We got up at 8 am for our journey to Budapest. After a tea at starbucks we headed for the train station. Our train left at 10 and arrived at 1. First things first, we immediately found an ATM because Hungarian currency is Forints, not Euros. We thought we were so clever for thinking of this, and we each retrieved 1,000 forints. After we left the ATM and did the math, we realiyed that we had only extracted 5 dollars worth of cash. Okay, but REALLY, what kind of ATM has five bucks as a withdrawal option? We went back to get more, but the line was now about 10 people long, so we agreed to deal with it later.
We found internet at a McDonalds across from the station, where we grabbed directions to our host, Ushma's house. After following her horrible directions, we found it ourselves at 2:30. No one was home and she didnt tell us a specific time to arrive, so we didnt know how long we should sit on the sidewalk and look like hobos.
We decided to head back to Mickey D's for more free internet, and we found ourselves a hostel for 12 bucks a night.
After we walked there, we were told that the receptionist was out, but he said he would be back within the next hour. So we made ourselves comfortable by Katie reading her Budapest book and Nicole trying to upload pictures for you kids back home who apparently cant rememberwhat we look like since Florence.
We sat patiently for over 2 hours, and still no receptionist. At this point it was 6:45 pm and all of the other travellers were cooking up their delicious smelling dinners while we wasted away, watching the clock from our spots on the sofa. All we could think about was finding some great restaurant and getting our hands on some authentic Halushki!
Finally we resolved to go to the supermarket and buy the ingredients for Halushki ourselves, which was interesting because Katie didnt know the Hungarian name for sour cream. We guessed, and guessed correctly. When we got back to the Hostel, the receptionist was there, but he informed us that he didnt take cash. So we had to go back out and find an ATM...at this point it was about 8 pm. We found an ATM and got back to the Hostel, gave the man our money, threw our stuff on a couple of beds, and made us some DIN DIN!
Afterwards, we made friends with two girls from Australia who were leaving in the morning for Czech. One of them has been backpacking for 6 months! We thought 5 weeks was a long time...
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2 comments:
Australian's are legend for long backpacking trips (I met a lot of them, too.) David says it's because once they get the hell out of that big ol' continent of theirs, they want to see some stuff before they are swallowed up again. ;)
What the heck is Halushki? It's like there's a secret second blog somewhere with a glossary. ;)
Halushki is a Hungarian meal that Katie's dad taught her to make a looong time ago because they are Hungarian! The ingredients are egg noodles, diced and boiled potatoes, sour cream, and cottage cheese. :)
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