May 24 - Vienna



I'm back in Vienna after 2 nights in Budapest with my buddy Alex Meier. He had to go to Budapest for work for the weekend, so I went down and crashed in his hotel room. Gotta take advantage of the free lodging, right??!?! I took a 5:50 train down, and with the 3 hour trip and about a half hour lateness, I arrived in Budapest around 9:30pm, with a heaping side order of anxiety. Both Alex and my trusty guidebook gave the same, explicit directions: under no circumstances do you get into a cab that you have not called yourself, as illegitimate taxis in Budapest are a large source of crime. So, as the train approached Keleti Station I had terrible images in my head of getting beaten up, my cash and bags stolen, or worse...getting Marcellus Wallace'ed in some old beat up basement in a Budapest slum by angry Eastern Europeans. And after getting off the train, and subsequently power-walking with Olympic gold medal speed to the cab I called and arranged, took a deep breath and settled down.



I made it to the hotel raring to go around 10. Alex and I went to a bar around the corner from the hotel (it was the nice section of town) and had a couple pints, and then found a club and walked in. For some reason, Alex and I have been magnets to clubs where we feel very young and at the same time are full of geriatrics making out. It was funny and incredibly gross at the same time. Don't know what it is. So yesterday (Saturday) Alex had to do work stuff, so I set out on my own and saw some of Budapest's sights. The Hungarian Parliament building was immense and incredibly beautiful. It is the 2nd largest Parliament building in Europe, after London, and it was a Gothic masterpiece. Too bad for the Hungarians it was built with a much larger empire in mind than the one that currently exists. I walked down to the St. Stephen's church, which was amazing, and made a pretty bad mistake - I decided to walk up to the tower and get the panoramic view of the city. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson from Florence. But nooooooooooo. At least this time I wasn't viciously hung over. Just a mild one this time... But I got up, took some nice pix, and got the F down. After that, I walked over to the famous Chain Bridge and up to Castle Hill, which provided even more beautiful overlooks of the city. After walking for a solid 5 hours, I headed back to the hotel for a little nap to regenerate, and man, I sure needed it.



Alex and I headed out to bar around 10ish to get the night started, and then we headed over to another bar, where his Hungarian buddy Peter was hanging. So we went there, and discovered that the Hungarians love their Vodka. Or, as they say, Wodka. I had shudders up my spine just thnking about it. Hung there for a while, and then we all headed over to a club called Cha Cha Cha. Just thinking about the name makes me laugh. And no, it wasn't a strip club for those who are curious. It was a good spot, lots of fun. Astonishingly, we looked down at our watches and it was 4:30, so we decided to head home, with probably the best gyro I've ever eaten. Alex and I woke up feeling like someone was bashing our heads with baseball bats, and decided to hit the free breakfast the hotel provided (Hilton WestEnd Budapest is a nice place for anyone going to Budapest in the future). We attacked the free buffet as if we were 2 homeless men. We then hopped on the train and headed back to Vienna, which is where I am now. I was originally planning on going straight to Prague from Buda, but the past several weeks have started to take a toll on me, so I decided to have a nice chill night at Alex's place (again, love the free lodging) and will head to Prague tomorrow. I am so fortunate that Alex has been so generous to let me crash here for so many nights, and it has been truly awesome to hang with him for this much time. I've had a blast. Thanks for everything Hanz. Love you brother.

Now that I know how to upload photos, I am trying t0 upload some more of the 400+ that I've taken so far....but blogspot isn't letting me. So I'll try again soon. Sorry!