Tuesday, September 04, 2001

First of all, separate from all my travel nonsense, congratulations to my brother Ian and his girlfriend Katherine for now officially being engaged.

Ok ok ok. And it's finally out of Slovakia and into Hungary, home of goulash and an absolutely impossible language which has no similarity to any previous language so far. Thank God for universal words - internet, Pepsi, Tesco and of course, sexshop. I'm actually in Budapest right now, which I'm curiously finding quite appealing despite it being a heap of very big and busy roads that happen to have some buildings in between. We haven't yet explored very far as we only arrived a matter of hours ago, spending ages trying to find accommodation.

The first hostel was full up so we were told of another one, which was another long walk away. We eventually managed to locate it, and Simon managed to almost book us a double bed together, in a single room. I think him asking for "a bed for the two of us" threw the Hungarian dude with only broken English. Thank God the double bed cost 22 pounds a night, which was way too much and we managed to eventually get the guy to recognise that we were not in fact gay (Simon saying "We are not homosexuals" helped I think) and we got cheap, normal dormitory beds. Separate beds.

We haven't done much in Budapest, except wander the busy streets and breathe in the filthy air. We checked out the big bridge over the Danube but will save the proper explorations of the old town tomorrow. Then we found this slightly overpriced internet place (3 pounds for 2 hours, not bad but simply not the cheapness of Slovakia) and here I am.

Yeah, so we got here a few hours ago after spending last night in a northern town called Miskolc. It was perfectly pleasant, but very average. Nothing to distinguish it from anything else. It had one curious fountain, but as that very famous saying goes "One fountain does not a town make." It's a famous saying I've heard countless numbers of times. We looked around, had a drink, did some shopping, went back to the cheap motel. I drank a bottle of red wine. And that was our day there. Pleasant, but not exciting.

I am drinking a fair bit these days actually. It's so damn cheap. You could actually get beer cheaper than water in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. I'm not sure yet of Hungarian prices, but they seem cheap so far. Although I suspect Budapest could be an expensive few days.

I'm not sure what else there is to tell you. All that's happened since I lastr wrote is that we left Kosice for Miskolc and then to Budapest today. Oh, that Kosice tower block became very populated suddenly also, by students obviously starting the term. Damn students.

Ok, that's everything. A pleasant if unexceptional few days.

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