July 16, 2012
I wake up and I need to quickly grab a breakfast before my shuttle at 7:15 and free breakfast starts at 7:00. I sent my friend Lisa a postcard and Sara, who is in Dusseldorf, who I don’t know really well, but hopefully we’ll hang out.
I packed the night before and I gather some quick things and then head to breakfast. I surprisingly see the gorgeous Maria, the Mexican I randomly met. I have a quick convo with her and she was too tired to go out Saturday night after sightseeing. She says she has my Facebook in case she needs tips with anything in Budapest, but she never ends up adding me. Whatever, things didn’t work out, but that is one freaking hot girl, that definitely is only half Mexican or something.
I catch my shuttle and make my flight. The public transit bus from the airport to the hostel is actually really easy. I take a nap and decide to start walking around. It’s rainy, but it’s nice to soak in the city. I get myself lost looking for a currywurst place. I quickly realize that despite me having a transit pass, walking just 2 spots on the subway can take me 30-40 minutes and that the city is actually huge. Budapest was big, but in the residential sense. Berlin is just big for the sake of big. New York, you can get half way through the city with the walking you would do in Berlin.
I finally find the currywurst place after only having breakfast and it’s a great feeling, especially having a beer with it. I get back and start doing some writing about Budapest. My computer clock decides to fucking go behind an hour despite me being in the same timezone as Budapest.
I planned on going out, but then I’m an hour short and it’s suddenly 10:30. The Australian Shawn that I met in my room earlier is asleep when I go in. I quickly take a shower and get ready and see that there are two girls sitting in their bunk bed. After I’m showered, dress, shaved, hair did, and ready, I quickly whisper to the two girls if they would like to come out with me. They agree and I wait downstairs with a beer.
Most importantly, I must preface this with how party party this hostel is. You walk in, there barely is a front desk and almost all the lobby is basically a nice lounge bar. The whole night, people have been loud, rowdy, and drinking. The lobby is fucking just crowded every night of the week with people. The hostel allows for this too. You can drink your own liquor and beer that you buy cheap at store. Why they would allow this when they’re a bar that sells beer and liquor is beyond me. Hell, they put out glasses and ice for people so they can drink! What a crazy place.
While I’m waiting, I’ve never seen a larger shipment of beer and liquor into the place. People are just bringing bags and bottles of booze into the hostel to just drink their faces off. The girls finally come down and we head out with this British guy they met before. They’re French cousins, Marie and Sophia. Their English is pretty decent actually and throughout my time there, Marie teaches me how to say “putain” with everything as that’s the proper way to curse in French.
It’s annoying and raining and it turns out that despite my expectations of Berlin, they place is freaking dead. It’s a Monday night, but still. We walk around for almost an hour before giving up and realizing that the busiest joint (despite being in the busy part of down, where the major train station is) is actually our hostel! What a crazy idea. We call it an early night though and end it.
July 17, 2012
I get up and make the breakfast buffet they have for 4.90 Euro. It’s not bad as they have fresh German bread rolls, which are really good, and German black bread. Then there’s loads of cold cuts to make sandwiches, nutella, yogurt and muesli, fruit, and fresh cucumber and tomato. You also get coffee. I stupidly order eggs for 2.50 Euro too.
People are crazy with stocking up on food, so I do the same. I then notice that someone is making sandwiches and packing them, which makes sense. If you have quality bread and cold cuts, why not do that for your day of tourism. I’ve never had a breakfast this big before and damn is it holding me down. I have to realize, figure out what I’m doing, and start my day. The great thing about it is that it keeps my energy going and I only had one beer the night before, so I’m in a super energetic mood and my body and mind are rolling.
I go to Museum Island, which is one the River Spree. Berlin is really beautiful with this river running through it. The island has 5 museums and I go through 4 of them. My favorite is the Alte Nationalgalerie, which is older paintings. The rest are what I’m less interseted in, the Pergamon Alter, Eyptian, and Greek and Roman. I run through those really quickly and then go to the Berlin Cathedral, which is a really beautiful building with its mix of dirty and clean exterior. I get all the way up there and get to see Berlin and how sprawled out it is.
I then go downtown to get one of the famous dishes here, Mustafa’s Doner Kebab. It takes a while for me to get there as I have to transfer twice. It turns out to be one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. It seriously is that incredible. It has about 10 ingredients and they work so well together. It’s huge and along with my big breakfast, I can’t eat anymore. Right next to there is another famous spot, Curry 36, for currywurst, but I can’t do it.
I get back and take a nap. I then introduce myself to Shawn, an Australian that’s staying in the room. We want to make plans to go clubbing. We find out that Cookies is open, it separates itself by opening on Tuesday. We get a bottle of vodka and start pregaming. Sophie and Marie come back late, but they’re also down to go out. Jay, a Taiwanese guy, comes back and we invite him out too. We walk out there, which takes about 30 minutes. However, I’m drinking during it to keep it short.
After getting lost for 10-15 minutes, we finally find it and I ask the bouncer if there is a dress code for the girls since they’re dressed casually from walking around all day. He rolls his eyes as if that would be an issue. We finally get to the front and for some reason, they will only allow the guys in and not the girls. It is ALWAYS the other way around, I have no clue what is going on. We don’t ditch them obviously and just leave, though I am really curious how it would’ve been because the crowd seemed to be dressed classy and online, the pictures of the place made it seem really swanky.
Apparently the girls overhear in French that the club is trying to go for an “older” group. The girls were dressed down and I guess that was their demise. We walk around looking for a bar and we literally spend over 1 hour just walking around and then heading back. It’s freaking exhausting as we walk around empty streets looking for a bar, but it’s a shitty area about bars and they’re either closed or empty. Freaking “city....”
We eventually give up and we head back done for the night.
July 18, 2012
Drinking to get rid of all that walking did not really help. I wake up a bit hungover after we (or I) finished that bottle of vodka. I go to hang out at Starbucks because I was looking up clubs and accidentally put a Trojan on my computer, what a fucking idiot I am. It was really worrying that I couldn’t even get control of my computer, but after an afternoon at Starbucks because of their superior internet, I was able to fix it. It’s a joke at the hostel, don’t even think about watching anything Youtube, because it will not load.
I return and Shawn, Sophie, Marie, and I decide to get dinner. I’m starving at it’s already 10:00 by the time we leave. I try to pick the crowded restaurants that we walk by, but they’re set on this Lebanese place for some reason. We finally choose this Thai/everything Southeast Asian place. The food actually turns out quite decent, but we order a beer and sit there as the rain comes pouring down real hard.
We then walk with a beer to White Trash Fast Food, a well-known spot. Walking around with beer is awesome as it’s a pregame, relaxing, and cheap dammit! 1.80 Euro ($2.20) from a pizzeria or whatever fast food spot for .5L (or a pint) of whatever really good quality Czech or German beer. I get myself Staropramen.
While we’re drinking our beers, we meet these two Swedish guys that are just wandering around. They couldn’t look more miserable as tourists in a different country. They were skeptical about walking into White Trash because of the name, I tell them it’s a joke, and to just go in. They just mope around and we tell them to really go in, we’ll see them inside. They finally do.
Standing outside, I get super excited. There’s a live rock band playing inside and I just get the night jitters. I look like an idiot jumping in place and flailing my arms because the past two nights have been completely dead. I’m in Europe dammit! I’m here to have fun!
We go in. A 3 Euro cover, but there’s a band, so understandable.
http://youtu.be/_Tp5IxfOfs8
The band is so good, heavy rock music, hint of metal, and very bluesy. Queens of the Stone Age, Clutch, and Red Fang are bands that come to mind for me. They’re from Oslo. White Trash Fast Food is a venue, a bar, and a restaurant. It also has a tattoo parlor attached to it. It has a wooden spooky look to it. From the outside, it has the Chinese lions and Chinese font as their sign, but inside has a divey and also haunted house feel.
I make sure that the others are okay with the place and I just rock out. I join the crowd and get some slight head banging going. You can’t resist with awesome rock music like this. I’m so glad that I found this band, but also that I got to see them live!
We find the boring Swedes and I make us move away from them. We eventually leave after the band is done and no one is on the dance/venue floor anymore despite them playing some fun rock music like The Strokes and QotSA.
Lizzie was supposed to get in tonight from Prague and I Facebook MSG her while we’re at White Trash to get here quick because it’s only a 10 minute walk. She doesn’t get back to me though.
We then go to this really cool dive bar that’s sort of film themed. They’re playing this Ginger Baker documentary for some reason and it transports me right back to New York. It’s just grungey, dark, simple, no frills. I grab a beer, but the others feel like going. I say that I have to finish my beer, but I quickly get told that I can bring that. Of course, it’s a bottle of beer. I can freaking walk out in public with it from the bar. It’s little realizations like that this that make the trip and make Europe awesome. However, we quickly just end the night there.
July 19, 2012
I decide to sleep in today and when I get up and out of bed by 2:00, I see on Facebook that Lizzie made it to the hostel and is downstairs. She also just got up, so I plan my day of sightseeing while I’m waiting. She eventually knocks on my door and we’re obviously excited to see each other, big hugs.
We chat about our plans and we start moving towards Alexanderplatz. I go to the money exchange, which continously has been gouging me, but I don’t know where else to go. They also charge a stupid 3.50 Euro fee, which I still have paid twice because I thought I would find a better option after exchanging money the first time.
We then take the subway down to the Turkish of town. We go there to get some food, we’re both starving. The area is hella Turkish and it feels weird because nothing has really been ethnic so far. The place is supposed to be really famous for the kofte or meatballs.
The sandwich I get is really huge and pretty decent, but nothing like the one I had Mufstafa’s. I obviously rock a Hefeweizen with my meal. Lizzie and I catch up about our cities, our lives, us both doing law school, and all that great stuff. She also tells me about her travels as she’s been everywhere, especially Budapest and Prague right before this, my favorite central European cities, or two of my favorite places on Earth.
After that, we walk around and see this hookah spot. We go in and get one. It’s so chill watching the Turkish music station that we end up staying there for almost 2 hours just chilling. I planned on going to the Jewish museum, but it’s all rainy and it’s nice to just have a relaxing day here.
We go back and stop by Galeria for a bit. It looks like a department store and we try to shortcut through it. Turns out there is this incredible supermarket in there as well. All kind of ethnic foods, a billion cold cuts, and cheese. They even have fresh food. Sushi, Asian cooked, fresh hand made pasta that I witness being sauced in a pan, an area to sit and eat, and a wine bar area. I wish we had this selection and stuff in New York. It’s like a non-Italian and more accessible Eataly. I grab an enormous fresh multi grain baguette, freshly sliced ham, German cheese, mustard, and pickles. All that for about $12. It could’ve made huge sandwiches for 3 people.
I take a quick nap and then step outside on the balcony to have myself a picnic. We plan on going to the clubs tonight. It becomes 11:00 or so and Lizzie comes up. We bought a bottle of Gordon’s, they meet my hostel mates, Sean, Marie, and Sophia.
We end up meeting the lobby and drinking for a bit before deciding to go to Kreuzberg, the Turkish, hipster, and club area of Berlin. However, it’s so big that we have to take the subway down there. The good part is that all the clubs are there, with about 5 right in that area. We should’ve been there all along.
We go to the subway and quickly realize that it’s 1AM when we’re down there and the subway is closed, stupid city. Then again, basically every city is like this, unlike NYC. Ideally, we would split a 3 Euro cab downtown, but I think people are adverse as they are cheap. Instead, we just go to Weekend, which is the big club right around the corner from the hostel.
By the way, one of the most annoying things about Berlin is how big it is. My hostel very close to the big train station, but that’s still almost a 10 minute walk. When I say “around the corner,” I do mean that, but it is also an industrial size city block. Their blocks aren’t like NYC ones. It being close is still a 5 minute walk. Getting around just soaks up time, energy, and can get annoying.
We pay a 12 Euro cover and go inside. It’s a pretty popping situation as we took an elevator up to the 12th floor of an abadoned large building and they turned the floor into a club. As I take pictures, I realize that there’s nothing wrong my camera when it looks foggy as I have my flash on. It turns out that everyone is smoking inside and there isn’t proper ventilation, so all the smoke carries to the top. It’s hot, it’s hard to breathe, but we continue dancing our asses off.
Lizzie is tired and eventually leaves. As I wait near the bathroom for the others, there are two dudes that touch my leg as they walk by. I have no clue what that means. Then again, I do notice that people are more likely to touch you when they’re trying to get by instead of just slipping by.
After some more dancing, it’s 4:30 and I give up. I split from the others and grab a hot dog. It’s weird, it’s a really white bread bun with spicy mustard and crispy onions. A fun night, finally glad that we got to hit a big club.
July 20, 2012
Despite drinking the night before, I get a sick, sick night of sleep. I wake up feeling great and Lizzie and I get some Vietnamese food. It’s in this area right near us that has loads of boutiques and really cool cafes and restaurants, I’m surprised I haven’t been here yet.
However, despite the sleep, still need my power nap and then go off for some shopping. I grab a few postcards, see that there is a pub crawl starting, which I should’ve done here. Depending on the city, hostel people, study abroad people, and mostly English speakers meet up at this “pub crawls” run by companies. You pay them a certain amount, they give you some drinks, and you follow the group around to the bars they’ve picked out. The one in Paris was decent and it’s a great way to meet people if you’re in a city by yourself.
I then go back to White Trash Fast Food to get a shirt of theirs. They don’t have the one I want nor X-Small, but I still get a Small one with some vomitting animal on it. I’ve wanted to buy a shirt from my trip, but most of them say a city on them and they just look ugly and touristy. At least this has a lot of style and it’s like Aaron’s Otto’s Shrunken head shirt.
I get back and want to do laundry. However, it’s Friday, people are pregaming and the two elevators are being absolutely overloaded. People are going up and down and they take forever. The worst is that I’m on the 10th floor. I finally get my laundry in, but then it’s 10:30 after hours of running up and down. The dryers are being used and I leave tomorrow. I should have planned this better. I can’t dry my clothes, so I put them out in the balcony in hopes that they will dry.
At night, Lizzie does her own thing and I want to take it easy because I have to wake up at 6:30 to catch my flight. Shawn, Sophie, Marie, and I walk around for a bit with a beer on the streets. We quickly get back by 1:00. I tell them that I probably won’t see them in the morning so I say my Goodbyes and we add each other on Facebook. However, my clothes are still a bit damp, so I go downstairs to get some writing done in the lobby.
I get back by 2:00 and after some quick folding and rolling up of my clothes, my suitcase is basically all packed after 10-15 minutes. This boss can pack fast. I then grab a few hours of sleep before my flight.
July 21, 2012
For some reason, I thought that I would go back to the same airport, big Tegel. Instead this is a 50 minute flight, so I planned on going to the wrong one. Not only that, I printed out the flight time before they emailed me that they randomly just pushed the flight to 20 minutes earlier. I’m pretty sure this is despite the fact that I chose a later flight and paid a bit more so I wouldn’t have to wake up too too early. That’s what you get with budget flights.
I eventually figure out how to get to Schonenfeld airport, which is barely an airport by its size. The train there is a huge one and gets me there in 30 minutes. The flight is 20 minutes late anyway, so I make my flight with more than enough time.
I get into Cologne and I’m starving, but I decide to catch up on sleep for 2-3 hours instead. I planned on going out and walking around, but I give up on that get some shit down. I plan where I’m going and what I’m seeing for the next few days. I reserve a pub crawl spot here. I Yelp and whatnot to find that there’s a decent burger place near by and have that for dinner. I quickly realize that this is a beautiful city, it feels like Brooklyn at times.
However, it still has a lively, busy city feel that’s European, but not sprawled out like Berlin. It’s great because I’m in a more hipster, nightlife area and the shopping area, and the Cologne Cathedral are only about a 20 minute walk away. The city just isn’t that huge. It’s really great being able to not have to wait and pay for the subway, but also that everything is so accessible.
After dinner, I get ready and quickly walk to where the crawl is supposed to meet up. I get lost on the way, but still make it there with time to spare. We have a French dude, two Bavarians, two tall big dudes in their 30s that are pretty bro-ey (one is a tech sales guy and the other a social studies teacher), Nadine (a law student from Florida that is also studying abroad, though in Cologne for 8 weeks, and extending her trip), and the guides.
For 15 Euro, at every fountain we see, we stop and they give us a shot of liquor, but fruity German ones. This means 5-6 by the end. They also give us shots at every bar we go to, 4 bars. The first place is just a empty place, but we chat and stuff. We move onto another, which is dancier and slowly gets more crowded. We’re drinking “Kolsch,” which is very Cologne. It’s basically .2L of beer, which is almost half a pint, so it’s a small, small glass. Then again, it’s 1.50-180 Euro for each, which comes out to about $4 for an American pint, without tip. Remember, no tipping in Europe when you drink.
It’s an interesting idea, but a bit annoying I could imagine if you want to drink and have to just keep ordering these little shots of beer over and over. The place is basically a bar/lounge, with a small dancing area. We meet some Americans and this guy fucking stabs me with a cigarette, I don’t see anything, so I just forgive up and move on.
We then go across the street to this pub. I’m feeling really drunk now, so I slow down and stop. Nadine is too, so we’re drinking pals now. We swap law school stories, chat about our travels, swap Facebooks, etc.
We end up recruiting the few Americans with us and we stop by a middle part of the nightlife area, it’s more clubs and stuff than where I’m staying.
Nadine and one of the bros start making out and they continue that for the night. It’s a bit gross, since he can do better, being a tall built guy. Whatever, good for whoever. We then go to this really cool divey underground place. It’s called “Arty Farty Gallery” as half the bar is actually an art gallery.
We then move onto the last place, which is a packed lounge with a dancing area in the back. I’m walking with our guide, Rob, and “Night Darwin” gets turned on. I walk ahead of everyone, despite not knowing where I’m going, doing a head count, and making sure that everyone is following right and moving along. I chat with Rob about his job and I’m always “that guy” when I’m hanging out with friends.
One of the Bavarians does something wrong and is really drunk and gets into a verbal fight with a bartender. He then tries to apologize again, instead of just getting out of the way and not bothering the guy again. I try to defuse things, but he gets kicked out and I help him instead of the bouncer coming after him. He’s drunk as a skunk and the Air Force that stabbed me with a cigarettes seems alright. 30 seconds later, he’s vomitting all over the ground, next thing I know, I turn around and he’s laying on the ground. People have to carry him like a wounded soldier.
People are slowly splitting and I hang with the other bro, the one that isn’t busy hooking up. We walk into a few places, check them out, and then go outside and meet these two older Germans. He’s chatting up the blonde and I find out about the other woman, who is a lawyer in her 30s. She’s not really attractive, but I’m just chatting and stuff. We eventually walk into this place and there’s a 6 Euro cover. Don’t ask me why I paid it, I go in and it’s not really full. There are a few dancers, but it’s a club and there’s a bit of dancing going on.
Instead of the woman (Maren) having some fun and dancing, she actually goes out of her way to avoid me. Lady, your friend is hooking up with the bro over there. Don’t act like we just didn’t chat for 20 minutes. I don’t even want to hook up with your ugly butt, just dance and have some fucking fun. I awkwardly dance myself for a song or two instead of the more awkward thing to do of simply splitting really quickly. I then leave and it’s 5AM. I’m feeling really steamy and annoyed, but that’s the drunk me thinking.
I didn’t even want to get anywhere with that lawyer bitch woman, but the idea of rejection just gets your drunk mind really wired, defensive, and stupidly angry. Hm, how great alcohol is eh?
I get back and chat with Jon. I tell him about Aaron’s trip and I find out that it’s probably too expensive to extend my trip. Aaron booked to meet me in Amsterdam on the 25th, I leave the 31st. He’s doing Europe until August 12th. I want to stay, but we’ll see. It might not be worth it.
I also notice that my cigarette burn has swollen up with pus. I accidentally burst it, but then soap and wash it. In the next few days, it looks pretty gross and I’m assuming I’ll have a decent size scar from this. It’s towards the underside of my forearm, so at least it’s not super obvious. Lizzie was telling me that I should get a tattoo as that’s what she does when she travels, I guess I now have this as the mark of my travels. We’ll see how it heals up.
July 22, 2012
Well, yesterday was a sure mistake. It reminds me that I can’t drink like I used to. Not that I was super drunk at any point, I was able to control myself, and even be in charge of the group, make sure things were okay at times, but something was up. Maybe I didn’t eat enough all day and the combination with all those sugary alcohol shots without drinking any water last night. Thinking of it, we were drinking for six and a half hours basically.
One of the worst hangovers of my life, I spend most of the day sleeping, the other few hours are watching streams online, and finally at 9:00, I get some schnitzel at this famous restaurant right near me. It’s really unsettling, even though it’s been almost 24 hours since my first drink last night. Granted, I haven’t eaten in forever and the schnitzel was a welcoming huge chunk of deep fried meat, but I still was not feeling tip top after all that time. I sit around on my computer for a bit and it’s 11-12:00 by now. I thought I would be okay in the sense that I could check out the nightlife, see what’s up, but I’m way too tired and feeling shitty. I get some early sleep in hopes that I will be able to get my sight seeing done. It really is such a fucking shame that I missed a day in Europe because of this bullshit. Just reminds me that I’m only a mortal now.
Drinking needs to be treated with moderation and a delicate touch with me these days.
July 23, 2012
I sleep in pretty hard and it’s 10:00AM before I roll out of bed. I get out of the door and walk around, checking out the beautiful area south and west of the Cathedral. I’m starving and go to this famous old school place that serves “Kolsch” and traditional German dishes. There’s a nice atmosphere outside and it’s set right next to the huge catherdral. Here’s my review though:
“Getting to order food at my first Kolsch took forever. A simple plate of food and one beer took over an hour as the service was horribly inattentive.
The front of the menu had their specials, which however were written in German. I asked the waiter, which dish he suggested and he powerfully commanded, "I'll bring you jaeger schnitzel." I kindly asked for another suggestion as I had just had that for dinner the night before. He quickly snapped, "I don't know what you want! You can order when you know," and stormed away.
It was shocking. A kind German walked over and asked in English, "Do you need help with something?" I thanked him, but said "No, thank you" out of embarrassment of what had just happened. I should have just walked away, but out of laziness and hunger, I sat there and just ordered a boring dish off of the regular menu.
After finishing, trying to get the check took at least 10 minutes. He then wrote the price on my coaster and rudely chucked it onto my empty place. It wasn't really worth it for how simple the food was. 12.50 Euro for the food and a Kolsch. An overdressed salad, one thin tube shaped meat, and some oily potatoes. I graciously paid, without a tip obviously, and walked away.
As a consolation, I did see other waiters actually doing their job correctly, but this was just a horrible experience.
Never have I been treated like a second class alien before, but there's a first time for everything. It's one thing if there is a language barrier, but the waiter spoke perfect English.
The logic baffles me. This place literally lives off of tourism. He doesn't have a job without patrons like me. It helps his job if I order a more expensive special instead of from the regular menu. Well, I hope he enjoys serving us nosy tourists for the rest of his life.”
After that annoying experience, I walked over to the love lock bridge, where there are thousands and thousands of locks on the bridge, signifying couples’ love for each other. I go into the Cathedral, which feels a bit like seen this, seen them all. The outside though is where it’s at. The architecture is just spectacular and it’s so freaking huge.
I then go to the main train station to figure out how to get to Dusseldorf so I can meet Ela and get to Amsterdam, to then also meet Aaron. There’s a useful front desk and the lady gives me a schedule, I have a question or so more, but she quickly walks away, her co-worker shoves a “Window Closed” sign in my face on the counter as I just stand there. We make eye contact and she makes it known that she’s closed. It’s freaking unbelievable how shitty some people are. Granted, America has this too, but I feel like I get it way worse in Europe.
Monday 23 July 2012
Friday 20 July 2012
July 5, 2012
It’s been a killer here that this city isn’t “Yelped.” I rely on it so much in New York and it’s weird to feel “lost” in where I need to go. Especially in a city I’ve never been to before, scrounging through the many blogs, personal websites, and travel sites is cumbersome, but I get some stuff out of it. I’m able to find one of the nicest restaurants in the city, which conveniently is around the corner from my school and has a lunch menu.
I have 3 hours for a lunch break and get their two course and a beer. Their Krombacher wheat beer is exactly what I want on a hot summer day. Their pea and octopus is a fine dish. The peas and pea sauce could do something more, but the octopus is so soft and well cooked. I could eat pounds of this stuff.
The next is a crackled skin pig ear. I’ve never had it this way before with the roasting process and really gives the ear another dimension with its soft cartilage inside. Unfortunately, there’s a bit too much Maldon salt along with the thick velouté sauce. Otherwise, hearty and delicious dish.
Two course and an import beer at a really nice restaurant in New York? $25 without tax and tip? Here, barely $16. Tax is included and tip is only 10% here. Budapest!
After another round of class, I get back to campus and take a long, long nap. I’m feeling bored, groggy from maybe sleeping a bit too much, or just I don’t know, but I want to get out. I post on the class’ Facebook group if anyone wants to go out tonight, a Thursday, and no one replies. However, I get outside to the “bar” that’s downstairs with a large smoking area in the bag and find Ellen, Miriam, Christina, and Rita. I have a few beers with them. It’s great hanging out to help my shit mood.
July 6, 2012
After class, I walk off with Ellen and Miriam to grab lunch on a hot day. It’s another sweaty and gross hot day in Budapest. We find a touristy spot. After a chicken schnitzel and a beer, we eventually split up. I go to Vodaphone to buy a SIM card for $11 in order to keep in contact with people. The stupid EU still has service charges, despite trying to be an economic single market. Texts to other Europeans, basically everyone here, cost $.43. Each! Then again, I won’t be using the phone too much and will probably be fine for the trip. Turns out calling people will probably be better.
I made plans with Miriam about going out and all that stuff later because it’s our first Friday. Party party! I told her I plan to make dinner and she’s invited. I go to the supermarket, which is relatively American. I get a shit ton of stuff, including a bottle of wine, and it turns out to be only $35. This is way more than just one meal. Restaurants are cheaper, the supermarkets are even cheaper, so go figure.
I get back and figure out the kitchens. Each floor has a big kitchen with microwave and many fridges and dishes. Only the 10th floor has stoves though. I unpack the food and go to take a quick nap. Miriam FB messaged me if I wanted to go with to the mall because she had something to return, but I was buying groceries. I let her know when dinner’ll be. After a useful nap, I quickly do some laundry because freaking the heat has ran through my clothes in 6 days. Miriam calls me to grab a beer, so we sit outside for a bit. There’s an FB post about people meeting at 8:30, but that’s too early.
I split from Miriam for a second and get the deets from everyone in the lobby. It’s a huge group of them and they plan on pregaming in the dorm, so that works out. They plan on waiting for Christina, who is our local tour guide as she has lived here for a year, despite being American. I get all the logistics figured out and people known that I’m THE person on top of things. Someone needs to take charge and make sure that plans go smoothly.
I run back to Miriam and let her know about the plans. She goes to get ready as I run to make dinner. Pasta with olive oil, oregano, chicken, squash, and peppers with some mozzarella. She go downstairs to join the group outside as they drink. After we finish, I head up to get ready as people continue to pregame. I get ready, I run down, have a beer, and a few shots of Becherovka, courtesy of Petra, the Czech in our group. Stuff is delicious.
Our gang of about 10 heads out to the metro. It’s rainey, but not bad. We go to this ruin pub and has a really hot room with Foozeball or “kicker.” After losing, I run outside because it’s way too hot. During this, I’m drinking Jameson and Bombay on the rocks like a boss. It’s a shame not to when it costs $4 for a double and they don’t tip here. What a joke.
The place is connected to Christina’s favorite ruinpub. It’s basically an open roof courtyard. Two bars connected, pretty sweet deal.
I find some people from the another program, Farah and Agy. It’s a shame that we’re here at the same time, live in the same dorm, have also a small group of a few dozen students, but don’t really intermingle. After some pleasantries, I get Christina to move us onto another place because I’m a move and shaker, but I also just want to see more places.
A couple people decide to leave and then we ship off to another place. It’s pretty darn cool and reminds me of what it’s like to be in an Eastern European club again. I didn’t bring my iPhone as it’s only a camera and I have my shitty “high school” keyboard phone with me as it’s the one that holds a SIM card. European iPhones can rock SIM cards… Stupid America.
We skip the club and go immediately to the top floor. I wish I could take a picture of the incredible view of the city at night. We then go downstairs and start getting our dubstep on. Finally dancing in Eastern Europe, I’ve waited for this day for almost 5 years dammit!
The place is loud as fuck as our ears are ringing as we walk down the many flights. This must be a complete mess for drunk people trying to get up 5-6 flights of stairs. We then head off to Doboz. Check out the pictures and situation here:
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/doboz
It’s the most modern and cool looking of the places. Timothy and I, the only guys, though we’re with 5-6 girls, have to pay a cover. It’s only $4 and you get two coupons that directly deduct from your drinks, so it’s not really a “cover.”
Miriam and I share a beer and then we’re off to dancing. I got to hear the Prague classic song, David Guetta – “Love is Gone.” Sooooo fun. However, I quickly notice the place is a cockfest. Timothy left early with Petra and it’s just Christina, Italian Christina, Rita, Miriam, and I. Not too much creeping, but there’s that poorly dressed fat guy with glasses in a salmon polo. He’s harmless and tries to get into dancing with Rita and whatnot. There’s that fun game where the girls have to dance with themselves and fend off the wolves.
There’s this really strangely dressed guy that’s dancing really funny. He talks to Christina and then he walks over to me and is very forward about buying me a drink. I take it as a kind offer because he’s trying to “into the group” of girls. I later find out from Christina that he was asking about my ethnicity and all these other questions. The gay parade is tomorrow, so Christina is under a strong impression that he was gay and trying to hit on me. Flattered, but my first “nightlife” story of Budapest, really?!
It’s eventually almost 5:00 and we grab a latenight gyro and then take the night bus. We get back by 5:30 and the sun is going up. We split up and call it a night.
July 7, 2012
I wake up hacking. Maybe I’m slightly sick, but smoking a pack probably was not a good idea either. My sleep is pretty shitty and at 1:00, I get a call from Miriam. We planned on going sight seeing today. I tell her that I’m fracking tired and want to back out. She gives me an hour and a half. I rest, but don’t really sleep. I’m all hungover and tired and miserable, but I get my ass out. We go to see the Basilica. There’s a wedding in there and we go to the top to see the view.
Miriam turns on some “Schmosby” about turning 28 the coming week and being single, not married, complaing, etc. etc.. Seeing the wedding triggered it. We share about relationships, life, dating history, etc. It all makes a bit her sense when she explains that she broke up with a boyfriend of 10 years almost a year ago, but is still friends with him and regrets breaking up with him. Dude, that is not a good situation.
We then head over to see the gay pride parade run through the middle of the city. It’s a pretty large parade of thousands. The cops are in full ass gear with armor and riot gear and all that. There are only about 100 anti-gay Facists or whatnot. No violence occurs.
We then walk over to the bridge, but then quickly turn around as it’s too late to go all the way up to the palace. We find a random restaurant off the touristy road called Spajz. Extremely cheap as the meal is about $5-6 with beer, starter, main dish. Nice liver mouse and a really easy home cooked beef stew that they called “goulash.” Different from the Czech kind I’ve had.
We then head back and Miriam is not down to go out. I would like to go out, but no one seemed to be down for it. I succum to it because we can have a beer at the backyard bar, chill out, have an easy night, catch up on sleep, and then have a good day of sight seeing again the next day.
Miriam and I sit there and Italian Christina joins. Ellen and Mario join. Mario is her husband that is visiting for the day. They’re high school sweethearts from the age of 14, but then separated or whatnot, but finally got back together. She’s now 38 and she moved to Vienna last year to be with him as he works there. Ellen has been also around a lot and her and Miriam have become good friends. Ellen is actually super dope. She’s really cool and funny to hang out with despite the fact that I don’t think I’ve had a “young” conversation with anyone over the age of 35. So as a reminder, stay young in spirit and heart if you want to be awesome when you get older.
We meet this girl Taya, who has this preppy hipster “too smart for you” soft way of speaking. She’s doing comparative education studies and she seems alright at first. This is her first day in Budapest and she walked over to say Hi and is trying to meet people. I think that’s a not bad thing to do. Miriam and I go upstairs to get the bottle of wine I bought for dinner that we never had. We try pushing the cork through, but then we get a knife, go through the cork, twist, pull, viola! Opened a bottle of wine. Miriam does complain about Taya though.
It turns out that she’s right. Ellen and Mario left and I later find out that Taya just talked their heads off until they decided to leave. I’ve never had such a conversation with someone. Austrian and Miriam are chatting in German and I’m literally getting lectured by Taya.She starts trying to educate me about things and even does the move where you pull out your fingers and try to preface your argument with the points that you’re going to make. Her questions are stupidly complicated and filled with comments that I actually have to ask, “What was your question again exactly?,” because there never really was a question at any point, just yapping. I try to steer the conversation away from how heavy it is, but she is stuck.
“Maybe I’m crazy, but I want to kiss you right now.”
I haven’t dated enough and not experienced enough of life recently, but this girl is just awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t fallen over my feet like an idiot and she’s surely not that “woman,” but life occurs and emotions arise. It’s the context that I haven’t dated in forever and gotten myself out there.
The awkwardness of her just chatting in German with the Austrian guy was weird times, but more in the sense that I actually cared. I noticed they were touching legs at the end of the night and that definitely sold it for me, especially when they quickly left at one point.
I let them walk up to their dorm or whatver and stayed myself to not be a cockblock and sat there for a few minutes having a cigerette. It’s almost all a drunk emotion, but I cared. People are people, but jealously is stupid, yet a strong feeling. I avoid it 99% of my life as a brick wall to avoid these things because they’re absolutely “useless.” In the end, aren’t we all humans with weaknesses. Busy minds and heavy hearts fall hardest.
July 8, 2012
Miriam and I had set to meet up at 12:00 so we could go sight seeing. It’s another day of being hungover and tired. I get a text that she’s going to be a few minutes late as I wait in the lobby, the Austrian is off to home and I say Goodbye to him.
Miriam comes down and begins profusely apologizing for being rude and chatting in another language yesterday as I was stuck with Taya. I played it off really cool, but really, the German wasn’t really what bothered me. It’s her native tongue so I’m sure it’s nice to get a break from a week of English.
It’s another scorching sweaty day as we go to the Palace on the Buda side, Budapest is split into two sides by the Danube. We grab some really cheap Hungarian crepes at this place and then take the old elevator or “funicular” to the top of the palace. On top, it’s surprising that it’s basically a small, cute town up there, along with the palace, which is now a museum. I get some souvenir shopping done and then check out this great view of the outskirts of Buda. The city is really spread out and huge.
Ellen ends up meeting us as Mario just left. We walk around for a while and I awkardly walk ahead and pretend not to know what’s going on as the two girls gossip on about what I could imagine would be the events of the last evening.
We decide to go back and grab a quick beer in the early evening before getting some reading done for class the next day. I shower, read, and it’s suddenly already an hour and I’m downstairs. We plan to get dinner and without many options, we decide to order a pizza, which is a huge ordeal. Finding the menu online, after being told which place to order from the front test, was hard. Then, we called with Ellen’s Austrian phone and they wanted a Hungarian phone number to call back. After repeating a billion numbers, she finally gets my Hungarian number.
The food comes and it’s a crazy amount of food. Christina and Rita had each ordered their own personal pies. Ellen, Miriam, and I split this bolognase pizza that’s 18 inches long. I have a picture up and shit is that boy huge. I barely finish two slices without the crust as I quickly give up, despite being famished. The girls are even better eaters than me as they each finish two full slices.
American Christina is there hanging out with us and she tells us about her horrible ordeal about the ticket checkers. The subway system works with “zones” and she had bought an incorrect or insufficient ticket and got caught by the ticket checkers as she was walking everyone from the dorm to the boat trip. Half of the class went to this boat trip thrown by CEU to this island on the Danube. 90 degree weather on a boat, no thanks, I don’t even have enough time for sightseeing.
The guy asks for her passport, which she doesn’t have and then roughly $40 in fines. She says she doesn’t have it and tells him off like a true New Yorker (well she went to NYU and is actually a Chicagoen?). She eventually pays up, snatches the change from him as he wants to slowly right her a ticket that she doesn’t want, and storms off. She was also supposed to go on the trip, but she couldn’t take all the shit anymore, so she ran off. It really sucks that happened to her.
By the end of the night, my mood still hasn’t gotten much better so the saga continues.
July 9, 2012
Sleep is a strong cure for me as being tired actually messes with my mood and makes me cranky. For some reason, I sense some awkwardness when saying Hi to Miriam, but maybe I’m just creating that in my head because I’ve been such a dramatic bitch all weekend.
After class, I get a strong nap in and I’m feeling even better. Our professor, an active judge at the EU Civil Tribunal, made plans for the class to meet up near the Basilica for a few beers. He’s actually quite down to Earth, we swap stories and they’re not all dominated about “shop.” He ends up paying for 3 rounds for about the 10 of us. The place is super touristy so they’re not cheap for Hungarian standards, maybe $5+ pints. It’s really nice of him to pay for all of us.
July 10, 2012
After class, people are in a chill ass mood and grab lunch at this great hummus place near us. Unfortunately, I think beer every evening is catching up to me and I feel a bit sick. I simply grab a soup as I jealously stare at the delicious hummus and falafel that they’re chomping on.
People then plan on going to this voluntary lecture, which I obviously skip. Miriam on Saturday mentioned that she’ll need a cake for her birthday coming in two days, which coincidentaly is the last day of classes. I quickly get her to shut up and not worry about that. I should freaking be a party planner or something of that sort because I really enjoy this stuff a bit too much.
I walk around the “SoHo” area of Budapest. It’s loaded with gift shops, expensive stores, restaurants, and just loads of tourists. Gerbaud is this famous bakery in the city, but a cake there is unfortunately about $45. I end up going to this bakery near CEU and I order a cake to pick up in two days. They don’t speak English well, but they explain to me the pricing and I confirm with them in two days I’ll be back for a cake.
After that, I take the metro back and where the bus connects to go back to the dorm, there’s a big mall. I step in there in search of a birthday cake, always gotta get a card for the birthday girl, no matter what. I search hi and low and finally find this little shop that sells beautiful antiqued things or kitschy small gifts. I just grab a card and head back for a serious nap.
After I wake, I lock down to get some reading done. Maybe I overslept, but I was really intense for the two hours and felt shitty about it. The drive to finish the reading got me there. Ela was being super annoying planning our Amsterdam trip. Instead of chatting on Skype and figuring it out in one deal, she keeps texting me over and over and over. It keeps interuptting my reading. After I’m done, I run outside to Bambus for a beer and a cigarette.
I text Miriam to see if she wants to come down and join, but she doesn’t get back to me. I guess it’s the shitty sleep schedule that has gotten to me and the intensity of me wanting to finish the reading, but I end the night pretty annoyed for no reason really.
July 11, 2012
I wake up feeling better. People go to this voluntary talk in the afternoon after class and I skip that. I end up going to what I’ve been wanting to go to this whole time, Great Hall Market. It’s this really beautiful, beautiful building that is a food and souvenir shop. On the first floor, they have everything from charcuterie to fresh groceries that the locals shop at. The second floor is filled with tourists buying things. I get a few cool looking magets and also an apron for Luna. I get back sweaty and gross for an immediate shower.
I then for the first time here finally hit the gym. I walk in, look around, and immediately there’s a Mr. Clean looking guy that walks up to me and introduces himself. I’m assuming he wants a spot. He asks where I’m from and does this horrible impression of a New York accent, which I obviously don’t have. He then asks for my weight. I can’t convert it into kilograms off the top of my head and I run to the scale. He wanted 48 kilos, I’m 58. Notice that I still have no clue what is occurring.
He then goes to the tricep dip and wants my help. Usually, you would strap a belt with weight and do those if you wanted more weight. I’m confused what he wants still. I’m thinking that he wants me to jump on his back or something as extra weight. He then goes on him knees and wants me to sit on his shoulders. Yes, like a 5 year old kid. I immediately get apprehensive.
“Hey, I can spot you or help you with something else, but that’s not safe.” I’d be 10 feet in the air sitting on a guy’s shoulders as he’s holding himself up with his hands. There’s no way that’s good gym or safety etiquette anywhere. Instead, I end up standing behind him and pushing his shoulders down with my hands. My face is basically in his ass and I have to turn away as he keeps yelling, “Harder! Harder! Harder!” It’s a hella weird experience.
After that, I post on Facebook if anyone wants to go out because it’s our second to last night. Only Martina, the Slovakian with a British accent that everyone gossips about because people love gossip and she’s become the target, responds. She’s actually not that bad, but she does seem a bit pretentiously smart at times so people hate, hate that. She lives in a hostel downtown though so I’m not going all the way in for that, so nothing happens.
However, I go outside at night and see American Christina and Miriam hanging out. It’s Mirima’s birthday at 12:00AM so we hang out there for a while. I telll the gym story and Christina literally dies. It really is a hilarious story, but she really gets a kick out of it.
July 12, 2012
At the end of our class, they throw a little party with homemade lemonade and whatever juice non-alcoholic cocktails. They really are good about their fresh drinks here for some reason. They even give everyone an attendence diploma. It’s really quite a deal that I got for the tuition. They’ve thrown multiple events, every class at a break where they had the service bring fresh coffee and bottled water, and this last event thing. CEU really knows how to treat students top notch.
After class, people are sitting around for coffee and chilling because it’s the last day of classes. I split up from them to pick up the cake. I walk into the shop and remember the foreboding earlier, yeah, they didn’t order the cake for me. They start asking me questions as if I was a new person. “You’re picking it up when?”
Motherfucker, what other Asian guy came here two days ago to have a serious cake conversation with your Hungarian ass. They have this small cake, but it’s written on with whatnot and they don’t know how to write on the cake and can only offer me this ugly plastic thing that says “Happy Birthday” in Hungarian.
So now I’m on a cake trek. I walk all over the place and restaurants need ordering too. I finally go the place that I’ve been wanting to check out for a while. It feels like a really cool place that they would have in New York. Clean, white, somewhat like out of Willy Wonka, and even New York themed menus and whatnot. I go scoop up some random candy because that’s sort of obligatory.
They thankfully also have these gorgeous cakes. I get one and it was only $25, much cheaper than my other options and the one that I thought I had ordered. They gave me “28” in candles, a really sturdy huge box, and drew on “Happy Birthday Miriam” in rainbow. The place was a godsend. Definitely should be more on the radar for people going to Budapest.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/cafes-bars/sugar-shop-petofi-utca
I get home, party planner me posts on Facebook about when we’re meeting tonight for birthday festivities. I napped, make some quick dinner, get dressed, and head down. It turns out to be 10 of us. This would be a good time to recap the group that we’ve ended up bonding.
Timothy, a tall thin Belgian guy. A TA at his Master’s program and looks a bit like a long lost Jonas brother. Kid is probably a lady killer.
Merieke, a nice Estonian.
Erik, a Slovakian that poorly dresses himself for some reason. Miriam and I actually find his Facebook picture where he has super long Fabio like hair and his shirt off. Freaking Slovakian Fabio, but now he has that ugly medium long hair with a part in the middle and really ugly sneakers.
Italitan Christina. A nice girl that can talk your head off with her decent/good English with a strong accent.
Rita, small little girl from Malta. The stories of Malta make it seem like a great party destination.
Petra, a very pretty blonde Czech girl. She’s maybe uncomfortable with English and has a really mousy, quite voice. Girl could be a heartbreaker with more revealing outfits and a sass to her attitude. Sexuality is not only a look, but a personality.
Ellen, the former Vermontian prosecutor that moved to Vienna for her husband and the “chaperone” as she’s the oldest easily, but during that night, I tried to in the nicest way tell her how awesome she was at the age of 38. I definitely look up to her young attitude and humor.
American Christina, NYU alumn pal, who’s been here for a year for a Master program at CEU. She is huge in our nights as she is the “local,” knowing how to get everywhere, little tips, and all the places to hang out. She’s got that New York attitude to tell her face off, but also funny as fuck. We’re set on hanging out in NYC when I get back as she’s moving in with her boyfriend immediately after our summer program.
And Miriam, tall, chill Bavarian.
We’re outside in the back of the dorm, outside of the Bambus Bar. Basically the dorm has this bar where they served bottle beer and a few options of wine. It’s become our thing to constantly “Bambus.”
I tell the gym story again for the people that hadn’t heard it. Funny thing, Erik went to the gym and the same thing happened to him. At least the part where he had to use his hands to push down Mr. Clean’s shoulders. It’s crazy that we have almost the same story. We’re so loud that one of us jokes that we’re might as well be the “special” group at CEU. We have a big gang and we’re cackling our heads off and people around probably think George Soros is so nice to let in special ed kids come to the school.
People are chilling out with some beer, wine, and the local special, Unicum (a more herby tasting Jager). I end up having to go to the store around the corner to get cigarettes. Hey, it’s a bad habit that I’ve been smoking more, but Christina, Ellen, Miriam, and I are the smoking gang. It’s a group social thing for us, but more importantly, they’re basically $3.50 a pack, so when in Europe…
I also take this opportunity to run upstairs and grab the cake. Booom, what a surprise. It goes off really well and we can’t even finish the cake. It’s rich and really darn chocolatety. People really enjoy it, especially Miriam. I appreciate the appreciation, but again, I think I’m made to be a planner of things or something. I really like the task of planning things or just doing special things for people. We all deserve at least one day a year to feel special and if I can facilitate that, I’m proud to be involved. Hell, we wouldn’t have this great last day of classes party possibly if it also weren’t a birthday too. It was such a fine bonding experience for the group.
We eventually move out to Margaret Island. It’s this small island on the Danube. We take a pretty quick tram there. As it’s in the middle of the river, there is a great view of the Palace and Parliament light up at night. We take a few seconds taking pictures. We then get to Chachacha, which feels like an outdoor island bar, but with a dancefloor that is pumping Euro-dance music. Every song is very Euro, 90s, intense, and sounds all the same.
On the walk there, it’s a weird feeling like walking through Prospect Park at night or something. It’s basically a big island park, but with a few bars/clubs here and there. After some intense dancing, we move onto the next place. At some point, I start making somewhat of a move on Petra, dancing with her, and whatnot. Do the spin move fellas, it’s a fun way to innocently make moves and dance with the girl at the same time.
The next place: http://welovebudapest.com/en/cafes-bars/holdudvar
This place is super sick. It’s nicely decorated outside with red lanterns and tables. It used to be a casino, so it still has a huge neon “Casino” sign. The inside is a huge dancing area with really high ceilings and the walls have large old fashioned paintings. We dance our butts off and decide around 4:00 to get going. I spend a large amount of the time hanging out with Petra, dancing with her, etc. We then go to Blaha to grab a quick gyro before the night bus.
The night bus suddenly comes and we run on. We spent 20-30 minutes on it and begin getting off until Christina realizes that Ellen and Rita are missing. I feel bad because I was doing headcounts all night and I assumed they were on the bus. Christina calls them and her and Miriam go off to figure it out about how they can get back.
I sit outside for a last cigarette and texting Luna on Whatsapp until suddenly, Rita and Ellen appear. They went on the first bus and got mixed up on the rush. It’s crazy that they were on the bus together, just the two of them, for some long before they realized what was up. They got a cheap cab and were able to quickly get back. It’s a huge relief for all of us.
July 13, 2012
I wake up without enough sleep and get into studying mode, despite being hungover and tired as fuck. It’s a Friday and we have today off for our final tomorrow. It’s open book, 2 questions in 4 hours, so it doesn’t seem bad at all. I gather my class notes into a doc, print them, and fuck it. I give up. I’m not an idiot, I can look at my notes when I write. Also, they tell us that no one actually fails the test. If it’s pass/fail, how can I mess up. I understand the themes of the professors and one would have to be braindead or illiterate in order not pass.
After a nap from 8-10:00, I’m feeling a lot better, but would rather hang and relax than study. I sit outside with a beer and a cigarette to just chill out before getting to bed and waking up for the test and Miriam comes out. She couldn’t sleep so we decide to hang, beer and cigarettes, the Bambus way.
Last night, a drunken Miriam and I had a one and one and she asked if I knew what had happened with the Austrian. I told her that I’m not braindead and could only assume. I tried to pry her for more, but that’s all she gave me after I confirmed that I knew what was up. Ellen even said, “See! Of course she knew,” so that’s why Miriam has been tip toeing around me a bit I guess.
We end up having the conversation fully tonight and she shares that they met the week before. Apparently they were touching legs and feet for hours, but I only noticed it in the end. Obviously the night details weren’t there, but we know what happened. They had coffee in the morning and Miriam dramatically says that she couldn’t look at him. I joke about it because it sounds like she’s writing a romance novel.
He then gave her a kiss in public when they said Goodbye and wrote a deep, awkward Facebook message when he got back. I was surprised because that’s extremely forward and creepy to most girls, but Miriam fell for the trap. She’s curious to see where it goes with this guy, but I just tell her not to keep thinking about it. She’s bothered that he’s not quick enough at messaging back on FB, but she should be looking for guys, instead of focusing on some random fling in Budapest.
Her age, as in reaching 30 in two years, and being young with love, because of a breakup from a 10 year relationship is what I chalk up to her disillusionment with dating or dealing with men.
In the end, it’s a lovely conversation and Miriam is a fun gal to chat with, share, and laugh with. Thinking back to it now, that childish dramatic Darwin a week ago was such a joke. I blame it on tiredness and getting drunk with that. Well, I’m glad that is all gone and this can all end on a friendly high note.
July 14, 2012
Unfortunately, I haven’t hung out with Lizzie yet, the girl I met in a hostel in Paris and then showed around in NYC when she came in the fall. I was studying yesterday and tonight is the last night to go out with almost all the people. She also is going to this “sparty” thing where it’s basically a huge pool party, which I’m really not down for. Public water, drinking, too many people, lack of clothing for me, etc.
I’m running late to the final and there’s this breathtaking petite woman sitting at the bus stop. She’s a little version of Kate Beckinsale with the skin complexion of Sheryl Crow. She asks for my help as it turns out she’s a new student. She’s from Mexico and it’s her first time going into the city. I teach her the route, how to get a week pass, and how to get to campus. She’s just sight seeing for the day. Her name is Maria and she’s young looking, but actually 27 and works at an human rights NGO. I give her my name so she can Facebook me in case she wants to hang for the next few days that I’m here.
The test goes really well and easy. They gave us too much time as I sat there for a good hour and a half doing nothing. I was blown away by people who said they didn’t have enough time. There was a 1000 word limit to each question. That equates to less than 8 double spaced pages, both questions combined. I couldn’t imagine what people doing instead of writing.
After that, we go to this sick place called Most for lunch and a beer
http://welovebudapest.com/en/restaurants-bistros/most
We grab a quick glass of wine afterwards and I’m exhausted. Some of us split and we go back. I take a serious nap and set the time when everyone will meet down at Bambus for almost everyone’s last night. I run late and we just wait until almost 11:00. I call Miriam because her, Christina, and Ellen haven’t shown up. They’re leaving, how they could not say Bye.
Turns out that they went to dinner and they’ve been drinking and out all day. I’m impressed. However, they don’t want to move out. The rest are pretty lame about it. Constantina, another person who has been here for a year, is down though. Rita is too because she leaves on Tuesday. I have to say my sad, sad Goodbyes to everyone, which really sucks.
I’ve had a situation like these where I met such cool people in a short people of time, gotten to know them, and then suddenly have to say Goodbye. I try not to think hard about it because it really gets me sad and nostalgic.
After deciding to go out, backing in and out, we finally make our move. Rita, Constantina, and I. We take the night bus at 12:00AM, which is a smart idea as it’s faster than leaving earlier when the metro is running as the night bus goes straight downtown.
She shows us this place, which is pretty chill and I get a ridiculously cheap double of Johnny on the rocks.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/gozsdu-mano-klub
It’s raining, but we then move out to this really weird place.
welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/mika-tivadar-mulato
It has a strange downstairs area where they are playing jazz from the 30s and people are dancing to it. It’s a really electic choice of music and I would never expect it in some hidden random place in Budapest.
Next, we go back to one of the most frequented places in Budapest, the most popular ruinpub.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/szimpla-kert
It really reminds me of Prague with its weird decorations all the random rooms and nooks and crannies. They play weird music too like “La Bamba,” “Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, and Smash Mouth’s “I’m A Believer.” It’s 3:30 and Constantina wants to go. I agree, but she feels bad that she’s being a party pooper. I plan to do sightseeing my last day, so it’s good that she did that. We split. Call it an “early” night getting back by 4:00.
July 15, 2012
I get up to some food and laundry. I finally get my butt out to door by 2-3:00 and see Parliament. I also see this movie getting shot as there is a really old looking car and people dressed in 30s clothing. I go to a random nice restaurant.
http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2009/03/16/szabadsag-cafe-and-restaurant-return-to-elegance-flair/
One of the best plates of food I’ve had in Budapest, paprika chicken thigh with yogurt sauce and gnocchi, and a water was only about $10. What a joke.
I then go to Ocktagon to get a look. Nothing much is there, but a bunch of shitty tourist bars. The Blaha area or where I was yesterday really has a great feel to it that I would rather like to know better.
I get back and nap again. I run to McDonald’s because that’s convenient for dinner. I get this McWrap, which sounds like a great Greek wrap, but the sauce is pretty McDonald’s gross and too strong of fake bleu cheese. The meat is just their burger meat.
I meet up with Rita and Christina. We say our Goodbyes, though Christina I’ll be seeing two weeks back in NYC.
It’s really been a lovely trip. I really wish there was more time to see the sights because it’s such a nice city. The nightlife didn’t seem to wild, but I did like what I got to see at least. Christina was definitely an all-star for showing us the spots.
It’s been a killer here that this city isn’t “Yelped.” I rely on it so much in New York and it’s weird to feel “lost” in where I need to go. Especially in a city I’ve never been to before, scrounging through the many blogs, personal websites, and travel sites is cumbersome, but I get some stuff out of it. I’m able to find one of the nicest restaurants in the city, which conveniently is around the corner from my school and has a lunch menu.
I have 3 hours for a lunch break and get their two course and a beer. Their Krombacher wheat beer is exactly what I want on a hot summer day. Their pea and octopus is a fine dish. The peas and pea sauce could do something more, but the octopus is so soft and well cooked. I could eat pounds of this stuff.
The next is a crackled skin pig ear. I’ve never had it this way before with the roasting process and really gives the ear another dimension with its soft cartilage inside. Unfortunately, there’s a bit too much Maldon salt along with the thick velouté sauce. Otherwise, hearty and delicious dish.
Two course and an import beer at a really nice restaurant in New York? $25 without tax and tip? Here, barely $16. Tax is included and tip is only 10% here. Budapest!
After another round of class, I get back to campus and take a long, long nap. I’m feeling bored, groggy from maybe sleeping a bit too much, or just I don’t know, but I want to get out. I post on the class’ Facebook group if anyone wants to go out tonight, a Thursday, and no one replies. However, I get outside to the “bar” that’s downstairs with a large smoking area in the bag and find Ellen, Miriam, Christina, and Rita. I have a few beers with them. It’s great hanging out to help my shit mood.
July 6, 2012
After class, I walk off with Ellen and Miriam to grab lunch on a hot day. It’s another sweaty and gross hot day in Budapest. We find a touristy spot. After a chicken schnitzel and a beer, we eventually split up. I go to Vodaphone to buy a SIM card for $11 in order to keep in contact with people. The stupid EU still has service charges, despite trying to be an economic single market. Texts to other Europeans, basically everyone here, cost $.43. Each! Then again, I won’t be using the phone too much and will probably be fine for the trip. Turns out calling people will probably be better.
I made plans with Miriam about going out and all that stuff later because it’s our first Friday. Party party! I told her I plan to make dinner and she’s invited. I go to the supermarket, which is relatively American. I get a shit ton of stuff, including a bottle of wine, and it turns out to be only $35. This is way more than just one meal. Restaurants are cheaper, the supermarkets are even cheaper, so go figure.
I get back and figure out the kitchens. Each floor has a big kitchen with microwave and many fridges and dishes. Only the 10th floor has stoves though. I unpack the food and go to take a quick nap. Miriam FB messaged me if I wanted to go with to the mall because she had something to return, but I was buying groceries. I let her know when dinner’ll be. After a useful nap, I quickly do some laundry because freaking the heat has ran through my clothes in 6 days. Miriam calls me to grab a beer, so we sit outside for a bit. There’s an FB post about people meeting at 8:30, but that’s too early.
I split from Miriam for a second and get the deets from everyone in the lobby. It’s a huge group of them and they plan on pregaming in the dorm, so that works out. They plan on waiting for Christina, who is our local tour guide as she has lived here for a year, despite being American. I get all the logistics figured out and people known that I’m THE person on top of things. Someone needs to take charge and make sure that plans go smoothly.
I run back to Miriam and let her know about the plans. She goes to get ready as I run to make dinner. Pasta with olive oil, oregano, chicken, squash, and peppers with some mozzarella. She go downstairs to join the group outside as they drink. After we finish, I head up to get ready as people continue to pregame. I get ready, I run down, have a beer, and a few shots of Becherovka, courtesy of Petra, the Czech in our group. Stuff is delicious.
Our gang of about 10 heads out to the metro. It’s rainey, but not bad. We go to this ruin pub and has a really hot room with Foozeball or “kicker.” After losing, I run outside because it’s way too hot. During this, I’m drinking Jameson and Bombay on the rocks like a boss. It’s a shame not to when it costs $4 for a double and they don’t tip here. What a joke.
The place is connected to Christina’s favorite ruinpub. It’s basically an open roof courtyard. Two bars connected, pretty sweet deal.
I find some people from the another program, Farah and Agy. It’s a shame that we’re here at the same time, live in the same dorm, have also a small group of a few dozen students, but don’t really intermingle. After some pleasantries, I get Christina to move us onto another place because I’m a move and shaker, but I also just want to see more places.
A couple people decide to leave and then we ship off to another place. It’s pretty darn cool and reminds me of what it’s like to be in an Eastern European club again. I didn’t bring my iPhone as it’s only a camera and I have my shitty “high school” keyboard phone with me as it’s the one that holds a SIM card. European iPhones can rock SIM cards… Stupid America.
We skip the club and go immediately to the top floor. I wish I could take a picture of the incredible view of the city at night. We then go downstairs and start getting our dubstep on. Finally dancing in Eastern Europe, I’ve waited for this day for almost 5 years dammit!
The place is loud as fuck as our ears are ringing as we walk down the many flights. This must be a complete mess for drunk people trying to get up 5-6 flights of stairs. We then head off to Doboz. Check out the pictures and situation here:
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/doboz
It’s the most modern and cool looking of the places. Timothy and I, the only guys, though we’re with 5-6 girls, have to pay a cover. It’s only $4 and you get two coupons that directly deduct from your drinks, so it’s not really a “cover.”
Miriam and I share a beer and then we’re off to dancing. I got to hear the Prague classic song, David Guetta – “Love is Gone.” Sooooo fun. However, I quickly notice the place is a cockfest. Timothy left early with Petra and it’s just Christina, Italian Christina, Rita, Miriam, and I. Not too much creeping, but there’s that poorly dressed fat guy with glasses in a salmon polo. He’s harmless and tries to get into dancing with Rita and whatnot. There’s that fun game where the girls have to dance with themselves and fend off the wolves.
There’s this really strangely dressed guy that’s dancing really funny. He talks to Christina and then he walks over to me and is very forward about buying me a drink. I take it as a kind offer because he’s trying to “into the group” of girls. I later find out from Christina that he was asking about my ethnicity and all these other questions. The gay parade is tomorrow, so Christina is under a strong impression that he was gay and trying to hit on me. Flattered, but my first “nightlife” story of Budapest, really?!
It’s eventually almost 5:00 and we grab a latenight gyro and then take the night bus. We get back by 5:30 and the sun is going up. We split up and call it a night.
July 7, 2012
I wake up hacking. Maybe I’m slightly sick, but smoking a pack probably was not a good idea either. My sleep is pretty shitty and at 1:00, I get a call from Miriam. We planned on going sight seeing today. I tell her that I’m fracking tired and want to back out. She gives me an hour and a half. I rest, but don’t really sleep. I’m all hungover and tired and miserable, but I get my ass out. We go to see the Basilica. There’s a wedding in there and we go to the top to see the view.
Miriam turns on some “Schmosby” about turning 28 the coming week and being single, not married, complaing, etc. etc.. Seeing the wedding triggered it. We share about relationships, life, dating history, etc. It all makes a bit her sense when she explains that she broke up with a boyfriend of 10 years almost a year ago, but is still friends with him and regrets breaking up with him. Dude, that is not a good situation.
We then head over to see the gay pride parade run through the middle of the city. It’s a pretty large parade of thousands. The cops are in full ass gear with armor and riot gear and all that. There are only about 100 anti-gay Facists or whatnot. No violence occurs.
We then walk over to the bridge, but then quickly turn around as it’s too late to go all the way up to the palace. We find a random restaurant off the touristy road called Spajz. Extremely cheap as the meal is about $5-6 with beer, starter, main dish. Nice liver mouse and a really easy home cooked beef stew that they called “goulash.” Different from the Czech kind I’ve had.
We then head back and Miriam is not down to go out. I would like to go out, but no one seemed to be down for it. I succum to it because we can have a beer at the backyard bar, chill out, have an easy night, catch up on sleep, and then have a good day of sight seeing again the next day.
Miriam and I sit there and Italian Christina joins. Ellen and Mario join. Mario is her husband that is visiting for the day. They’re high school sweethearts from the age of 14, but then separated or whatnot, but finally got back together. She’s now 38 and she moved to Vienna last year to be with him as he works there. Ellen has been also around a lot and her and Miriam have become good friends. Ellen is actually super dope. She’s really cool and funny to hang out with despite the fact that I don’t think I’ve had a “young” conversation with anyone over the age of 35. So as a reminder, stay young in spirit and heart if you want to be awesome when you get older.
We meet this girl Taya, who has this preppy hipster “too smart for you” soft way of speaking. She’s doing comparative education studies and she seems alright at first. This is her first day in Budapest and she walked over to say Hi and is trying to meet people. I think that’s a not bad thing to do. Miriam and I go upstairs to get the bottle of wine I bought for dinner that we never had. We try pushing the cork through, but then we get a knife, go through the cork, twist, pull, viola! Opened a bottle of wine. Miriam does complain about Taya though.
It turns out that she’s right. Ellen and Mario left and I later find out that Taya just talked their heads off until they decided to leave. I’ve never had such a conversation with someone. Austrian and Miriam are chatting in German and I’m literally getting lectured by Taya.She starts trying to educate me about things and even does the move where you pull out your fingers and try to preface your argument with the points that you’re going to make. Her questions are stupidly complicated and filled with comments that I actually have to ask, “What was your question again exactly?,” because there never really was a question at any point, just yapping. I try to steer the conversation away from how heavy it is, but she is stuck.
“Maybe I’m crazy, but I want to kiss you right now.”
I haven’t dated enough and not experienced enough of life recently, but this girl is just awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t fallen over my feet like an idiot and she’s surely not that “woman,” but life occurs and emotions arise. It’s the context that I haven’t dated in forever and gotten myself out there.
The awkwardness of her just chatting in German with the Austrian guy was weird times, but more in the sense that I actually cared. I noticed they were touching legs at the end of the night and that definitely sold it for me, especially when they quickly left at one point.
I let them walk up to their dorm or whatver and stayed myself to not be a cockblock and sat there for a few minutes having a cigerette. It’s almost all a drunk emotion, but I cared. People are people, but jealously is stupid, yet a strong feeling. I avoid it 99% of my life as a brick wall to avoid these things because they’re absolutely “useless.” In the end, aren’t we all humans with weaknesses. Busy minds and heavy hearts fall hardest.
July 8, 2012
Miriam and I had set to meet up at 12:00 so we could go sight seeing. It’s another day of being hungover and tired. I get a text that she’s going to be a few minutes late as I wait in the lobby, the Austrian is off to home and I say Goodbye to him.
Miriam comes down and begins profusely apologizing for being rude and chatting in another language yesterday as I was stuck with Taya. I played it off really cool, but really, the German wasn’t really what bothered me. It’s her native tongue so I’m sure it’s nice to get a break from a week of English.
It’s another scorching sweaty day as we go to the Palace on the Buda side, Budapest is split into two sides by the Danube. We grab some really cheap Hungarian crepes at this place and then take the old elevator or “funicular” to the top of the palace. On top, it’s surprising that it’s basically a small, cute town up there, along with the palace, which is now a museum. I get some souvenir shopping done and then check out this great view of the outskirts of Buda. The city is really spread out and huge.
Ellen ends up meeting us as Mario just left. We walk around for a while and I awkardly walk ahead and pretend not to know what’s going on as the two girls gossip on about what I could imagine would be the events of the last evening.
We decide to go back and grab a quick beer in the early evening before getting some reading done for class the next day. I shower, read, and it’s suddenly already an hour and I’m downstairs. We plan to get dinner and without many options, we decide to order a pizza, which is a huge ordeal. Finding the menu online, after being told which place to order from the front test, was hard. Then, we called with Ellen’s Austrian phone and they wanted a Hungarian phone number to call back. After repeating a billion numbers, she finally gets my Hungarian number.
The food comes and it’s a crazy amount of food. Christina and Rita had each ordered their own personal pies. Ellen, Miriam, and I split this bolognase pizza that’s 18 inches long. I have a picture up and shit is that boy huge. I barely finish two slices without the crust as I quickly give up, despite being famished. The girls are even better eaters than me as they each finish two full slices.
American Christina is there hanging out with us and she tells us about her horrible ordeal about the ticket checkers. The subway system works with “zones” and she had bought an incorrect or insufficient ticket and got caught by the ticket checkers as she was walking everyone from the dorm to the boat trip. Half of the class went to this boat trip thrown by CEU to this island on the Danube. 90 degree weather on a boat, no thanks, I don’t even have enough time for sightseeing.
The guy asks for her passport, which she doesn’t have and then roughly $40 in fines. She says she doesn’t have it and tells him off like a true New Yorker (well she went to NYU and is actually a Chicagoen?). She eventually pays up, snatches the change from him as he wants to slowly right her a ticket that she doesn’t want, and storms off. She was also supposed to go on the trip, but she couldn’t take all the shit anymore, so she ran off. It really sucks that happened to her.
By the end of the night, my mood still hasn’t gotten much better so the saga continues.
July 9, 2012
Sleep is a strong cure for me as being tired actually messes with my mood and makes me cranky. For some reason, I sense some awkwardness when saying Hi to Miriam, but maybe I’m just creating that in my head because I’ve been such a dramatic bitch all weekend.
After class, I get a strong nap in and I’m feeling even better. Our professor, an active judge at the EU Civil Tribunal, made plans for the class to meet up near the Basilica for a few beers. He’s actually quite down to Earth, we swap stories and they’re not all dominated about “shop.” He ends up paying for 3 rounds for about the 10 of us. The place is super touristy so they’re not cheap for Hungarian standards, maybe $5+ pints. It’s really nice of him to pay for all of us.
July 10, 2012
After class, people are in a chill ass mood and grab lunch at this great hummus place near us. Unfortunately, I think beer every evening is catching up to me and I feel a bit sick. I simply grab a soup as I jealously stare at the delicious hummus and falafel that they’re chomping on.
People then plan on going to this voluntary lecture, which I obviously skip. Miriam on Saturday mentioned that she’ll need a cake for her birthday coming in two days, which coincidentaly is the last day of classes. I quickly get her to shut up and not worry about that. I should freaking be a party planner or something of that sort because I really enjoy this stuff a bit too much.
I walk around the “SoHo” area of Budapest. It’s loaded with gift shops, expensive stores, restaurants, and just loads of tourists. Gerbaud is this famous bakery in the city, but a cake there is unfortunately about $45. I end up going to this bakery near CEU and I order a cake to pick up in two days. They don’t speak English well, but they explain to me the pricing and I confirm with them in two days I’ll be back for a cake.
After that, I take the metro back and where the bus connects to go back to the dorm, there’s a big mall. I step in there in search of a birthday cake, always gotta get a card for the birthday girl, no matter what. I search hi and low and finally find this little shop that sells beautiful antiqued things or kitschy small gifts. I just grab a card and head back for a serious nap.
After I wake, I lock down to get some reading done. Maybe I overslept, but I was really intense for the two hours and felt shitty about it. The drive to finish the reading got me there. Ela was being super annoying planning our Amsterdam trip. Instead of chatting on Skype and figuring it out in one deal, she keeps texting me over and over and over. It keeps interuptting my reading. After I’m done, I run outside to Bambus for a beer and a cigarette.
I text Miriam to see if she wants to come down and join, but she doesn’t get back to me. I guess it’s the shitty sleep schedule that has gotten to me and the intensity of me wanting to finish the reading, but I end the night pretty annoyed for no reason really.
July 11, 2012
I wake up feeling better. People go to this voluntary talk in the afternoon after class and I skip that. I end up going to what I’ve been wanting to go to this whole time, Great Hall Market. It’s this really beautiful, beautiful building that is a food and souvenir shop. On the first floor, they have everything from charcuterie to fresh groceries that the locals shop at. The second floor is filled with tourists buying things. I get a few cool looking magets and also an apron for Luna. I get back sweaty and gross for an immediate shower.
I then for the first time here finally hit the gym. I walk in, look around, and immediately there’s a Mr. Clean looking guy that walks up to me and introduces himself. I’m assuming he wants a spot. He asks where I’m from and does this horrible impression of a New York accent, which I obviously don’t have. He then asks for my weight. I can’t convert it into kilograms off the top of my head and I run to the scale. He wanted 48 kilos, I’m 58. Notice that I still have no clue what is occurring.
He then goes to the tricep dip and wants my help. Usually, you would strap a belt with weight and do those if you wanted more weight. I’m confused what he wants still. I’m thinking that he wants me to jump on his back or something as extra weight. He then goes on him knees and wants me to sit on his shoulders. Yes, like a 5 year old kid. I immediately get apprehensive.
“Hey, I can spot you or help you with something else, but that’s not safe.” I’d be 10 feet in the air sitting on a guy’s shoulders as he’s holding himself up with his hands. There’s no way that’s good gym or safety etiquette anywhere. Instead, I end up standing behind him and pushing his shoulders down with my hands. My face is basically in his ass and I have to turn away as he keeps yelling, “Harder! Harder! Harder!” It’s a hella weird experience.
After that, I post on Facebook if anyone wants to go out because it’s our second to last night. Only Martina, the Slovakian with a British accent that everyone gossips about because people love gossip and she’s become the target, responds. She’s actually not that bad, but she does seem a bit pretentiously smart at times so people hate, hate that. She lives in a hostel downtown though so I’m not going all the way in for that, so nothing happens.
However, I go outside at night and see American Christina and Miriam hanging out. It’s Mirima’s birthday at 12:00AM so we hang out there for a while. I telll the gym story and Christina literally dies. It really is a hilarious story, but she really gets a kick out of it.
July 12, 2012
At the end of our class, they throw a little party with homemade lemonade and whatever juice non-alcoholic cocktails. They really are good about their fresh drinks here for some reason. They even give everyone an attendence diploma. It’s really quite a deal that I got for the tuition. They’ve thrown multiple events, every class at a break where they had the service bring fresh coffee and bottled water, and this last event thing. CEU really knows how to treat students top notch.
After class, people are sitting around for coffee and chilling because it’s the last day of classes. I split up from them to pick up the cake. I walk into the shop and remember the foreboding earlier, yeah, they didn’t order the cake for me. They start asking me questions as if I was a new person. “You’re picking it up when?”
Motherfucker, what other Asian guy came here two days ago to have a serious cake conversation with your Hungarian ass. They have this small cake, but it’s written on with whatnot and they don’t know how to write on the cake and can only offer me this ugly plastic thing that says “Happy Birthday” in Hungarian.
So now I’m on a cake trek. I walk all over the place and restaurants need ordering too. I finally go the place that I’ve been wanting to check out for a while. It feels like a really cool place that they would have in New York. Clean, white, somewhat like out of Willy Wonka, and even New York themed menus and whatnot. I go scoop up some random candy because that’s sort of obligatory.
They thankfully also have these gorgeous cakes. I get one and it was only $25, much cheaper than my other options and the one that I thought I had ordered. They gave me “28” in candles, a really sturdy huge box, and drew on “Happy Birthday Miriam” in rainbow. The place was a godsend. Definitely should be more on the radar for people going to Budapest.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/cafes-bars/sugar-shop-petofi-utca
I get home, party planner me posts on Facebook about when we’re meeting tonight for birthday festivities. I napped, make some quick dinner, get dressed, and head down. It turns out to be 10 of us. This would be a good time to recap the group that we’ve ended up bonding.
Timothy, a tall thin Belgian guy. A TA at his Master’s program and looks a bit like a long lost Jonas brother. Kid is probably a lady killer.
Merieke, a nice Estonian.
Erik, a Slovakian that poorly dresses himself for some reason. Miriam and I actually find his Facebook picture where he has super long Fabio like hair and his shirt off. Freaking Slovakian Fabio, but now he has that ugly medium long hair with a part in the middle and really ugly sneakers.
Italitan Christina. A nice girl that can talk your head off with her decent/good English with a strong accent.
Rita, small little girl from Malta. The stories of Malta make it seem like a great party destination.
Petra, a very pretty blonde Czech girl. She’s maybe uncomfortable with English and has a really mousy, quite voice. Girl could be a heartbreaker with more revealing outfits and a sass to her attitude. Sexuality is not only a look, but a personality.
Ellen, the former Vermontian prosecutor that moved to Vienna for her husband and the “chaperone” as she’s the oldest easily, but during that night, I tried to in the nicest way tell her how awesome she was at the age of 38. I definitely look up to her young attitude and humor.
American Christina, NYU alumn pal, who’s been here for a year for a Master program at CEU. She is huge in our nights as she is the “local,” knowing how to get everywhere, little tips, and all the places to hang out. She’s got that New York attitude to tell her face off, but also funny as fuck. We’re set on hanging out in NYC when I get back as she’s moving in with her boyfriend immediately after our summer program.
And Miriam, tall, chill Bavarian.
We’re outside in the back of the dorm, outside of the Bambus Bar. Basically the dorm has this bar where they served bottle beer and a few options of wine. It’s become our thing to constantly “Bambus.”
I tell the gym story again for the people that hadn’t heard it. Funny thing, Erik went to the gym and the same thing happened to him. At least the part where he had to use his hands to push down Mr. Clean’s shoulders. It’s crazy that we have almost the same story. We’re so loud that one of us jokes that we’re might as well be the “special” group at CEU. We have a big gang and we’re cackling our heads off and people around probably think George Soros is so nice to let in special ed kids come to the school.
People are chilling out with some beer, wine, and the local special, Unicum (a more herby tasting Jager). I end up having to go to the store around the corner to get cigarettes. Hey, it’s a bad habit that I’ve been smoking more, but Christina, Ellen, Miriam, and I are the smoking gang. It’s a group social thing for us, but more importantly, they’re basically $3.50 a pack, so when in Europe…
I also take this opportunity to run upstairs and grab the cake. Booom, what a surprise. It goes off really well and we can’t even finish the cake. It’s rich and really darn chocolatety. People really enjoy it, especially Miriam. I appreciate the appreciation, but again, I think I’m made to be a planner of things or something. I really like the task of planning things or just doing special things for people. We all deserve at least one day a year to feel special and if I can facilitate that, I’m proud to be involved. Hell, we wouldn’t have this great last day of classes party possibly if it also weren’t a birthday too. It was such a fine bonding experience for the group.
We eventually move out to Margaret Island. It’s this small island on the Danube. We take a pretty quick tram there. As it’s in the middle of the river, there is a great view of the Palace and Parliament light up at night. We take a few seconds taking pictures. We then get to Chachacha, which feels like an outdoor island bar, but with a dancefloor that is pumping Euro-dance music. Every song is very Euro, 90s, intense, and sounds all the same.
On the walk there, it’s a weird feeling like walking through Prospect Park at night or something. It’s basically a big island park, but with a few bars/clubs here and there. After some intense dancing, we move onto the next place. At some point, I start making somewhat of a move on Petra, dancing with her, and whatnot. Do the spin move fellas, it’s a fun way to innocently make moves and dance with the girl at the same time.
The next place: http://welovebudapest.com/en/cafes-bars/holdudvar
This place is super sick. It’s nicely decorated outside with red lanterns and tables. It used to be a casino, so it still has a huge neon “Casino” sign. The inside is a huge dancing area with really high ceilings and the walls have large old fashioned paintings. We dance our butts off and decide around 4:00 to get going. I spend a large amount of the time hanging out with Petra, dancing with her, etc. We then go to Blaha to grab a quick gyro before the night bus.
The night bus suddenly comes and we run on. We spent 20-30 minutes on it and begin getting off until Christina realizes that Ellen and Rita are missing. I feel bad because I was doing headcounts all night and I assumed they were on the bus. Christina calls them and her and Miriam go off to figure it out about how they can get back.
I sit outside for a last cigarette and texting Luna on Whatsapp until suddenly, Rita and Ellen appear. They went on the first bus and got mixed up on the rush. It’s crazy that they were on the bus together, just the two of them, for some long before they realized what was up. They got a cheap cab and were able to quickly get back. It’s a huge relief for all of us.
July 13, 2012
I wake up without enough sleep and get into studying mode, despite being hungover and tired as fuck. It’s a Friday and we have today off for our final tomorrow. It’s open book, 2 questions in 4 hours, so it doesn’t seem bad at all. I gather my class notes into a doc, print them, and fuck it. I give up. I’m not an idiot, I can look at my notes when I write. Also, they tell us that no one actually fails the test. If it’s pass/fail, how can I mess up. I understand the themes of the professors and one would have to be braindead or illiterate in order not pass.
After a nap from 8-10:00, I’m feeling a lot better, but would rather hang and relax than study. I sit outside with a beer and a cigarette to just chill out before getting to bed and waking up for the test and Miriam comes out. She couldn’t sleep so we decide to hang, beer and cigarettes, the Bambus way.
Last night, a drunken Miriam and I had a one and one and she asked if I knew what had happened with the Austrian. I told her that I’m not braindead and could only assume. I tried to pry her for more, but that’s all she gave me after I confirmed that I knew what was up. Ellen even said, “See! Of course she knew,” so that’s why Miriam has been tip toeing around me a bit I guess.
We end up having the conversation fully tonight and she shares that they met the week before. Apparently they were touching legs and feet for hours, but I only noticed it in the end. Obviously the night details weren’t there, but we know what happened. They had coffee in the morning and Miriam dramatically says that she couldn’t look at him. I joke about it because it sounds like she’s writing a romance novel.
He then gave her a kiss in public when they said Goodbye and wrote a deep, awkward Facebook message when he got back. I was surprised because that’s extremely forward and creepy to most girls, but Miriam fell for the trap. She’s curious to see where it goes with this guy, but I just tell her not to keep thinking about it. She’s bothered that he’s not quick enough at messaging back on FB, but she should be looking for guys, instead of focusing on some random fling in Budapest.
Her age, as in reaching 30 in two years, and being young with love, because of a breakup from a 10 year relationship is what I chalk up to her disillusionment with dating or dealing with men.
In the end, it’s a lovely conversation and Miriam is a fun gal to chat with, share, and laugh with. Thinking back to it now, that childish dramatic Darwin a week ago was such a joke. I blame it on tiredness and getting drunk with that. Well, I’m glad that is all gone and this can all end on a friendly high note.
July 14, 2012
Unfortunately, I haven’t hung out with Lizzie yet, the girl I met in a hostel in Paris and then showed around in NYC when she came in the fall. I was studying yesterday and tonight is the last night to go out with almost all the people. She also is going to this “sparty” thing where it’s basically a huge pool party, which I’m really not down for. Public water, drinking, too many people, lack of clothing for me, etc.
I’m running late to the final and there’s this breathtaking petite woman sitting at the bus stop. She’s a little version of Kate Beckinsale with the skin complexion of Sheryl Crow. She asks for my help as it turns out she’s a new student. She’s from Mexico and it’s her first time going into the city. I teach her the route, how to get a week pass, and how to get to campus. She’s just sight seeing for the day. Her name is Maria and she’s young looking, but actually 27 and works at an human rights NGO. I give her my name so she can Facebook me in case she wants to hang for the next few days that I’m here.
The test goes really well and easy. They gave us too much time as I sat there for a good hour and a half doing nothing. I was blown away by people who said they didn’t have enough time. There was a 1000 word limit to each question. That equates to less than 8 double spaced pages, both questions combined. I couldn’t imagine what people doing instead of writing.
After that, we go to this sick place called Most for lunch and a beer
http://welovebudapest.com/en/restaurants-bistros/most
We grab a quick glass of wine afterwards and I’m exhausted. Some of us split and we go back. I take a serious nap and set the time when everyone will meet down at Bambus for almost everyone’s last night. I run late and we just wait until almost 11:00. I call Miriam because her, Christina, and Ellen haven’t shown up. They’re leaving, how they could not say Bye.
Turns out that they went to dinner and they’ve been drinking and out all day. I’m impressed. However, they don’t want to move out. The rest are pretty lame about it. Constantina, another person who has been here for a year, is down though. Rita is too because she leaves on Tuesday. I have to say my sad, sad Goodbyes to everyone, which really sucks.
I’ve had a situation like these where I met such cool people in a short people of time, gotten to know them, and then suddenly have to say Goodbye. I try not to think hard about it because it really gets me sad and nostalgic.
After deciding to go out, backing in and out, we finally make our move. Rita, Constantina, and I. We take the night bus at 12:00AM, which is a smart idea as it’s faster than leaving earlier when the metro is running as the night bus goes straight downtown.
She shows us this place, which is pretty chill and I get a ridiculously cheap double of Johnny on the rocks.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/gozsdu-mano-klub
It’s raining, but we then move out to this really weird place.
welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/mika-tivadar-mulato
It has a strange downstairs area where they are playing jazz from the 30s and people are dancing to it. It’s a really electic choice of music and I would never expect it in some hidden random place in Budapest.
Next, we go back to one of the most frequented places in Budapest, the most popular ruinpub.
http://welovebudapest.com/en/clubs-nightlife/szimpla-kert
It really reminds me of Prague with its weird decorations all the random rooms and nooks and crannies. They play weird music too like “La Bamba,” “Not Unusual” by Tom Jones, and Smash Mouth’s “I’m A Believer.” It’s 3:30 and Constantina wants to go. I agree, but she feels bad that she’s being a party pooper. I plan to do sightseeing my last day, so it’s good that she did that. We split. Call it an “early” night getting back by 4:00.
July 15, 2012
I get up to some food and laundry. I finally get my butt out to door by 2-3:00 and see Parliament. I also see this movie getting shot as there is a really old looking car and people dressed in 30s clothing. I go to a random nice restaurant.
http://www.budapesttimes.hu/2009/03/16/szabadsag-cafe-and-restaurant-return-to-elegance-flair/
One of the best plates of food I’ve had in Budapest, paprika chicken thigh with yogurt sauce and gnocchi, and a water was only about $10. What a joke.
I then go to Ocktagon to get a look. Nothing much is there, but a bunch of shitty tourist bars. The Blaha area or where I was yesterday really has a great feel to it that I would rather like to know better.
I get back and nap again. I run to McDonald’s because that’s convenient for dinner. I get this McWrap, which sounds like a great Greek wrap, but the sauce is pretty McDonald’s gross and too strong of fake bleu cheese. The meat is just their burger meat.
I meet up with Rita and Christina. We say our Goodbyes, though Christina I’ll be seeing two weeks back in NYC.
It’s really been a lovely trip. I really wish there was more time to see the sights because it’s such a nice city. The nightlife didn’t seem to wild, but I did like what I got to see at least. Christina was definitely an all-star for showing us the spots.
Thursday 5 July 2012
June 30, 2012
For me, it has to be a rule that I cannot sleep the night before anything important. A responsible Darwin tried to go to sleep before 2:00AM. I eventually give up, stay up until 6:00AM and I get loopy and then get a quick 4 hours in before getting ready for my trip. First on the list is a haircut. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan, I had a good thing going with a couple ladies at my local place giving me good haircuts. I had been free from bad haircuts for a year almost.
The lady even cuts it alright, then she decides to get the “toothed” scissors and proceed to chomp a complete side of my bangs. I think she notices what she did because she does not do the other sides. I basically have this weird one side forehead, other side covered forehead look. Great. To top that off, for those who remember my “Spock” haircut, I had these weird sideburns that suddenly stop flat. Basically, it makes your hair look like it’s an artificial helmet. I should have immediately said something, but I never do. Granted, it was probably too late at that point, but I always assume that it’ll “Be okay” when I get home and wash it off or something. No Darwin, your hair is right in front of you, if it looks like it’s fucked, it’s fucked!
In the end, I’ve gotten worse and it’ll grow out in the next few weeks. I really need to avoid letting this bother me too much and it always does because I’m weird like that. After a lunch with mom, she brings me to the airport. My tiredness sets in a bit as a wait for a few hours and once the plane starts going up, I immediately pass out for an hour. Dinner arrives and I chat with the guy next to me. He’s from Manchester and works for some clothing company. He’s off to Berlin for a tradeshow. I have a few exchanges with cool guy Gary.
The case reading for my class due Tuesday and Wednesday were already emailed to us. Studious Darwin prints out most of them so I have something to do on the flight. I get that done pretty quickly and then move onto the textbook reading I downloaded. I eventually give up as we’re passing through Canada and about to enter the Atlantic. I wake up for breakfast and we’re over the Atlantic now and over England. Very good that I ended up passing out because I have a layover in Berlin at 1:30AM Eastern Time and I don’t get to Budapest until 5:00AM Eastern time. Not getting sleep would lead to a grumpy traveler.
The plane had some garbage movie with Matt Damon and Scarlett Jo about opening a zoo or whatnot. It’s so stupid kid’s movie and boy did it suck. It did however have that up and coming young blond actress that was in the recent Spielberg movie. Anyway, you heard it here, she’s going to grow up to be a very beautiful lady. Fine, that’s probably pretty obvious, but I’m still saying it. And please don’t take this in any weird way. I never understood the idea of young girls being attractive. Like 18-19 year old girls being “barely legal” and the whole “jailbait” whatnot, I don’t get it all. I like me some women, real women. Keep the girls to yourself.
Since I slept half or most of the flight, it turns out fine. We arrive in Berlin at 7:30AM local time, I get through the checks and I have an hour and a half sitting at my terminal before Budapest. Going through passport check, the guy confirms that this is my first time in Germany, I affirm with a “Yeah/Yah.” He hears the German, “Yaah,” and spews off a few German sentences. I kindly let him go on and then say, “Oh sorry, I don’t speak German.” After a Danke schon, I hastily walk away.
Sitting at my terminal, the shorts were a good idea. I got cold at times, but the airplane had blankets. I currently feel absolutely gross and really need a toothbrush and a shower. Good thing I booked a shuttle from the airport to the school’s dorm because I don’t want to deal with that bizz. English is not the best in Budapest compared to Western Europe. I read the instructions about getting from the airport to my dorm and it was complicated as hell. Transfers, buses, subways, no no.
Hopefully getting to the dorm will go smoothly. Then there’s a huge list of thangs. One of the people in the program added me on Facebook and apparently people are getting lunch. I probably won’t make it, but I’ll be meeting all the people and fun stuff.
Though I have to worry about exchanging US Dollars for Hungarian Forints. Maybe I’ll do that at the airport first so I have some spending cash. Then I need to fucking eat because I’m fracking starving right now. The food on the airplane was meh and I avoided just eating shitty bread to fill me up. I really don’t want to gain 10-15 pounds while I’m here.
Then I need to figure out if I want to get a SIM card. I brought my old phone. The people in my program will be all Europeans and will have phones. I also want to keep in touch with my friend Lizzie during this whole thing.
Oh introduction, I met Lizzie, an Australian, in Paris at a hostel last year. Her, this guy, and I had this crazy scary adventure in a Parisian park at 3:00AM and we were not sober and what not. She visited New York in the fall and I hung out with her and her friend Emily for a week. Funny thing, she just started law school too, what a coincidence. Anyway, she basically booked her Europe trip parallel to mine. She’ll be in Budapest too while I’m there, then we coordinate hostel bookings at Berlin and Cologne. We still need to figure out Amsterdam though that’s three weeks away. It’s going to be sick having a good pal to travel with.
Back to more worrying, then I have to figure out the subway system and how I’m buying a 2 week pass. Apparently you give them a passport size picture and they create a pass for you. Like Prague, it’s an honor system. People randomly check for tickets, you get a hefty fine if you cheat the system. As a foreigner, I’m not risky that bizz.
After my quick flight from Berlin to Budapest, I’m relatively exhausted and loopy. I pick up my checked luggage and then hit up the ATM to withdraw around $225. The money situation basically comes out that I should have received an ATM card without a foreign exchange fee and only had to pay for a foreign ATM fee, the usual $2-4 y’all know. Instead, I’m stuck with a Citibank, which charges a 3% exchange on all credit card charges and withdrawals. What can I do.
I thankfully booked a shuttle and I quickly get to the residence center. It’s basically a 10 story hotel in the outskirts of the city. My first impression is that it looks a bit like shitty outskirts of Prague. A lot less developed and nice and I still haven’t seen any of the real city yet.
I check into my room by 12:00PM and I try to go to sleep for a few hours. I have a hard time doing so despite being exhausted. Funny thing, these guys knock on my door and they run into my spacious room and basically build a bed right in front of me. I’m supposed to have a roommate for this trip and now the room is just a lot tighter.
I rest a bit and the jet lag surprisingly hasn’t killed me and I Facebook message someone that added me from the program. She says she’s meeting with a friend to watch the EuroCup match. I man up and decide to get out there and jump on a foreign bus to the local mall area to get a 2 week pass for public transportation. That goes by okay as the lady is able to understand my English.
I’m starving too so I head into the mall, which looks like any American mall with H&M and all that. I go to the food court and sadly my first Hungarian meal is McDonald’s. Even in fast food, I must say that European vegetables just taste better. I also get this promotion Gosser NaturZitrone. After some research, it’s a beer company, but they have made a lemon based soda and damn is this shit good. Just vibrant, refreshing, not very sweet, and tart. I gotta find me this.
I meet up with Christina, who is an Italian student, and her friend, Rita, who is a Maltese law student, in the afternoon and we head off into the city. They’re both in my program. We head into the city, which is a bit of a schlep because of how far the dorm is from the city or campus, which is smack dab in the middle of the city.
A bus to a train and it takes almost 40 minutes. It’s excruciating as they’ve been hit by a heat wave and it’s 90 degrees. Indoors are somewhat air conditioned, not like America though, and the buses and subways are so old and basic. I thought we had an old subway system, but there’s really looks like you’re barely in a first world country. The windows are open the whole way and it’s just hot. I’m not made for this shit. I won’t bitch about how bad it is for the next few days, but either way, I’m taking 3 showers a day, I’m running through clothes like crazy, and I prefer long pants, but nope, I’m wearing one of my two shorts everyday.
As we arrive out off of the subway, I just have my head up and keep soaking in the city. I’ve barely seen and it already realize how beautiful the city is. (See my pictures). We meet up with Christina’s friend, Lydia, at a Starbucks. They met at the hostel Christina was staying at as she arrived a couple days earlier. Lydia’s skinny, pale girl from Galicia, a northern part of Spain that borders Portugal. She’s rocking a few large tattoos on her forehead and shoulder and a lip ring. Her accent has that very familiar, well for me at least, Castilian lisp.
We wait around for a bit and grab a coffee. We meet up with this New Yorker, Pierce, that is doing a “peace camp” kind of thing in Europe where he counsels kids and stuff in what is basically our summer camp. We meet him at this huge “pit” with a projector screen. It’s a really cool situation has it’s tiered and people are sitting down, getting table service of beer and wine, and waiting for the game to start. However, it’s really crowded and after a bit into the game, we give up and try to find somewhere to watch the game.
On our walk, Pierce stops and we try some “langos.” It’s basically a deep fried flat bread or “pizza,” but topped with non-Italian toppings. It’s pretty tasty, I get it with garlic sauce and sour cream, but it really is just carbs and fat. We also grab a beer with it as drinking on the street is acceptable, one of the best features of Europe. The food and beer is hilariously cheap. A tall boy is about $1.00.
We find this cool bar that turns out to be a hipster cinema spot. It’s a bar with a large projector screen that screens new film festival flicks. The game is there and we watch it as Spain destroys Italy, 4-0. Again, the bar is cheap as fuck. A pint or .5L is $2.00 and they don’t tip at bars here. I realize that enjoying myself and spending money here will not be a problem. Don’t hesitate, just buy, eat, drink, and experience. Stuff is too cheap for regrets.
We then go to this beer garden type place at Kuplung. Pierce brings us there because he plans on doing a poem for their open mic. The back is this indoor area that is hot, but has a really cool situation. Apparently Canadians love travelling and all of them from the hostel decided to celebrate Canada Day, I didn’t even know it was today. The dudes are shirtless and draped in Canada flags, the girls look like they’re out for fun, and it’s just a great frat party, but in a very European bar. There’s something about seeing people like me (non-European tourists) enjoying the city how I would like. There’s an association that is created and even just hearing English without an accent is enough to spark this.
The open mic is surprisingly taken up from what basically sounds like professional artists. They’re playing George Michael, Sublime, The Police, and whatever random stuff. However, it’s crazy that all these random people congregated to do this and they all turns out to be highly sufficient musicians.
After meeting some people, exchanging some stories, having a try of their local liquor, Palinka (a flowery grappa, rough to drink), we realize that Pierce might not make it up to the stage tonight so we leave. The metro system stops at 11:45 so we have to take a night bus. Although it feels far, the dorm is only 5.5 miles from the city center. Even then, the night bus takes 20-30 minutes and we get back at 2:00AM and need to wake up at 7:00AM for class tomorrow. After a shower because I haven’t felt this gross in a while and I’m off to sleep after having an incredible day that broke my meager expectations.
July 2, 2012
It’s hard to wake up considering the jet lag, the lack of sleep, and the couple drinks from yesterday. They offer breakfast, which isn’t too bad, scrambled eggs and mushrooms and water. They unfortunately don’t have coffee. The food is a bit oily, but I don’t get the carbs in and it’s a huge plate of eggs. (I repeat this meal for the week).
During breakfast, I meet Timothy, a student and TA from Belgium. During the classes, he’s way to knowledgeable about the subject and probably shouldn’t be taking this class in the first place. Miriam is from Munich, a tall pretty German. You know, those creatures.
We walk over to the bus in front of the building. The ride is less than 10 minutes, but it’s still a scorching 90+ degrees here. The university building is quite nice, as it was funded by George Soros. It has a lot of the fixings that you’d expect from an Western European or American university. We have changing professors so we get a taste of different perspectives and they are able to teach their specialties.
The first one is this guy: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/damian-chalmers.htm
He’s a scholar and goes through the EU institutions with us. That stuff would usually be quite dry, but he’s a huge EU nerd and follows all the dealings so he is actually able to apply real life countries, people, and situations with the relationships of players and institutions that he’s explaining.
For lunch, Christina, Rita, Timothy, Miriam, and I walk around and find a nice, albeit slightly touristy and pricey (for Budapest), Italian spot. I get a huge pizza that I can’t finish and it only comes out to $10. It was quite good with a salty smoked cheese and arugula.
After a second round of class until 4:00 or so, (it’s not a short day of classes considering stuff starts at 9:00), I head back and immediately go to sleep. I need to catch up on it. I wake up around 6:00 and I really don’t want to go to this dinner event they’re throwing. However, it’s my second day here and I need to get my ass up.
I head there and eat their poor attempt at some Hungarian dishes. At least there’s wine that I enjoy a few glasses of. After that, people are going to this “Ruin pub.” Basically, they had shitty closed factories or tenements and the newer generation decided to build around this setting to make beer gardens or bars. This is a really smart idea because it leads to some really cool looking places.
However, when ordering, we deal with this racist bartender. Rita is younger looking, but really, no one gets carded in Europe. You literally have to be 10 years or old or something for that. The bartender cards her and we kindly laugh about it because that’s usually what you do. Instead, the guy gives a really shitty attitude about it and barely even knows English and nastily repeats, “What?!” to her.
Dude, I’m not cool with this. Then again, I’m in a different country nor do I speak his language. I doubt causing ruckus around here as a foreigner does any good. We end up being really annoyed by it and getting served from the other bartender. In the end, I’m slightly confused by it. She’s an EU citizen and maybe she’s a bit brown!? But she’s from Malta, the fucking least offensive and smallest country you could imagine. Shitty people everywhere, but I expected something like this in Hungary at some point.
At the table, I meet Esther who is from DC. She’s Hungarian by blood and studied here for almost a year. Now, she plans to go to law school near Boston in the fall. Law school has trapped yet another one of us.
We hang and chat for a while, a bit about nerdy politics stuff, and then Rita and I take the night bus back. I get back at about 1:30.
July 3, 2012
Same procedure, though this time we go to the cafeteria on the campus and boy does the food suck. Then again, it literally is $3 for a plate of vegetables and a chicken breast, you can’t say the value isn’t at least somewhat there.
In the afternoon, we have this guy call us from Italy on Skype: http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/MMaduro.htm
He gives the class his explanation of the EU crisis and what I find intriguing is that he is very opinionated and very clearly states what he wants to occur for this to be fixed. I mean, as a former Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, he obviously is more about integrating the EU and making it stronger. He wants direct election of the EU Commission President (which is currently an appointed position), a fiscal union instead of a simply an monetary one, and generally, a more EU centric political climate at the national level, as in having people care about and vote for EU politics instead of simply seeing this at the national level.
I get back and immediately pass out from 6-9:00. I only planned on sleep for an hour, but I kept pushing it. I then go to the lobby and try to find food. It turns out that everything is closed. I can’t remember the last time I skipped dinner, but I guess things occur. I just go do some reading, get some writing done, and slack off until 1:00 and then head sleep.
July 4, 2012
We have a new French professor now, Professor Caunes.
http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/archive/JMCteam.html
She goes through some cases about EU citizenship with us, she has a philosophy background, so she tries to frame issues in that sense.
For lunch, about 8 of us go with the professor to this vegetarian Indian place. The food isn’t bad, but it’s not bad and really fucking bloating. Tofu, rice, beans, potato, just all this really heavy shit. I’ve never had a meal hold me down that bad for like 4 hours.
The professor and I chat a bit because she’s a New Yorker now basically as she teaches at NYU Law. After another lecturer after lunch, we have this even where we go to this ruin pub for drinks with the class and two of our professors.
Miriam and I “lead” the pack as fast city walkers, even though she’s from the country side. She’s currently passed her first lawyer test or something and needs to take another in case she wants to practice in a different field. She’s one of the handful of people in our class that is actually a practicing lawyer or has practiced. She studied a year in Chicago about 4 years ago and reminds me about Ela’s German eliteness. Despite being a country girl, she has very strong views about Germany. While Ela hates the Southern accent, Miriam considers Bavaria to be the “real” Germany and that my trip is incomplete as I am not going to Munich. The people got their stiff opinions.
We make the “cool” table of 5-6 of us where we don’t sit with the professors. Granted, the table can only fit 15 or so and our class has probably 20-25 or so. It ends up being the smokers table basically.
I meet Ellen, who has a really cool story. She’s almost 40 and moved to Austria last year from Vermont. She spent 8 years of her life as a prosecutor in Vermont and I guess she wanted a change in this. She’s here to boost her EU knowledge and whatnot and I guess she’s looking for some law related job in Europe as she lives in Vienna with her husband now.
I then meet another Christina, who is the 3rd American in the class, from Chicago. She’s 25, I’m turning 24. She went NYU undergrad, politics major, she graduated ’09. I graduated early as a ’09 Fall graduate. She spent a semester abroad in Spring of ’07, I was there Fall of ’07. We swap a couple stories and it reminds me of fucking incredible Cross Club:
http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/traveltracks/files/2008/03/cross-club-1.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5168/5253777511_f55d460415.jpg
Yeah, you want to go there. It’s cool as hell. Anyway, she’s been here for a year studying whatever International relations or whatever and is soon moving to New York with her boyfriend. But seriously, what a small freaking world and imagine the people out there that we’re all not meeting with all these same crossroads and stories.
I also meet Martina, who has worked in Brussels for the EU and a huge EU nerd as she follows the European Stability Mechanism and all that stuff. I could swear that she is Scandinavian with her sick bleach blonde hair, but she’s Slovakian. However, she studies in the UK, so she has that absurdly hot Oxford English accent. Motherfucker, it’s a fact. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t roll my eyes when girls get drawn in by British guy because I’m just as susceptible to something as mundane as an accent.
Drinks are cheap as hell as I’m paying $2.50 for a gin and seltzer with lemon. Beer is even cheaper at about $1-2. And again, this country doesn’t tip on drinks, but I do anyway because I just feel bad it’s so cheap. Restaurants usually have preadded tip at 10-15%. And wouldn’t that just make things easier and then you just add on tip if you want to be generous about great service?
After sitting there for 4-5 hours, it’s 9:00PM and Christina, who has been living in Budapest for a year by now, tells us to go to this gyro place, or doner in Germany. Some of the best pita ever, great white and spicy sauce, and meat was meh because it was chicken instead of lamb. And in the end, I bit in a pool of grease because they shaved the meat beforehand and leave it sitting there under the huge spit as fat drips down.
Ellen, Miriam, Rita, and I head back and get back by 10:00. By the way, notice all the female names, there are basically 4-5 guys in my class. The ratio is probably something like 1 to 4 or 1 to 5. We get back and we hit up the “bar” in our dorm. It’s actually packed with tables in the back and despite it being almost 11:00, there are at least 20 or so people drinking beer. I get this Dreher Bak, which is a really dark beer. Not my kind of stuff for summer.
I realize that it’s July 4th and cheers with Ellen, but I’m still a bit disappointed. I wanted to do something stupid like what I saw on Sunday with the Canadians and Canada Day. It’s not about nationality or being “American,” but it’s about the camaraderie with people, the connection of fitting in with something and repping it hard (no matter what it is), and hell, it’s all just about good fun. Either way, it was never my favorite holiday anyway.
After a beer, we call it a night. I chat with my old Norwegian friend Emma from years ago. We haven’t Skyped in years and exchanged pleasantries about being in the same time zone, Budapest, etc. etc.
For me, it has to be a rule that I cannot sleep the night before anything important. A responsible Darwin tried to go to sleep before 2:00AM. I eventually give up, stay up until 6:00AM and I get loopy and then get a quick 4 hours in before getting ready for my trip. First on the list is a haircut. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan, I had a good thing going with a couple ladies at my local place giving me good haircuts. I had been free from bad haircuts for a year almost.
The lady even cuts it alright, then she decides to get the “toothed” scissors and proceed to chomp a complete side of my bangs. I think she notices what she did because she does not do the other sides. I basically have this weird one side forehead, other side covered forehead look. Great. To top that off, for those who remember my “Spock” haircut, I had these weird sideburns that suddenly stop flat. Basically, it makes your hair look like it’s an artificial helmet. I should have immediately said something, but I never do. Granted, it was probably too late at that point, but I always assume that it’ll “Be okay” when I get home and wash it off or something. No Darwin, your hair is right in front of you, if it looks like it’s fucked, it’s fucked!
In the end, I’ve gotten worse and it’ll grow out in the next few weeks. I really need to avoid letting this bother me too much and it always does because I’m weird like that. After a lunch with mom, she brings me to the airport. My tiredness sets in a bit as a wait for a few hours and once the plane starts going up, I immediately pass out for an hour. Dinner arrives and I chat with the guy next to me. He’s from Manchester and works for some clothing company. He’s off to Berlin for a tradeshow. I have a few exchanges with cool guy Gary.
The case reading for my class due Tuesday and Wednesday were already emailed to us. Studious Darwin prints out most of them so I have something to do on the flight. I get that done pretty quickly and then move onto the textbook reading I downloaded. I eventually give up as we’re passing through Canada and about to enter the Atlantic. I wake up for breakfast and we’re over the Atlantic now and over England. Very good that I ended up passing out because I have a layover in Berlin at 1:30AM Eastern Time and I don’t get to Budapest until 5:00AM Eastern time. Not getting sleep would lead to a grumpy traveler.
The plane had some garbage movie with Matt Damon and Scarlett Jo about opening a zoo or whatnot. It’s so stupid kid’s movie and boy did it suck. It did however have that up and coming young blond actress that was in the recent Spielberg movie. Anyway, you heard it here, she’s going to grow up to be a very beautiful lady. Fine, that’s probably pretty obvious, but I’m still saying it. And please don’t take this in any weird way. I never understood the idea of young girls being attractive. Like 18-19 year old girls being “barely legal” and the whole “jailbait” whatnot, I don’t get it all. I like me some women, real women. Keep the girls to yourself.
Since I slept half or most of the flight, it turns out fine. We arrive in Berlin at 7:30AM local time, I get through the checks and I have an hour and a half sitting at my terminal before Budapest. Going through passport check, the guy confirms that this is my first time in Germany, I affirm with a “Yeah/Yah.” He hears the German, “Yaah,” and spews off a few German sentences. I kindly let him go on and then say, “Oh sorry, I don’t speak German.” After a Danke schon, I hastily walk away.
Sitting at my terminal, the shorts were a good idea. I got cold at times, but the airplane had blankets. I currently feel absolutely gross and really need a toothbrush and a shower. Good thing I booked a shuttle from the airport to the school’s dorm because I don’t want to deal with that bizz. English is not the best in Budapest compared to Western Europe. I read the instructions about getting from the airport to my dorm and it was complicated as hell. Transfers, buses, subways, no no.
Hopefully getting to the dorm will go smoothly. Then there’s a huge list of thangs. One of the people in the program added me on Facebook and apparently people are getting lunch. I probably won’t make it, but I’ll be meeting all the people and fun stuff.
Though I have to worry about exchanging US Dollars for Hungarian Forints. Maybe I’ll do that at the airport first so I have some spending cash. Then I need to fucking eat because I’m fracking starving right now. The food on the airplane was meh and I avoided just eating shitty bread to fill me up. I really don’t want to gain 10-15 pounds while I’m here.
Then I need to figure out if I want to get a SIM card. I brought my old phone. The people in my program will be all Europeans and will have phones. I also want to keep in touch with my friend Lizzie during this whole thing.
Oh introduction, I met Lizzie, an Australian, in Paris at a hostel last year. Her, this guy, and I had this crazy scary adventure in a Parisian park at 3:00AM and we were not sober and what not. She visited New York in the fall and I hung out with her and her friend Emily for a week. Funny thing, she just started law school too, what a coincidence. Anyway, she basically booked her Europe trip parallel to mine. She’ll be in Budapest too while I’m there, then we coordinate hostel bookings at Berlin and Cologne. We still need to figure out Amsterdam though that’s three weeks away. It’s going to be sick having a good pal to travel with.
Back to more worrying, then I have to figure out the subway system and how I’m buying a 2 week pass. Apparently you give them a passport size picture and they create a pass for you. Like Prague, it’s an honor system. People randomly check for tickets, you get a hefty fine if you cheat the system. As a foreigner, I’m not risky that bizz.
After my quick flight from Berlin to Budapest, I’m relatively exhausted and loopy. I pick up my checked luggage and then hit up the ATM to withdraw around $225. The money situation basically comes out that I should have received an ATM card without a foreign exchange fee and only had to pay for a foreign ATM fee, the usual $2-4 y’all know. Instead, I’m stuck with a Citibank, which charges a 3% exchange on all credit card charges and withdrawals. What can I do.
I thankfully booked a shuttle and I quickly get to the residence center. It’s basically a 10 story hotel in the outskirts of the city. My first impression is that it looks a bit like shitty outskirts of Prague. A lot less developed and nice and I still haven’t seen any of the real city yet.
I check into my room by 12:00PM and I try to go to sleep for a few hours. I have a hard time doing so despite being exhausted. Funny thing, these guys knock on my door and they run into my spacious room and basically build a bed right in front of me. I’m supposed to have a roommate for this trip and now the room is just a lot tighter.
I rest a bit and the jet lag surprisingly hasn’t killed me and I Facebook message someone that added me from the program. She says she’s meeting with a friend to watch the EuroCup match. I man up and decide to get out there and jump on a foreign bus to the local mall area to get a 2 week pass for public transportation. That goes by okay as the lady is able to understand my English.
I’m starving too so I head into the mall, which looks like any American mall with H&M and all that. I go to the food court and sadly my first Hungarian meal is McDonald’s. Even in fast food, I must say that European vegetables just taste better. I also get this promotion Gosser NaturZitrone. After some research, it’s a beer company, but they have made a lemon based soda and damn is this shit good. Just vibrant, refreshing, not very sweet, and tart. I gotta find me this.
I meet up with Christina, who is an Italian student, and her friend, Rita, who is a Maltese law student, in the afternoon and we head off into the city. They’re both in my program. We head into the city, which is a bit of a schlep because of how far the dorm is from the city or campus, which is smack dab in the middle of the city.
A bus to a train and it takes almost 40 minutes. It’s excruciating as they’ve been hit by a heat wave and it’s 90 degrees. Indoors are somewhat air conditioned, not like America though, and the buses and subways are so old and basic. I thought we had an old subway system, but there’s really looks like you’re barely in a first world country. The windows are open the whole way and it’s just hot. I’m not made for this shit. I won’t bitch about how bad it is for the next few days, but either way, I’m taking 3 showers a day, I’m running through clothes like crazy, and I prefer long pants, but nope, I’m wearing one of my two shorts everyday.
As we arrive out off of the subway, I just have my head up and keep soaking in the city. I’ve barely seen and it already realize how beautiful the city is. (See my pictures). We meet up with Christina’s friend, Lydia, at a Starbucks. They met at the hostel Christina was staying at as she arrived a couple days earlier. Lydia’s skinny, pale girl from Galicia, a northern part of Spain that borders Portugal. She’s rocking a few large tattoos on her forehead and shoulder and a lip ring. Her accent has that very familiar, well for me at least, Castilian lisp.
We wait around for a bit and grab a coffee. We meet up with this New Yorker, Pierce, that is doing a “peace camp” kind of thing in Europe where he counsels kids and stuff in what is basically our summer camp. We meet him at this huge “pit” with a projector screen. It’s a really cool situation has it’s tiered and people are sitting down, getting table service of beer and wine, and waiting for the game to start. However, it’s really crowded and after a bit into the game, we give up and try to find somewhere to watch the game.
On our walk, Pierce stops and we try some “langos.” It’s basically a deep fried flat bread or “pizza,” but topped with non-Italian toppings. It’s pretty tasty, I get it with garlic sauce and sour cream, but it really is just carbs and fat. We also grab a beer with it as drinking on the street is acceptable, one of the best features of Europe. The food and beer is hilariously cheap. A tall boy is about $1.00.
We find this cool bar that turns out to be a hipster cinema spot. It’s a bar with a large projector screen that screens new film festival flicks. The game is there and we watch it as Spain destroys Italy, 4-0. Again, the bar is cheap as fuck. A pint or .5L is $2.00 and they don’t tip at bars here. I realize that enjoying myself and spending money here will not be a problem. Don’t hesitate, just buy, eat, drink, and experience. Stuff is too cheap for regrets.
We then go to this beer garden type place at Kuplung. Pierce brings us there because he plans on doing a poem for their open mic. The back is this indoor area that is hot, but has a really cool situation. Apparently Canadians love travelling and all of them from the hostel decided to celebrate Canada Day, I didn’t even know it was today. The dudes are shirtless and draped in Canada flags, the girls look like they’re out for fun, and it’s just a great frat party, but in a very European bar. There’s something about seeing people like me (non-European tourists) enjoying the city how I would like. There’s an association that is created and even just hearing English without an accent is enough to spark this.
The open mic is surprisingly taken up from what basically sounds like professional artists. They’re playing George Michael, Sublime, The Police, and whatever random stuff. However, it’s crazy that all these random people congregated to do this and they all turns out to be highly sufficient musicians.
After meeting some people, exchanging some stories, having a try of their local liquor, Palinka (a flowery grappa, rough to drink), we realize that Pierce might not make it up to the stage tonight so we leave. The metro system stops at 11:45 so we have to take a night bus. Although it feels far, the dorm is only 5.5 miles from the city center. Even then, the night bus takes 20-30 minutes and we get back at 2:00AM and need to wake up at 7:00AM for class tomorrow. After a shower because I haven’t felt this gross in a while and I’m off to sleep after having an incredible day that broke my meager expectations.
July 2, 2012
It’s hard to wake up considering the jet lag, the lack of sleep, and the couple drinks from yesterday. They offer breakfast, which isn’t too bad, scrambled eggs and mushrooms and water. They unfortunately don’t have coffee. The food is a bit oily, but I don’t get the carbs in and it’s a huge plate of eggs. (I repeat this meal for the week).
During breakfast, I meet Timothy, a student and TA from Belgium. During the classes, he’s way to knowledgeable about the subject and probably shouldn’t be taking this class in the first place. Miriam is from Munich, a tall pretty German. You know, those creatures.
We walk over to the bus in front of the building. The ride is less than 10 minutes, but it’s still a scorching 90+ degrees here. The university building is quite nice, as it was funded by George Soros. It has a lot of the fixings that you’d expect from an Western European or American university. We have changing professors so we get a taste of different perspectives and they are able to teach their specialties.
The first one is this guy: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/law/staff/damian-chalmers.htm
He’s a scholar and goes through the EU institutions with us. That stuff would usually be quite dry, but he’s a huge EU nerd and follows all the dealings so he is actually able to apply real life countries, people, and situations with the relationships of players and institutions that he’s explaining.
For lunch, Christina, Rita, Timothy, Miriam, and I walk around and find a nice, albeit slightly touristy and pricey (for Budapest), Italian spot. I get a huge pizza that I can’t finish and it only comes out to $10. It was quite good with a salty smoked cheese and arugula.
After a second round of class until 4:00 or so, (it’s not a short day of classes considering stuff starts at 9:00), I head back and immediately go to sleep. I need to catch up on it. I wake up around 6:00 and I really don’t want to go to this dinner event they’re throwing. However, it’s my second day here and I need to get my ass up.
I head there and eat their poor attempt at some Hungarian dishes. At least there’s wine that I enjoy a few glasses of. After that, people are going to this “Ruin pub.” Basically, they had shitty closed factories or tenements and the newer generation decided to build around this setting to make beer gardens or bars. This is a really smart idea because it leads to some really cool looking places.
However, when ordering, we deal with this racist bartender. Rita is younger looking, but really, no one gets carded in Europe. You literally have to be 10 years or old or something for that. The bartender cards her and we kindly laugh about it because that’s usually what you do. Instead, the guy gives a really shitty attitude about it and barely even knows English and nastily repeats, “What?!” to her.
Dude, I’m not cool with this. Then again, I’m in a different country nor do I speak his language. I doubt causing ruckus around here as a foreigner does any good. We end up being really annoyed by it and getting served from the other bartender. In the end, I’m slightly confused by it. She’s an EU citizen and maybe she’s a bit brown!? But she’s from Malta, the fucking least offensive and smallest country you could imagine. Shitty people everywhere, but I expected something like this in Hungary at some point.
At the table, I meet Esther who is from DC. She’s Hungarian by blood and studied here for almost a year. Now, she plans to go to law school near Boston in the fall. Law school has trapped yet another one of us.
We hang and chat for a while, a bit about nerdy politics stuff, and then Rita and I take the night bus back. I get back at about 1:30.
July 3, 2012
Same procedure, though this time we go to the cafeteria on the campus and boy does the food suck. Then again, it literally is $3 for a plate of vegetables and a chicken breast, you can’t say the value isn’t at least somewhat there.
In the afternoon, we have this guy call us from Italy on Skype: http://www.law.yale.edu/faculty/MMaduro.htm
He gives the class his explanation of the EU crisis and what I find intriguing is that he is very opinionated and very clearly states what he wants to occur for this to be fixed. I mean, as a former Advocate General of the European Court of Justice, he obviously is more about integrating the EU and making it stronger. He wants direct election of the EU Commission President (which is currently an appointed position), a fiscal union instead of a simply an monetary one, and generally, a more EU centric political climate at the national level, as in having people care about and vote for EU politics instead of simply seeing this at the national level.
I get back and immediately pass out from 6-9:00. I only planned on sleep for an hour, but I kept pushing it. I then go to the lobby and try to find food. It turns out that everything is closed. I can’t remember the last time I skipped dinner, but I guess things occur. I just go do some reading, get some writing done, and slack off until 1:00 and then head sleep.
July 4, 2012
We have a new French professor now, Professor Caunes.
http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/archive/JMCteam.html
She goes through some cases about EU citizenship with us, she has a philosophy background, so she tries to frame issues in that sense.
For lunch, about 8 of us go with the professor to this vegetarian Indian place. The food isn’t bad, but it’s not bad and really fucking bloating. Tofu, rice, beans, potato, just all this really heavy shit. I’ve never had a meal hold me down that bad for like 4 hours.
The professor and I chat a bit because she’s a New Yorker now basically as she teaches at NYU Law. After another lecturer after lunch, we have this even where we go to this ruin pub for drinks with the class and two of our professors.
Miriam and I “lead” the pack as fast city walkers, even though she’s from the country side. She’s currently passed her first lawyer test or something and needs to take another in case she wants to practice in a different field. She’s one of the handful of people in our class that is actually a practicing lawyer or has practiced. She studied a year in Chicago about 4 years ago and reminds me about Ela’s German eliteness. Despite being a country girl, she has very strong views about Germany. While Ela hates the Southern accent, Miriam considers Bavaria to be the “real” Germany and that my trip is incomplete as I am not going to Munich. The people got their stiff opinions.
We make the “cool” table of 5-6 of us where we don’t sit with the professors. Granted, the table can only fit 15 or so and our class has probably 20-25 or so. It ends up being the smokers table basically.
I meet Ellen, who has a really cool story. She’s almost 40 and moved to Austria last year from Vermont. She spent 8 years of her life as a prosecutor in Vermont and I guess she wanted a change in this. She’s here to boost her EU knowledge and whatnot and I guess she’s looking for some law related job in Europe as she lives in Vienna with her husband now.
I then meet another Christina, who is the 3rd American in the class, from Chicago. She’s 25, I’m turning 24. She went NYU undergrad, politics major, she graduated ’09. I graduated early as a ’09 Fall graduate. She spent a semester abroad in Spring of ’07, I was there Fall of ’07. We swap a couple stories and it reminds me of fucking incredible Cross Club:
http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/traveltracks/files/2008/03/cross-club-1.jpg
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5168/5253777511_f55d460415.jpg
Yeah, you want to go there. It’s cool as hell. Anyway, she’s been here for a year studying whatever International relations or whatever and is soon moving to New York with her boyfriend. But seriously, what a small freaking world and imagine the people out there that we’re all not meeting with all these same crossroads and stories.
I also meet Martina, who has worked in Brussels for the EU and a huge EU nerd as she follows the European Stability Mechanism and all that stuff. I could swear that she is Scandinavian with her sick bleach blonde hair, but she’s Slovakian. However, she studies in the UK, so she has that absurdly hot Oxford English accent. Motherfucker, it’s a fact. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t roll my eyes when girls get drawn in by British guy because I’m just as susceptible to something as mundane as an accent.
Drinks are cheap as hell as I’m paying $2.50 for a gin and seltzer with lemon. Beer is even cheaper at about $1-2. And again, this country doesn’t tip on drinks, but I do anyway because I just feel bad it’s so cheap. Restaurants usually have preadded tip at 10-15%. And wouldn’t that just make things easier and then you just add on tip if you want to be generous about great service?
After sitting there for 4-5 hours, it’s 9:00PM and Christina, who has been living in Budapest for a year by now, tells us to go to this gyro place, or doner in Germany. Some of the best pita ever, great white and spicy sauce, and meat was meh because it was chicken instead of lamb. And in the end, I bit in a pool of grease because they shaved the meat beforehand and leave it sitting there under the huge spit as fat drips down.
Ellen, Miriam, Rita, and I head back and get back by 10:00. By the way, notice all the female names, there are basically 4-5 guys in my class. The ratio is probably something like 1 to 4 or 1 to 5. We get back and we hit up the “bar” in our dorm. It’s actually packed with tables in the back and despite it being almost 11:00, there are at least 20 or so people drinking beer. I get this Dreher Bak, which is a really dark beer. Not my kind of stuff for summer.
I realize that it’s July 4th and cheers with Ellen, but I’m still a bit disappointed. I wanted to do something stupid like what I saw on Sunday with the Canadians and Canada Day. It’s not about nationality or being “American,” but it’s about the camaraderie with people, the connection of fitting in with something and repping it hard (no matter what it is), and hell, it’s all just about good fun. Either way, it was never my favorite holiday anyway.
After a beer, we call it a night. I chat with my old Norwegian friend Emma from years ago. We haven’t Skyped in years and exchanged pleasantries about being in the same time zone, Budapest, etc. etc.
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