"Traveling Through Eastern Europe (Or: How I Learned to Love Communism)" and Other Stories Vol. 5 Part I

Hello!

Oh blog, it has been far too long.

For the last two weeks or so I've been wandering around Eastern Europe with my friend Shannon. I forgot to bring my travel journal (very frustrating) so hopefully I don't forget too many things. Right now, I'm still in Krakow, Poland. I'm going to split this up into sections, so it isn't such a daunting read.

First stop: Budapest, Hungary

It was a very long first two days, considering there was the five hour trip to Frankfurt, two hours waiting for the bus to the airport, two hours getting to the airport, and then check in, followed by more waiting for the flight at 7:00 am. After about an hour and a half or so, we landed in Budapest. Let me tell you how daunting it is trying to get from point A to point B in a city where you don't understand or speak the language. It was the same disorienting feeling I had when I first came to Germany. Anyway, we managed to get into the city and found the place we were staying. For most of the trip, we've been using a system called Couch Surfing. It's a website, a community really, where people open up their couches or spare bed or floor or whatever to travelers who are trying to save money. It's a brilliant system and I fully endorse it. Anyhow, we stayed with a very nice Hungarian girl named Asia, who shared her flat with her brother and two room mates.

I must now tell you a little about her 19 year old brother Alphons. When I first met this lad, I thought he was drunk. He burst through the door in flamboyantly coloured rainbow pants, big bug sunglasses, and swayed a little from side to side. As soon as he noticed us sitting in the corner, gawking at his wardrobe he broke into a maniacal grin and loudly asked in broken English, "Ehhh.....who are you?"
"I'm Matt, and this is Shannon," says I.
He clapped his hands together and cried, "Ahhhhhhhhh! Very good! You are...American perhaps?"
"No," we glance at each other, "no, we're Canadians."
At this point, Alphons slides across the floor and sits cross legged in front of me, never once breaking eye contact. I'm wondering what sort of furniture he is going to turn my skin into. A lamp shade? Maybe a slip cover?
He's just sitting there, staring at me.
"Uh..how are ya?" I ask neverously.
The maniacal grin returns. Do I even have enough skin to make a slip cover out of?
It's during this thought that he slowly pinches his fingers and holds them next to my nose, squinting with one eye.
"Are you...Jew?"
Shannon immediately bursts out laughing. Suddenly all the staring makes sense. Because of the size of my nose, a source of pride in the family, he thinks I'm Jewish.
"Nope, I'm just a regular Protestant Canadian with a big nose."
"Really? You not Jew?" He seems awfully surprised.
After a few minutes of reassuring him that I am, in fact, NOT Jewish, he seems to accept this and move to philosophy. Why are we traveling? Well, we have a break between semesters. No, but WHY are you traveling?
Good question.

Anyway, spending a few days with this guy and his sister was very cool. They were very nice, inviting people, who would do pretty much anything for you. The city itself was pretty incredible. Fisherman's Bastion, an old castle type battlement facing the Danube River offers an amazing view of the Pest side of Budapest. Pest itself is home to many famous thermal baths - we spent an entire afternoon in one. It makes you pretty lethargic. There is a famously horrifying torture museum in Pest as well. It was first used by the Nazi's in WWII to interrogate people, followed by the Communists afterwards.

You can save a lot of money in Budapest if you choose not to use public transit at all. Actually, that's how we've been saving money everywhere. I'm not sure how great an idea that's been, since I'm pretty sure I've lost a bit of weight (if you know me, you know that's not something I can really afford to do haha). Mainly eating bread, meat, and cheese probably isn't helping.

After a few days of taking in the sites and traversing around all of central Budapest, it was time to head to Bratislava, Slovakia, which will be in the next installment! In this version, we learn about how I managed to get stuck in a bathroom.

- Matt