Roadtrip to Budapest

7/16 Martin and I picked up Shimon, one of Martin's friends from his hometown, to go on our roadtrip to Budapest, Hungary. Shimon was a foreign exchange student just outside of Sand Point Idaho. So he had lots of jokes about how Idaho was. You know like how everyone had a gun in their pick up truck, etc. Our first stop was Brno (Czech) to eat at IKEA. This is that big swedish furniture giant. Well, they also have cheap foods (cheese and potato meal for 1 dollar and 2 hotdogs and a drink for 1 dollar). So i was properly introduced to IKEA. The next stop was a castle in Valtice, Czech Rep. and then for some very good gelato. We then crossed into Slovakia and stopped at Shimon's cousin's tea shop outside of Bratislavia where she gave us some cold tea. We then stopped in Golanta where Shimon's grandma gave us a huge and very tasty traditional hungarian meal. She spoke no czech even though she lived in slovakia b/c she is hungarian and after the war since the austrian-hungarian empire was one of the bad guys, they took away a lot of their land, but the culture didn't change. Shimon speaks hungarian and czech and english, so he could translate for us. She was in incredibly sweet woman and kept wanting to give us food. She gave us some wine from her son's winery as well.
We arrived in Budapest around 10pm, where we dropped of our stuff at a flat that martin's friend Zoltan had arranged for us in the center of the city. Martin met zoltan when he did a car trip called the B2B which goes from budapest through europe then crosses into morocco and eventually ends in bamako, mali. Zoltan had us over for cheese, bread, and wine at his flat before we headed out. He took us on a pub tour drinking lots of beers (he was almost always treating although we succeeded here and there to buy a few rounds). He also bought us his favorite hungarian shots and spirits. It was really hot that day and the next (40 degrees = 104F) and didn't cool off much at night, so most of the bars were open aired. We went to this cool outdoor bar in the square and then to some concert they were having in some underground area below the park. We ended the night in the courtyard of a giant cathedral where people were drinking, hanging out, and some people were throwing the frisbee. I joined in and they were so impressed with my forehand throw (they only did backhand) that they were also so interested to learn, so I spent a while trying to show drunk hungarians (and i'm drunk too) how to throw a frisbee forehand. I know martin and zoltan and simon got quite a kick out of for sure. Martin and Shimon wanted me to help them pick up girls and thought that being an American could help them. So I went out with my map to ask directions and get talking to girls so that then they could come in and we would have broken the ice. We had a lot of fun with that, but then in pure genius, i pulled out my freshly bought toothbrush (I had forgotten my toothbrush in prague so just bought a new one for the weekend) and said we were filming an oral-b commerical for americans of people around europe. They loved this. We'd have them sing a traditional song and then say they love oral-b or america or whatnot. We have some hilarious video from this and had quite a fun time. We eventually stumbled back to the flat for the night.
funniest sight of the day: male construction workers on the road wearing only their bright orange vest and the european bakini bottoms...total euro style. Perhaps b/c it was so hot or b/c that is how it's done in europe bud even walking around the city lots of guys were just walking around in their underwear and girls in their underwear or bakinis. pretty crazy.

7/17 Zoltan toured us around Budapest. We first went to the top of a hill to look down on budapest (it's actually two cities Buda and Pest divided by a river) and have some traditional hungarian type apple streudal. We then visited the parliement building and took a tour inside. After that we walked along the city. Budapest is very nice. Old as well. And it has sort of a bit of a decaying feeling, except in the modern areas. The buildings aren't as nice as in prague. Almost has a bit of that feel of how you think of communist cities. Of course it is alive and well with capitalism now and some areas are quite modern. We walked along the danube river and then walked across the famous lion bridge and up to Buda castle with great views of the river, the parliament building, and the city. Zoltan then took us to a fancy (though not too expensive) outdoor restaurant in some hidden nook in the city, where we had some traditional hungarian foods. And started the party. We visited several clubs. One was what they call a ruin pub...a pub in the ruins of some building, either form the war or just falling a apart. They restore it a bit, but it's sort of has this outdoor feel and just a cool setting in the ruined building. Then we went to a couple rooftop clubs and bars where of course zoltan was having us try his favorite beers and sprits. We eventually went back to the church square for more frisbee and ended the night in a popular modern club that played 70's and 80's american music! whoop whoop, I like it so much better than the euro trance and house music. We eventually made our way back home around 5am afer stopping at a few places to get beers for the road.
funny thing of the day: we were walking by this computer lab with two rows of all empty computers, except one old guy and he was sitting at the computer visible from the window and he was watching porn and some porn webcams. We all died laughing after seeing that. We figured if he had to do that he should choose a different computer!

7/18 Zoltan took us to a small village along the river to eat some Langosak (incredibly tasty fried dough thing with garlic, sour cream and cheese) and crepes. When we arrive back in budapest, Shimon and martin decided we needed to go to a fancy turkish spa to removed all the toxins from the weekend and to relax. The spa was pretty cool. Like 6 different pools ranging from 28 degrees to 40 degrees. So you soak in those and then you go to a pool that is 10 degree, jump in real quick and then go to the sauna which is 74 degrees (165F) and sit there sweating and uncomfortable for 10 minutes before going back, dumping a bucket of cold water on you and then jumping into the cold 10 degree pool. Then you soak some more and repeat this 3 times or so.
We left around 5 to head back to prague. It doesn't take to long b/c even though the highways in slovakia and czech are not unlimited speeds like the german autobahn and have a speed limit of 13okm/hr, martin would still drive 200km/hr (125mph) b/c they don't have police on the road really. We also of course stopped at IKEA for the cheap food. When we got back to martin's flat, he commented that this would be the first night that we would be going to sleep without being drunk. That tells you a little about how eastern europe parties...

Budapest was of course great, and again, Zoltan was an amazing tour guide and oh so generous. I hope some day these guys come to the West so that I can treat them to a good time and show them all our water beers like coors and keystone and bud and pbr haha. No, it would be microbrews for them. Though they probably wouldn't believe that bars in boise do last call at 1:30 am, that liquor stores in idaho close at 5pm, that you can only buy 3.2 beer in colorado at grocery stores and that estes park is dead by 7pm in the winter and 10pm in the summers.