Markus and Brian's Excellent European Adventure

A Guy Called Buda

Hey there Peoples,

Okay, before I go into the recent adventures in Buda and Pest (The two cities separated by a river, together known as Budapest) I have to give a quick synopsis of that outdoor festival in Vienna that we went to visit. Okay, so I told you guys that we were going to a festival that we had heard about and that there would be some music, food, etc. This is basically all we had heard about it prior to our departure. We thought it might be cool and before talking ourselves into going to a club or a bar, we were off to partake in the splendors of this Austrian festival. Upon arriving, we decided to walk through the whole thing to check it all out. You know, to see what we'd want to spend the most time at. It wasn't until we passed 10 huge music stages, 2 large sections of fair rides, enough booze to give every last person in Austria alcohol poisoning and enough pretzels to satisfy even the most hungry, unruly Germans that we realized this wasn't your average little fair. As it turns out, we had the pleasure of visiting the largest outdoor festival in all of Europe. Over 3 million people attend this thing over a weekend and it took us over two hours just to walk from one end of the island to the other. In typical tourist fashion, we were completely oblivious to this fact, and for a while I was thoroughly convinced that the island was in the shape of a huge donut cleverly designed to trap all who came until every last outrageously priced pretzel and beer was purchased. You can't put anything past those clever Austrians.

Anyways, getting back on track, today we had our first full day in Budapest. It's kind of hard to imagine that communism left this place only 14 years ago, but things like the huge run-down housing units lining the train tracks or the massive factories now shut down with not one window intact tip you off to the fact that it actually was that recent. There's a cool park here where they've put all the statues from the cold war years, but we're not visiting it until tomorrow where I'll try to get some pictures of me giving Lenin a hi-five or something. As for today; we decided to have breakfast at a very cool cafe, hit up one of the baths, check out the city from it's highest view point, eat at a true Hungarian restaurant and then go to a free Elton John concert. That's right, Mr. "candle in the wind" himself. The concert ended up being so packed that we couldn't even get around to the front of the stage, but then again, we're not really big fans so it wasn't a huge disappointment. (well, I'm not a huge fan, but I could clearly see Brian's lower lip trembling and a single tear rolling down his cheek as we turned around to leave.) The baths were also a little bit of a let down since they generally consisted of a swimming pool, a smaller swimming pool with some warm water, and the obligatory hoard of old, naked men. I guess it's not much of a surprise to people that my favourite parts of the day were breakfast and dinner, but this time it was more than just the food which sway my opinion.

Most of you know of my love affair with coffee, but when an establishment supplies me with my fix and does so in one of the most tranquil and beautiful settings I've ever had the pleasure of being in, I'm almost inclined to kick up my feet and settle in for the winter. Of course, the only thing that could tear me away from a setting such as this is the promise of more delicious food, and so when it was time for dinner, I had no problems making the trek to Restaurant Fatal. I believe that the purpose of the name is to warn people that eating their entire portions may cause them to explode. At this restaurant the food was tasty and plentiful, but the company was even better. At the table beside us were these two American girls and the exact way in which our trips mirrored one another was altogether creepy. They were traveling for the exact same amount of time, started when and where we started, and are leaving when and from where we are. They are also visiting the same places (although not in the same order) and are staying at the same hostels we are. On top of this, one of the girls ranted about the fourth Harry Potter book which Brian had purches just the day before, while the other discussed authors of philosophy and fiction with me. I would have to say that it was one of the most pleasant dinner's I've had this trip. (outside of the ones with Christine, of course. :-)

Anyways, people are asking to use this computer now, so I should probably get off, but Brian and I expect to be able to put up some pictures for you soon. It's hard for us to find places where they'll allow us to hook up the camera card reader since nobody wants their computers messed with and half the time software completely blocks off everything but the browser. Please have some patience with us and the next time we can, we'll have a whole bunch of cool pictures for you.

Take it easy,

Markus

Posted by Markus at June 22, 2003 11:43 PM