beautiful, pure, bold, simple and raw! BUDAPEST YOU ARE THE ONE!

still inside the train but now approaching budapest, i got an sms from livia that she will wait for me in the giant screen at budapest keleti pályaudvar station.

call me corny but one of my dreams is becoming a reality, i will be soon in budapest.  but first let me tell you a story about my host livia, a long time ago, i created a group called converse gang, a group for the lovers of converse shoes just like me, but not only a shoe lover, but also have a different set of lifestyle. i was surprised to see a girl from budapest who joined and i instantly sent her messages that someday i will be in budapest blah blah blah and if i could meet her. then an opportunity came last year, i set my plans on late october to do this trip, exactly the same trip, but the problem was, i had to cancel it because i spent over a thousand euros in spain and portugal last summer, my bank account just crumbled AND I HAD TO PAY HUGE AMOUNTS OF PHONE BILLS  blah blah blah to cut the story short, i didnt went. so livia including me were greatly dissapointed.

but now, gone were the dissapointments because THIS IS IT! i am now in fucking budapest, the empress elisabeth's favorite city rather than vienna and i am going to meet livia which by the way is using her mom's mobile number because the company pays for it so its basically for free! hahahahaha.

approaching budapest keleti pályaudvar station, i was looking out of the window! in the distance i think i saw the danube river, which flows into four capitals in europe - vienna in austria, bratislava in slovakia, belgrade in serbija and in budapest, hungary.

awwwwwwwwwwwwwww the beautiful livia and me!

i am proud to say, that i am now already on three cities that the great danube, the longest river in the european union is traversing.

as the train stopped at keleti pályaudvar station, i got my things, put my jacket on and went to the toilet, then i got down and smoked, and i didnt know that it wasnt allowed to smoke inside the station, but people don't care! i love it! hahahaha.

when i went inside, and passed uniformed men who were checking people etc. that was weird for me, i saw livia already standing exactly at the giant screen near the exit!

we hugged each other! finally after some here and there chatting we met! i dont know who was shy at first! me or her! but we always had smiles on our faces that perfectly breaks the ice.

just amazing!

i told livia that i needed to buy tickets to bratislava for the evening and changed money! then we went back to the station with those men checking people, apparently livia told me that they have to check people going inside the station if they have tickets or not! that was weird! hahaha. good thing she is hungarian because i let her do the talking! hahaha.

at the money changer, i dont know how much money will i changed, so i changed 30 euros and i got about almost 8000 forints! hahahaha that was big! so we went to the ticket booth, now in eastern europe it is very peculiar that the international and domestic ticketing are separated from each other. 

i was amazed inside budapest keleti pályaudvar station, it was still old! no modern ticket machines, great lighting from glass ceilings, wooden chairs to sit - its still very simple and raw! the problem was, you have to have a number before lining in the ticket counter, we didnt noticed it and livia doesnt know it and we were chatting very loud in the ticket counter, so when it was our turn the bloody old woman selling the tickets scorned us to have a number before lining in! whattafuck?! hahahahahaha.

budapest keleti pályaudvar station

finally we got that number FROM THE ONLY MACHINE -  the little machine that was hardly noticeable in the huge space. when it was our turn, i was amazed again as everything was not computerized, i was asking for train schedules for bratislava and the scorning woman again looked at her lists of handwritten notes the timetables for the trains! wow! the last train was at 7:58 pm, the same one i saw on the internet. so i booked it and once again amazed that my ticket is handwritten!!!! now she asked me if i would be returning or one way ticket, i said only one way, vut she said i would get the ticket more cheaply if i had a return ticket, that was strange and funny.but i was arguing that i only wanted a one way ticket, but livia was almost pushing me to take it take it take it (hahaha) the return ticket! the return ticket costed me about 4,500 forints and the one way would cost me about 7,500 forints! that was pretty strange! hahahaha.

hösök tere or heroes square!

so i got my tickets and knowing me, i just folded it and put it in my pocket! hahaha, im just a mess everywhere i travel! lol.

now i was only down to about 3000 forints, i dont know if thats enough, so we went again to the money changer, it was difficult for me, because i am used to using the euros and i couldnt calculate in my head how much money i needed because the forint to the euro is very big. i have so many euro coins and i wonder if they accept it, i was fishing for my coins in my backpack pocket, deep till my fingers got caught on something, fuck, i forgot that my razorblade is also in that same poclet and i cut my little finger. i was fucking bleeding, and the sight of blood makes me weak and pale, i mean i dont care about other people's blood, its their blood! hahha but in me, it feels strange, so i let the idea of changing my coins, i just fished 10 euros out of my wallet and changed it! the money even had blood stains on it hahaha.

i was sucking my little finger to let the blood out. damn it, i havent even started exploring budapest and another misadventure came! it won't end! hahaha. but before going out of the station, livia told me she has a suprise for me, we went to the tourist center of the station to meet he close friend, judith and there, judith gave me so many pamphlets, maps, magazines and freebies of hungary and budapest! thank you very much judith!

going out of budapest keleti pályaudvar station, it was such an exasperating experience! hahaha and i got hungry, so we went to the first fastfood that i saw - BURGER KING hahaha it was just across the station. from there, livia told me about her plans to me about budapest, she said she is going to surprise me, well to be honest, i didnt researched about budapest, livia said she will take care of me! hahaha so i really trust and put my fate to my favorite hungarian!

my finger was still bleeding so i excused myself and went to the toilet, i washed my little finger with dripping blood and dried the blood in the drier! hahah that was the most idiotic moments i had in my life. hahaha.

livia said that our first stop in budapest was to go to the heroes square "hösök tere", we went down to the metro station keleti pályaudvar, then livia said i should buy a day ticket, well it costed about 1500 forints, whew seeing thousand figures made me think its more expensive rather than cheap, then uniformed people again were checking if people have tickets to enter the metro. we had to change another metro to go to hösök tere, it is located at andrássy avenue, the most famous street of budapest.

at the heroes square it was a massive plaza with monuments and statues of the last kings of the habsburgian dynasty of the austrian-hungary empire, plus the rulers and founders of the magyar nation for over 1000 years, including the founder of hungary itself saint stephen I or  szent istván. hösök tere is in the middle of the museum of fine arts or szépművészeti múzeum and the palace of art or műcsarnok in hungarian.

as we were having fun in the square, a tall guy came to us, apparently he was "stuck" in budapest and he doenst have any money to go back to vienna, and he was begging for some money for his ticket, a memory came to me: years ago i was in cologne, germany, the funny thing there is that in the ticket machines they dont accept paper money, i have paper money but i dont have any coins, i have to ride the subway to the central station, and it was the most embarassing moment in my life to beg .10 cents to every people inside the subway to be able to buy tickets.  so i felt pity to the guy, and i handed him all my hungarian forint coins, but he was asking me 10 euros, i raised my eyebrow and told him its the only money i have! hahahahaha i had to roll my eyes, beggars are choosy these days! hahaha

after our escapade in the square, livia took me to a park just behind it, its called vajdahunyad vára or vajdahunyad castle with a big man made lake used in winter for ice skating, and livia wanted to show me an example of a dementor from harry potter! hahah actually the statue is called anonymous because no one knew him but he wrote so many stories and history of hungary.

then we went down again to the metro to the danube river, from hösök tere station till vörösmarty ter. we were chatting so much because i kept asking livia so many questions.... that, she forgot that vörösmarty ter was the last stop of the metro. then all of a sudden, WE WERE FUCKING LOCKED INSIDE THE METRO! hahahaha. i was scared because i saw a german movie years ago, that the actress was locked inside the subway and some freak kept chopping the body pieces of the people! hahaha livia was grinning like a cat and it didnt helped that the lights turned off! hahahahahaha i am not scared of heights but i dont like closed spaces because i am claustrophobic, it was like that for 15 minutes, and i chew in the dark one onion ring left over from burger king.

the anonymous statue!

but a miracle happened, lights went on and the other side of the car moved then were back into action again! hahaaha livia apologized for not paying attention, but i told her, it was ok as i am used to this situation! hahaha the problem was, claustrophobia is my biggest fear!

when we got out of the station and up, livia needed to go to the toilet, so were looking for some cafes, then all of a sudden a magnificent building opened up! it was HUGE!!! but rundown, needs repair and some units are for sale, but it was majestic in better days! but it doenst matter, the rundown look gave so much character to the architecture, haunting and sad amidst the leafless trees in winter which i found out the name of the structure is called anker palota!

budapest, is slowly sinking on me.. . it may not be grand as its twin city vienna, but still, it is MORE charming and enigmatic than vienna, the architectures, the people, the city atmosphere eventhough it was ruled by communism by so many decades, it still retained its "eastern exotic flavor" that i am looking for in a big city in the east.

as livia found mcdonalds and i went to buy some cola, the next plan is to walk the great chain bridge or széchenyi lánchíd up until buda castle. it is a massive suspension bridge across the river danube which separates the city of buda and pest.

from vörösmarty ter metro station we walked until the promenade of the danube river which locally is called pesti alsó rakpart, from the promenade i can see buda castle but not yet the building that i would most wanted to see, the parliament or órsagház.

we walked the chain bridge which was a bit scary because the wind was blowing so hard, then finally we were on the foot of the buda castle, the famous funicular can be seen going up, but it costed bloody 6 euros NO WAY, so we walked! hahahha. it looked like a painful walk to the top but i found a shortcut! and suddenly we were halfway already! hahahaha.

the view from buda castle was BREATHTAKING as the gigantic parliament building towering all over the city of pest on the otherside. buda is much quieter than pest, houses are much more older and more medieval structures can be found. it is also where the old town of budapest is located just behind the castle and the church of szent istván - the first king of magyarország.

i looked at my clock and it said almost 5 pm. livia looked a little bit sad :( and she said to me that i can go to her house and can sleep there, because her mom wanted to meet ME! that was so sweet! i will never never never forget that, but i had to say to livia that my friend martin in bratislava is already waiting for me! :( livia was so sad because we were having so much fun and adventure!!!! but i told her that i will be back in budapest again, my stay was too short and i have to explore hungary! we went down from buda castle to buda alsó rakpart the buda side of the danube promenade and we took a tram! we took the m5 (im not sure can you help me livia?) from buda to pest and it connected also to sziget where the largest annual rock concert in europe is located! and also livia told me that this tram line is the most busiest in europe! she was right! as it was always full and crammed!

the last part of my tour with livia is that she is going to show me the untouristic part of budapest, we went off at astoria station of the tram at rákóczi út street, then walking through the sidestreets and untouristic part of budapest! this is getting better and better because i am a fan of sidestreets! livia said she is going to surprise me! we walked side streets to sidestreets then we came around a corner with a curious sign called "szimpla kertmozi" when we got inside, it was a fucking nice alternative bar that no tourist would ever see in budapest! and livia surprised me because she showed me an old trabant - car of the communist times, that was well not functioning anymore! but we sat inside it and enjoyed our drinks!!!! it was amazing inside szimpla kertmozi! the bar/cafe/disco/concert venue - is just out of this world. funky people from budapest go there, as well as expats working in budapest. the only dissapointment i had was that there wasnt a billiard table to play around! hahaha lol.

livia and me talked alot, i really like her, and i told her that she is one of the persons that i would most definately definately definately travel in the future with! i feel so ashamed... because i havent had enough cash to treat livia for a nice dinner.. but i hope my boring company kept her excited! hahahaha.

looking again at my watch, i said to livia that we should go, again she looked sad and me too, because I LOVE BUDAPEST. fucking beautiful city. very alternative, very unconventional, very enigmatic - very different.

we walked to blaha luza tér metro and one ride until again keleti pu station for my train to bratislava.

i went first to kfc to buy me dinner on the way, i was so short on money and livia wanted to pay my dinner, but i said no!

but after some price watching and calculating i finally bought something which all of my remaining forint can buy.

at the train station, before i departed, i hugged livia and promised her that i would come back again in the future and to meet her mother who wanted to meet me.

livia, thank you very much for showing me your beautiful city, budapest is uncomparable to all the cities in europe i had been to. although lots of western influences are now creeping in the city, yet it still retained the exotic charm of the east, it remained simple, pure and raw but stunningly beautiful, as i always say, BUDAPEST YOU ARE THE ONE!