Budapest is a nutty city. Basically, people just come here to party because everything is dirt cheap. Beer is like, the equivalent of about $.80 USD. Last night I spent about $6 USD on a mix drink at a really shmancy event and I was like “holy shit this is so expensive,” which is absolutely ridiculous because that’s like, the price of a single beer in a regular Irish pub.
The bus from Vienna to Budapest was relatively painless. Just slept a lot, watched some Great British Baking Show, the usual. I got myself into a bit of a spot when I arrived because parts of the Budapest subway system are down for renovation, so my directions were wrong. I had Google Maps to tide me over, couldn’t find where to buy a tram ticket and got on going the wrong direction, but it didn’t take me long to figure out and eventually find my hostel.
I’m staying at a hostel which is in a group of six party hostels; literally everyone I’ve met that has been to Budapest has told me I have to stay at one of them. I wasn’t even planning on coming here when I left for this trip, but I now understand why everyone loves this place. It’s relaxed and fun, with events every single night, just like where I was staying in Prague. Even though it has a lot more beds than Mad House in Prague, the hostel is divided up into different areas of a building, so it still has a smaller feel, and it’s so easy to make friends with guests and staff members. I’ve really clicked here with an American girl and a guy from New Zealand, and we all happen to be roommates which is super convenient.
Things kicked off right away after my arrival with a home cooked Thanksgiving family dinner. Then we started drinking games right away, got absolutely hammered, went to a bar, and then onto a boat party. Yeah. There are boat parties here. We had the most spectacular views of the city, and we also each had a bottle of champagne to make it even more fun. And it really was amazing. Aside from accidentally making out with a guy with a creepy mustache who kept following me around for awhile afterwards, but whatever. After the boat party, we went to another bar for a bit. Unfortunately, I met two ballet dancers from NY who depressed the fuck out of me, so I ended up storming home alone (it’s cool, it was like a five minute walk).
The next morning, me and the Kiwi hung out and took a long walk around the city. The goal was to do a walking tour, but between my hangover and his exhaustion from an overnight train, we decided it would be more fun to do our own thing. It was nice to just take our time, talk, get a little lost, and not feel like we had to learn too much history. Then back to the hostel for dinner, pregaming with drinking games, then a Ruin Bar crawl.
Ruin bars are exactly what they sound like – ruins that have been turned into bars. They are often quite large with lots of personality. One of them had a giant tree growing in the middle of it. We had a lot of drink deals, free drinks, and a great time. I came home alone again that night, but ended up running into a staff member who I had been having a very frank conversation with throughout the night. This conversation basically involved being out of fucks and being down for whatever, and ended in a loose agreement to be seeing each other again later that evening. When we ran into each other, our conversation went something like this:
Him: You still down?
Me: Eh. I’ve got nothing better to do.
So that’s what I did that night. One of the weirdest and most honest nights I’ve had yet.
Yesterday was the infamous Pink Eye day, and even though it took me literally all day, I was just relieved that no matter how sick I was, I was still going to be able to make it to the Sparty that I had been hearing about forever. Sparty is short for Spa Party, and this was going to be the last one of the year, and I was NOT going to miss it. So, pregaming with drinking games in the hostel, went to the Retox bar (at one of their sister hostels) and off to the Sparty we went.
The Sparty was exactly the kind of situation that my parents would have warned me about as a child: wayyyyy too many people stuffed into a pool, all of them drunk as fuck, warm water for harboring bacteria and getting overheated and passing out, the whole shebang. Luckily, there was security everywhere – an hour in, they were IN the pool making sure things didn’t get too rowdy, and I also was just a bit tipsy so I could leave any situation that I didn’t feel safe. Besides getting groped a couple times (I’m getting really good at shoving people and telling them to fuck off) things didn’t get too out of hand. There were some fire dancers, aerialists (I think I would have been better…) and it was overall pretty cool and fun. It also didn’t hurt that it started raining by like 2 something and we decided to leave, so I think it mostly ended before it got too late and crazy. It was fun, but I wouldn’t call it amazing. I’m not sure if the people that were there my night were exactly my “crowd,” but I’m still glad I went for the experience! Afterwards the group of us almost got caught on the tram without tickets, went to McDonalds (there are CURLY FRIES there) and made it back to the hostel in one piece.
Today I’ve just been letting my body recover from all the abuse it’s taken and from this damn sinus infection. Well, letting it recover until I leave for a beer bike in a couple hours, and then straight to a jager train. Here’s to hoping I make it though the weekend!