When Losing Your Passport is the Best of All Possible Worlds, Budapest, May 2004

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You could describe my time in Budapest as a bit of a rollercoaster. So far, things are going great. We have been climbing and climbing and climbing, and we still can't see the top. But that is the beautiful of a rollcoaster. You don't know when you will reach the top, you don't know what is on the other side, and you don't know which way it will pull you. I was about to find out.

The crew woke up Sunday and tried to get around early, to limited, and I mean limited, success. We finally made it out to the Citadel in the early afternoon. From the view on top, we could see all of Budapest, and it was magnificent. Josh and I got some really amazing photos. Afterwards, we headed down to Grappa to eat. And when I say we ate, I mean WE ATE! Grappa was one of the most expensive reastaraunts in Budapest, which means it would cost of thousands of forints to eat there, which really meant that it would cost us under twenty euros. We ordered two nice bottles of wine, appetizers, salads, soups, the whole nine yards. Richard and I ordered a meal that was supposed to be for two people, but I think that it was a misprint. It should have said twelve people. The platter streched from my elbow to my fingertips and the food was piled too the ceiling. I am not exaggerating at all. The five of us ate until we could not eat anymore, and there was still enough left over to fill us again completely. If you know how much I eat(which most of you do), than you should probably fall out of your seat right now. The final bill: 18,000 forints = 70 euros. We throughly enjoyed ourselves in Budapest.

We knew this was the end of our journey together, but we still weren't sure where we were going next. Richard and Sal were set with Munich, while John was staying put for at least another day or two. But what about Josh and I? Did we want to go to Zagreb or Belgrade? And where after that? Thessaloniki? Sofia? Skopje? We had to find out how to get there and how much it would cost, so we headed to an internet cafe. It was about 10:30 and since we had to hit the road the next day, we decided we were going to take it easy tonight. Really. I swear. No drinking or staying up late. In bed by one. Yeah right.

Josh and I decided that we should go to Belgrade, so we looked on the internet for bus and train tickets from Budapest. We found bus tickets for twenty euros, so we decided to go the next day. We got up to leave around 11:30. I pay the man, then turn around to grab my bag, which had been sitting next to my chair. It wasn't there, which meant that Josh or Sal had grabbed something out of it. I go outside and ask them for it; here is the exchange:

Me: "Do you have my bag Josh?"
Josh: "No."
Me: "Sal, could you hand me my bag."
Sal: "I don't have it."
Me: sigh

Disaster strikes! My bag was gone, along with my cd player, cds, digital camera, and passport. It took ten days, but something finally went wrong. We call the police and John is able to tell them what is going on in German; his command of the Deutsch langauage was a life saver. Two officers come(who speak neither English or German) and whisk Richard and I away to the police station, while the rest of the group went back to the hostel. On the way, we had to stop because some other officers were in need of assistance. Apparantly, some sketchy looking Hungarians were being harrassed by an even sketcheir looking Hungarian, while two teenagers looked on. We tried to figure out what the story was, but we couldn't do it. At the station, a sweet, older Hungarian lady did some translating for us and after about an hour I had a Hungarian police report as a sovenier. So I had that going for me, which was nice. Richard and I made it back to the hostel at about 1:30 and low and behold the Jam Band had gotten me a present. Can you guess what it was? I'll give you a hint: it begins with a Johnny, and ends with a Walker. The idea was me to drown my sorrow in whisky, but I think that by the end of the night Josh had drank more of it than me. It was not a problem, because Mark gave me some free beer, and I wasn't planning on getting drunk anyway. I went to bed about 5:00 yet again, but I was the only sober one of the group.

The next morning I head to the embassy to get a new passport. It shouldn't take long, maybe a day or two, so I am not worried. The only thing that upsets me is the camera, because I can't take any more pictures. And you know how much I like pictures. The embassy was only open from 1:00 until 4:00, which was a real pain in the ass. I show up and give them the photocopy of my passport, my passport photos, and my other IDs. I should be in and out; but when it rains it pours. It turns out that they have to get a new passport from the states and can't give me a temporary one, which means I am stuck here for a least a week. Not only that, but I am not going to make my flight from Istanbul to Cairo. And, the extra week spent in Budapest means I wouldn't be able to go to Greece even if I could still make it to Egypt. Everything about my trip is changing, which was something I had counted on. I just didn't think it would happen this way.

Before going to the Embassy I had swung by the internet place we visited the first day. Susan had said she wouldn't have room for four of us, but maybe she would for two. I called her and she agreed to give Josh and I a place to stay, at least for a day or two. With at least the next two days taken care of, and my fate for the next week decided, I headed back to the hostel. We decided to go back to the baths and relax before Richard and Sal took off. We stayed for a few hours, then grabbed our bags. John was staying another day, so Josh and I went to the bus station to see Richard and Sal off. There was much wailing and knashing of teeth over the demise of Josh Joseph and the Denmark Jam Band, but we knew that someday we would reunite; maybe in Cali, maybe in New York, maybe in Vegas, maybe in Zanzibar, who knows. But some day, some where, we would bask again.

Josh and I rolled to Susan's apartment, met her roommate Deidre, ate some supper, and went to bed. The next day we walked around, saw the island that sits in the Danube between Buda and Pest, and relaxed. Sitting around, reading, and relaxing becomes a common activity of mine over the next week. Josh went to Vienna the next day and I was left to my fate. I found a very chill little cafe, Dupla, and spent quite a bit of time there. Richard said that Budapest was supposed to be the sunniest place in Europe; either he is full of crap or misinformed, but either way it rained incessently while I was there. On the days when it was nice out, which were few and far between, I walked all over the city; on the days when it wasn't, I read in Dupla. After four days, the girls got tired of my snoring and gave me the boot. They had some friends that I could stay with, and this is how I ended up with a gay Floridian who had lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for eight years after he left a cult, and his Hungarian lover. Very nice guys, not the flaming gay variety, and both could cook. So for the next few days I ate home-cooked Hungarian food, which was an improvment over the eggs and potatoes I had been having. I spent my days in basically the same fashion as before.

There were a few moments of excitement. On top of teaching math, violin, and English, and working at the Internet place, Susan also gave pub tours. On Wednesday night I accompianied her, and I had a blast. There was a wide variety of Commonwealth members in our group(Australians, Americans, Brits, and Canadians) and I got quite a bit of free beer. It was a Hungarian micro-brew and rivaled anything we had had in Prague. Everyone else had to pay 4000 forints for the tour, but Susan allowed me to tag along and mooch off the internet place, which sponsered the tour. Also, I went to a movie with an Alaskan English teacher who had scarlet fever, the aforementioned gay Floridian who had lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for eight years after he left a cult, a Ugandan who's father was an ambassador(which meant he had grown up all over the world), and his Hungarian wife, who also taught English. The movie wasn't very good and nothing exciting happened, but I did get to go to a movie with an Alaskan English teacher who had scarlet fever, the aforementioned gay Floridian who had lived in Fairbanks, Alaska for eight years after he left a cult, a Ugandan who's father was an ambassador(which meant he had grown up all over the world), and his Hungarian wife, who also taught English. So once again, I have that going for me, which is nice.

Since I missed my flight to Cairo, I had to come up with an alternate plan. I e-mailed Hana and told her I wasn't going to make it and set about finding a new destination. I settled on Croatia. I had heard good things about it, and I could just catch a ferry across the Adriatic to Italy and meet Sal and Josh there. But then fate took a turn for the better. On Sunday, I found an advertisement for cheap tickets to the Middle East. The cheapest ticket I found on the internet was $400, which was entirely too much. I could get this ticket for 240 euros, which was just under $300. I decided to meet the man on Tuesday night; that way I would be sure to have my passport. Everything went down smoothly and I now had a flight to Cairo for Thursday night. I e-mailed Hana and told her the good news, and then I waited. It was something that I was getting very good at. When the time finally came, I still hadn't heard from Hana. I knew she was heading to the Sinai with Karlien, Dennis, and Nicole, but I wasn't sure when they were leaving. Had they already left? Had she gotten my e-mails? Would anyone be waiting for me at the airport, or would I be homeless in Cairo at 4:00 in the morning? Whatever was going to happen, it wasn't going to happen in Budapest, which is all that mattered. I was moving on to something new and I couldn't wait.

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