Good hostel, great times, fantastic people
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2008
1
55
59
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Budapest,
Hungary
Friday, September 19, 2008
We took the tram to Carpe Noctem hostel, which I was very excited to stay in. Carpe Noctem was rated as the number 3 hostel in the world, with such amazing amenities as memory foam mattresses! Luckily Jared was able to get a bed without a reservation. We dropped off our stuff and headed to Szechenyi, one of the many thermal baths for which the city is famous. At the baths I challenged an old man to a game of chess and he promptly whooped me. Which should come as little surprise because I think many of the old men their just sit in the baths all day playing chess (a later visit to the baths confirmed this as all the same men were still there) Relaxing in the warm water was fantastic but on our way back it started to rain and my shoes had wholes in both the toes and heels (they had started the trip brand new but done a lot of walking around the world!) so my feet got soaking wet.
When we got back to the hostel, JP and Karl (who I had previously met in Transylvania) were there and we started talking about their plans for Oktoberfest.
on top of St. Peters
The two girls they were with had their passports stolen, so they were stuck back in Romania, but JP and Karl were still planning on getting a car for Oktoberfest, they just needed two more people to fill the space; Jared and I quickly hopped on board, excited to have a crew for Oktoberfest and a car to sleep in.That evening the whole hostel went out to eat at a restaurant across the street. The restaurant was Thaigarian, a cross between Thai and Hungarian food. I recognized many of the pictures on the walls from my trip around Thailand and started a conversation with the owner about all the places in Thailand I had been; it turned out I had been to her hometown, Ayuthya! After dinner we went to a local pub where JP and I dominated the foosball table until some local mavericks came in and came very close to shutting us out. We drank a couple pints, listened to the live band play hungarian folk music and watched the locals dance.
The next day a group of us from the hostel went on a walking tour of the city. We visited the terror museum, where we learned about Hungary's dark past with the secret police, first Nazis and then communists. Next we visited several other sites including St. Peters Basillica, the massive Parliament building, and a Jewish memorial. That night the hostel went out on a cruise ship along the river that divides Budapest into the former townships of Buda and Pest. Included in the price of the cruise was beer, so I ended up filling my backpack with a whole bunch of free beers.
Szechenyi Baths
Many of the others filled their bags as well and when we left the ship I think we took close to 100 beers with us. In fact, we had so many beers that we were giving them away to people on the street including some very grateful homeless people. We went out to several more bars, clubs and afterwards I had a very fun walk home with a hawaiin girl named Lindsay.The next morning we were all a bit hungover so we decided to go back to the thermal baths and relax. I challenged another old man to chess and again I lost. Afterwards we went to the train station to book tickets to Munich, but the train was full! So we needed to spend another night in Budapest and catch the next days train. Unfortunately we had not booked another night at the hostel and I knew it was fully booked that evening. I went back to Suzie, the hostel owner and asked her what we should do. She said there were no beds but that she would figure something out cause she loved having us so much. She suggested that I share a bed with Lindsay and that the other guys could sleep on the floor. A free night of sleep and another night at Carpe Noctem sounded great to me.
That evening the hostel went out for karaoke. I wore a pair of ridiculous, tight, green, fake-levi jeans that I had bought in Istanbul along with a pair of hi-tops that I had been gifted by the hostel to replace my worn out shoes. I looked ridiculous and was ready for a fun night. After being there a bit, I was surprised when my name was called because I had not entered myself to sing yet. Then JP told me he had put the song in for me and then I saw what it was: "I'm too sexy" which has a line "i'm too sexy for these pants" it was a very fitting song and I gave it my best rockstar performance. As the night went on we sang many more ridiculous songs including Hakana Matata. There were dance-offs, break-dancing, more ridiculous performances and even a lap dance! By the end of the night I had lost my voice and my sides hurt from laughing.
Woke up the next morning to catch the train. I was sad to leave Budapest but excited for Oktoberfest!
