Day 78 Retoxing

Hey again, I'm seriously hungover as I write this post, but I'll try and make it awesome anyways...

Group of Legends. Me, Kyle, Westie,
Paul, and Ben!

Shannon and Paul in the background. Walking around town.

SO we got in at around 10:30, and straight away ordered a drink from the bar. We had convinced Paul, an American we met on the bus, to join in on the rum and to ditch his expensive hotel and come with us to Retox. We immediately saw that this hostel was going to be good: pretty dirty, always bumping, and full of ridiculous people. The jager shots we did with Milk, the staff member who checked us in, solidified the impression.





Our room is called "First Aid" and houses 14 people who are generally always in some state of drunkenness. Most of the guests had gone out already on a boat cruise, so the three of us headed around the corner to a little bar for a short while, before returning to see who had crawled back to the hostel bar. Turns out that a lot of people had, and we joined a mixed group of aussies and americans who were still drinking hard. The poor bartender who had to stay and tend to us - she was there until 6 am!

my "room key"

Kyle, a great guy, had decided he was leaving the next day (which didn't end up happening) and so endeavoured to spend all his money, which he did by buying insane rounds of bacardi breezers for the table. There's a special way to drink them here called "strawpedos" whereby you stick a straw in the top and essentially shotgun the bottle. I did seven. Seems like the tolerance I lost in Kenya is back full force. Ah well, you only live once right? I woke up the next day and people I did not recognize were all greeting me with a cheerful "Hey, Canada!"

Paul, David, Kyle, Shannon and Scott up in the Castle District.

Cool Hound Statue.

Memorial to the Jews killed in the war.

We woke up late on Saturday, and ambitiously decided to climb the citadel for a view of the city. Budapest actually used to be two cities on either side of the Danube river, Buda and Pesth. It's really pretty, with awesome buildings, like Parliament, and many cool bridges. They seem to really have a thing for lion statues as I discovered later... We didn't make it up the 400 stairs to the citadel, but we did climb the castle on the other hill and got a similar view. Kyle and I scampered up onto a lion and posed riding it while we got a newlywed couple, bride still in white, to pose in front. Pretty epic shot, and a great first day in the city. Everyone here is amazing, I'm meeting friends that are so cool. I actually ran into Sam, one of the Aussies that I stayed with in Lagos on the pub crawl last night! Such a surprise and so good to see him! This travelling world is so tiny, honestly, you feel at home instantly with others who share the viewpoint.




We got back from our walk and had a nap, before I hit the McDonalds to see if any of you were on Skype...no one was, but I managed to FaceTime Sean for a good while (hi honey...) so that relieved some of the homesickness. It's amazing travelling, and meeting new people all the time, but sometimes I just wish some of my homies would replace some of the strangers and we could all do this together. I grabbed a bottle of champagne on the way home, and for dinner some salami (we had eaten a huge thai meal earlier, so I felt marginally prepared), and as I broke out the Canada cards as soon as we entered Retox.  The owner, Suzie, was already going at the booze, so we sat down and joined in. They have this game here that I am terrible at, where you cannot say "mine" or you must do ten pushups or get a spank. I suck, and my arms are burning today as proof. It's hard! Problem is, the first time they decided that I had to clap at the end of my pushup, however, I don't actually have the strength for that, and I was unable to realign my arms afterwards. This resulted in me cracking my head on the pavement, and it was so hard that people on the second floor heard it. I have a bit of a bump, and a bit of a scrape now, but I shrugged it off as a casualty of the times, and it actually didn't hurt that badly... my pride on the other hand...

 

amazing art on the side of the Castle.

The pub crawl was awesome. We lost the group after the first bar, but David rallied us up and found them again at the third best bar in the world. This place is globally ranked, and I can see why. It's set up in a ruined apartment building, and is just a really chill, interesting vibe. It's called Szimpla, and we chilled there for another hour before heading to a few other spots. You can drink in the streets here, so I was forever nursing one drink or another out in the open, mostly white wine, and loving the stars and the company and life. Shannon, a new mate of mine, and I, had such great chats, and we all danced at the last bar until about 5 am before calling it a night. I woke up around noon and David immediately burst out laughing at my face, which was covered in mascara and huge tired bags... This place will be the death of my I swear.

The Chain Bridge.

Chillin' with the lions again!

We are going to the Hungarian Baths today to relax and chill. They have 30 different baths ranging in temperature from really freezing to super hot, and I can't wait to try them all (alright, maybe I'll skip the icy one...). Tonight's entertainment is a jager train, where they set up bombs along a table and pop the shots into them like dominoes. Should be another night to remember. It's hilarious because people keep waking up and swearing they wont drink that night, but by 8 everyone is out and about. This place has a 75% rebook rate, meaning that people who stay here almost always extend the nights. I have done this. We're headed to an open mic spot afterwards, so maybe I'll exercise my chops, though with the voice box as tortured as it is, I should re-evaluate close to the time!



Love you all, hope you're getting a little retoxed over there for me!

Missing Canada