#hung(a)ry

[megertettgondolat]

Tudod mit? Na meg a lófaszt

M

[ihadathoughtinmyhead]

Budapest...

...is pretty friggin awesome.  Turns out the city gets its name from the two parts into which it's divided - Buda and Pest (pronounced "pesht").  On Saturday, we were reasonably tired from the strugglefest of a train ride from Sturovo, Slovakia into Budapest (100 degree heat + no first class seats = no AC = misery).  We took a long nap and hit up some of the most interesting bars I've been to so far in Europe.  One of the grad students on our trip and his good buddy Rick Steves enlightened us about these so-called "ruin pubs."  Basically, they're places that don't look like your average party scene at first glance, namely because they were either shut down or destroyed from the outside back under Soviet rule.  As the Polish-Hungarian-Rastafarian owner of the place we stayed at told us, "from the outside, you just hear [a faint] booom, booom, but when you open the door, it's like - *kissing his fingers* - bananas."  While at Szimpla, E and I spotted a set of stairs at the back of the bar.  We decided to climb them, only to find another whole floor with adequate seating room unlike the crowded main floor.  Another one of our stops, Kuplung, like most of the ruin pubs, was located in an unmarked alley and also had a nice hipstery feel to it.  It was FULL of Brits too.  Budapest in general seemed to be a big hit with the English...it's a sweet city, but I wonder why they venture so far east...

Now that we're back in Prague in the heat of tourist season, I appreciate how quiet and not congested Budapest was.  I also discovered what's probably the greatest hummus place in the world there this weekend.  I'll definitely be returning to Budapest at some point.  Just too good to leave behind.