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!
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
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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