Paco´s Life: Madrid

Eastern Europe Tour III: Budapest, Italia al rescate / Budapest, Italy on the rescue

After saying goodbye to Dragana, we started our way to Budapest. At this moment things were not clear at all for me. After Budapest Giordos and his car would dessapear from the trip and from my life so I had to find some other means of transportation to get to Riga, where I had to catch my flight to Madrid. Somehow I had to arrange polish train or buses to cross the country from South to North. I had to decide whether to continue with the original plan Lublin - Kaunas - Riga or to do something different. I even considered to give up the plane in Riga and just stay longer in Budapest or go to some easier to reach place where I could catch another flight to Madrid. This was basically a bunch of possibilities in the air that I could not actually consider till I would find a fucking internet connection. To make things worse, I could not reach any of my contacts in Budapest, off mobile phones, non-replied messages and a totally unclear future. In addition to the increasing tension with the greek guy while we were getting close to the moment I would just leave his car. I had this moment, not really of crisis or “agobio” but of been angry with the world. Just some good news coming from Spain through text messages helped to improved a bit my humour (congrats Ana Anyway, so there I was, walking around with my bag and my huge laptop (remember, this was supposed to be a road trip), when the rescue message arrived. Nicola is an italian guy I met in Madrid in that period I was renting my flat to Erasmus people. After that, we exchanged visits Cardiff - Vicenza and kept in touch with Messenger. Therefore, I knew he had got a job in Budapest and I had sent him an email telling him I was going and asking for his phone number. His answer came right on time, una hour after I was sharing a great hungarian dinner with him. In fact, by the time he wrote me, I had already assumed I was gonna spend a night in a hotel and I even fancied the idea so it wasnt such a big dissaster for me but, anyway, much better like this. Nicola is not hungarian neither belongs to HospitalityClub but he was a perfect host Grazie Nico!

Surprisingly that night I didnt drink a shitload of alcohol so next morning I could wake up at 8:30 (amazing) and start my touristic tour of the city. I think this time I made a good job and did all the sightseen I was supposed to do there. Budapest is actually the union of two different cities: Buda and Pest, separated by the Danubio. Buda is the old part, with its castle and narrow streets, Pest is more moderm with the parlament, bars, restaurants and table dance clubs. Remarkable things: the bridges joining the two cities, the view from the castle or the magnificient structure of the parlament. I even had time to go to the baths situated in a huge park in the northern part where I spent two hours getting relaxed in the different pools and saunas. Budapest was supposed to be the more culturally interesting stop of the trip and it didnt dissapoint. Its a very beautiful place. Great food as well, the first night with Nicola I ate this delicious cheese food inside a bread and the next day some Gulash, very tasty but maybe not the most appropiate thing to be eaten at 3 pm with 30 degrees temperature… And that delicious beer… Budapest is cool!

However, I still had to sort out the trip planification. Great bath and great food but I still didnt know where I was gonna spend next night. So I went to the Cervantes Institute in Budapest where Guerrino, Warsaw former ICEX and important night punisher, is workin. We are checking every possible combination of polish means of transportation, trains, 12h buses… At some point it looked impossible to went through Lublin as planned and cities such as Krakow or Warsaw seemed a better option. I even though of flying directly to Vilnius and skip Poland but, in the end, I take a decision: my trip was gonna be exactly the way I had planned it. No stupid incident was gonna make change it so, following my usual I-dont-give-a-shit-about-money policy, I booked three flights: Budapest - Warsaw, Warsaw - Vilnius and Vilnius - Riga and it between a train trip from Warsaw to Lublin. The only change ended up been the election of Vilnius instead of Kaunas but, in fact, I had always wanted to stop in Vilnius and it was Giorgos decision to select Kaunas instead. In Vilnius there was people I had hosted and, besides, avery lithuanian I had met told me it was a better place. So, no endless train trips and more time available to enjoy the places I was gonna visit. Besides, I dont think it was so expensive in the end, taking into acoount I was not exactly booking a lot of time in advance. I believe, and further experience proved it, that it was the right decision.

Once I had sorted out this little issue, it was time for the fun and well, I guess you imagine what I mean, meeting with Guerrino always ends up been a wild drinking night which you dont remember much about later. We burned Budapest nightlife. It is funny the Spanish idea of “botellón” (drinking in the street) is valid here too. There is this square in the center where everybody are drinking before going to clubs. So we drunk the rum bottle I still had from Spain with Nicola and another friend of Guerrino. After that we went to a club which probably was very nice but I cant tell much cause I dont remember nothing. Apparently, somehow I managed to reach Nicola´s place and get some little sleep before rushing to Budapest´s aiport to catch my flight to Warsaw. The second trip dissaster was close, just 5 minutes in advance but I got it. Still some little trouble in Warsaw but, in the end, I was comfortable settled in a polish train, watching the landscape and heading towards my next stop: Lublin.

All Budapest pictures here!