Never Leaving Booo-dah-pesht

I finally checked out on Tuesday morning, but as it turns out, I will never leave Carpe Nochem Hostel. My presence will always be felt by all of its guests.

We were playing a drinking game one night in the common area when someone declared a rule that whenever anyone speaks, they must finish their sentence with, "Budapest". Ian informed us that that the correct pronunciation of the city is, "Boo-dah-pesht", with the inflection in the "oo". Being the jackass that I am, I decided to take my pronunciation a little further. If you want to get a good mental image of the scene, picture me pretending to be Sean Connery while saying, "Booo-dah-pesht"....while pumping my fist.

My rendition was well-received to say the least and spread like wildfire. For the next 5 days, people were throwing out "Booo-dah-pesht"'s (fist still pumping) left and right. Soon, Suzi began to welcome new guests with such an introduction. Suzi's friend Beth, who is responsible for all the artwork in the hostel, is thankfully in town for the week. It was just decided this morning that adjacent to the Carpe Nochem writing on the wall will be a pumping fist exclaiming, "Welcome to Booo-dah-pesht".




You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Cinetrip

Saturday night was spent at Cinetrip. They say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Enjoy.

http://video.google.pl/videoplay?docid=2680962283237940900&q=cinetrip+budapest&total=16&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

Honestly, the video doesn't even do the evening justice. I would write about the Turkish Bath Party, but I know there are minors reading this blog...

The 8 Day Party Known as Budapest

I was in Budapest for 8 nights, more than any other city. Yet, it seems as though I have seen less of it than any other city. I checked in to Carpe Nochem Hostel on Monday morning only to learn that the owners weren't awake yet because they had been partying at a strip club the night before. This is when I realized Budapest was going to treat me very, very well.

After about an hour of conversing with a number of the hostel's guests, owners Suzi, Ian and Aaron reared their ugly heads. Despite being completely hungover, these 3 20-somethings sat down and gave me a 10 minute spiel explaining, circling and diagraming the Can't Miss sights of the city.

Note:

****Carpe Nochem makes every other hostel at which I've stayed look like a prison. The hostel is full of single travelers and Suzi, Ian and Aaron bendover backwards to make sure we have the best time possible. They give us great recommendations for cheap, fun places, take us to the best bars and make their hostel feel like our home. They have only been open for 7 weeks, so they are still in the process of putting the hostel together. It has been a lot of fun watching the place go up, as they have painted signs for each of the rooms, designed murals and displayed various wall images.***

I digested all the information, only to realize I still hadn't slept since I left Prague. I had them make a bed for me and climbed in to the most comfortable bed I had encountered since I left California (Anyone who has had the fortune of sleeping in my bed knows what I'm talking about. And yes, I'm taking about the mattress.) The mattresses at Carpe Nochem are all therapeautic and are form-fitting. I was asleep within seconds.

I woke up at 5 and wanted to walk around the city. But my noble curiousity soon dissipated when I learned much of the city shuts down on Mondays. And it was raining. I guess it was going to be a lazy day after all.

Carpe Nochem has a tradition of making a Hungarian roast on Monday nights. 500 florints (a little more than $3) and hours worth of Suzi's slave labor later, we were treated to a delicious meal of roast pork, sauteed potatoes and boiled carrots. The hostel has been open for 7 weeks and every Monday they put together this feast for their guests. When under Communist rule, Mondays nights were unofficially the time people spent at home. The regimen has weakened quite a bit, but the policy still holds true for much of the city's inhabitants. Many restaurants and sights are closed. As a result, the fine people at Carpe Nochem took it upon themselves to ensure all of their guests enjoyed Mondays.

After the meal, we all made our way to Morrison's for karaoke. The cover is 500 florints, and if you arrive by 11pm you get 3 free beers. I love this place. I got to know hostelmates and had a great time performing a great rendition of "Hotel California". Little did I know that the words, "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave" would ring so very true.



The next day was spent on a 4 hour walking tour. We walked around the flat, culturally rich area of Pest before crossing the Danube to make our way to hilly Buda. The tour was, as always, a great way to get a good feel for the city. Budapest is not what I pictured in my head - it's much bigger than I imagined, and it has a much stronger big city feel to it. It is probably the least touristy city I have visited.

My favorite Budapest sight was the Citadel, which offers panoramic views of both Buda and Pest from atop a huge hill. We walked there a number of times - both during the day and at night to enjoy the city lit up. It is hard to beat the picturesque scene of the Danube or the Elizabeth Bridge at night.



Over the next week, I realized Monday's festivities were far from an oddity for what was to come. I spent the next week seeing the city by day and partying at night...every night. We went to bars, clubs, pub crawls and when we didn't go out, we stayed in and played drinking games. The fine people at Non Stop Liquor know us as the people who come into their convenient store on a nightly basis to clean them out of their beer. Before you judge me, just know that beer here is less than a dollar a can. Know this. Okay, now you can judge me.

Friday was the Thai New Year. Carpe Nochem is across the street from a Thai restaurant. Parazs Presszo decided to celebrate in fine style. For 4000 florints, we were treated to an All-You-Can-Eat extravaganza. Oh, and I did mention that it was also all you can...DRINK!?? We left when we were told we had to. Rumor has it Parazs Presszo is discontinuing their New Year tradition. I heard something about going out of business, but I'm not sure. Needless to say, we did a number on this place.

Prague to Budapest...Delta Style

My train from Prague to Budapest was set to leave at 9:47pm and arrive the following morning. I arrived at the train station and grew nervous when I read the departure board. The train was supposed to stop in Budapest on its way to Bucharest, but "Bucharest" was nowhere to be found up above. There was a train leaving at 9:47, but it was departing towards Bratislava, Slovakia. Confused, I asked the guy behind the counter at the ticket office. After examining my ticket, he confirmed that this was in fact my train. A little unsure, but left with zero other options, I reluctantly trekked towards Platform 5. The train took off and within 20 minutes the ticket checkers came by. Fearing the worst, I handed them my ticket. They looked it up and down, stamped it and handed it back to me.

Phew. That could have been a disaster.

I wasn't really tired, so I watched an episode of "Rescue Me", listened to music and then began reading my book, Into the Wild (a great travel book). It was 3:15am when a ticket checker knocked on my train car. Assuming it was just another routine check, I opened up the door and handed her my ticket. She waved me off, signaling that she didn't want the ticket. She sat down and uttered in broken English, "You need to get off the train."

"Um, what?"
"This train. You need to get off."
"Um, why?"
"There's a railroad strike in Hungary."

Feel free to take a moment to digest this situation.

In case you missed it...

"Um, what?"
"This train. You need to get off."
"Um, why?"
"There's a railroad strike in Hungary."

Okay, now we're ready to move on.

"Um, what?"
"This train. You need to get off."

We enjoyed this back and forth for a few minutes until she left my car and informed me I had 10 minutes to pack up bags and disembark.

I began putting everything together when I heard the woman go to the car next to mine and give the same spiel. I felt better. Misery loves company.

4 minutes later, everyone on the train was huddled around in total confusion. The train came to a halt in...you guessed it, Bratislava, Slovakia! It was 3:30 in the morning and there was no one in sight. We made our way towards the center of the train station in the hopes of sorting out the beginnings of a debacle. When we discovered everything closed and a mere one worker in the station, we came to accept the fact that we were officially screwed.

The departure board was blank and we were smackdab in the middle of Nowheresville. We sat there for about an hour debating potential solutions: calling a shuttle bus, paying 100 euro a person to take a cab all the way to Budapest, finding a way to the bus station, or just waiting at the train station in hopes that the strike would sort itself out. After much debate, we decided it was best to stay pat and hope for the best.

After what seemed like 6 eternities, the departure board lit up. There were a number of trains to cities I had never heard of, so I consulted my map to see what the gameplan was to be. We soon realized that the least horrendous solution was to train to a tiny Slovakian-Hungarian bordertown named Sturovo. We all paid 190 Slovakian Koruna (I still don't know how much that is) and waited for the 6:30 train.

As the 20 or so of us made our way towards the platform, I let out a, "Ya know, I'm gonna miss Bratislava."

An hour and a half later we arrived to Sturovo, whose population can be no larger than 17. This town was on the outskirts of the Boonies. There is desolation. And then there is Sturovo. Fortunately there was one cab at the station, and we quickly informed him to call the troops and send out a brigade of cabs. A group took off and we waited for another taxi to arrive. Sleep-deprived. In the rain. I hate Europe.

The cab eventually pulled up, and 4 of us jumped in and told him we were trying to get to the Budapest train station.

"No problem."


Note: There would be a problem.


We drove for about 2 hours and finally saw signs suggesting we had arrived in Budapest. Solid. Then the cabbie pulled into a shopping center. And he stopped the car. And he told us that we would have to get out here. FAAAAANTASTIC.

"You're going to have get out and wait for a cab to pick you up."
"What?"
"Yeah, we're not going to the train station. I'm not going that far."
"Where are we?"
"Centrum. The center of Budapest."

Let me give you a visual this point. We were in the middle of a shopping center. I had seen no landmarks. No historical sites. No signs. I think it was safe to assume we were NOT in the center of Budapest.

After about 3 seconds of silence, I explained, "We're not getting out of this cab until we get to the train station."

Upset, he got of the cab to make a phone call. I turned to the people in the back to confer about our most recent debacle. After a little discussion, I asked for one of their cell phones. The phone didn't work, but it was meant to be a scare tactic just in case. Thomas Schelling once wrote that the threat of force can often be more productive than the actual execution of force, so I figured a threat to call the police wouldn't sit well with our cabbie friend.

He came back a few minutes later and reluctantly submitted to taking us where we wanted to go.

15 minutes later we parked the car in front of the train station. I got out, made sure it was the correct destination and tipped our cab driver.

False. I did not tip our cab driver.

It wasn't the most direct of routes or the smoothest of travels, but I had finally arrived in Budapest.

"Prague: Pride", "Pop Muzik", "Peace on Earth" and Prague's People

My poker pain quickly subsided when I found another delicious sausage stand.

The subsided pain became euphoria when I stumbled upon an Irish pub with U2 blaring all the way to the street. I walked down the stairs of the bar-restaurant to find everyone facing the same way. When I got to the bottom, I saw an amazing sight. I saw Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton ....kinda. The band U2 Revival was playing a concert and they rocking out to "New Year's Day". I ordered a pint and sat down. They had already been playing for about 45 minutes, so I was nervous that I was catching the tailend of the show. Nope. They played for another hour-plus and put on quite a great concert. It seemed as though everyone in the bar was Irish and knew all of the songs. When I arrived in Europe, I had planned on going to a number of concerts, but the depletion of the Ari Fund has prevented such entertainment. My intention was to see the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Radiohead, The Cure and Rage Against the Machine, but U2 Revival put on a show that made me more than happy.



Overall, I thought Prague was beautiful. Old Town Square is one of the most beautiful areas I have ever seen. I was enamored with the city when I arrived, but I found myself enjoying my time there less and less. By the time I made my way towards Budapest, I had mixed emotions about Prague. As gorgeous as the architecture is, the locals are borderline hostile towards tourists, especially Americans. The city's inhabitants were the least tolerant of social ignorance of any European city I have visited. My annoyance came to a head on my train ride to Hungary.

Prague: Poker

I stayed for poker.

Casinos are alllll over Prague. It seems like every major street has at least one, and with the rise of Texas Hold 'Em, many offer poker. I would have played earlier in the week, but I was going out a lot at night, and poker games don't begin until 9 or 10 at night in the city. No casino has more than one table going at any given time, and the games last into the night. By 12 or 1 the Big Stacks at the table are able to push people around. As a result, I made sure to get there as early as possible.

The first night Kelby left for Vienna I took part in Praha Casino's 25-50 Koruna (about $1.5-3) No Limit game. I sat down with about $200 and found myself playing more nervously than ever before. When I play poker at home, I tend to sit down with anywhere from $300-500 and think nothing of it. I have been so conscious of money on this trip though, it was hard to play freely. For the past six weeks, I have attempted to allocate a certain amount of money each day, and the unpredictability of poker turned that allocation upside down. Every time I entered a pot, I was more nervous that I would lose my entire stack on that hand. After a few hands though, I realized I was one of the best players at the table, so my nerves calmed, if only a little. The night was fairly uneventful – I played tight, but fairly aggressive and walked away with $60 in the black.

The next night I decided to play in the same casino's No Limit Tournament. The 500 koruna buy-in yielded 40-something players. I noticed from the beginning of the tournament I was a lot more relaxed than the night before. I think the newfound relaxation stemmed from the fact that I didn't feel like I was playing with real money; I had already made my 30 dollar-ish investment, and now I was freerolling it. This new attitude paid strong dividends early on, as I picked up a few big pots and managed to knock off a couple players in the process. By the break, I was one of the largest stacks, and felt comfortable with where I stood. I picked up a few good hands and kept out of harm's way, hoping to clear a path for myself to the final table.

Then I picked up AA. Playing 300-600, I was on the button. There was one call from middle position, then the guy on my right (who was stupidly aggressive) bumped it up to an even 2000. I figured he was trying to make a play to steal the button, so I assumed he didn't have a great hand. Enticing a call, I only raised 3x his amount. The blinds and the original caller folded, the guy on my right thought for about 30 seconds and finally called. There was now 13,500 chips in the middle of the table.

The flop came K-Q-10, rainbowed. This definitely was not the best flop for Aces because he easily could have hit a set and there was a legitimate straight possibility on the board. He bet out 8000. Even before the flop I sensed he was going to bet out. I had been playing pretty tight, and I think he wanted to put the pressure on me. If I didn't hit the flop, I would have a hard time calling his bet.

I raised to 2000. I realized that I was committed at this point. I figured I had the best hand and I wanted to get all the money in now. My heart dropped when he pushed all-in, and I unhappily called. He turned over Q-10. I needed one of the following to suckout: A, K, J or runner runner. No dice. Tournament over. Hopes and dreams of paying for the rest of my trip gone.

Two notes from poker, Prague style:

Despite the fact that everyone was a local and speaking Czech, EVERYONE said the poker actions in English. I would hear them talking in a language I don't understand, then all of a sudden, "Check." "Bet." "Raise." Even the dealer spoke in English when moderating the game. I found this amazing.

Also, anything goes while playing poker in Prague. You are allowed to listen to music, eat, speak in multiple languages, smoke and even use the computer while at the table. A Czech 20-something was playing, when all of a sudden he pulled a laptop from a bag. Within 5 minutes, a number of people were huddled around the computer, watching the screen intently. I couldn't see the screen, but I didn't really need to to know he was playing online poker. Playing online poker while playing poker at a casino. I had never seen that before and felt somewhere between impressed and a little sad for the boy.

Prague: Paris Girl

Paris Girl and her friend Parker, with whom she had been traveling, arrived in Prague on my fourth day in the city. We had a drink in Old Town Square and enjoyed another Astronomical Clock Show before meeting up with friends of theirs from Leeds for dinner and drinks at a local pub. From there, we paid another visit to Karlovy Lazne.



The next day turned out to be a repeat from my day before, only I played tour guide for them. The highlight (besides somehow getting lost in a residential area while searching for the GINORMOUS Prague Castle) was climbing up to the top of cathedral of the castle grounds. The jaunt was up a narrow, 287-step spiral staircase that had people going both up and down. After about 4 minutes of treachery, I was convinced the spiral never ended, but I eventually made it up to the top...albeit panting and sweating. As annoying as the walk was, the panoramic views made the hike well worth it. We had a 360-degree view of Old Town, New Town and the neighboring Prague areas. We made sure to take plenty of pictures and spend more than enough time up there in an effort to avoiding the inevitable hike down.



The next day we took an hour-long train to Kutna Hora to pay a visit to the town's church. You might be asking yourself at this point, "Why would Ari Bernstein board a train towards a tiny town in the middle of Nowheresville to see a church?" That's reasonable. What if I told you this church's interior consisted of nothing but human bones? Is that something you'd be interested in? There are more than 40,000 bones in the building and you can find every single bone in the human body (126, if I'm not mistaken) if you look hard enough.



After enjoying 3 days with Kelby and Parker, they made there way to Vienna, while I stayed in Prague for another two days. To be honest, I stayed for one reason. As it turned out, it was the same reason I have been able to backpack through Europe.

Prague: Playing Pedestrian

The next day was dedicated to walking tours. The city is littered with agencies advertising different tours around the city and the neighboring area. I figured the investment in a tour would be wise until I came across a company called "Free Prague Walking Tours". Sounds good to me. There are two 3 hour tours each day, one consisting of Stare Misto (Old Town), while the other frequents Nove Mesto and the surrounding districts. The tours are led by students studying in Prague and are completely free save tip money at the end.

The Old Town tour was fun because they explained the significance and history behind each of the buildings I had seen the day before. They took us to the square's Astronomical Clock, whose claim to fame is that every hour, on the hour, apostles come out and do a little song and dance. This is a very popular site in Prague, and hundreds of people often gather minutes before the hour strikes. The 20-second show was fun, but the fanfare turned out to be more exciting than the actual performance.

One of the highlights from the first tour was going to Wincelas Square, where we saw an opera house and an office building on opposite sides of the street. The enjoyment came from contrasting the difference in beauty between the two structures – built before Communist takeover, the opera house was erected in an Art Nuveau style with ornate facades and vibrant colors. The office building, however, was built under the Communist regime and was Functionally designed. The tour guide explained to us as soon as Czech became Communist, the government decreed that money should be spent on function, and function alone.

The second of the two tours was even more fun. They took us all over New Town, where we walked across the famous Charles Bridge, stood in awe of the Prague Castle and paid homage to Frank Kafka's house at Golden Lane.




The Charles Bridge is apparently Prague's most famous site. The bridge is the divide between Old Town and New Town, and runs along the Vlatava River. The scene is so pretty that hundreds of couples come every summer to get their weddings pictures taken with the river and castle in the background.

Beyond the river is Prague Castle, the biggest of its kind in all of Europe. The castle is still completely functional, so we couldn't go into the building, but the site and the accompany views were more than adequate. We walked around the grounds, whose cobblestone paths are amusement park-pristine, and were lucky enough to be there for the Changing of the Guard.



Last was Golden Lane, a narrow road with the tiniest of houses. The doorways stand about roughly 5 feet tall and are quite fun…until you smash your head.

I went to dinner with two friends I met on the second tour and enjoyed some more meat and dumplings. It was only six o'clock, but I wouldn't be hungry until late afternoon the next day.

The two best stories from the tours were both violence-themed. The second best story was the tale of the deferenstrations, whereby people were executed by being thrown from windows. The best story, by far though, was heard when we visited a cathedral on the Old Town tour. The building is very pretty, and as it turns out, a little too pretty. As the story goes, an architect built it for the king, and the king was so enamored with the structure, that he didn't want anyone else to have anything like it. What better way to ensure this than blinding the architect?

Before Paris Girl came the next day I made sure to check out the Communist Museum, which I found quite informative. They even had an interrogation room of the secret police, who were even more powerful than the government. I felt a little depressed when I left the museum, so I bought a 50 koruna sausage. Problem solved.

Prague: Picturesque

I stayed in Prague for 8 nights, two more than any European city I have visited. I did not intend on remaining there as long as I did, but it just happened to work out that way. I had orginally been planning to be in the Czech capital for 4 or so nights, but when I learned that Kelby (Paris Girl) was also paying the city a visit, I decided to extend my stay so our trips would overlap. Additionally, I decided to spend two more days there after she left because, well, I felt like it.

I arrived last Saturday night via a flight from Amsterdam, and arrived at A+ Hostel at roughly midnight. Shortly after checking in I met a group of French college students on Spring Break ("Easter Holiday"). Before I knew it, I was drinking at the hostel's downstairs bar learning plenty about the French people and culture. After about 45 minutes of drinking and chit-chat, someone from their group informed his friends that their cab was "ready". One of the girls turned to me and asked if I wanted to go out clubbing. And so I went.

It just so happened that two hours after landing in Prague, I set foot in the city's nightlife hotspot. Located next to the Charles Bridge, Karlovy Lazne, or as it is popularly known, "Five Floors", offers 5 levels of themed dance floors. One minute I was dancing to Justin Timberlake, while the next I was singing along with Billy Joel. The club and the French were a lot of fun - I didn't even realize how late it was until I walked back outside to a Prague sunrise.

After sleeping in, I made my way to Old Town Square. I was lucky enough that I caught the final day of the Czech Republic's Easter celebration. The entire square was filled with vendors and booths selling meats, sweets, novelties and the like. There was a puppet show being enjoyed by hundreds of people. The show was in Czech, so I was not one of the hundreds.

[I learned over the course of my stay that Prague celebrates Easter in a rather interesting fashion: A tradition which still exists is the whipping of women and girls. The whip or “pomlázka” is braided from three or more willow rods. Pagan Slavs believed that whipping brought good luck, wealth and a rich harvest for the whole year. The strength and vitality of young twigs was supposed to be transferred onto the person whipped. I suspect that in these days, men don’t have a clue about the metaphysical meaning of this tradition; they simply enjoyed the opportunity to chase the village girls and have some fun. In addition, traditional whipping is normally accompanied by the singing of Easter carols.]



Sunday's weather was perfect and so was the scenery. Old Town Square is one one of the prettiest sites I have ever seen. When I first walked into the middle of the square, I stopped dead in my tracks. No joke. I let out an, "Oh my God", before regaining enough composure to move my legs again. The two tours I wanted to go on had already started, so I decided to walk around and get my bearings of the city in the meantime. As I walked around, I quickly fell in love with the city's beauty. Largely unscathed from WWII, Prague's architecture is unlike anything I have ever seen. I thought for a while how I would describe the view and realized it is a cross between a medieval Disneyland and a movie set. The cobblestone (which is ALL over the city) and 1000+ year old buildings make the city seem like it's straight from a fairytale.

After walking around, I decided to look for some traditional Czech cuisine. I found a cafeteria-style restaurant that seemed to only be inhabited by locals. Everyone inside was speaking Czech and the menus were written in Czech, so when it became my turn to order, I simply pointed to the portion of food the man in front of me had ordered. The dish turned out to be some sort of pork roast with cabbage and what they deem "bread dumplings" (knedliky). I would describe them as sponge-like bread in the shape of hockey pucks. The dumplings were tasty, but more importantly were sufficiently able to soak up the gravy from the roast. Along with the meal, I ordered a Pilsner Urquell, their local beer. As soon as the man behind the counter handed me the beer, I felt slighted - there were roughly 2 inches of head. As it turned out, every single beer I was served in Prague had between 2 and 3 inches of foam at its top. In the US people get annoyed when their beer has so much head, but in the Czech Republic they prefer the taste. Whenever I saw a local served a pint, they immediately chugged half of it, presumably to enjoy the foam while they could.

The meal was tasty, but I quickly learned two things about Czech food: a) A Czech meal will prevent hunger from striking for days, and b) There is virtually zero variation with Czech food. Every single traditional meal I ordered over the next week would consist of beef or pork, bread and a side of a vegetable. I sought other options, but they were extremely hard to come by.