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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