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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