Fast & Furious
Planes, Trains, & Automobiles
How great it is to be here!! Of course the going overseas is a lengthy process. It took me a week to pack my bags - I did it slowly because I didn't want to forget anything essential. It turns out that with clothes, camera gear, medical supplies, and toiletries I was carrying 75 pounds of stuff with me to Europe. My sister make me weigh it all before I left. Actually, I think I brought just the essentials plus my camera, and I couldn't leave that behind.
My dad of course dropped me off at LAX. Contrary to what I was thinking, LAX was painless. I walked right up to the Air France counter and got admitted to the terminal. The flight to Paris was long, but I slept for most of it. I read during the rest. I brought with me just one book - War & Peace. The paperback version I have is over 1400 pages; that should keep me busy for my whole trip.
I arrived at Charles De Gaulle Airport after having eaten twice and slept about six hours, which isn't bad. That airport is just about the strangest thing. In order to get from one terminal to another, you have to get on a bus. It seems like the terminals at this airport are randomly placed, making it impossible to do anything but drive people from one terminal to another. Actually the buildings are very cool looking - very modern/sci-fi looking. I jumped on a quick flight to Budapest.
Heading Out
Once in Budapest, I changed some money and headed out. I rode the Airport Minibus to the city, which cost about 2100 forints ($10). The driver definitely chose the route for speed instead of comfort or beauty. The drive felt like taking a horse-drawn carriage bouncing through death valley, and the area through which we drove was industrial. I was a little nervous about where my hostile was. I made reservations in a $12 per night hostile - I hope that wasn't a big mistake. I was pleasantly surprised to find it on a great street in a good part of town. The streets were lined with gorgeous old buildings. They are those old European 4 story buildings with stores on the first floor and apartments above. I'm definitely getting off to a great start.
Cool Little Hostile
The hostile was clean and in a great part of town. The place is run by a family, and there were 3 separate rooms. My room had 6 pretty comfortable beds. The first night I just had one roomie - a girl taking a break from school in Denmark. She's an American studying abroad. At some point I spent about 10 minutes talking with her and took off for dinner. I had a marvelous dinner at a restaurant bar called Karma. The food was good and pricey for here, but the place was fun. I talked with a couple different groups of Hungarians until late. 
No Club - Just Tea
After dinner I decided to go to a club, but didn't find anything open. I ended up running into a couple english speakers around the corner. They are Hungarians who grew up in Canada - their parents repatriated Hungary a few years ago, so they are in college here. I wasn't sleepy, so they showed me to a gyro place that's open 24 hours. We had some horrible turkish tea and shot the breeze until 4am I think. What a good first day out!!
Big Huge Blisters
I planned to be in Hungary for just a couple days, and I knew that I would be seeing all the sights with my family in June. So I decided to just walk around town and take some pictures. Of course I got lost and found a few times - took a couple good pictures, though not many. I walked way too much, and I got big huge blisters on the bottom of my feet. OUCH!!
I ended up having a couple beers with this Hungarian guy who called himself a dissident. He only came back to Hungary from the States in 1991 when it was safe for him. We talked about a lot - mostly business and politics. After that I was ready for a nap - so at about 6pm I got back to my place and slept until 11pm.
Invasion
While I was asleep, I was invaded by a couple more travelers. My other roomie moved out, but I got a girl from Japan and one from Illinois. I asked them both if they wanted to get a bite or beer, and the midwestern girl accepted. We talked for a couple hours, but I had to get some sleep. I was going to Finland the next morning - woo hoo!!
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