this man would not leave me alone surpassed all other emotion at the moment. I glared back at him with a hateful stare, hoping to make him uncomfortable enough to leave. However, this had no effect, and he chattered away at himself referring over to me with a challenging disposition. My anger began to turn into fear as I noticed the situation escalating. I had no idea what was in that bag he'd been playing with. I had to prepare for the idea that he could have a knife or gun waiting for me at the bottom, fingering it until his rage overwhelmed him because of my betrayal. I started looking for safe options. I looked around the dark station and found it completely empty, there was no one else here, every window was dark, and every door locked. If I got up to move again, this would undoubtedly only anger him further and he would continue to follow me. Leaving the station occurred to me, but I quickly dismissed it due to the realization that I don't even know where I am. It's the middle of the night, and wandering through back alleyways of a strange city in Hungary is the last thing I should do. Besides, he would still undoubtedly follow me, and if I ran he would probably run after me, and I was on his turf. I thought about things I might have on me to defend myself, but because of traveling on planes I had nothing, no pocket knife or anything with a sharp edge. I had a pen in my pocket, and that was the only thing I could arm myself with should he come at me. If he had a knife, I had a chance. It would at least give me an opportunity to try to wrestle it away from him. If he had a gun however, It would be over. I was too far away from him to point the gun away, and close enough to be out of hope of dodging the first bullet. I sat stuck in locked eye contact with him as he fingered through his white plastic bag. He looked upset with me, and I knew I must be running out of time. I ran every program in my head of what to do in a situation like this. This is just one of those scenarios you're just not supposed to get into in the first place, but what choice did I have? I was here now, and I wanted out.
A train rolled on the tracks in the distance, and brakes screeched. This was the most welcome sound I'd heard in a long time. "Please stop here" I repeated in my head over and over. The train rolled up to the platform down a ways back where I'd been, and halted. It wasn't my train, it was here showing up early for work to begin maintenance, but It meant there was someone else here. I pulled my backpack over my shoulders, and grabbed the rest in my arms, and started walking toward the train. Behind me the homeless man had gotten up again to follow, and I felt him closing in behind me. I quickened my pace, trying not to set off a chase. I felt him quicken his. I made it to the front end of the train where I saw the engineer looking through some paper work. I signaled for him to roll down the window, and he understood. I knew he wouldn't be able to understand much so I tried to simplify my language as much as I could getting right to the point. "The man behind me is following me," I tried to say quietly so the homeless man wouldn't hear. The engineer made a shrug like he didn't understand. "The man is following me!" I said louder, not caring anymore who heard. He looked at the man who was looming a couple meters behind, and then he looked at me. He shook his head and shrugged like he didn't know what to do, and then said "I don't know what to tell you, I don't understand" in more broken words. He closed the window and began to go back to his paperwork. I banged somewhat frantically on the window, and he opened it again. "Please help!" I said, and put my hand on my chest. "Please help me." I repeated, and it seemed he understood that. He looked again at the main, and said to me "Would you like to sleep in the back?" I nodded excitedly, "Yes please, if I could." The engineer opened up the door in the next car, but the homeless man got in before me. The engineer entered the car, and yelled at the man in Hungarian and then kicked him out, and signaled me in. Once inside, he locked the doors behind me, and shut off the lights in the cabin allowing me to curl up on the seats and sleep for a bit. I was so grateful for that engineer. God bless him. I don't know what would have happen had he not been there when he was. From his driver's seat he called someone to get rid of the homeless man, and when my train arrived, he showed me where to go to get on.
About an hour later, I arrived at the next little city. This station was a little bit bigger, and trains were running now, so I decided to skip my round about journey through another tiny Hungarian city, and find a direct line to Vienna. That turned out easier than I thought. The first guy I asked pointed me to a direct train to Vienna already boarding on the next platform. I tried to sleep a little more on the train to Vienna, but it was only about 2 hours, and I think I got an hour out of it. I arrived in Vienna and took my time orientating myself. I transferred all my Hungarian Forints to Euros, studied the maps of the city and metro rails, and found a map for myself. I picked out a hostel on my phone which seemed reasonable, and asked the man at the information desk to mark it on my map. He rolled his eyes, as if it wasn't his job to help tourists, and disdainfully circled where I wanted to be, and where we are. I asked how to get there and he said "18 tram" in a very impatient tone, which I shook off. The number 18 tram was the wrong tram as I later found out, and took me in the complete opposite direction than where I wanted to be. I finally stopped into a couple hotels (which were all booked up) and the front desk helped me find my way to the metro where I could take right to where I wanted to be. I've begun to like the metro now, because I'm realizing how much easier it makes things. I got to where I needed to be, and with only a little difficulty, found the hostel. To my great satisfaction, there was some room, and I booked two nights there. After settling, I explored the city a little, as I do when I enter a new city. My hostel sits right outside Vienna's equivalent to Hollywood Blv. The place is lined with department stores, and shops of all kinds. There are cafes and restaurants and little food vendors everywhere. Flashing neon lights illuminate the street, and there's a hotel and Mcdonalds on every corner. They even have the hand and footprints of Austrian Celebrities laid into the sidewalk. That street eventually leads to the beautiful old part of town, where the museums and old monuments reside in beautiful parks filled with flowers and Grecian columns. I walked around and bought a braughtworst and slice of fresh bread from meat and bread vendors in a little open food market. I walked for several hours, and then went back to the hostel to finally get a little sleep. When I woke up, I took a hot shower, and went out walking again to find some dinner. It was a pretty interesting day.
Tomorrow I'm going to take the metro to the other side of the old town by the river, and explore around there. That's pretty much all I have planned for now. There's a movie theater right near my hostel which plays American movies, so I was debating whether to go see a movie, but I kinda got my movie fix from the hostel in Budapest so I dunno. Plus, I don't really want to go to a movie by myself, I usually hate doing that. We'll see what I decide to do tomorrow.
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I grabbed my heavier jacket out of my backpack, and put it on over my sweatshirt. Then I put on my gloves, and pulled my hood over my hat. The small Delta Airlines blanket was only large enough to cover my legs, so I tucked them in tightly, and held my arms to my chest as I set up my backpack as a back rest and rested my head on my tiny pillow. I saw the train workers and desk clerks lock up and leave for the night, and the last of the engineers caught his train home. I had not been alone at the station but 10 minutes when a homeless man wandered by. I watched him carefully as he sat down on the bench next to mine rummaging through a department store bag. He looked as if he was of Arab decent. A thick black beard covered his face, and he wore a black beanie with a black hood pulled over that. His shirt was a sort of turtle green and ripped at each sleeve. He wore two pairs of jeans, the ones on the outside were white, and he'd had to rip them slightly at the seam in order to fit them over the other ones. He was young, no older than 30 and every once in a while he noticed me staring at him and gave me a menacing glare and mumbled something inaudible to himself. I was very uncomfortable at first, so I kept one eye on him at all times, hoping he'd eventually just move on. After some time, he was still very much there and I was getting tired and wanted to shut my eyes. He lifted his legs up onto his bench and laid down as if trying to go to sleep. I felt a little better, because this gesture communicated to me that he had no intention of hurting me, but like me, just wanted a safe dry place to sleep. That was totally ok by me. I convinced myself that even if he wanted to do anything to me, or steal something while I was sleeping, he'd have to move out of that position which would undoubtedly wake me up, being as I'm surly not going to be sleeping very heavily on a wooden bench next to a train station.
I started to dose off when I heard another rustling of his bag. I shot up, and noticed he'd moved right back to his original position and was thumbing through things in his bag again, this time talking loudly to himself in some other language. It didn't sound Arabic, nor Hungarian. I began to believe this was just some gibberish he'd devised himself, and he began a full conversation with himself which didn't sound happy at all. Every so often, as before, he would catch me watching him, and turn his back to me a little bit and glare over his shoulder. He spoke at me slightly aggressively as if asking what the hell I was looking at, and challenging me to do something about it. This guy was obviously not stable, and not someone I wanted to sleep next to on a bench for 5 hours. I surrendered my spot, gathering my things and walking a ways further down the platform until I was out of sight. I found another wooden bench under an over hang from a neighboring building. This one was a little less lit, and the bench was much more comfortable than the last, so I was really glad I moved away from that guy and could now get some sleep.
I closed my eyes, and began to drift off again when suddenly I was disturbed by the sound of footsteps. I opened my eyes, and there was the homeless man walking down the platform carrying his treasured bag. He looked up and suddenly noticed me, and a glint of betrayal shown in his eyes as he shook his head at me. He walked past me, and again sat himself down on the bench just next to mine, and began the same routine of rummaging through his bag. I was shocked and disturbed, but my anger by the fact that this man would not leave me alone surpassed all other emotion at the moment. I glared back at him with a hateful stare, hoping to make him uncomfortable enough to leave. However, this had no effect, and he chattered away at himself referring over to me with a challenging disposition. My anger began to turn into fear as I noticed the situation escalating. I had no idea what was in that bag he'd been playing with. I had to prepare for the idea that he could have a knife or gun waiting for me at the bottom, fingering it until his rage overwhelmed him because of my betrayal. I started looking for safe options. I looked around the dark station and found it completely empty, there was no one else here, every window was dark, and every door locked. If I got up to move again, this would undoubtedly only anger him further and he would continue to follow me. Leaving the station occurred to me, but I quickly dismissed it due to the realization that I don't even know where I am. It's the middle of the night, and wandering through back alleyways of a strange city in Hungary is the last thing I should do. Besides, he would still undoubtedly follow me, and if I ran he would probably run after me, and I was on his turf. I thought about things I might have on me to defend myself, but because of traveling on planes I had nothing, no pocket knife or anything with a sharp edge. I had a pen in my pocket, and that was the only thing I could arm myself with should he come at me. If he had a knife, I had a chance. It would at least give me an opportunity to try to wrestle it away from him. If he had a gun however, It would be over. I was too far away from him to point the gun away, and close enough to be out of hope of dodging the first bullet. I sat stuck in locked eye contact with him as he fingered through his white plastic bag. He looked upset with me, and I knew I must be running out of time. I ran every program in my head of what to do in a situation like this. This is just one of those scenarios you're just not supposed to get into in the first place, but what choice did I have? I was here now, and I wanted out.
A train rolled on the tracks in the distance, and brakes screeched. This was the most welcome sound I'd heard in a long time. "Please stop here" I repeated in my head over and over. The train rolled up to the platform down a ways back where I'd been, and halted. It wasn't my train, it was here showing up early for work to begin maintenance, but It meant there was someone else here. I pulled my backpack over my shoulders, and grabbed the rest in my arms, and started walking toward the train. Behind me the homeless man had gotten up again to follow, and I felt him closing in behind me. I quickened my pace, trying not to set off a chase. I felt him quicken his. I made it to the front end of the train where I saw the engineer looking through some paper work. I signaled for him to roll down the window, and he understood. I knew he wouldn't be able to understand much so I tried to simplify my language as much as I could getting right to the point. "The man behind me is following me," I tried to say quietly so the homeless man wouldn't hear. The engineer made a shrug like he didn't understand. "The man is following me!" I said louder, not caring anymore who heard. He looked at the man who was looming a couple meters behind, and then he looked at me. He shook his head and shrugged like he didn't know what to do, and then said "I don't know what to tell you, I don't understand" in more broken words. He closed the window and began to go back to his paperwork. I banged somewhat frantically on the window, and he opened it again. "Please help!" I said, and put my hand on my chest. "Please help me." I repeated, and it seemed he understood that. He looked again at the main, and said to me "Would you like to sleep in the back?" I nodded excitedly, "Yes please, if I could." The engineer opened up the door in the next car, but the homeless man got in before me. The engineer entered the car, and yelled at the man in Hungarian and then kicked him out, and signaled me in. Once inside, he locked the doors behind me, and shut off the lights in the cabin allowing me to curl up on the seats and sleep for a bit. I was so grateful for that engineer. God bless him. I don't know what would have happen had he not been there when he was. From his driver's seat he called someone to get rid of the homeless man, and when my train arrived, he showed me where to go to get on.
About an hour later, I arrived at the next little city. This station was a little bit bigger, and trains were running now, so I decided to skip my round about journey through another tiny Hungarian city, and find a direct line to Vienna. That turned out easier than I thought. The first guy I asked pointed me to a direct train to Vienna already boarding on the next platform. I tried to sleep a little more on the train to Vienna, but it was only about 2 hours, and I think I got an hour out of it. I arrived in Vienna and took my time orientating myself. I transferred all my Hungarian Forints to Euros, studied the maps of the city and metro rails, and found a map for myself. I picked out a hostel on my phone which seemed reasonable, and asked the man at the information desk to mark it on my map. He rolled his eyes, as if it wasn't his job to help tourists, and disdainfully circled where I wanted to be, and where we are. I asked how to get there and he said "18 tram" in a very impatient tone, which I shook off. The number 18 tram was the wrong tram as I later found out, and took me in the complete opposite direction than where I wanted to be. I finally stopped into a couple hotels (which were all booked up) and the front desk helped me find my way to the metro where I could take right to where I wanted to be. I've begun to like the metro now, because I'm realizing how much easier it makes things. I got to where I needed to be, and with only a little difficulty, found the hostel. To my great satisfaction, there was some room, and I booked two nights there. After settling, I explored the city a little, as I do when I enter a new city. My hostel sits right outside Vienna's equivalent to Hollywood Blv. The place is lined with department stores, and shops of all kinds. There are cafes and restaurants and little food vendors everywhere. Flashing neon lights illuminate the street, and there's a hotel and Mcdonalds on every corner. They even have the hand and footprints of Austrian Celebrities laid into the sidewalk. That street eventually leads to the beautiful old part of town, where the museums and old monuments reside in beautiful parks filled with flowers and Grecian columns. I walked around and bought a braughtworst and slice of fresh bread from meat and bread vendors in a little open food market. I walked for several hours, and then went back to the hostel to finally get a little sleep. When I woke up, I took a hot shower, and went out walking again to find some dinner. It was a pretty interesting day.
Tomorrow I'm going to take the metro to the other side of the old town by the river, and explore around there. That's pretty much all I have planned for now. There's a movie theater right near my hostel which plays American movies, so I was debating whether to go see a movie, but I kinda got my movie fix from the hostel in Budapest so I dunno. Plus, I don't really want to go to a movie by myself, I usually hate doing that. We'll see what I decide to do tomorrow.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Trains and Hangovers
I awoke myself and my entire dorm room at 7am when I rolled over and puked into the bowl Steph had given me. I apologized as best I could to the people around me, I can imagine no one wants to wake up early to the sound of someone hurling into a bowl. However, it was no picnic for me either. I was no longer dizzy to the point of falling down, but I still had trouble walking because every time I sat up I felt nauseous. I hurried out of my dorm room, trying not to subject them to any more of this terrible show. I relocated myself to the bathroom, and continued there. This was a very strange sort of feeling, usually after I throw up I feel better, but now each time, the feeling only seemed to get worse. I finally got that famous headache I'd always heard about, although that didn't bother me nearly as much as my upset stomach. Still I took some belladonna my doctor had given me for migraines, which worked out better than aspirin anyway because it desolves on your tongue, and I didn't need to worry about throwing it back up.
The headache went away fairly quickly, but all morning I could stop throwing up. I puked so much that soon I had nothing left in me. I couldn't even keep water down. Every time I'd take a sip, 10 minutes later it came right back up. My face and hands were pale as a ghost, and I had dark circles under my eyes. My whole body shook wildly from a lack of nutrients. I was pathetic, curled up on the couch in the lounge shaking and throwing up into a bowl. All my hostelmates felt really guilty, and partly responsible for encouraging me to keep drinking. I told them it was my own fault, because I knowingly consented to it all. Still though, they all took care of me, and stayed by me. Carl went out and bought me some soup and a big 1.5 liter bottle of carbonated water. He said to keep sipping the water all day till my stomach's settled enough to keep down the soup. Steph and Logan (two of the staff who run the hostel) sat with me on the couch and we watched Scrubs. When my stomach was settled enough, Steph made me the soup, and a piece of bread, saying it'll help soak up the alcohol. When I was a little more stable, she made bannana bread. I had planned to travel to Austria that day, but as of now I was in no way fit to travel. I decided I should probably try to catch a night train to Vienna later, and just spend the day here on the couch. Logan offered to keep a bed open for me tonight just incase I didn't feel up to it by then. The whole day I spent sitting in the hostel watching movies and drinking carbonated water. However, it was good timing, because it rained most of the day today, and I was also able to finish uploading my pictures.
I did eventually start feeling a lot better once I was able to hold down solid foods. The color came back to my face, and the shivering stopped. My stomach still felt a little fragile all day, and for some reason when I eat, the back of my hard pallet gets really sore. However, I was relieved to be up walking around and eating little things. I checked online at the times for trains leaving Budapest to Vienna, and I found a train leaving at 21:30 getting in at 6:30, and if I missed that, there was another one an hour later.
When the time came to get going, I packed up my stuff, and said goodbye. Few people were in the hostel when I left, but those who were, I thanked and told them I'd probably be back sometime in the future. I caught the metro over to the train station I originally arrived at, but couldn't find any sort of departure schedule (and even if I had, I don't think I could read it). None of the information places seemed like they were open, and none of the train workers could understand me, or didn't know the train I was trying to catch. I walked along the platforms for about half an hour before I finally found an information booth that was open. I asked which platform is the train at 21:30 to Vienna coming in at. The lady looked puzzled (which is always the sign that something terrible's about to happen), and then said the last train to Vienna was at 20:45. I told her that can't be true, I looked online and saw a schedule for the trains leaving at 21:30 and another at 22:30. She told me to wait there a second and then disappeared into the back. When she came back, she had a printed schedule with the times I'd mentioned on it. She said, "this is the train you're looking for, but that train leaves from the other train station. You're in the wrong station." She said there's no way I'd make it to the 21:30, but if I hurried I might make the next one an hour later, then she showed me how to use the metro to get to the other station. At last, she handed me the schedule for the train and stops along the way. Apparently, it only takes about 3 hours to get to Vienna, but in trying to choose a night train, I chose one which changes trains 3 times making the trip take all night. During the first change of trains I have to wait in the train station from 23:45 to 4:45 (5 hours) because the trains don't run all night. In order to try to get out of paying for lodging for another night, I've accidently made my life more difficult by putting myself in a position where I won't be able to sleep because I'll be looking for my stop to change trains, and if I do sleep it'll have to be for 5 hours in a train station. I'm hoping though, that when I get to the first station to change trains, maybe I can get on a more direct route going right to Vienna rather than changing trains 2 more times. We'll see what happens. It's all part of the adventure.
I'm on the first train right now. I'll probably get into the first station within the next couple of minutes, so I'll get my baring and figure out my options. If I can find a train traveling this late that would be great, but if I have to sleep there till morning that may be what I have to do.
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The headache went away fairly quickly, but all morning I could stop throwing up. I puked so much that soon I had nothing left in me. I couldn't even keep water down. Every time I'd take a sip, 10 minutes later it came right back up. My face and hands were pale as a ghost, and I had dark circles under my eyes. My whole body shook wildly from a lack of nutrients. I was pathetic, curled up on the couch in the lounge shaking and throwing up into a bowl. All my hostelmates felt really guilty, and partly responsible for encouraging me to keep drinking. I told them it was my own fault, because I knowingly consented to it all. Still though, they all took care of me, and stayed by me. Carl went out and bought me some soup and a big 1.5 liter bottle of carbonated water. He said to keep sipping the water all day till my stomach's settled enough to keep down the soup. Steph and Logan (two of the staff who run the hostel) sat with me on the couch and we watched Scrubs. When my stomach was settled enough, Steph made me the soup, and a piece of bread, saying it'll help soak up the alcohol. When I was a little more stable, she made bannana bread. I had planned to travel to Austria that day, but as of now I was in no way fit to travel. I decided I should probably try to catch a night train to Vienna later, and just spend the day here on the couch. Logan offered to keep a bed open for me tonight just incase I didn't feel up to it by then. The whole day I spent sitting in the hostel watching movies and drinking carbonated water. However, it was good timing, because it rained most of the day today, and I was also able to finish uploading my pictures.
I did eventually start feeling a lot better once I was able to hold down solid foods. The color came back to my face, and the shivering stopped. My stomach still felt a little fragile all day, and for some reason when I eat, the back of my hard pallet gets really sore. However, I was relieved to be up walking around and eating little things. I checked online at the times for trains leaving Budapest to Vienna, and I found a train leaving at 21:30 getting in at 6:30, and if I missed that, there was another one an hour later.
When the time came to get going, I packed up my stuff, and said goodbye. Few people were in the hostel when I left, but those who were, I thanked and told them I'd probably be back sometime in the future. I caught the metro over to the train station I originally arrived at, but couldn't find any sort of departure schedule (and even if I had, I don't think I could read it). None of the information places seemed like they were open, and none of the train workers could understand me, or didn't know the train I was trying to catch. I walked along the platforms for about half an hour before I finally found an information booth that was open. I asked which platform is the train at 21:30 to Vienna coming in at. The lady looked puzzled (which is always the sign that something terrible's about to happen), and then said the last train to Vienna was at 20:45. I told her that can't be true, I looked online and saw a schedule for the trains leaving at 21:30 and another at 22:30. She told me to wait there a second and then disappeared into the back. When she came back, she had a printed schedule with the times I'd mentioned on it. She said, "this is the train you're looking for, but that train leaves from the other train station. You're in the wrong station." She said there's no way I'd make it to the 21:30, but if I hurried I might make the next one an hour later, then she showed me how to use the metro to get to the other station. At last, she handed me the schedule for the train and stops along the way. Apparently, it only takes about 3 hours to get to Vienna, but in trying to choose a night train, I chose one which changes trains 3 times making the trip take all night. During the first change of trains I have to wait in the train station from 23:45 to 4:45 (5 hours) because the trains don't run all night. In order to try to get out of paying for lodging for another night, I've accidently made my life more difficult by putting myself in a position where I won't be able to sleep because I'll be looking for my stop to change trains, and if I do sleep it'll have to be for 5 hours in a train station. I'm hoping though, that when I get to the first station to change trains, maybe I can get on a more direct route going right to Vienna rather than changing trains 2 more times. We'll see what happens. It's all part of the adventure.
I'm on the first train right now. I'll probably get into the first station within the next couple of minutes, so I'll get my baring and figure out my options. If I can find a train traveling this late that would be great, but if I have to sleep there till morning that may be what I have to do.
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Buda 4/21/08
In the morning it was business as usual. I got up, and tried to get more of my pictures online. While I was waiting for things to upload, I walked down the street and got some food from that awesome place I found the day before. With my amazing food, I walked back to the hostel to check up on my picture uploading, but it was still no where near completed, so I decided I'd just go out exploring for a bit and leave the camera there to continue uploading till the battery just ran out. I normally wouldn't just leave my camera sitting out like that, but we're all pretty much like family here, and everyone seems to leave stuff sitting around. Also just to make sure, I asked the guys running the hostel to keep any eye on it, which they did very well.
I'd been told that a lot of the really cool stuff to see was on the Buda side of the Danube, so I walked over the bridge to that side. I hiked up the huge hill to the Citadel first, thinking I'd see Buda starting in the south and heading up north. The hill was long and steep, but the trails and little roads wound through beautiful areas. Every couple of meters was a little park and open field area where children played on the playgrounds, and people walked their dogs or just laid out basking in the sun. The weather was once again gorgeous, and the wind blew a fresh cool breeze which felt good after walking up many flights of stairs, and giant hills. I finally made it to the top of the hill, and walked around the Citadel. I didn't go in because they charged an entree fee, and it didn't seem like such an important experience to pay to go see inside the Budapest Citadel. Right near the Citadel was a really cool antique shop that sold old Soviet Military equipment. I saw a lot of really awesome stuff, but I didn't want to buy anything because I figured later I might find a bunch of other antique shops with similar stuff, but cheaper because I assumed since this shop was placed at a big tourist attraction, the prices might be higher and the stock limited. I continued down the other side of the hill into the town, and walked though it. Buda seems to be much more of a local area than Pest. In Pest the shops are all really close together, and there are thousands of little cafe's and places to eat, but it looks like a big city. Buda's beautiful and there are lots of trees and parks, but things seem a whole lot more spread out. It takes a lot longer to walk between shops and restaurants. I walked through the town and the old castle, but I couldn't find any other antique shops anywhere I went. I found a lot of 2nd hand clothing shops, but nothing I thought was really worth walking into. When I got to the northern part of the town, I decided I really wanted to go back to that shop at the Citadel, and look around a bit longer because it was a pretty amazing place. I walked around the other side of Buda, making a loop, and up the giant hill again to the Citadel. In the shop I looked through all the old Soviet uniforms, helmets, and metals, and eventually bought an old WW2 medal, and a belt off of a Soviet soldier's uniform. The medal was really cool, it had Stalin's face on it and was awarded to soldiers for fighting in a battle on the western front. The belt, I believe was worn during the cold war era, and the buckle is gold and bears the Soviet star with the hammer and sicle in the center. After my Soviet Union shopping excursion, I walked back to the hostel and hung out with the guys.
I met a new friend who just got to the hostel named Carl. He's from New York, but living in Scandinavia. He went out and brought us back a whole bunch of beer and wine. We drank and talked a lot about politics. My new belt stirred up a debate about Democracy vs Communism, and Capitalism vs Socialism. It was a whole lot of fun talking about that sort of thing with people from all over the world, all with various backgrounds and experiences. It was a really good discussion. We started talking about the different politics of the world, and we got onto Northern vs Southern Ireland. It somehow came up that I told them I had just recently turned 21 and so learned to drink in Ireland. They poured me another drink, and we started talking about my drinking experiences. I had told them I'd been more than tipsy on this trip but never pissed drunk. I told them about the number of drinks I had in Cyprus and still wasn't any more than tipsy.
I was totally stupid and totally over estimated my tolerance for alcohol, because I figured I must have built it way up during the course of this trip (and I have built it up a lot). In everything so far, I could handle myself really well, and never found that line where I couldn't handle it. So, being admittingly stupid and trying to fit in, I kept drinking (and I kept up with the best of them). They were all excited to see me drink, because I was just 21, and thus the shots kept coming. I should have and very easily could have declined at the nice tipsy point, but I guess I was a little curious to see how far I could go, and by the time I'd realized I was in too deep it was too late.
I still remember everything from that night (unfortunately), but I don't even know how much I had to drink. The beginning part was ok, I stopped drinking, and started downing water. The world was spinning like I'd never felt before, but my speech was only slightly slurred at times. I wasn't saying anything stupid, in fact I didn't really say a lot. The guys asked me about how I felt, and made sure no one else passed me a drink. I had to pee like every 10 minutes, and it started getting increasingly harder to walk to the bathroom. At a certain point, it started not to be so fun. I started getting a little queazy, and wished everything would stop spinning for a minute. Carl sat with me and talked with me, making sure I was still ok. In a couple slurred words, I said "I think I'm not doing so great." Carl knew exactly what that meant, gave me a knowing "ok"an and threw my arm over his shoulder helping me to the bathroom. Not a minute too soon did he lift the lid of the toilet than everything inside me came out. I apologized that he had to see this, and he just laughed and assured me he'd done this a thousand times as he helped me clean myself up. I must have thrown up 10 times that night, thankfully not on anyone or anything. Later, while the others were in conversation, I felt the urge again, and waddled my way back to the bathroom. After again turning my stomach inside out, I washed myself in the sink. I was so dizzy, I had to clasp my hands onto the sides of the sink, as if I were riding the worlds largest roller coaster, to keep from falling onto the floor. Finally, I just gave up and lied down on the bathroom floor. I felt a little better down there, my head on the cold tile. I felt like my whole body was out of my control. I couldn't tell my arms to move, or my legs to lift me up, so I just laid there for about an hour. Eventually the group noticed I was missing, and came looking for me. Stephanie, who's on the staff who runs the hostel, found me and helped me to my bed. She gave me a bowl to throw up into (which I put to use just after she left) and a bottle of water. I passed out there in my bed with all my clothes on. It was not a fun experience. Although it's a good thing I had it at some time because now I know what it's like, and so I can avoid it in the future. I don't feel like I'm going to be drinking again for a little while.
I think I'm going to get a lot of concerned/angry emails from my family about this situation, but I had to write about it because it was an important learning experience on this journey. I also felt so safe and loved within my hostel and with those people, so I felt like I at least did it in a safe and secure environment. However, I never want to be in that situation ever again. It was terrible to feel that sick and helpless, and even the sight of alcohol right now makes me a little queazy.
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I'd been told that a lot of the really cool stuff to see was on the Buda side of the Danube, so I walked over the bridge to that side. I hiked up the huge hill to the Citadel first, thinking I'd see Buda starting in the south and heading up north. The hill was long and steep, but the trails and little roads wound through beautiful areas. Every couple of meters was a little park and open field area where children played on the playgrounds, and people walked their dogs or just laid out basking in the sun. The weather was once again gorgeous, and the wind blew a fresh cool breeze which felt good after walking up many flights of stairs, and giant hills. I finally made it to the top of the hill, and walked around the Citadel. I didn't go in because they charged an entree fee, and it didn't seem like such an important experience to pay to go see inside the Budapest Citadel. Right near the Citadel was a really cool antique shop that sold old Soviet Military equipment. I saw a lot of really awesome stuff, but I didn't want to buy anything because I figured later I might find a bunch of other antique shops with similar stuff, but cheaper because I assumed since this shop was placed at a big tourist attraction, the prices might be higher and the stock limited. I continued down the other side of the hill into the town, and walked though it. Buda seems to be much more of a local area than Pest. In Pest the shops are all really close together, and there are thousands of little cafe's and places to eat, but it looks like a big city. Buda's beautiful and there are lots of trees and parks, but things seem a whole lot more spread out. It takes a lot longer to walk between shops and restaurants. I walked through the town and the old castle, but I couldn't find any other antique shops anywhere I went. I found a lot of 2nd hand clothing shops, but nothing I thought was really worth walking into. When I got to the northern part of the town, I decided I really wanted to go back to that shop at the Citadel, and look around a bit longer because it was a pretty amazing place. I walked around the other side of Buda, making a loop, and up the giant hill again to the Citadel. In the shop I looked through all the old Soviet uniforms, helmets, and metals, and eventually bought an old WW2 medal, and a belt off of a Soviet soldier's uniform. The medal was really cool, it had Stalin's face on it and was awarded to soldiers for fighting in a battle on the western front. The belt, I believe was worn during the cold war era, and the buckle is gold and bears the Soviet star with the hammer and sicle in the center. After my Soviet Union shopping excursion, I walked back to the hostel and hung out with the guys.
I met a new friend who just got to the hostel named Carl. He's from New York, but living in Scandinavia. He went out and brought us back a whole bunch of beer and wine. We drank and talked a lot about politics. My new belt stirred up a debate about Democracy vs Communism, and Capitalism vs Socialism. It was a whole lot of fun talking about that sort of thing with people from all over the world, all with various backgrounds and experiences. It was a really good discussion. We started talking about the different politics of the world, and we got onto Northern vs Southern Ireland. It somehow came up that I told them I had just recently turned 21 and so learned to drink in Ireland. They poured me another drink, and we started talking about my drinking experiences. I had told them I'd been more than tipsy on this trip but never pissed drunk. I told them about the number of drinks I had in Cyprus and still wasn't any more than tipsy.
I was totally stupid and totally over estimated my tolerance for alcohol, because I figured I must have built it way up during the course of this trip (and I have built it up a lot). In everything so far, I could handle myself really well, and never found that line where I couldn't handle it. So, being admittingly stupid and trying to fit in, I kept drinking (and I kept up with the best of them). They were all excited to see me drink, because I was just 21, and thus the shots kept coming. I should have and very easily could have declined at the nice tipsy point, but I guess I was a little curious to see how far I could go, and by the time I'd realized I was in too deep it was too late.
I still remember everything from that night (unfortunately), but I don't even know how much I had to drink. The beginning part was ok, I stopped drinking, and started downing water. The world was spinning like I'd never felt before, but my speech was only slightly slurred at times. I wasn't saying anything stupid, in fact I didn't really say a lot. The guys asked me about how I felt, and made sure no one else passed me a drink. I had to pee like every 10 minutes, and it started getting increasingly harder to walk to the bathroom. At a certain point, it started not to be so fun. I started getting a little queazy, and wished everything would stop spinning for a minute. Carl sat with me and talked with me, making sure I was still ok. In a couple slurred words, I said "I think I'm not doing so great." Carl knew exactly what that meant, gave me a knowing "ok"an and threw my arm over his shoulder helping me to the bathroom. Not a minute too soon did he lift the lid of the toilet than everything inside me came out. I apologized that he had to see this, and he just laughed and assured me he'd done this a thousand times as he helped me clean myself up. I must have thrown up 10 times that night, thankfully not on anyone or anything. Later, while the others were in conversation, I felt the urge again, and waddled my way back to the bathroom. After again turning my stomach inside out, I washed myself in the sink. I was so dizzy, I had to clasp my hands onto the sides of the sink, as if I were riding the worlds largest roller coaster, to keep from falling onto the floor. Finally, I just gave up and lied down on the bathroom floor. I felt a little better down there, my head on the cold tile. I felt like my whole body was out of my control. I couldn't tell my arms to move, or my legs to lift me up, so I just laid there for about an hour. Eventually the group noticed I was missing, and came looking for me. Stephanie, who's on the staff who runs the hostel, found me and helped me to my bed. She gave me a bowl to throw up into (which I put to use just after she left) and a bottle of water. I passed out there in my bed with all my clothes on. It was not a fun experience. Although it's a good thing I had it at some time because now I know what it's like, and so I can avoid it in the future. I don't feel like I'm going to be drinking again for a little while.
I think I'm going to get a lot of concerned/angry emails from my family about this situation, but I had to write about it because it was an important learning experience on this journey. I also felt so safe and loved within my hostel and with those people, so I felt like I at least did it in a safe and secure environment. However, I never want to be in that situation ever again. It was terrible to feel that sick and helpless, and even the sight of alcohol right now makes me a little queazy.
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Sunday, April 20, 2008
Budapest
I slept in this morning till a comfortable hour, and then I sauntered out into the lounge. There was no hot water, as is what happens from time to time in a hostel, so showering was not in the cards. Instead I took a bath in deodorant (European Style), and trusted that last night's shower would suffice. I hooked up my camera to the computer to try to get some more pictures online now that my battery was fully charged. However, just the same, I only got about 40 percent through before this battery finally went out. With my camera once again charging, I went out to explore the city and see if I could hunt down something cheap to eat.
I found an awesome place near a huge, beautiful church which sold something resembling a shwarma for 500 forin (Hungarian dollars), which is amazing considering what I mentioned earlier with the average dinner costing 2000 forin. It wasn't exactly like a middle eastern swarma, but it was really good. I walked over to the church, and ate sitting in the shade under a park bench in the courtyard. The day was absolutely beautiful. I was excited, as I always am, to see the sun and it made walking through the city quite an enjoyable experience. As I walked, I walked by some really cool antique shops, but none of them were open because its Sunday. So tomorrow I've gotta go looking through some of them because there seemed to be some really awesome stuff in some of them. Back at my hostel Emily had showed me an old Soviet military beret, and a metal with Lenin's face on it that she bought at one of these cool antique shops. I got myself lost in the city, which is really the best way to find cool stuff, and ended up over at the bridges near the Danube River. I learned something I didn't know before. Apparently a long time ago, Budapest was 2 different cities. On the west side of the Danube was the city Buda, and then on the right side was Pest. Then when they built the bridge, they combined the two cities to make Budapest. They still refer to each side as the Buda side or Pest side.
I walked by a poster set up in the square which advertised Mozart's Requiem playing tonight at St. Stephen's Basilica. I thought that might be a pretty fun thing to do tonight, so I walked over to St. Stephen's Basilica and bought a cheap ticket, then I walked back to the hostel and watched The Gods Must Be Crazy in the lounge while trying to upload more photos. Later in the afternoon I made my way back to the Basilica a little early to make sure I got a good seat, which I did, and I got to sit in the amazingly stunning St. Stephen's Basilica (which still houses St. Stephen's mummified right hand) and listen to Mozart's Requiem. The performance was perfect. I've never heard Mozart's Requiem sound like that. I'm not usually a huge fan on Mozart, but hearing it played live in a huge Basilica in Budapest was a whole new experience. You could feel the reverberations of the choir and orchestra coming off the walls. During the climax of Lachrymose Sequenzia I felt my arms tense up. My whole body seemed filled with the music.
Afterwards, on my way back I found a club that was swarming with people my age, so I walked in and bought a drink. After last night I figured I needed to work on my woman mingling skills, so I tried working the room a little. I met some fun people, and actually had a really good time. I think I'm gonna stay here one extra night mostly because I really love the hostel I'm in, and I'd love to take one more day to see the city. I met some new roommates who just arrived today from America who are awesome. I can't remember the girl's name, but she's from San Francisco, and then Frank is from Scranton Pennsylvania. We made fun of him because he's from where the show The Office takes place. I don't know what it is about all these people in this hostel who come from places which have their own shows.
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I found an awesome place near a huge, beautiful church which sold something resembling a shwarma for 500 forin (Hungarian dollars), which is amazing considering what I mentioned earlier with the average dinner costing 2000 forin. It wasn't exactly like a middle eastern swarma, but it was really good. I walked over to the church, and ate sitting in the shade under a park bench in the courtyard. The day was absolutely beautiful. I was excited, as I always am, to see the sun and it made walking through the city quite an enjoyable experience. As I walked, I walked by some really cool antique shops, but none of them were open because its Sunday. So tomorrow I've gotta go looking through some of them because there seemed to be some really awesome stuff in some of them. Back at my hostel Emily had showed me an old Soviet military beret, and a metal with Lenin's face on it that she bought at one of these cool antique shops. I got myself lost in the city, which is really the best way to find cool stuff, and ended up over at the bridges near the Danube River. I learned something I didn't know before. Apparently a long time ago, Budapest was 2 different cities. On the west side of the Danube was the city Buda, and then on the right side was Pest. Then when they built the bridge, they combined the two cities to make Budapest. They still refer to each side as the Buda side or Pest side.
I walked by a poster set up in the square which advertised Mozart's Requiem playing tonight at St. Stephen's Basilica. I thought that might be a pretty fun thing to do tonight, so I walked over to St. Stephen's Basilica and bought a cheap ticket, then I walked back to the hostel and watched The Gods Must Be Crazy in the lounge while trying to upload more photos. Later in the afternoon I made my way back to the Basilica a little early to make sure I got a good seat, which I did, and I got to sit in the amazingly stunning St. Stephen's Basilica (which still houses St. Stephen's mummified right hand) and listen to Mozart's Requiem. The performance was perfect. I've never heard Mozart's Requiem sound like that. I'm not usually a huge fan on Mozart, but hearing it played live in a huge Basilica in Budapest was a whole new experience. You could feel the reverberations of the choir and orchestra coming off the walls. During the climax of Lachrymose Sequenzia I felt my arms tense up. My whole body seemed filled with the music.
Afterwards, on my way back I found a club that was swarming with people my age, so I walked in and bought a drink. After last night I figured I needed to work on my woman mingling skills, so I tried working the room a little. I met some fun people, and actually had a really good time. I think I'm gonna stay here one extra night mostly because I really love the hostel I'm in, and I'd love to take one more day to see the city. I met some new roommates who just arrived today from America who are awesome. I can't remember the girl's name, but she's from San Francisco, and then Frank is from Scranton Pennsylvania. We made fun of him because he's from where the show The Office takes place. I don't know what it is about all these people in this hostel who come from places which have their own shows.
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Hungary
Morning came, and I had surprisingly gotten a decent amount of sleep. I was sprawled out over 4 seats, using my backpack as back supports, and my pillow on top. By now I've learned a technique of making a very comfortable bed out of positioning my backpack a particular way, and using the pillow I'd stolen from my first flight over. Every once in a while a voice would blast over the loudspeaker speaking our progress, which I wouldn't be able to understand anyway, but I checked my watch, and the reaction of the lady next to me who was also taking this train to Zagreb in order to gauge when the time comes to get off.
I watched the sun rise over the hills, and began to see the vast Croatian countryside. It was indeed beautiful as I'd been told it would be. Little houses spotted the open fields, and interjected themselves through tall grass. As the sun rose higher, it met with the scattered clouds, and highlighted their edges painting the sky all different shades of yellows and pinks. The smell of the air was sweet, and the breeze gave relief to the small stuffy room. I watched the view outside my window until the morning was absolutely full, and then at about 6:30 we reached Zagreb. I walked off the train, and first I thought I'd try asking the nearest employee if he knew where my next train to Budapest was. To my surprise he knew exactly where I needed to go, and pointed me to the next platform where my train lay waiting. I got on, and asked someone walking by if this train does, in fact, go to Budapest. I felt I had to make sure, because there was no way it was just that easy. However, I got confirmation from another passenger heading that direction, and sat relieved and amazed that I'd found the way with such ease, and didn't have to fight my way to the next city. I began to make myself comfortable for this next 10 hour leg of the journey, and a young girl came in and sat across from me. She was a college student studying in Zagreb, but heading home for a couple days to see her family who lived just before the Hungarian border. We got talking, and she kept me company for a large part of the trip, sharing some of her favorite music from her MP3 player and teaching me a few words in Croatian. I commented on how well she spoke English, and she said that most of the younger generation speak some English because all their favorite shows and movies come from America. Through watching TV they learned to pick it up.
Unfortunately, soon enough we reached her stop, and we had to say goodbye. As she went I attempted to use what she taught me, and said goodbye in my best Croatian. She laughed, because I had butchered it so badly, and said it back the way it was supposed to sound. The train pulled away, and I sat alone in the seating compartment until we reached the Hungarian border. Several border guards checked through each passenger, requiring them to show their passports. I showed mine to 3 different guards before one of them finally stamped it, and let me go. Going through to the Hungarian countryside, the open fields turned bright yellow with mustard flowers. The hills were covered with them, and the whole landscape was bright yellow and green. Hungary's country is one of the most beautiful I've seen yet on this trip. At times we past through dense forest, and then opened up all of the sudden to miles and miles of flowers in full bloom. The rain had cleared over head since Croatia, and the sky was a bright blue. The wind was still cool and crisp, and filled the train with hundreds of wonderful floral scents. I sat glued to my window for the majority of the trip, and listened to my iPod as I waited for Budapest.
I finally arrived in Budapest, and the floral scents from the country were replaced by the familiar scent of the city. I got off the train, and gathered as much information as I could about my surroundings from the nearby information center. I'd picked out a cheap hostel using my phone while I was on the train, and the lady at the information desk was very helpful in pointing out where it was on the map. In order to get there I'd have to navigate the metro through 2 lines, but by this point I've become somewhat of a pro at navigating the metro, and wasn't worried. I was, however, worried about the money situation which I'd thought that Hungary was on the euro, so I'd readied with me a couple euros to get me through to the hostel. However, when I got down into the metro station, I learned that Hungary uses its own form of currency still, so now I needed to find some place to convert my money. I went back to the bus station and looked around the whole building, and couldn't find a currency exchange place anywhere. I thought, there must be some place to exchange currency nearby the bus station, but I didn't see anything. I asked some people, and they all knew where it was but I couldn't figure out where they were telling me to go. At last I found it hidden off somewhere in the corner, and was able to change my euros and extra kuna into the hungarian currency. The whole hungarian economy is so screwed up that everyone carries around millions in their pockets, because their money's grown just about worthless. An average meal in Hungary is about 2,000 hungarian dollars. A one time metro pass is 260, and my hostel cost about 7,500 hungarian dollars for the two nights I booked, which actually only comes out to about 15 euros a night. It's ridiculous looking at any sort of price listing here, things look astronomical which are only just like 10 euros.
Once I finally had some money, I went back to the metro and fairly easily found my way to the street I needed to get to. I got lost, going the wrong direction down the street for a minute, but realized it and turned myself around before I had gotten too far off. Entering the hostel, I immediately fell in love with it. Everyone was so young and relaxed. There were pictures all over the walls, of travelers my age doing stupid stuff and acting like kids. Everyone was so friendly, there was just an automatic vibe that we were all just good friends hanging out. It was like a huge party of people I felt I'd known all my life. I was immediately thrilled to find that they had free internet access, which is AWESOME to find in a hostel. They also had a huge TV in the lounge room with all kinds of American DVDs and seasons of Scrubs and The Office. I was in heaven. I put my stuff down next to my bed, and first of all, took a nice hot shower and changed into some clean clothes. Afterwards I went right upstairs and hooked my camera into the computer and downloaded some of my pictures online. Of course though, I have over 200 pictures I needed to download, and I only got a couple of them before my camera's battery died, so I'll try again tomorrow when I refuel my battery. As I waited for my pictures to load, I sat in the lounge room and watched Scrubs. It felt so good to be watching American TV, I can't even describe to you.
In the night I went out to dinner with 2 roommates I'd met, Emily from Canada, and Steven from New Zealand. Steven was ecstatic that I come from Laguna Beach, he says he loves that show, and jokingly I told him that I loved Lord of the Rings. We walked around the city a bit until we found a nice cheap restaurant, and sat down. We talked over dinner about women, oddly enough. I told them about my friend Garrett back home who's a professional pickup artist, and how I thought it was really fascinating the way there's a whole psychology behind it, and how one interacts with the opposite sex. I told them some of the things Garrett taught me, and Steven expressed his excitement to try them out. Emily laughed at us, but admitted some of the techniques were pretty smooth. After dinner we decided to go out for a cocktail, and Steven insisted we find a bar or club where we could try out some of the new things I told him. We couldn't find much in terms of clubs in the part of town we were at, but we eventually found a little bar/cafe where two young Hungarian girls were having a glass of wine. He told me to go over and show him how it's done, so I told him I'd give it a shot. Something to take into account is that I have very little trouble talking to women, however I'm by no means any good at picking them up. I walked over confident enough, but there was a problem I hadn't anticipated in the language barrier between us, and even if what I said was the smoothest things ever to be said by a man to a woman (which it most certainly was not), they could barely understand any of it. Needless to say, I crashed and burned, but Steve had a good laugh. At the bar, we met up with some of Steve's friends whom he'd met in previous travels. Lucy was from Germany originally, but had also lived in Texas for a lot of her life. I can't remember the other one's name, but she was from England, and the two of them were traveling through Europe together. We all sat, talked, and drank till late in the evening, and then we said goodnight. On our way back, Steve and I talked about the show Flight of the Concords, and laughed. He said tomorrow we'd go out again, and I reminded him it was his turn to attempt picking up the girls. When I got back to the hostel, I slumped into my bed. I was exhausted from all the travel, and great night of bar hopping in Budapest.
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I watched the sun rise over the hills, and began to see the vast Croatian countryside. It was indeed beautiful as I'd been told it would be. Little houses spotted the open fields, and interjected themselves through tall grass. As the sun rose higher, it met with the scattered clouds, and highlighted their edges painting the sky all different shades of yellows and pinks. The smell of the air was sweet, and the breeze gave relief to the small stuffy room. I watched the view outside my window until the morning was absolutely full, and then at about 6:30 we reached Zagreb. I walked off the train, and first I thought I'd try asking the nearest employee if he knew where my next train to Budapest was. To my surprise he knew exactly where I needed to go, and pointed me to the next platform where my train lay waiting. I got on, and asked someone walking by if this train does, in fact, go to Budapest. I felt I had to make sure, because there was no way it was just that easy. However, I got confirmation from another passenger heading that direction, and sat relieved and amazed that I'd found the way with such ease, and didn't have to fight my way to the next city. I began to make myself comfortable for this next 10 hour leg of the journey, and a young girl came in and sat across from me. She was a college student studying in Zagreb, but heading home for a couple days to see her family who lived just before the Hungarian border. We got talking, and she kept me company for a large part of the trip, sharing some of her favorite music from her MP3 player and teaching me a few words in Croatian. I commented on how well she spoke English, and she said that most of the younger generation speak some English because all their favorite shows and movies come from America. Through watching TV they learned to pick it up.
Unfortunately, soon enough we reached her stop, and we had to say goodbye. As she went I attempted to use what she taught me, and said goodbye in my best Croatian. She laughed, because I had butchered it so badly, and said it back the way it was supposed to sound. The train pulled away, and I sat alone in the seating compartment until we reached the Hungarian border. Several border guards checked through each passenger, requiring them to show their passports. I showed mine to 3 different guards before one of them finally stamped it, and let me go. Going through to the Hungarian countryside, the open fields turned bright yellow with mustard flowers. The hills were covered with them, and the whole landscape was bright yellow and green. Hungary's country is one of the most beautiful I've seen yet on this trip. At times we past through dense forest, and then opened up all of the sudden to miles and miles of flowers in full bloom. The rain had cleared over head since Croatia, and the sky was a bright blue. The wind was still cool and crisp, and filled the train with hundreds of wonderful floral scents. I sat glued to my window for the majority of the trip, and listened to my iPod as I waited for Budapest.
I finally arrived in Budapest, and the floral scents from the country were replaced by the familiar scent of the city. I got off the train, and gathered as much information as I could about my surroundings from the nearby information center. I'd picked out a cheap hostel using my phone while I was on the train, and the lady at the information desk was very helpful in pointing out where it was on the map. In order to get there I'd have to navigate the metro through 2 lines, but by this point I've become somewhat of a pro at navigating the metro, and wasn't worried. I was, however, worried about the money situation which I'd thought that Hungary was on the euro, so I'd readied with me a couple euros to get me through to the hostel. However, when I got down into the metro station, I learned that Hungary uses its own form of currency still, so now I needed to find some place to convert my money. I went back to the bus station and looked around the whole building, and couldn't find a currency exchange place anywhere. I thought, there must be some place to exchange currency nearby the bus station, but I didn't see anything. I asked some people, and they all knew where it was but I couldn't figure out where they were telling me to go. At last I found it hidden off somewhere in the corner, and was able to change my euros and extra kuna into the hungarian currency. The whole hungarian economy is so screwed up that everyone carries around millions in their pockets, because their money's grown just about worthless. An average meal in Hungary is about 2,000 hungarian dollars. A one time metro pass is 260, and my hostel cost about 7,500 hungarian dollars for the two nights I booked, which actually only comes out to about 15 euros a night. It's ridiculous looking at any sort of price listing here, things look astronomical which are only just like 10 euros.
Once I finally had some money, I went back to the metro and fairly easily found my way to the street I needed to get to. I got lost, going the wrong direction down the street for a minute, but realized it and turned myself around before I had gotten too far off. Entering the hostel, I immediately fell in love with it. Everyone was so young and relaxed. There were pictures all over the walls, of travelers my age doing stupid stuff and acting like kids. Everyone was so friendly, there was just an automatic vibe that we were all just good friends hanging out. It was like a huge party of people I felt I'd known all my life. I was immediately thrilled to find that they had free internet access, which is AWESOME to find in a hostel. They also had a huge TV in the lounge room with all kinds of American DVDs and seasons of Scrubs and The Office. I was in heaven. I put my stuff down next to my bed, and first of all, took a nice hot shower and changed into some clean clothes. Afterwards I went right upstairs and hooked my camera into the computer and downloaded some of my pictures online. Of course though, I have over 200 pictures I needed to download, and I only got a couple of them before my camera's battery died, so I'll try again tomorrow when I refuel my battery. As I waited for my pictures to load, I sat in the lounge room and watched Scrubs. It felt so good to be watching American TV, I can't even describe to you.
In the night I went out to dinner with 2 roommates I'd met, Emily from Canada, and Steven from New Zealand. Steven was ecstatic that I come from Laguna Beach, he says he loves that show, and jokingly I told him that I loved Lord of the Rings. We walked around the city a bit until we found a nice cheap restaurant, and sat down. We talked over dinner about women, oddly enough. I told them about my friend Garrett back home who's a professional pickup artist, and how I thought it was really fascinating the way there's a whole psychology behind it, and how one interacts with the opposite sex. I told them some of the things Garrett taught me, and Steven expressed his excitement to try them out. Emily laughed at us, but admitted some of the techniques were pretty smooth. After dinner we decided to go out for a cocktail, and Steven insisted we find a bar or club where we could try out some of the new things I told him. We couldn't find much in terms of clubs in the part of town we were at, but we eventually found a little bar/cafe where two young Hungarian girls were having a glass of wine. He told me to go over and show him how it's done, so I told him I'd give it a shot. Something to take into account is that I have very little trouble talking to women, however I'm by no means any good at picking them up. I walked over confident enough, but there was a problem I hadn't anticipated in the language barrier between us, and even if what I said was the smoothest things ever to be said by a man to a woman (which it most certainly was not), they could barely understand any of it. Needless to say, I crashed and burned, but Steve had a good laugh. At the bar, we met up with some of Steve's friends whom he'd met in previous travels. Lucy was from Germany originally, but had also lived in Texas for a lot of her life. I can't remember the other one's name, but she was from England, and the two of them were traveling through Europe together. We all sat, talked, and drank till late in the evening, and then we said goodnight. On our way back, Steve and I talked about the show Flight of the Concords, and laughed. He said tomorrow we'd go out again, and I reminded him it was his turn to attempt picking up the girls. When I got back to the hostel, I slumped into my bed. I was exhausted from all the travel, and great night of bar hopping in Budapest.
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Split
In the morning, I got up bright and early and hurried out the door to make sure I got to the bus station on time. I left the key in the mail slot like Mile instructed several times over the night before, waving her hands in all different directions and talking loudly so I would understand her. I understood perfectly what she wanted me to do the first time she said it in a quieter conversational voice, but yelling loudly just seemed to her like it might drive the point home.
It was raining pretty hard when I got out the door, and I totally ate it down the stairs, I was soaked, but I was glad no one was around to see it. It would have added insult to injury to have to try to play off like I didn't just take a nosedive down a flight of stairs, to a bunch of kids who's language I can't speak. Despite the setback, I made it just fine to the bus, and boarded. It took almost 6 hours to finally make it to Split, but we did finally get there. The bus driver had taken more rest stops than my mother on the drive to Chico. He must have had the bladder the size of a walnut, or maybe he'd just been saving it up since grade school. Whatever the case, it didn't matter because I was happy to finally be off the bus. I've noticed that I do pretty well sitting in one place for such a long time, but as soon as I get off the bus is when I have trouble. I find my legs won't do anything I tell them for the first few minutes, they do whatever they seem to want to do, and I'm just along for the ride. I try to walk normally, but it takes a second to remember how, and my hip joints click and rattle inside me. I play it off, making it seem as if that's just how Americans walk, it's a John Wayne sort of thing.
I "walked" to the train station, which was just about 100 meters away, and asked when I could get on the next train to Zagreb. I explained to them that I was trying to get to Budapest, and needed to catch a train through Zagreb. The woman at the counter was very helpful. She told me there was a train leaving very soon, however she said I'd probably want the next one leaving at 10pm because if I took the day train, I'd be stuck in Zagreb because there's no night train to Budapest from Zagreb. She said if I take the night train from here, I won't have to pay for a hotel for the night, and I can just go right from here where there's another train from Zagreb to Budapest leaving 50 minutes after the night train arrives tomorrow morning. From there it'll take till about 5pm to get into Budapest. I thanked her, and said I'd take her advice. I'd rather hang around here in Split till 10 tonight, then try to find a hotel for the night in Zagreb. As we had arrived here earlier in the bus, the sky cleared up beautifully, and the sun was shining, so this would be the place to spend the day before heading off to Zagreb.
I left my backpack with the luggage room at the bus station, and went out exploring Split. The day the absolutely beautiful! The wind had blown all the clouds out of the sky, and the sun was warm and comforting. I first walked through the downtown area passing by the little shops and open markets. I found a cool park, with a fountain in the center, and walked through it admiring its beauty. I also very much admired the fact that women in Split seemed a whole lot cuter than elsewhere in Croatia, and I often times almost forgot I wasn't back in Laguna Beach. The streets looked a lot like Laguna Beach, and the layout of the city seemed similar as well. The main road, and downtown area was right along the sea, and then further inland, up the hills was where all the residential areas were. I wondered through a couple residential streets, just to see what they were like, and they seemed friendly enough, kids were playing on the streets, and people were out walking their dogs. I tried to look friendly myself, but of course, I still looked quite haggardly. I've been wearing the same clothes for the past week, I haven't had a shower in 3 days, and I've been sitting on a bus for the past 6 hours. I looked utterly homeless.
Eventually, I made my way down to the harbor area, and walked around it looking for some kind of beach that maybe I relax on. Eventually I found something similar to what I was looking for. There was a little shore with a walkway and park benches right along the sand. I was exhausted from the bus ride, so I felt this was a perfect time to take a nap. I crawled onto one of the park benches under the shade of a tree, and using my sweater as a pillow, I fell asleep to the sound of the waves.
When I awoke only about an hour later, I decided to keep walking, and see how far the little walking trail went. I followed it around, finding all sorts of little cafe's, and white pebbled beaches. At times when I found these little places I sat down next to the water and tossed pebbles into the tiny waves. I was amazed at how clear the water was. It looked like molten glass. It was almost as If I touched it, it would be a hard surface I could walk on. When I threw in a pebble it made a soft "Thwunk" sound and sank slowly to the bottom, and I could see it fall all the way down. I found another little harbor further on full of salty old men playing Botchi Ball. I felt that looking and smelling as I did, this is where I fit in the best. I stayed a while and watched their game, and walked through the forest of boats docked up in the harbor. I want a boat someday. I'd love to just pack up, and sail off to wherever the wind takes me. I'd rather not have a big showy speed boat, although any boat would probably do, but I want a crusty old sail boat with rotting wood, and lots of character. I saw some boats in Dubrovnik which were amazing! They were sailboats all made up to look like old fashioned tall ships, with a crow's nest on the mast, and a captain's quarters, and even a mermaid sculpture on the bow. I would love a little ship like that. Maybe someday I'll get myself one.
For dinner, I ate at one of the little cafe's near the harbor, and for dessert I found a pastry shop, and bought some fruit filled pastries, and watched the sun set over the hills. It was a great day.
I found my way back to the bus station and picked up my bags, and then sat out on the platform waiting for my train. As I waited, I wrote in my music journal Amy made for me, and smoked my pipe. I talked to a homeless woman sitting next to me. We were laughing because every time I tried to light a match to light my pipe, the wind came up and blew it out. I went through like 5 matches before I finally could keep one lit. I finished my pipe just as the train arrived, and climbed on. I'm on the train right now. I'll be in Zagreb in the morning, I think some time around 6 or 7am, and then I catch the next train to Budapest, which should arrive at 5pm. It'll be a heck of a long train excursion. But I had a wonderful day in Split, so I feel ready for it.
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It was raining pretty hard when I got out the door, and I totally ate it down the stairs, I was soaked, but I was glad no one was around to see it. It would have added insult to injury to have to try to play off like I didn't just take a nosedive down a flight of stairs, to a bunch of kids who's language I can't speak. Despite the setback, I made it just fine to the bus, and boarded. It took almost 6 hours to finally make it to Split, but we did finally get there. The bus driver had taken more rest stops than my mother on the drive to Chico. He must have had the bladder the size of a walnut, or maybe he'd just been saving it up since grade school. Whatever the case, it didn't matter because I was happy to finally be off the bus. I've noticed that I do pretty well sitting in one place for such a long time, but as soon as I get off the bus is when I have trouble. I find my legs won't do anything I tell them for the first few minutes, they do whatever they seem to want to do, and I'm just along for the ride. I try to walk normally, but it takes a second to remember how, and my hip joints click and rattle inside me. I play it off, making it seem as if that's just how Americans walk, it's a John Wayne sort of thing.
I "walked" to the train station, which was just about 100 meters away, and asked when I could get on the next train to Zagreb. I explained to them that I was trying to get to Budapest, and needed to catch a train through Zagreb. The woman at the counter was very helpful. She told me there was a train leaving very soon, however she said I'd probably want the next one leaving at 10pm because if I took the day train, I'd be stuck in Zagreb because there's no night train to Budapest from Zagreb. She said if I take the night train from here, I won't have to pay for a hotel for the night, and I can just go right from here where there's another train from Zagreb to Budapest leaving 50 minutes after the night train arrives tomorrow morning. From there it'll take till about 5pm to get into Budapest. I thanked her, and said I'd take her advice. I'd rather hang around here in Split till 10 tonight, then try to find a hotel for the night in Zagreb. As we had arrived here earlier in the bus, the sky cleared up beautifully, and the sun was shining, so this would be the place to spend the day before heading off to Zagreb.
I left my backpack with the luggage room at the bus station, and went out exploring Split. The day the absolutely beautiful! The wind had blown all the clouds out of the sky, and the sun was warm and comforting. I first walked through the downtown area passing by the little shops and open markets. I found a cool park, with a fountain in the center, and walked through it admiring its beauty. I also very much admired the fact that women in Split seemed a whole lot cuter than elsewhere in Croatia, and I often times almost forgot I wasn't back in Laguna Beach. The streets looked a lot like Laguna Beach, and the layout of the city seemed similar as well. The main road, and downtown area was right along the sea, and then further inland, up the hills was where all the residential areas were. I wondered through a couple residential streets, just to see what they were like, and they seemed friendly enough, kids were playing on the streets, and people were out walking their dogs. I tried to look friendly myself, but of course, I still looked quite haggardly. I've been wearing the same clothes for the past week, I haven't had a shower in 3 days, and I've been sitting on a bus for the past 6 hours. I looked utterly homeless.
Eventually, I made my way down to the harbor area, and walked around it looking for some kind of beach that maybe I relax on. Eventually I found something similar to what I was looking for. There was a little shore with a walkway and park benches right along the sand. I was exhausted from the bus ride, so I felt this was a perfect time to take a nap. I crawled onto one of the park benches under the shade of a tree, and using my sweater as a pillow, I fell asleep to the sound of the waves.
When I awoke only about an hour later, I decided to keep walking, and see how far the little walking trail went. I followed it around, finding all sorts of little cafe's, and white pebbled beaches. At times when I found these little places I sat down next to the water and tossed pebbles into the tiny waves. I was amazed at how clear the water was. It looked like molten glass. It was almost as If I touched it, it would be a hard surface I could walk on. When I threw in a pebble it made a soft "Thwunk" sound and sank slowly to the bottom, and I could see it fall all the way down. I found another little harbor further on full of salty old men playing Botchi Ball. I felt that looking and smelling as I did, this is where I fit in the best. I stayed a while and watched their game, and walked through the forest of boats docked up in the harbor. I want a boat someday. I'd love to just pack up, and sail off to wherever the wind takes me. I'd rather not have a big showy speed boat, although any boat would probably do, but I want a crusty old sail boat with rotting wood, and lots of character. I saw some boats in Dubrovnik which were amazing! They were sailboats all made up to look like old fashioned tall ships, with a crow's nest on the mast, and a captain's quarters, and even a mermaid sculpture on the bow. I would love a little ship like that. Maybe someday I'll get myself one.
For dinner, I ate at one of the little cafe's near the harbor, and for dessert I found a pastry shop, and bought some fruit filled pastries, and watched the sun set over the hills. It was a great day.
I found my way back to the bus station and picked up my bags, and then sat out on the platform waiting for my train. As I waited, I wrote in my music journal Amy made for me, and smoked my pipe. I talked to a homeless woman sitting next to me. We were laughing because every time I tried to light a match to light my pipe, the wind came up and blew it out. I went through like 5 matches before I finally could keep one lit. I finished my pipe just as the train arrived, and climbed on. I'm on the train right now. I'll be in Zagreb in the morning, I think some time around 6 or 7am, and then I catch the next train to Budapest, which should arrive at 5pm. It'll be a heck of a long train excursion. But I had a wonderful day in Split, so I feel ready for it.
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