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Published: April 26th 2006
Let's Stay
Justin looks out from our Budapest apt.Anybody who spends anytime travelling through Eastern Europe will come across the phenominum of the "New Prague". Every halfway decent city from Latvia to Bulgaria has been labeled the New Prague by some wag or another. Usually, the comparison has as much validity as comparing Hussein or Quadaffi to Hitler.
Budapest may have been the first to wear the label, and although it isn't an apt description, it rivals Prague as our favorite city on this trip. More reminiscent of the Bay Area, it combines the modern and the ancient in a seemless way. Whereas Prague features scenery and a layout that doesn't seperate an "Old Town" from the rest of the city, Budapest integrates its relics into a quaint modern setting reminiscent of the Bay Area. Sitting on the Danube, it is the combination of Buda (San Francisco - hilly and expensive) and Pest (Oakland - less picteresque but more real).
Of course, like Prague, part of our love for the place could have to do with our accomidations. As we've been doing since hitting Spring Break in Krakow, we booked a double a few days ahead of time. When we got to the hostel, they didn't have
The Danube
The winning political party is in the bottom left a double inhouse, but gave us a room in an apartment for the same price. So we got a room usually more than double the price, a quiet room overlooking the Danube in an old terraced building. It's hard to explain how nice it was to have such a beautiful room after four months of hostels. Whenever, through planning or luck, we get a bump in the level of accomidation, it serves as a vacation from our trip. Needless to say, we stayed a night longer than planned.
The first night, we cooked in our kitchen, and headed out for some coffee. Some stereotypes are true - since the Czech Republic and Austria, the quality of both the coffee and beer has noticibly declined. Slovakia and Hungary can't hold a candle to their neighbours in those regards. The next day, we continued our education in Soviet atrocities by visiting
the Terror House , the former headquarters of the Hungarian Secret Police turned into a museum. While the quality of the presentation rivaled the Kafka Museum in Prague, the level of propaganda was noticibly high. Unlike the similiar museums in Latvia and Saigon, the purpose of the curators seemed more to settle scores
Movie Shoot
Hungarian movie shoot in Budapest than chronicle history. For the first time, it included a room with photos and names of all the people, many still alive, deemed 'criminals' for their conduct during the Occupation. Afterwards, we wandered up Andrussy to the Heroes Square. We ate in Paprika Vendeglo, a well-priced place serving Hungarian dishes. Thankfully for Budapest's reputation, the food has surpassed those places with better beverages. Heavily dependent on paprika, it provided a kick we'd been missing in all the sausages and dumplings of the past month.
The next couple of days featured rain storms, but the weather in Budapest is quick-changing, so we weathered them quite well. One day, we decided to move indoors, heading to the large nearby market, before heading across the bridge into Buda for the first time to
Gellert Baths . Much more old school than the one we attended in New Zealand, it featured a co-ed swimming pool, but all the steam baths were in single sex rooms to either side. Needless to say, Justin saw alot of man meat, while Chris assured him the other side was nothing but models and pillowfights. After settling in, the experience actually proved surprisingly relaxing, including the experience of moving from a
Grandiose Failure
Chris poses with a fallen Communist idol in Budapest 70 degree C steam room to an 8 degree C ice bath. Best of all, we exited to a last minute rehearsal for Cosmo's
Bikinishow 2006 , slated to begin when the baths closed. As we exited, we heard loud music, and noticed that huge TV screens had been set up on the street. Apparently, the Hungarian national elections were only a day away, and leading party
Fidesz was holding a last minute rally. As we watched and listened, we learned a few things: hearing politicians in a foreign tongue is like hearing sports announcers - you know which cliches they're saying at any particular time; bad music is requisite as political anthems around the world; and the Clinton thumb over a fist for emphasis is universal. Fidesz ended up winning, and thankfully it turns out they're a reform party, and not a neo-Soviet cabal.
We had to get all of the tourist musts out of the way, so the next day we headed to Parliament, the major churches, and the former castle that houses the National Gallery. It turns out that Hungarian art isn't the hidden treasure of Europe. The next day, we sadly had to check out and leave
Where's the Garlic
Justin sits among the undead in Transylvania our bags at the hostel while we headed to
Statue Park , where they moved all the big iron figures after the Fall. It was quite a hassle to get to, and not quite worth it, although it gave us a glimpse of the countryside outside the city. When we got back, we wondered why the streets were clogged with hippie bikers. It turns out that the American movement of
Critical Mass has become international, proving to all nations that if everybody rode a bicycle, the streets would be just as annoyingly congested as now. After a final meal of Hungarian food, we headed to our overnight train to Romania.
Crossing out of the EU and into Romania has brought us back into the realm of difficult travel. Eastern Europe has been extremely easy, lulling us into a false sense of comfort. Stray dogs, begging children, rampant garbage and petty crime - all have come filtering back as we moved south. Romania is a great country, but noticibly less developed.
Our first stop was Sighisoara, a small town of 50,000 in Transylvania. As Justin has been reading Dracula (quite repetative), we were prepared with our garlic, crucifixes and holy water. As
Glamour Shot
Sighisoara poses for the camera could be expected, it is quite beautiful, and very quite. We partook of our first meal of Romanian food, which continued the trend of an increase of flavor. Surprisingly, as we move closer to Turkey, the number of kebab places has declined. Romanian food isn't totally different from what we've seen, but features a much more Italian flavor. They don't have pasta, preferring polenta and potatoes, but the sauces and preparation are a combination of Slavic and Roman. We had a drink in the childhood home of Vlad the Impaler, who gave Dracula his name if not his story, and headed back to the hostel for some drinks. We stayed in Nathan's Villa in Krakow and liked it very much, so gave the franchise in Sighisoara a try. It was one of the worst places we've stayed on the trip. The nightlife in the town consisted of the basement room, where you could buy some beer from the non-stop store, and watch the staff get messed up. The highlight was the 32-year-old female manager in the state where whe was looking six inches off from where she was focusing, not taking no for an answer from Tom, a 19-year-old Brit
Gypsy Children
They're cute, but they're also trying to steal our camera stuck in town until the banks opened on Tuesday. Oh yes, we unwittingly got to celebrate Easter twice, as we arrived in Sighisoara on the Sunday of the Eastern Orthodox Easter.
The holiday closed most things down in Brasov as well, where we headed the next day. Because of misinformation from our hungover hostel staff, we ended up on the slow moving gypsy train. This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the company was quite interesting. Basically the most lower class train, it gets its name because of the disdain Romanians, and most Europeans, hold the gypsies, or Romas. A group of migratory throwbacks, they refuse to assimilate into society, and also find themselves discriminated against by everyone from cops to business owners. It's a vicious cycle reminiscent of African-Americans in the U.S. Every public place features begging gypsy children, who are sent out everyday to get what they can, including theft. It's hard not to become hardened to them.
Although Lonely Planet comically calls Brasov yet another "New Prague", it is a fairly common town of half a million. We ended up with a nice room with a balcony, and were able to
Brasov Village
Our second great hostel view of the week watch the sun set and rise over the beautiful hilly town. While much was closed because of Orthodox Easter Monday, we were able to wander the Old Town and sample the local fare. Our room had an unexpected TV with cable, so after a stop at a Romanian sandwich stop, we ended our evening with Hogan Knows Best and Breaking Bonaduce.
We took the train to Bucharest today, where we'll spend a couple of nights before Bulgaria and Turkey.
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