too hot to handle

willy and i arrived in budapest after what amounted to the longest train ride of trip so far. it was not the longest in terms of hours spend staring aimlessly out the window at the countryside rushing by: our trips both to paris and prague were both longer by about 4 or 5 hours. the problem with our trip to budapest was the fact that it was so hot i felt like my skin was melting. willy couldn't sit still and spent most of the trip in the hallway of the carriage, where it was a fraction cooler. in our cabin on the train, furthermore, was the largest german speaking man i have yet to encounter on this trip who smelled strongly of...well, strongly of something not pleasant, who spent much of the trip (although thankfully he disembarked in vienna) talking loudly on his cell phone in strange austrian german that neither willy or i fully understood.

arriving in budapest yesterday afternoon, we were sticky, smelly, and feeling rather overwhelmed by the fact that we could not understand one word of hungarian. luckily, after about an hour of trying to figure out where to buy a three day pass for the metro, trams, and buses, we succeeded in feeding the machine our huge bills (270 florints equal about 1 euro...so 100 euros is 27,000 florints. its a bit strange to take out such HUGE demoninations from an atm! you feel suddenly very rich...) and boarding a bus to our hostel, which is in a residential neighborhood in buda.

our hostel was described as "zany" in our guidebook, but willy and i feel like it would be more accurately described as a "hippie haven". there is a beautiful garden out back and a shaded, leafy patio in front of the hostel. the outside of the building is painted about 8 different colors with a crazy geometric pattern. the garden outback has a fountain and several hammocks, and it would appear that you can sleep outside, should you wish to. since there is a huge music festival here this week (sziget...look it up if you don't know anything about...its pretty sweet!), a lot of the guests are here for that. in our room are two girls from canada, who are were planning on only staying 4 nights and are now here for at least nine with no end in sight-- "we don't want to leave!" they exclaimed. in fact, i think that if they didn't have jobs and school waiting for them at home, they would be happy to stay here forever. according to a sign posted in the kitchen, the record stay is 420 days, so i suppose its possible.

as for me... while i'm not sure i'd want to stay here for 420 days, budapest does seem pretty amazing. it has the appearance of a somewhat faded and derelict neighborhood of a european city, but it is full of all these fabulous colors and bright buildings and parks. like prague, the echoes of communism remain here, even more pronounced than in the czech republic, alongside detailed arabic influenced architecture left over from the turkish occupation which ended in the 17th century. the danube is spanned by a series of absolutely stunning bridges, all overlooked by buda castle up on the hill over the city. its a strange mix of old and new, communist and capitalist...in a lot of ways its like europe, rolled up into one city.