There She Goes…

Yesterday was a public holiday in Budapest which meant most of the stores were closed except the ones in the tourist areas. To be honest, all I did during the day was walk to the “Lion Fountain”, read my book and then napped. That is until the girl from Chile (who later turned out be a pretty cool 35 year old who quit her job to travel) made a phone call to change a flight reservation. The real fun stuff happened after dinner!

Two of my roommates (Elaina and Em), a really nice couple (she’s Canadian, he’s South African living in London) and I decided to go see the fireworks in honor of St. Stephen’s Day. I’m a terrible photographer for that sort of thing but at least I got to see some this year (having missed out on Fourth of July in America).

Nice job on the fireworks display Budapest! After the show, we got ice cream and all headed back to the hostel to wait for the bar outing organized by the people working at the hostel.

Side note about the hostel and it’s staff: While the location is amazing (directly across from the Ferris wheel), the staff feels a little clique-y. And some of them are not nice. When we arrived back from going out, Zach, a surly Aussie, basically called us racists for not knowing which Asian country the front desk girl was from. He said something about “opening our worldview.” No offense Zach but you’re a 30 year old dude volunteering in a hostel. I don’t need lessons on my worldview from you. In our defense (can’t even believe I need to defend myself) but the girl had dyed blonde hair and was being coy about where she was from. Confusing us all the more when we just wanted to buy water and soda. I never write reviews for hostels but I think this time I might and it won’t be a good one.

The couple decided not to go out but they sat and drank with us until our 11:30p departure. My roommate Elaina is really nice and she happens to live in NYC. Her and Danielle are probably neighbors. We went to a cash only bar and hung out with some Canadian guys from our hostel. They were really nice (and all cute – yay for us!). They reaffirmed my belief that all Canadians are simply too nice. After having a few beers and a few shots, we decided to call it a night. But not before we tried “Communist Pizza.” Yes, that’s a real thing and it was amazing…fried dough, sour cream and cheese on top. I might need to try the kind with onions and bacon before I leave.

Today is my last full day in Budapest and then I’m off to Country #24! I’m taking another free walking tour (The Communism Walk) to kill some time and then taking it easy (seems to be my agenda every day so far). I have less than 30 days left on this Adventure Part 1. And then I get to be home and in my own space for 3 glorious weeks.