A Quick Photo-less Update That Turned Longer Than Expected

Hello all,

There's a lot I wanted to write about, but the computer at this cafe isn't picking up my jumpdrive so I can't get any pictures up. It's ok though, i'll get them up later on.

So we're finishing up our Budapest visit. It was definetly fun and different. The trip here was long and scary enough, as Paul mentioned in his blog. I just remember thinking how I did not want to spend the night in a scary Czech industrial town in the middle of nowhere, where our train got delayed for a couple of hours. The place was pretty dank, with large chimney stacks and industrial buildings looming in the background. Not to mention numerous shady characters lurking around.

Maybe I was just paranoid after hearing a lot of stories this month of Hungary/Czech nighttrains being hubs for theivery and whatnot, so I refused to sleep the entire leg up until Budapest. When we got onto the train leaving the scary town for Hungary in the middle of the night and saw how deserted it was, I just assumed that that meant we could more easily be cornered in our cabin. We tried to think of fool-proof alarms systems involving rope/fishing wire but the lack of these materials didn't help that much. Here´s a pic of Paul passed out in the Hungary train

Anyway, the city is great and stressful travel is exciting in its own way. I'll get some pictures of it up here later. The hostel we are staying in is fantastic. They have hammocks people! They also have rooms broken up into different themes. There's a Bob Marley room, an amazon room etc. Really neat. And the entire place just has random doo-dads all over, like pictures of other cities and backpackers doing weird things. Or the "Record Board" where those who have stayed at the hostel can attempt to win new records and be immortalized forever. Examples of ones that we saw up there include: First to jump off of Liberty Bridge (large main bridge downtown), Largest amount of money payed for taxi ride to hostel (the taxi drivers are known to scam you if you don't know what you're doing) and Quickest consumption of jar of Nutella (59 seconds)

The Airplane and Dzido

Going back to the Czech for a little, I always wanted to bring up the AeroBar. In Olomouc we were told that one of the shadiest but coolest looking (at least from the outside) bars was this AeroBar. So on our last night there we planned to have a dinner, then head over for a quick beer and back to the hostel, to wake up for our morning train. The whole pizzaz of this bar lies in the fact that it is actually an old Russian Tu-104 passenger jet that is parked in the middle of a field, where the inside of the plane has been remade with seats and a bar. (pictures to come) However, rumours and word of mouth had gotten to us telling us that besides the outside, the inside is not that great to look at and they serve warm beer. I said, who cares! It's a frikking airplane in the middle of a field!

Complications struck, however, in the form of some meaty Czech goulash seen in the pic on teh left. During our evening meal Paul's goulash got the better of him and he was forced to bow out of any evening beer sit downs. With the Aerobar looking to become forever just a legend in my mind I decided that maybe I'd just go for a quick beer on my own. With Paul still reeling from picante beef inflicted goodness, we met a few americans and hostellers and tried to see if anyone would go for a beer. Unfortunatly, they all refused on the grounds that the bar is much too dirty and perhaps actually a front for the Hungarian mafia.

We walked home to the hostel and I wrestled with the dilema. Midnight had just struck and Paul was going up to the hostel, hallucinating from his meal. I stood at the stairs and flipped a Czech Crown and decided to go for it. Leaving with Paul all of my documents, camera, and money, save for a few bucks for a drink, I headed out to the plane. Not 15 minutes away, it stood like a beached whale in the dark, quiet, with moody lights shining from teh windows. I walked up the stairs to the back door and rand a doorbell at the metal bar door. A hefty looking gentleman came and inquired to my business. "Pivo" I said. With the door opened, I stumbled into what can maybe be described as a seedy, 60's casino atmophere. There was a bar at the back of the plane with a dusty TV on. The walls were covered with what looked like red velvet pillows tha reflected what little dim yellow lights there were. The entire plane was filled with a haze of chain smoke and no more than 3 people were visible down its entire length. I ordered my beer quietly and was given a warm can of something. Sitting down in one of the old airplane seats which had turned, every other one, so as to make booths, I proceded to finish my drink. The eyes of everyone on the bar were on me, probably surprised that anyone would come here to drink. Dank, smoky, scary and dark...but great! haha I'm going to have to post a picture for you guys.

Anyways, Spain is next up on the list!