I've Lost My Common Sense

I am going to post a little out of order. I want to write about the start of my trip, but I think today's experience calls for a little writing time. In fact, my mom and I are sitting in a hostel right now after walking all day. I don't think we will be going anywhere tonight.

This morning we woke up at the early start of 5:00am. We decided to leave Vienna for the next two days and go to Budapest. We wanted to make a 7:15 train, but we knew it would take atleast an hour to get to the station. Then we had to buy the tickets and find the train. It might not be a big deal, except we had not been to that train stop yet, so I was worried that we might miss it. Especially after yesterday, but that's another story. It was raining when we got up, which was a bit disappointing. I almost felt like throwing my pajamas back on and crawling into bed. It was early and cold. Except it was my idea to go to Budapest in the first place, so I couldn't change my mind.

Since we are only going over night we decided to just pack two small backpacks with clothing and a few necessities. Then we headed for the bus. We had to take the 35a bus to the U4 metro then connect to the U1 metro which would put us close to the train station. I knew we might have to walk a little to get to the train station and I was trying to follow the signs, but it was a bit confusing. And I although I enjoy having my mom with me, she does get a bit nervous (she thought I might be going the wrong way, like yesterday...) and she kept asking if we were going the right way.

mom: Is this right?

me: I'm not sure. I haven't been here either, but I think we need to just walk a little further.

mom: We don't want to be late though.

me: I know, wait, this might be something. There are trains running from here...except most train stations have a big lobby where you can buy the tickets. In fact, this can't be it. It is strange that they only have platforms for 18-20. I think we need to walk a little further. I know it is cold mom, but I think it is a little further.

mom: Maybe we need to ask someone.

me: Who do you want to ask? Do you see anyone around this early that might speak English?

mom: Well, we should ask soon.

me: Okay, lets just walk to this building and ask someone.

Once we got to the next building we were at the train station. I knew we just needed to walk a little further. Shortly thereafter I purchased two tickets to Budapest and one apfelstrudel (apple strudel) for breakfast. This is where the cluelessness creeped in. I think I was so proud of myself that I lost my common sense! We walked towards our train and noticed that the lights were out in the back cars of the train. There was about 45 minutes until we left, but I thought it was a bit strange. My mom was wondering how to open the doors to each car, and I didn't know, so I suggest we sit down and wait. After waiting about fifteen minutes in a smelly waiting room we saw three men walking towards the train. We decided to follow them. Duh! If we only walked a little farther along the platform we would have seen the first cars were open and available. My mom freaked out when we got close to a car, because the door closed. I wasn't worried, since I saw a button next to the door, which we pushed for entry.

We made ourselves comfortable and in no time at all we were on our way. Once again I was proud of myself. My ex-boyfriend once said that I hadn't traveled that much...screw him, because I realized I can travel anywhere I damn-well set out to go! Okay, enough trash talk. The train made a few stops, one more in Austria, where the border control asked for our passports. Since they asked in German, we confusingly pulled out our tickets. Very quickly we realized our error and got our passports stamped. Yeah, I want to fill that thing up. At the next stop we picked another set of border controls, this time for Hungary. They once again, stamped my passport.

When we arrived in Hungary we quickly found out how different it was there from Austria. I found a bank in the train station to withdraw some froints (Hungarian currency). The machine asked me to withdraw in 1000s. Wow, that seems like a lot, but since the exchange rate is one dollar to 240 froint, I guess that isn't so bad. So I took out 15,000 (about 68 dollars)! Then we needed to find the metro so we could get to our hostel. We didn't have a map and I was quickly realizing that many people did not know English. We couldn't find the metro station. My poor mom was following me around looking so confused. It turns out we only needed to walk 80 more meters and we would have found it. I already had really good directions to the hostel, so we did fine on the trains. Thank goodness!

We arrived at the hostel entrance, which is part of an apartment building, and we had to call up to the hostel. They let us in and asked us to climb the stairs to the third floor. Once again, my poor mother! We went up three flights of stairs and opened a door thinking it might be the hostel. Nope, just someone's apartment! Okay, so maybe he said seventh floor, not third floor. Nope! That wasn't it either. As we headed all the way back down we were met by a young man who actually worked at the hostel. He did tell us third floor, but I had neglected to remember that in Europe the first floor is actually the ground floor, then they start counting up! Opps!

We unloaded some of our belongings, got a map from the hostel. The guide even gave us a great layout of everything that we needed to see for onlz a day in a half! Oh, we are staying at the ,
Prima Hostel
. It is a great location, and the staff was super friendly. In fact, I would even say Gabor was a bit hot! Tall, blue eyed, with a sexy accent. Too bad he is married!

We then headed on foot to explore the city. Only we had a little trouble with the door to the apartment complex. We couldn't get it open. After tugging a few times we decided to push the button on the side of the door! Ooh La La! That was all that we needed to do. Okay, so now we were on our way to a long walking tour. I wish I could post pictures, but I forgot the cord that connects my camera to the computer, so you will get those later. We did a good job at finding every site. We walked to the Parliament building, St. Peter's cathedral (where we saw the mummified hand of Hungary's first king), then we stopped to have lunch at Lugas (our hostel worker had suggest it for the good prices and the menu had English). Once again we had problems with the door to the restaurant. I tried to get the door open, I pushed and I pulled. I checked the time, thinking there might be a siesta I was missing. I noticed people sitting inside, but no one came to our rescue. Hmm. I wanted to eat there! When we were about to walk away we saw someone headed for the door. He opened it up immediately! What the heck! I just tried to open the door, and so did my mom. Are we clueless? Apparently, because a woman went through the door too. After watching twice, we finally got in, we just had to push harder. I'm glad too because I had a very fulfilling meal. I ate grilled chicken with pears and Camembert on top and steamed vegatables on the side (actually the steamed veggies turned out to a whole can of veggies!). It was completely satisfying. With my Pepsi included the whole meal only cost about six dollars. Not too bad.

We continued our afternoon walk over to the Buda side of the city. We found a large church, the old castle wall, a catholic church built into a cave, and I even bought a nativity set! There are a lot of homeless people in Budapest. I was actually surprised by this, because it is so cold here. But there are sleeping bags scattered all over the city. As we were walking towards to caved church we noticed a bunch of stray cats and shortly thereafter an old mattress stuffed in a crevice of the church outline. In fact, about a 100 meters further we saw an old, bearded man walking towards the bushes. Since we saw him unzipping his pants, we assumed he was going to pee. Nope, he had to take a little squat! In fact, it was pretty amazing, because he squatted down right in front of a large busy street. Somehow he didn't seem phased by all this, since he continued to go as a very full bus stopped at the light and my mother and I walked around the corner. I couldn't help but look and he looked straight back at me. Do you think he wiped? Eww, that's just gross.

Later that afternoon we found ourselves in a local market. I bought some fruit and then a few chocolate cookies as a treat. I'm not so good at math, so I had trouble figuring the exchange rate. I was already embarrassed when I couldn't speak the language so I had to point, but I also couldn't count right. The lady even told me the price in English, 140 froints, but I gave her 1040 froints! Great, I can't even count.

At least I got us around the city. I actually think I can read maps well. Go me! Okay, so I have been on this computer for a long time. There are only about six people staying in the hostel and most of them our out so I got lucky. In fact, my mom and I got our own room because there are so few hostelers. I think that's because we are still here during the off season.

Tomorrow we are going to do a little shopping and then hit a spa. Budapest is known for their hot springs, so we are going to relax. I think I might even pay for a massage if it is affordable. Happy travels to all. I promise to report on the first few days, I have some good experiences to share about.