Day 7, Budapest - Heroes Square, City Park, Castle of Vayjolahunzad, Anonymvs, the zoo, Szecheny Bath (massage), Argentina, buying a ticket and party!

Monday September 17, 2007

When I was praying and meditating last night as I was going to sleep a thought occurred to me. After I received the wonderful news on msn my travel plans had changed. Now all I needed to decide upon was what to do with the next couple of days…how would I change my plans. Then as I was meditating it hit me…I’ll go to Greece, Athens baby yeah!!! So I’ve decided on that!!!

Wowwwww....this was a jam packed day filled with adventure and all the trimmings a day out in the world should have. As I said I would I woke up at 9 am, but Steinunn was not exactly on the same page. Woke her up around 10 and the famous: "Just 10 minutes longer" sentance came. Of course it was cool with me...if I had 10 kr. for every time Steinunn has waited for me because of sleep or helped me wake up or something like that....then I would be rich I can tell you that. Anyway...while she was getting ready I went and posted the blog for days 4, 5 and 6 and then around 11 we were ready to ROCK!!!!!!

First me and Steinunn went to the Yellow line in Budapest. Budapest only has 3 metro (subway) lines, blue, yellow and red. The blue is the longest one, then the red and then the yellow. The blue is kind of the shabbiest one, the red is really well taken care of I think and looks new and then there is the Yellow line (which I was taking for the first time) that looks so cute and cosy ;)

We went out at Heroes square and what a square it is. Looks really cool and there were Hungarians that said that this was the Arc de Triomph of Hungary (Laci and Feri to be exact). The Hungarians had very cool moustaches I’ll give em that J Beautiful square with very cool sculptures and a must see if you ever come to Budapest.

Then behind the square we have City Park and Steinunn told me about the politics here in Budapest being like home in Iceland, it’s all about who you know! There was this pond on the right to us that had been dried up just because one of the politicians wanted to have a party there… hehehe. But the park is beautiful to say the least and you could spend a day just there.

There is a castle inside the park, Castle Vayjolahunzad, was next on the agenda. There soon after entering is a beautiful little chapel, cutely decorated with the apostles. Steinunn was so not in the mood for the museum inside the castle, nor the chapel so we did not dally diddle around there. We did stop at the statue for Anonymvs, the famous anonymous person that seems to still write a lot everywhere to this day :D He apparently wrote a lot against the ruling government at the time and “seems” to still be famous for it ;) After that…a small sit down in the park.

Next on line was the zoo. It was a cool zoo and I’m really glad we went there, it’s so long since I went to a zoo. What I really loved about it was how close you could get to the animals. There was a walk in chamber in the tropical area (Steinunn had to run out of that place because the humid heat was tooooooo much for her) in which you walked in through chains that covered the doorway instead of a door. On the inside there were bats, yes bats, that were not in cages or anything like that. At one point I was so close to them that I could have reached up and touched 10 bats at once…they were just hanging above me in their cool upside down position. My favourite moments in the zoo are without a doubt nr. 1 the panda bears (sooooo amazingly cute), the huge snakes, the flamingos, the chameleon (had never seen one before, and Steinunn took a picture of it while it was sleeping. It opened it’s eyes and it can look in 180 degrees with each eye and it was so cool to watch it watch Steinunn), the lions, the lion cub (was so cute…our little Simba), the Tigers (they were amazing…me and Steinunn stayed a long time there), the giraffes, elephants and the rhino (was an animal program being shot there about the Hungarian rhino). There were a lot more animals and I’m sorry if you didn’t get named, but maybe next time ;) The only bad thing about the place was the horrible cafeteria food.

After such a long and hot trip to the zoo we decided to go to the famous Szecheny bath. We both agreed on getting a massage and Steinunn got a 15 minute foot massage and I got a 30 minute whole body massage. The massage was great, fast and hard, and even though the Hungarians said I’d be massaged by a beautiful young lady…I was massaged by a man that only shared one thing in common with the ladies…tits. But he is one of the best masseuses that I’ve ever had and after running around Europe I could use it :D

The bath was kind of funny. It had beautiful architecture and was good looking but I found out here today that we in Iceland are really spoiled. I also figured out why foreigners are so amazed at our normal swimming pools. This bath didn’t really have that hot water in the “hot” pools and Hungary prides it self of geothermal water. And you really couldn’t swim there and more little differences. It was a great experience though, the massage was amazing, the bath itself was really beautiful and it was great fun to be in the circle. The circle is a really small, streaming artificial river that takes anyone who enters the “circle” for a fun little ride…I liked it, but I love everything like this…what can I say, I’m a really big kid. We also met some nice Americans on vacation. The guy had some really cool tattoos and a long beard and hair. His hear was red so I had to find out where he was from, thought it was Ireland. His name’s Russ and hers is Patrice and we talked for a while and they invited me to come visit them when I come to the States in December. Who knows…maybe I’ll see em then ;)

After such a day it was time for some good dinner and we ended up at a little pricy (hehehe only for Budapest…ended up paying the same amount as for one steak in Iceland) cosy and generally good restaurant called Argentina (like the one in Iceland) and had REALLY good food. We both ended up ordering the same steak, but different starter, and both medium well done (hehehe…we are so alike even though we are totally different). Enjoyed the meal and the really great company…a real treat.

Then I decided it was time to buy the ticket to my next destination….most likely Athens like I had decided earlier that day. I went back to Svenni’s and Ebbi’s flat and these guys are amazing…I was crashing their flat while they were studying and they told me that I could of course stay there and be on the internet. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! You guys rock. Regarding the flight, I contacted couchsurfers that had stayed at my flat in August that were without a doubt some of the most amazing people I’ve met through couchsurfing, if not in my whole life, earlier that day. Yiannis and Fani said that they could of course host me whenever I came and I ended up booking a ticket for tomorrow, the 18th, even though I was not going to leave until the 19th. Then I was going to go to Prague but now I’m going to Athens tomorrow instead :D

After that there was only one thing that was left….PARTY! Budapest is a party town, also, and the Erasmus students party every day so away we went to meet the Finnish people (Olli, Joona and Sirkka) at a party held by Belgiums (Jan, Willem and Flo). When we got there I just knew I was going to have a great time. These were the same great Finnish people since last time and now they had just added 3 more great people into the mix. We had loads of fun and if you want to know more you can see a video Willem (Willem Huybrechs) uploaded on Facebook (and maybe U-Tube too) called “Iceland Rocks” hehehehe Good times ;) Went off to a bar later on called Morrison’s and I really enjoyed hanging out with these people and I hope I meet them again, especially Olli. Got to bond with Jan, an American that went to Belgium when he was 14, and I hope he realizes his dream after he’s done with school and just goes travelling no matter what his parents or anybody else thinks. Good luck and gods speed my friend!!!

Next I had to get a Taxi home and I went over to the hotel across the street and found a really nice guy at the desk who was so helpful. I also found postcards so I could write my grandmother a postcard and he took it and mailed it for me and everything. After that he translated for me some sms’s that I had received earlier that day from a friend in Iceland. She had written me some dirty sms’s in Hungarian and you should have seen the face of the guy in the desk when he was translating them. He kept saying how lucky I was and laughing mid sentence and stuff like that…a really funny experience. The Taxi driver was kind of funny, first guy to speak a word in English and I found out that he had been doing this for 26 years. Good man and a good end to the party evening.
I got home around 2.30 am, early, so I could pack for the departure that wasn’t really scheduled for tomorrow. Steinunn got home an hour and a half later and I was finishing up and it was time for bed. Said goodnight to her for the last time in person for a while. Great to start the day with her and end it. Thank you again Steinunn, you rock!!!