Hungary and the 118 Steps of Hell!

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So after the enlightening experience that was Bratislava we happily jumped on a train to the bright lights and happy times of Budapest, capital of all things Hungary. Arriving (unsurprisingly) to piss poor weather we trekked with our packs for 3km to the hostel at which we called home for a few days, the Caterina Hostel. After walking up and down the same street several times we eventually found the right door only to then discover another small issue with the accomodation- it was on the third floor and was precisely 118 steps up. No lift. Of course. After discussıng numerous ways of getting not only our bags but ourselves up this monstrous flight of stairs without having to actually walk up them (ie, getting some sort of pulley system working, finding stray dogschildren to carry us up there for a couple of Forents) we resolved to sleep in the corridor.

We didnt, naturally. After the special brew in Bratislava we thought we should steer clear of hobo-ism for a while, so we thought we should walk up them and stop whining like a couple of fat English tourists. We made it roughly a third of the way before giving in to the gut and taking a break. Twenty minutes later we reached the pinnacle of our climb and decided not to leave the hostel for fear of having to do it all over again. After chilling out for a while and getting our breath back we headed back down the step mountain to hang around on the street corner (this tramp thing is getting way out of control!) and wait for a friend of ours, Beats, who is coming out from England to visit. Despite the fact that he is useless at most things except being a nightmare when drunk, we are for some reason surprised when he turns up more than two hours late. After a good deal of ribbing we go out and get some food before hitting a few of the local watering holes and generally catching up. These few drinks turn into a few too many drinks as we end up in a bar that has an open-mike night and we think its funny laughing at the guy who does a bad Bon Jovi song badly. Also, at the same time as taking the piss out of those brave enough to face public humiliation and sing, Beats introduces us to 'The Ring' which ıs by far the most pointless yet addictive game I have played in a long time. It works like this. Someone makes a sign with their fingers, pretty much the 'Ok' sign and if the other person looks through it ('The Rıng' - its not complicated people!) then they get hit as hard as possible on the arm. Stupid? Yes. Fun? Definitely. By the end of the night I realise that if this continues I will have one hell of bruise before the weekend is out. Suitably inebriated and beaten up we go back to the hostel and by the time we get to bed we have more or less sweated all the alcohol out of ourselves through a combination of playing The Ring and walking upstairs.

The following day, despite feeling a little beer-weary we get breakfast and afterwards head for the Szenchyi Roman Baths for a relaxing morning of nursing our growing hangovers. We plan on spending a couple of hours in there but after realising how truly relaxing the place was we ended up being there nearly four hours, wasting the dau by dipping in and out of the differently temperatured baths then sweating out the remaining amber poison from the night before in the scaldingly hot sauna and risking heart seizures by braving the ice cold plunge pool afterwards. when we were thouroughly bathed out we went for a wander round Pest's commercial centre, particularly around the Vice area and the town square. Whilst wandering around we spotted a poster for a party that was going on that night and was playing all the kinds of music the three of us are into, Kasabian, Bloc Party, Editors etc. Resolving to go along and check it out, we had an early dinner and a few drinks, the excitement of this shindig increasing between us by the minute. Around 9 o'clock we rock up to the club where this do is being held, pay the burly doorman 2 pounds to gain entry and run in ready to embrace to rocking tunes. After a few more drinks in the open terrace area, listening to decent music which was played, unfortunately, way too quietly, we took on the Hungarian national table-football champions and after getting spanked a fair few times thought it best to wander about and see what was what. Going upstairs we found a room full of heavily made up people having epileptic-like seizures (sorry if you happen to be epileptic!) or, as they are known in the West, Goths. This is not our scene so we beat a steady retreat and tried not to draw attention to ourselves. That wasn't easy. Once a safe distance between us and the baying hoardes was reached we had a few more medicinal drinks, for no reason other than to calm the nerves of course. Afer this we went into the other dance room, only to find around 150 Hungarians facing the same way jumping up and down to a massive TV screen. Maybe it was the beer, maybe the culture or maybe a mix of both, but we were thoroughly confused. Why was everyone facing the same was in a nightclub? And why, oh dear Lord, why do they keep playing PLacebo videos over and over and over again? This will not do, so we go and tell the Dj so. ?Why do you keep playing Placebo?" we ask with earnest faces. The reply comes, delivered in a tone which suggests he questions our meagre intelligence, "Because this is a Placebo party!" Oh. Oops. On exiting this room, somewhat hastily, and retreating again to the safety of the terrace Beats begins a rant about the merits of English music over that of American, resolving to "start a revolution and educate these Europeans." Joel and I give him his dues and listen to him initially, but then he gets lost in his own fervour, or possibly the beer, and repeats himself. Over and over again. For half an hour. By this point we have stopped listening to him and he is ranting to nobody but himself. Funnliy enough, the terrace area begins to empty, though I'm sure the two incidents are not directly related. I could be wrong though. Promising Beats that if he shuts up we'll go and get something other than Placebo played, we creep back into the crazy cinema/nightclub/placebo party and sneak up to the Dj with the nicest smiles we can muster and beg him to play Bloc Party or anything else that we can think of. Explaining who Morrissey is takes a bit of time but oother than this he seems to understand where we are coming from, so, lo and behold, after another 25 mins of being Placebo'd to death we get 10minutes of our requests. During which many die hard Placeboers leave the room. Never mind. After our tunes have been played and normality (Placebo) is resumed we leave the club, get a taxi home and crash out.

In the morning we have a highlight of our time in Budapest. Football. We go along to the big local derby of the season, Ferencvaros vs Ujpest Doza. The importance of the game could not be undrestated, Ferncvaros must win or draw in order to prevent Ujpest, their deadly rivals, winning the league title. Arriving at the stadium we saw a sea of Ferencvaros strips dotted here and there with riot police and military vehicles. At this point we were unsure whether the prescence of so many police was something to be reassured by or worried about- what would happen if Ujpest win?! After 20 mins or fear is allayed- Ferencvaros score! A neat little penalty tucked away into the bottom right corner after a foul by, and red card for, an Ujpest player. A sea of sesame seeds flys into the air, sesame seeds being the snack of choice for Hungarian football fans. Healthier than the British pie and bovril culture i suppose, but not nearly as satisfying. At half time, still at 1-0, a flurry of fireworks and flares are set off, engulfing one of the stands in smoke the colour of the Ferencvaros shirts. Blue stuffed monkeys also appear, apparently to tease the Ujpest supporters. In the second half comes trouble though, Ujpest equalise after a defensive mix up by Ferencvaros aorund the 70th minute mark. All Ferencaros have to do is hold on, but the nerves have gone and ten minutes later a fracas ensues resulting in another red card for Ujpest and one for Ferencvaros. All remains tense for the final minutes, with the game seeming to be going towards a draw, but at the last gasp a Ferncvaros player tackles an Ujpest one hard and the player goes to ground just outside the penalty box. The referee is too far away to get a real look at the incident and yet blows his whistle for a penalty! The Ujpest fans erupt, and Ferencvaros' jeering is not far behind. When the ensuing melee calms down, the bald Ujpest player who seems to have been a target for Ferencvaros fans all game calmly slots the ball past the 'keeper. Despite desperate attempts in the final minutes, Ferencvaros lose 2-1. The staium goes into choas and fans run from one end of the stand to where the Ujpest fans are seated and, though seperated by wall and fence, jeer, swear and throw things into the Ujpest end. We get out of the stadium as quickly as possible but on the way out see a load of fans running down the street. Intrigued, we set off after them. About a hundred yards down the street however we come into what we realised was possibly the worst situation to be in. Having been met by the police in front of them, the pack we were following suddenly turns and runs back our way and before we know what is happening we too are running away from the police amidst a pack of angry Hungarian football hooligans! Finally we find safety and after all that we decide a nice stroll in the fresh air will probably calm the nerves, so we head to Margit Island midway between the opposite shores of Buda and Pest. Half way through this walk the weather turns and we get sodden with rain. Racing back to the Hostel to avoid the rain, we do nothing for the rest of the day except eat and plan for tommorrow.

On the final day of Beats' visit we go to St Stephens Basilica in the heart of Buda to get the panoramic view of Budapest. Despite the wind the view is quite something. After this we go on a monster trek to find the Statue Park. Billed as the most impressive outdoor museum in Europe, in reality its pretty poor. It took us nearly an hour to get there and we'd walked around it in 20 minutes flat. Even then, we wlked pretty slowly. I did take an awesome (i think its awesome anyway!) photo of the Stalin statue. By the time we'd got back to the hostel it was time for Beats to leave for the airport so with heavy heart he got in to a taxi leaving just myself and the big man to carry on to China alone.

In the evening Joel and I get our stuff together and plan out the next few stops on the trip, get our last Gyro (kebab) and sleep. When the morning comes, we get a bus out to Egger to see some of the countryside and chill out after so many big cities.

In Egger we spend two nights in a homestay, courtesy of an old Hungarian woman called Kathy who was made up as her grandson is also called Adam. On the first day we head out to Szepasszony Volgy, which literally translated as the Valley of Beautiful Women. Though we see none of those we do find the region where Hungary produces its wine. We walk about the little hamlet in the valley and call into the odd taverna for a glass of cabernet, which was always delicious. So as not to feel rude we buy half a litre of wine, but rather than giving us a bottle they simply filled up our empty water bottle and sent us on our way! Also during our visit we discovered that, to our continuing amusement, the Hungarian word for cheese is pronounced 'shite'. Insert your own jokes here. The following day we go out to Bukk National Park and rent bikes. Yes, bicycles not motorbikes. We pass a very pretty waterfall and then ride up a couple of mountains and then race down them at breakneck speed dodging cars and other things, such as horses. Other cyclists. You get the picture. At the top of the second mountain we get an amazing view of the Hungarian countryside, which is stunningly beautiful. Again we race down the mountain at full speed as we both agreed we can ice cream at the bottom. In the evening we watch Arsenal vs Villareal in the Champions League Semi Final, which we win 1-0. We got to bed in the knoweledge that tommorrow, if all goes to plan, we will sleep in another country. Romania here we come!

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Photos

Communist Hopes
put it on the homepage Travelblog! you know you want to! (please?)

Roman Baths
excellent for hangovers!

Bukk National Park
"She'll be coming round the mountain...."

Comments

[Mum]

Adam an excellent travelblog entry - but why are you still in Budapest unlike Joel who is miles ahead! Love you x