Rugby, Speedos, and Hungarian Ticket Officers

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This is the big one*. A whole 17 days of uninterrupted travel through central and East Europe. Not only was it booked before I left Auckland back in April, but it's the primary reason I left in the first place! Why? One word: Oktoberfest!! I actually made a pact with a few friends in New Zealand last year that we would all be at Oktoberfest 2011, though the Rugby World Cup dissuaded all but one die-hard traveller (She joins me later in Munich).

The story starts in Budapest, Hungary, with a whole week to go before we would finally gaze upon the magical gates of the beerfest. I landed late on Friday night with my age-old kiwi friend Hannah, and quickly found our spacious apartment at Boulevard Hostel. We awoke early the next morning for our first Budapestian activity: Watching the All Blacks vs France match!! We found a perfect Irish pub and watched with a bunch of other kiwis as the Men in Black pummeled the Frogs into submission (a feat that will hopefully be repeated in the final this weekend!**). Unfortunately along with the win came my first fail of the trip, as I lost a bet with Hannah on the final score and had to do a "Breakfast Shot". I seem to unwittingly be on a mission to find the worst possible tasting shot in Europe, and this was almost as bad as that godawful Balsam shot I did in Latvia. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the stuff, but I think the photo of me after downing it says it all. It certainly put a spring in my step as I got back into tourist mode!

For the uninitiated, Budapest is actually made up of 2 places: Buda on one side of the Danube River, and Pest on the other. From what I can gather, the name has existed since the 9th century, however people have been living here since pre-Roman times. Impressive! We were staying on the Buda side, and took a quick walk alongside the Danube to get a feel for the place. We passed the parliament buildings along the way, which aren't too dissimilar to London's Westminster. And then we took a walk to the other side.

The other side, Pest, has one particularly prominent feature: a giant hill with the Royal Palace on top. The grounds inside are fairly hidden by the hill and surrounding walls, so while walking up it looked fairly low key. But this just made the resultant spectacle all the more amazing when we finally popped our heads out of the top of a rather mundane stairwell. There was a large amount of imagery presented to us in one go. A giant cathedral with colourful tiled roof consumed the left hand side of our vision; the expected statue of an historical figure on a horse was directly ahead; multiple parapets overlooking a view of the whole city were to the right; and amongst the bustling cobbled paving were a hint of many more discoveries in the distance. Love it! We checked out the brilliant views along the top of the wall and explored as much as we could, passing what looked like a traditional Hungarian wedding along the way (for some reason I always see at least one wedding whenever I travel! I guess tourist destinations are popular wedding destinations too).

And then, as I was walking around this completely foreign country, I heard my name being yelled out! I was skeptical at first - the amount of times I've turned around because someone said "Hey" (Which sounds a lot like "Clay") is just not funny. But
as it turns out, a girl I know from London - Estelle - had somehow recognised me in the crowd. Crazy! After completing our walk around the Palace area and trying a Hungarian Kürtős Kalács (A sugar coated rolled dough that's cooked over an open fire around a metal cylinder. Yum!), we headed back to Buda for an amazing 3 course Hungarian dinner, followed by a few drinks with Estelle and her crew.

I've heard a lot of stories about the nightlife in Budapest, and I was quite excited to experience it for myself. Like the club with bathtubs that have been converted into seats. Or the nightclub inside a converted hotel with lots of little rooms. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of this. It might be old age settling in, or the early morning, but after a few quiet drinks both me and Hanz decided to call it a day fairly early and get a good night's sleep. Don't want to overdo it before Oktoberfest!

The next day was another walk-a-thon. We saw the fifth largest Synagogue in the world, Dohány Street Synagogu, complete with a troupe of dancing Jews fresh out of Israel. We also saw the Terror Museum, an emotionally charged tour through Hungary's Nazi and Soviet past. The moral of the story? Hungary was allied to the bad guys during the war, but it was more out of self-defence than allegiance to the cause. It almost seems like a good decision too, as Hungarians - Jews included - enjoyed a fairly normal lifestyle right up until May of 1944, when one of the largest deportation of Jews to death camps occurred (437,402 by July) in an effort to implement Hitler's "Final Solution". As for the rest of the Hungarians, life was quite good until Stalin got his communist claws into it, generally making life miserable right up until 1989. The museum building itself was used by the AVH (Hungarian KGB) to detain, interrogate, torture, and kill whomever it pleased, and we saw the cells in the basement where these atrocities took place. It's hard to imagine what went on there just over 22 years ago. And that's the scary thing - this is all within my lifetime. In fact, the last Hungarian prisoner was only released from Russia in the year 2000!!

We de-stressed ourselves from all the terror by visiting the famous Széchenyi thermal baths, the largest medicinal bath in Europe. And I came prepared: I bought myself a pair of Speedos just before I left London! (It's probably too late to erase the image you've more than likely developed in your head, but I must point out that they were actually Speedo branded knee length boardies, and not standard budgie smugglers!) Hungary has been renowned for its thermal springs since the Romans took over 2000 years ago, though the baths we visited were built in the early 1900's. It's a veritable Disneyland of the thermal bathing world, with 3 huge pools outside under elegant surroundings, massive indoor pools of varying temperatures and chemical composures, ice dispensers, mud baths, and more! Also included are a bunch of old men playing chess in the pool. As you do.

I know this is already a novel of a blog, but stick with me; there's one more event that I have to write about. After our bath, we were in a bit of a rush to catch our overground train to Bratislava. We caught an underground train to the Central Station to avoid being late, but in our haste neglected to "validate" our tickets (this involves sticking the ticket in a machine that time-stamps them). You can guess where this is going. We get to the Central Station with 20 minutes to spare, but get stopped by an official who asks to see our tickets. "These tickets aren't valid" she says after we hand them to her nonchalantly. "That will be a 20 Euro fine". Queue that massive sinking feeling of failure. We continue to play the dumb tourists, but after 5 minutes of pleading they are less than impressed, and the policewoman standing nearby asks to see our passports. We are now to be charged with avoiding a fine. Crap! I managed to calm the situation down, but had to withdraw money before I could pay the fine. I could feel the clock ticking as I literally ran out of the station (thank god for all of that marathon training!), leaving Hannah behind as collateral. I thought of leaving her there and just getting on the train, but decided against it. It's hard being a nice guy sometimes! Anyway, I made it back in time, and we boarded the train with about 4 minutes to spare. We even got a bit of help from the official, who wasn't all that nasty after all.

By this stage it was 8pm and we hadn't had dinner, so with the Indiana Jones theme in my head, I ran out of the train in search of sustenance. I frantically followed my nose to find a pizza place, and literally ripped the cold slices out of the surprised vendor's hands before slapping the money down and running back to the train, stepping inside mere seconds before the doors shut. Mission successful!!

I still had big plans for the next 17 days, and my itinerary includes Bratislava, a drive through Austria, then Munich, Prague, Krakow, and Berlin. If you follow me for the ensuing saga you'll get to hear more about Nazis, holiday romance, how parts of New Zealand have made it to Germany, and my hilariously disastrous attempt at using European trains!

*To my less mature readers: Yes, "That's what she said"!
**Just in case you're living on another planet (in a cave, under a rock and with your fingers in your ears) - the All Blacks' feat was not repeated, though they were victorious nonetheless!! Woohoo!!!

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Photos

At an Irish pub, waiting for the Rugby to start!
Please excuse my lack of black clothing!

At the Thermal Pools
This shows just a small fraction of the whole place...

Yes, it's a bus in the Danube River
And that's Pest in the background

The Danube River
Pest on the left, Buda on the right

Inside the Palace grounds in Pest
with a wedding in the background