I return to the scene of the famous wave pool, 16 years later. Certain boys from Idaho and SLC will know what I am talking about. More on that later. We found a last minute couchsuring host in Budapest right before leaving Prague named Anna. We got into Budapest at 11pm and took a quick cab to her flat and buzzed Anna, who quickly came downstairs, introduced herself, paid the cab and whisked us upstairs. We talked for few hours and in that time discovered that Anna is a crack on-line poker player who studied Physics at Uni and just got back in June from an all expense paid trip to Vegas to play in the Women's World Series of Poker tournament. You would never guess any of this when you meet her.
Anna showed us to our sleeping quarters, her roommates room who is out of town and we fell asleep, exhausted from the bus ride. The next day we got a last start, surprise but Anna was our tour guide for the 1000 year or so history of Hungry. Basically on the losing side of most conflicts but now a proud member of the EU. We even saw a stature of George Washington dedicated by Hungarian Americans. We made our way to Margarit Island and ran into our new Australian friend Ian who we met in Munich. We knew he was going to be in Budapest but it was just chance to met him at the park. We talked about life for few hours in the shade before rushing to a Couchsurfing meeting at a local restaurant that Anna knew about. Ian is a great guy, traveled to many parts of the world and we tried to get him to ditch his job in Australia to meet us in Turkey. He was heading back to Munich the next day to say goodbye to some friends. Hope to see him again in Turkey!
We met all kinds of like minded people there from all over the world but one in person in particular was named Fernelley from LA. Fernelley is living by his charm, niceness and musical ability across all of Europe all at the ripe age of 20. Fernelley has hitched rides all over europe and landed in Budapest with a friend who ditched him when his Hungarian girlfriend's family had no more room for him. He came to the meeting to find somewhere to stay after sleeping in a park the night before. We befriended him and Anna let him stay with us.
Fernelley turned out to be a good person with good karma getting through life as happy as can be. Oh and he didn't snore which was a bonus. The next day we toured the castle on the Buda side (we are staying on the Pest side) and made our way down to another park hmmm weird for lunch and a little relaxation. We made our way home to meet Anna and talked about the day. Fernelley has no mobile phone and forgot Anna's flat information so we waited to find him. He played music in the park, met a guy from Indiana and sung for his supper.
The next day Jessica and I made our way to the most famous bathhouse in Budapest, the one from 16 years ago as it turns out. On the way though we learned a valuable lesson about karma. it can come back to bite you hard. We had been buying public transportation tickets since we arrived but not validating them so as too use them as long as we could. Well it finally caught up with us on the bus. I was approached by a worker for my ticket which I presented without validation. He started to explain about the fine for now validation, made me get off the bus and wait. Meanwhile Jessica was not sitting next to me so she was not approached and kept riding to the next stop. I told him she was still on the bus and we had to go find her. We got on the next bus with his boss and got off at the bathouse stop. Meanwhile on the busride we had a nice conversation about the US and life so I thought we were working our way out of it. Jessica was waiting at the last bus stop and came up to us and we started to talk. He explained the system and fines which we knew about and ended up charging us 6000 Florints which is aobut 40 dollars. One damn expensive bus ride and hard lesson for us to learn. We will walk the line as much as we can, just like the germans.
We made into the bathouse and staked our claim on some nice deck chairs. After the whole bus thing we just needed to relax a little and enjoy the wave pool which I did frequently. Jessica did not like it as much as I did. We lounged in the inside thermal baths, took a nap, ate some food, me in the waves again, repeat...We left for home after a quick Subway for dinner and a traveling through a rainstorm. We met Anna and Fernelley, Anna left for the night, Jessica settled in to watch Cabaret (one of Anna's favorite movies) and I read my book. Fernelley searched for a ride to Prague and talked to his friend from Finland. Overall a mixed return to Budapest for me but I think Jessica enjoyed the city.
We are off to Pula, Croatia Saturday at 6am on a 9 hour bus ride. We are going to spend a week down the Croatian coast with no hosts so far so the internet may be hard to come by don't panic if the blog is not up to date we are still healthy and doing fine. See you in Croatia.
