water and wine (hungarian rhapsody)

Budapest was fun, and Hungarians are great...where else can you hang out at a crazy painter's apartment drinking Jim Beam till the wee hours and being served goulash (which I believe was supposed to be somebody's lunch the next day) at 2:30 in the morning by an exceptionally drunk, middle-aged William Shatner lookalike with a major Grand Canyon obsession? Shat had some pretty complicated porn on his video-playing cell phone but he couldn't figure out how to dial a US number. I wish I spoke Hungarian so I could have listened in on the conversation he had with the phone support guy. I wonder if support people get a lot of drunken late night calls. Does it alleviate the boredom?
I have now got a recipe for really good goulash written out in shaky Hungarian...we will see if I ever manage to get it translated.

Also great was the opportunity to hang out with Phil and Benedicte again and check out a serbian gypsy brass band (and kick some major butt at foosball, though I can't take any credit for that. James is a foosball hustler.).

Finally we decided to get out into the country and headed to Eger where we were intercepted at the train station by Margaret (Margit?) a sweet widow who rents out her spare bedroom for the best deal in the country. Eger was all about too much red wine (the home of Bull's Blood) and partying with long haired youngsters who took us under their wing and down into the Eagle club which I think was under a basilica. The recovery phase was aided by Eger's thermal baths which allow you to sit outside in a steamy warm pool and enjoy a water massage.

Then we decided to see Boldogkő castle at Boldogköváralja (this country has many things in common with Iceland - thermally heated pools and unpronouncable place names being among them). For an approximately 160 km journey we had to take 4 different trains and one bus. Then we learned that Boldogköváralja has no accommodations at this time of year and since it was getting dark and the last train was in an hour, we had to forego seeing the castle up close and personal and start walking to the nearest train station (2 km away). The train 'station' was in the middle of nowhere, guarded by two possibly feral dogs, but we eventually found it and the train eventually came. James gamely tried to interact with the giggling teenagers sitting behind us and at one point a woman came over with her cell phone and stuck it in his face...she didn't speak english but her friend on the phone did and they wanted to make sure we were going to make it to our destination intact. They were very kind and very concerned and she must have brought the phone back to us two or three times so her friend could provide more information.
On the next train (the 6th? 7th? of the day? it's so hard to keep track...) we met a Canadian and a Brazilian girl who were in Hungary on a Rotary Exchange for their last year of high school, which brightened the last leg of a very long day considerably as they gave us their pins and cards and helped us get off at the right station and bonded with J over mutual exchange experiences.
In Sarospatak we ate delicious italian food and also delicious hungarian food (an enormous soup and plate of chicken and potatoes and some mysterious but tasty green sauce for $3!).

Next on the agenda was Tokaj, wine country, where we landed after dark and were taken around town by Sylvester and Istvan, a couple of 14 year old men-about-town who helped us find a hotel and entertained us with very broken english. We still can't figure out why Sylvester started to undo his pants at one point, but a firm "stop" and a stern look put a stop to that weirdness right away. Then they looked embarrassed like we had misinterpreted something and said "Sylvester, stupid boy!".

If you ever go to Tokaj, do yourself a favour and go do a wine tasting. I don't even like white wine but Tokaj is something special, especially the sweet 6 Puttonyo Aszu.

A little buzzed, we hopped on the next train or two for Debrecen which is Hungary's second largest city but frankly not all that exciting. Perhaps something to do with it being the middle of the week in low season. Still, the Hungarians proved themselves once again as what started as a quiet drink in a little bar turned into an extravaganza of fun and weirdness courtesy of Joe who blew enormous smoke rings and pretended to be in love with me. Bonus: I can sort of blow smoke rings now.
Debrecen also has thermal baths, some of which are dark brown and small of coal tar - highly theraputic I am certain. The best was the hot and cold dipping pools, where you can slip from 20 degree water into 40 degree water...stingy!

And finally, on to Pecs (pronounced Paich), where I am now...Pecs was once again all about smelly thermal baths (in Harkany, near the Croatian border) and italian food. We didn't have time to go out to the thermal lake in Heviz before James had to go home (stupid work!;) but I am going to hang out here for a couple more days and then check it out on my own.

one year anniversary!

i can't believe it's been exactly one year since i left Toronto with a raging hangover and landed in Paris, drooling with jet lag. But it's true. i celebrated here in Budapest with my friend James over big bowls of goulash soup and thick dark beer, after being given an impromptu tour of the city by Leslie, James' drinking buddy from the night before who we had just run into on the street.

i have also just set an unbreakable record for myself in the category of 'least amount of time spent in one country' - i went to Slovakia for 36 hours. I don't think i can beat that (passing through in transit or layover of course doesn't count). Bratislava was nice though!

happy new year

happy new year everyone! i rang the year in here in krakow at a hostel party featuring free beer and wine and champagne and food all night (all night means till well after 6 a.m.), and approximately 7 men for every woman. it's a good combination.

we went to the town square at midnight to watch the fireworks with a bunch of Scots in kilts and if you haven't wandered around an eastern european city with a man in a kilt on new year's eve then you haven't lived. everybody loves the Scots! People would come up to them and just give them cans of beer. Everyone wanted a photo. Drunk middle aged women giggled hysterically and tried to look up their kilts.

i went to bed at 6 but woke up again around 9 to the sound of a drunken australian who had lost the keys to his locker shouting HAPPY FUCKIN NEW YEAR in the middle of the room. he had to board a plane in a couple of hours. the receptionist couldn't find extra keys for the lockers. someone came in with a crowbar and tore the doors off two of the lockers. so that's 2007 so far.

as for other krakow events...so that night i was supposed to go back to the bar to meet the Canadian and the Belgian i either was too late or they didn't show because they weren't there. but I did discover that the drunk english guy is the sort of alcoholic who ends the night with his fly undone and mysterious stains on the front of his trousers, as he tries to convince you to get in a taxi with him to go dancing at another club. your refusal will elicit comments like "why? i dont....i don't want to SHAG you!" well honey, that is really beside the point. when i arrived anyway he was on the verge of being kicked out of the bar but he did introduce me to some people before he was tossed. one of them was Olga who said 'i am going to some other bars, you can come with me if you like'. okay! she took me to awesome places i would never have found on my own.
The next morning Keith took me off on a walking tour of the city, but unfortunately it was so foggy there was almost no point. Still it was really nice and he also introduced me to the fine dish of potato pancakes with goulash.
So far i have managed to eat perogies every single day without fail.

Finally, mystical energy and planned obsolescence have teamed up to destroy my camera. I think the warranty expired three days ago. Yesterday I went to Wawel castel which apparently hosts one of the 7 great energy chakras of the earth in one corner of the courtyard.
All i know is that my camera was working 5 minutes before i went in there, i stood in that area of the courtyard for about 5 minutes, and then 30 seconds later as i walked away and tried to turn the camera on it started screeching and beeping like R2D2 in a microwave.
Which is why i have no photos of the madness that was last night. major bummer.