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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