If I was a turtle, I'd be here to spawn.

Collar popped and hat tilted at 10 degrees, the cloud formation sauntered up to the awkward Bratislava and shoved his Slovakian-self into a locker. In other words, the place was gray and miserable for the few crummy days spent there. Between incompetent staff at the two hostels we stayed at and lack of any real city center, it wasn't worth it. And there isn't anything very interesting to even complain about. That's how rotten mcterrible it was.

Sunday marked the day I entered the border of Hungary. This was incredibly important to me as it makes up the most identifiable part of my heritage. The moment I stepped foot off the train, I must admit I was slightly overcome. Possibilities massaging my frontal lobe, we pushed past all the folks trying to hand us flyers for szobas (rooms) and taxis and such. Traded my Slovak Kroner for Hungarian Forint. Incredibly confusing as we'd only gotten accustomed to 20czk and 20skk equaling a dollar. And now that we were on the forint, we'd add another zero to that. A $15 USD room in Czech is 300. In HUF, it's 3000. Occasionally I find myself reeling in sheer agony as I receive the bill for my coffee.

The hostel we are currently staying at has been an absolute delight. At a humble 16 beds and the common room connecting to the kitchen, it's forced much more interaction than other places.
I decided after the awkwardness I felt in Czech Republic and Slovakia I'd make more of an effort to learn Hungarian phrases. They had a few listed on the wall in the common room. It was a good start, but I really believe numbers, days of the week and such are so much more important. I really don't need anymore train mix-ups and close calls. I went up to the same fellow that had offered me wine earlier in the evening and asked him if the hostel had a Hungarian/English dictionary. He lends me his personal book to borrow for the night. It was general phrases for various countries in Europe. After absorbing the phonetics and numbers and what little else it had to offer, I flipped through to find a map of Hungary.

This is where the first of the frustration began. I'd received information from relatives on the birthplaces of my Great Grandparents. The trouble for me being the fact that the map in the book hadn't either of them. (Since this post is publicly displayed, I'm not writing down the cities nor their names. So you folks back home that want the full scoop, I'll be writing up the whole thing to send out in a bulk email when I return.)

I went back to the manager and asked for a bigger map. He unfortunately didn't have one... and the internet was down in the lobby. I told him what it was for, and he offered to help me look on his computer. Paving the way to a wealth of information. Seriously, that guy spent a good half hour looking up the information I needed to know. Although, we stumbled on a pitfall. I'd known that there was a possibility that the borders had changed enough in Hungary to put the birthplaces into Slovakia. The borders had most definitely changed alright. To Ukraine. My stomach dropped. Of all the places man. Glubba, the manager I'd been referencing, offered to call the Ukrainian Embassy in the morning if I was up for it. I told him I'd think on it and thanked him for all the translating and map help. I needed to mentally prepare myself in the event that I would not be able to cross the border. I waited a couple days.

Monday night I started up a few rounds of Hey! That's My Fish! with the Brazilians that were staying in my room. Got one of the Australians in on it before we all hit the town. I hadn't hit the bar scene at all on this trip, so this was slightly overdue. It was one of the few older buildings I've seen thusfar that made no attempt at renovations on the inside. Had I seen a bat foraging for insects, I would pay it no heed as it would have been subconsciously anticipated.

Being that we were out until 5 in the morning (as bars so graciously close at 4), I was up at the crack of noon. I eventually stumbled off to take the metro out to the embassy. I arrived to find a red and white flag with a maple leaf in the center. Andrew was quite bemused. A letter carrier happened to be leaving the premises at this time. In the caveman equivalent of Hungarian (with accompanying caveman gestures) asked the location of the embassy I was questing for. She crossed out the address I'd taken from both the United States and Ukrainian government sites, and gave me a new one. It was a goose I'd never get my hands on. An abandoned building that looked like at sometime in it's history could have possibly been an embassy. Or brothel. It really could have gone either way. Cutting my losses after finding the embassy's phone number was disconnected, I wandered through various parks and monumenty stuff before moping home and watching "Shaun of the Dead" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" with the Irish guy who always offers us stuff to eat and drink. YAY FOR RUN ON SENTENCES!

I returned to the scene of the crime this morning and asked the Canadian embassy where Ukraine went. She informed me that they switched buildings 3 years ago. (If this is true, the Ukrainian webmasters are reeeeeeeeeeally terrible at updating their website) She gave me a different address than the postal worker had. Same street, but 2 miles apart. A beacon of hope shone when I saw the ol' baby blue and yellow striped flag adorning this east-Asian looking building. After an incredibly long wait I come to find the lady didn't speak English and that the non-existent line to the left of me is where I should have been waiting the whole time. (The signs are in Ukrainian and Hungarian only)

After relaying the info to the cute blonde at the Visa counter, I come to find that my United States citizenship entitles me to walk across the border free of charge and hassle so long as I have a valid passport and stay no longer than 90 days. Had there not been the thin line of glass separating our faces, I'd have been escorted out of the building and prosecuted for sexual harassment. I really would have kissed her. On the way back here, I listened to Minus the Bear's "They Make Beer Commercials That Sound Like This" and pranced the few miles back to the metro.

Tomorrow, I hopefully climb my family tree in Ukraine.


Hungarian Language Lesson!
(Some punctuation omitted due to not have an equivalent on the computer. And laziness!)

dy = the 'd' in 'endure'
a = 'aw'
e = 'e' in 'send'
ny = 'ñ'
c = 'ts' in 'hats'
cz = 'ch' in 'church'
sz = 's' in 'sit'
zs = 'su' in 'pleasure'
s = 'sh' in 'ship'

There's more pronunciation junk... but that's a start.

Numbers!

1. Edy
2. Ketto
3. Három
4. Nédy
5. Ot
6. Hat
7. Hét
8. Nyolc
9. Kilenc
10. Tïz

Days of the Week!

Monday - Hétfo
Tuesday - Kedd
Wednesday - Szerda
Thursday - Czutortok
Friday - Pentek
Saturday - Szombat
Sunday - Vasarnap

Excuse me - Bocsanat
The market - A piac
Yes - Igen
No - Nem
Please - Karem
Thank you - Koszonom

I haven't even tried forming sentences as Glubba informs me that Hungarian is formed similarly to the way Yoda talks. "Eat breakfast with you I shall."

I'm taking a break from Hungarian tonight so that I may wade through Ukrainian. Once you've transliterated the Cyrillic into roman, it's really not so bad. Just time consuming. A lot of their words look similar to Czech and Slovak.... so the little bit I know from those two should trickle down. Hopefully.

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