More Budapest, mates!

We recently departed from our first destination in Eastern Europe, the one and only Budapest! This Hungarian capitol, often called the "Paris of the East," is a favorite of younger crowds for its nightlife, affordability, and gritty charm. We experienced all of the above during our couchsurf with Cameron, an Australian who moved to the city a few months ago.

In my opinion, the attraction that best reflects Budapest's true character is its ruin pubs. Ruin pubs are the city's answer to the question, "what to do with these massive, abandoned, buildings?" I deeply regret not bringing my camera to these places to document, because I've never seen anything quite like them. The mother of all ruin pubs, Szimpla, was packed full on Friday night. (The streets, in fact, were packed full. You can drink on the street there, so no need to stay at home and pregame!) I'll try to describe. You enter a building that looks normal and cement-y from the outside. On the inside, above the crowds, the building opens up to the sky. You might have been able to see the stars were it not for the massive netting and plants and old bikes and god knows what else that has been impossibly suspended as a makeshift roof to the courtyard. There are bars in various corners of the gigantic room. Up in one corner, there's a television that has been gutted and replaced with a miniature garden. You can't decide if this place looks like a spectacular junkyard or a junky art studio. Probably both. Upstairs, there's more bars, rooms that glow pink, a projector that shows you a picture of yourself walking around, a collection of nice photographs on an entirely scribbled-upon wall. The bathroom walls, stalls, everything are overrun with handwritten quotes, sharpie'd names, impromptu toilet-time artwork. And no one cares, such is a ruin pub.

We visited a few other ones, too, like Instant and Fogas Haz. I'm tired of futile efforts to explain these places, so i'll borrow words. "I've just downed a cherry palinka, Hungary's potent answer to schnapps, and I can see a giant owl with human breasts and horse's legs. In my defense, the hybrid mutant owl is not some fruit-spirit-fueled hallucination; it's actually a sculpture on the wall of Instant..." (Gergo Sas). You just gotta go. And take a nap that day (cough, LIZ, cough) because no one goes out in Budapest until at least 11:30pm.

But of course there's more to Budapest than the nightlife...although the day is suspiciously more quiet. I think everyone must save up their energy to fuel the monday-saturday party scene.

Day 1: bathhouses, Hero's Square, Hungarian buffet. Went to A38 that night, a Ukrainian ship-turned-club. Took the bus in the wrong direction, scary.

Day 2: Liz bought new shoes (Timberlands, if you care to know. I'm jealous), we wandered to the Buda side of Budapest (the city is split over the Danube), Parliament, St. Steven's Basilica, thrift stores.

Day 3: Went to the market, snuck into a wedding (and that is how you see St. Stephen's basilica for free), spent the rest of the afternoon on Margaret Island, a park situated in the middle of the Danube river. We ate kremes (a fluffy square pudding) and Hungarian strudel in the grass while watching the fountain.

Cameron took us to a flat party that night, which are quite common since Budapest has a large student population. In the elevator we met two guys from a town near Liz's in New Hampshire, small world. They also happened to be the first Romney supporters we've encountered in nearly 2 months of traveling...

Of course our last night in Budapest ended at another ruin pub.

Cheers,
Alexis