Hungary Redux

Once again, I have done a God-awful job of posting regularly, so I'm just going to do a brief recap of my Hungarian travel experience. My time in that country was divided between two cities: Budapest and Pecs (pronounced "paych"). I spent about 7 days in Budapest and 2 days in Pecs.

With Budapest, it was great to spend a good chunk of time in one place and really get to know the city. I found that it had fewer communist-era leftovers than Prague, but it seemed to have an intriguing split personality of sorts. Depending on what neighborhood you were in, you could definitely see whether the people there had vigorously embraced the full-throttle capitalism of the 90s, or lagged behind, stuck in the "old ways." I saw a surprising number of Ferraris and Lamborghinis while I was there.

Budapest was also special for me because I got to CouchSurf with not one, not two, but THREE different Budapesters! One of the things I like most about CouchSurfing is that every time I stay with a local somewhere, I end up doing things that I would never have even thought to do otherwise. For example, on my first night I went with my host to what was probably the most interesting bar I have ever visited. It was housed in what was essentially an abandoned, gutted factory complex. The bar itself was in the courtyard, but if you felt so inspired, you could freely wander through the buildings, maneuvering in darkness up stairways and around piles of trash. At one point we ended up on top of one of the highest buildings, looking down on the bar bustle below. Unrefined, perhaps, but definitely unique.

With another host, I went to a local cafeteria that served up traditional homestyle Hungarian food. Basically, Budapest's version of Boston Market. Budapest Market, perhaps? Hungarian cuisine is typically very rich, very hearty, full of paprika, and served in very large portions. Some people say that every Hungarian recipe begins by sauteeing onions in butter. Which may be true. Still, very tasty and very filling. Afterwards, we went to a local bar which happened to be doing a karaoke night. Hungarian karaoke is, for those who have not experienced it, a very interesting sight to behold. Probably 75% of the songs sung were Hungarian rock 'n' roll tunes, influenced heavily by Elvis, Chuck Berry, and other early rockers. I asked my host for a brief synopsis of the lyrical content, which was somewhere along the lines of "I love my girl, she is so beautiful, we have so much fun together, blah blah blah..." So nothing revolutionary, but it definitely inspires Hungarians to get on stage and make fools of themselves.

Pecs was a big change of pace from Budapest. It's basically a rural outpost with some interesting history (it was once an Ottoman stronghold), one of Hungary's universities, and a cute, squeaky-clean town center. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have gone there if it weren't for the fact that I was meeting my friend Anand (of Utrecht fame) and his girlfriend Tammy there. A particularly interesting (if somewhat harrowing) aspect of my visit was my accommodation. I ended up staying in one of the town's university dormitories, as most of the actual students were on summer holiday. The room itself was nice enough...it actually reminded me a lot of Liggett 2, my freshman dorm floor. Things took a turn for the worst when I visited the bathrooms. As far as I could tell, they hadn't been cleaned since the students had left in the spring. One of the stalls looked as though a stick of shit dynamite had been placed in the toilet and detonated, creating a scene that would have brough a tear to Jackson Pollock's eye. So basically, I resolved to take care of all my bodily functions in town. On the bright side, I only paid $5 per night for the bed. Maybe that's a fair tradeoff.

So that was Hungary, in a very tiny nutshell. After that, I flew from Budapest to...Istanbul! Which takes me to my next post...