Alrighty, this post should take me to the end of my crazy days in Budapest, and I’ll try to keep it short and sweet to get you caught up on my adventures!
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| Marco (the Giant) having to drink the dreggs. |
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| The Fairy having to do pushups for saying 'm.i.n.e' |
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| Maverick! |
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| Adam as Princess Fiona, the Ogre. |
Back at Retox after our awesome and super informative walking tour we met back up with the boys and sifted through this huge gross room called "Pipe Dream". This room is an amalgamation of all the crap people have left behind, and it’s where most people find their theme night costumes. As I think I mentioned, Tuesday night is always themed at Retox, and we were all told to dress as Sci-Fi or Fictional characters. There were some pretty hilarious finds in this room, all of which made for fantastic costumes! The boys all found great girlie getups, Adam decided to be Princess Fiona, Harry was just a girl, and Sven in a miniskirt and bikini top decided to play dumb about a theme night if anyone asked and simply be "Australian." A few of the staff went as Jack and the Giant, we had a fairy with lampshade wings, Bo Peep, many other princesses, Scuba Steve, Katniss Everdeen, and I went as Maverick from Top Gun. I had managed to snag a huge snowsuit onesie and some rad shades, and immediately donned the get up. I was roasting, but luckily there were huge zippers down the sides so I could get some air flow! The lenses in the glasses fell out later in the night, but I managed to fix them on the fly and keep rolling. David dressed very appropriately as an Asian, complete with poncho and lampshade hat, and managed at one point in the night to try and jump through a freestanding plexi-glass frame on the street, providing a great source of hilarity! The newest game is called "cut and paste" and be ready people: I'm bringing it home. When someone says a fabulous one-liner, you immediately say 'cut', at which point they must remember what they said and anytime you say 'paste' they have to spit it out, no matter where they are or who they are talking to. I got Adam and Harry with a great one that I used when they were chatting up chicks later. When asked why they didn't wear makeup with their costumes to add to the authenticity, they replied "makeup is for fake bitches." You imagine how well THAT chat up went after such a comment!
We left fairly early that night, as the alcohol and slippery floor made staying upright a challenge, and I found that finally the internet connection was good enough to warrant a proper conversation! I talked for about an hour until the boys came back, and then spent until 5 am listening to new artists and picking up some really chill music. I was a little sobered by the fact that the next city David and I go to will be our last, but I’ll land on my feet and have some new adventures! I introduced Sean to a few of my crazy boys, who managed to impress upon him the utter ridiculousness (and of course awesomeness) of the crew I’ve amassed. We played a very childish prank on Harry, who wasn’t home yet, of placing hygenic materials in his bed... not very mature but pretty funny, and as a disclaimer I can’t say I had anything more to do with it than spectate!
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| Checking out the next challenge caving. |
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| Excited to be in the caves! |
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| listening to our guide explain how to go. |
I was pretty tired the next morning, and had to anticipate the all-nighter to come. Luckily Retox has no check-out time (greatest invention ever) so I could take the packing and organizing easy. I hit up the mall with this awesome Aussie girl Lizzy and David to get a USB key, as the amount of pictures are piling up! I’ll try to find the time to get some albums up eventually, or you’re all just going to get flooded with them later! I had managed in my state the night before to get a few new friends to swear to come caving later that day, so around 3 we all manned up and hit the train station to meet our guide. It was Moby, a staff member, Jaimie and Lauren (the Canadians), Lizzy and David, and Cameron, who had dressed as Jesus the night before. Another new Canadian friend was supposed to come as well, but he had a pretty trying night before and was forced to bail. They tell you when you check in NOT TO TAKE TAXIS - they are run by the mob and will rip you off at the very least. He was drunk, and thought that it would be a safer option (which it would have been back home to be fair) to cab home, even though the hostel was a few blocks away. The driver drove him in circles and at the end asked for 60,000 HUF - the equivalent of $250, which of course he refused to pay. The driver then pulled a knife on the poor kid and robbed him of his debit and credit card, the 10,000 HUF he did have on him, and his iPhone. Needless to say he was pretty shaken up, and though his insurance will cover him and he’ll even come out financially ahead, he needed to file police reports and figure out a cash flow. So much for listening to advice!
The caving tour was relatively expensive: $25 for the tour, plus another $5 for the transportation tickets. I managed to save one and risk getting caught by the inspectors and used it to get to the airport the next morning. I know this is bad, but honestly you hardly ever get caught, and many people just don’t even bother with legitimate riding. We arrived at the location in the Buda hills, middle of nowhere really. We received our jumpsuits, and honestly I think it’s a new record for me: two different jumpsuits in the span of twelve hours! I got a few really good group shots of all of us throwing up the Retox 'X', prepared for subterranean adventure! I said the dreaded 'M.I.N.E.' word in the caves a bunch of times and actually had to do pushups amongst the limestone and clay... shame. Caving took a long time, between the information, and waiting for others, we did about 0.8km in 2.5 hours. It was really cool though! We had to slither through tiny holes, wedge ourselves between walls, and drop down twisty tunnels. Very intense, and makes you wonder who has the guts to explore these places without knowing what’s waiting for them!
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| The awesome ladies: Lauren, Lizzy and Jaimie. |
We missed the start of the pub crawl being late to return, but the girls and I each bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate our last night at Retox and played card games in the room. The bottles we were drinking from are so dangerous... the cork litterally FLIES out of the bottle as soon as you remove the cage, so that was a bit of an adventure! I’ve connected better with girls on this leg of the trip than anywhere else I’ve been so far, and it’s been really nice! I miss all my ladies back home! We all dolled up for a night on the town, and had a few great inside jokes going. Harry has this habit of saying "you f-cked up!" whenever someone does anything wrong, so we adopted it and said it repeatedly to each other whenever anything happened. While this doesn’t sound particularly hilarious, trust me, it is. We were quite the shutter bugs, but eventually got our act together and met up with the rest of the crew along the way. It has gotten much colder here lately, and I had forgotten this fact, and declined to bring a coat. This was a HUGE mistake. I was FREEZING! Always bring a coat... do not cheap out on checking it! There is only so much chivalry you can expect from your guy friends!
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| Our "we f-cked up" faces. |
We ended at a great electronic music scene, and I held out until about 5 am, when we left to find food. I showered at Retox to keep myself awake, and managed to figure out public transport to the airport in my state, which at this point wasn’t so bad. The staff at Retox have no idea about anything besides partying in Budapest, so they just tell everyone to take a cab (reputable ones this time), but I always use buses if I can help it! It was really easy, and for sure doable by anyone with a brain. I am so sad to be leaving the group, but maybe I’ll see them again when I finally make it out to Australia. I know the Canadian girls can expect me sometime in the next year! The flight was not long enough to get a proper rest on, which is a shame, and I arrived in Berlin pretty tired. I found the hostel, Comebackpackers, with little trouble, and it’s in this really cool area known as Kreuzberg, which had come highly recommended. It’s homey and sweet, which is a pleasant change after my stay! We did very little, as David was pretty wiped as well. He had declined to come out with us and went to the airport early, though didn’t get a great sleep. Us two tired little travelers decided to explore Alexanderplatz, the main shopping area here, before grabbing some Vietnamese food and hitting the hay.
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| The amazing Primark. |
I had such a great sleep - 14 hours of needed rest saw me bright-eyed the next day, and we made a date to visit the BEST STORE IN THE WORLD: Primark. If you haven't heard of this place, look it up! We spent hours here, and got separated unfortunately. I spent my time finding great boots, a cute hat and some basics like socks which I had neglected to pack. I waited for David in a coffee shop, which he managed to miss me in, and after a while he went home. I found him there a few hours later taking a nap - cheeky! Berlin is much bigger, much more modern (having been utterly destroyed in the war) and relatively more expensive than Budapest. I like it so far, but I’d have to say I’ve been in places I enjoyed more. It is cheaper than most other Euro-using cities though, so that’s nice.
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| The awesome balcony at Comebackpackers... too bad it’s too cold to use it! |
I’m going to leave you with this, and pick it up soon! I have my last day in Berlin to enjoy before heading off into the blue!
Love from Abroad!
Back at Retox after our awesome and super informative walking tour we met back up with the boys and sifted through this huge gross room called "Pipe Dream". This room is an amalgamation of all the crap people have left behind, and it’s where most people find their theme night costumes. As I think I mentioned, Tuesday night is always themed at Retox, and we were all told to dress as Sci-Fi or Fictional characters. There were some pretty hilarious finds in this room, all of which made for fantastic costumes! The boys all found great girlie getups, Adam decided to be Princess Fiona, Harry was just a girl, and Sven in a miniskirt and bikini top decided to play dumb about a theme night if anyone asked and simply be "Australian." A few of the staff went as Jack and the Giant, we had a fairy with lampshade wings, Bo Peep, many other princesses, Scuba Steve, Katniss Everdeen, and I went as Maverick from Top Gun. I had managed to snag a huge snowsuit onesie and some rad shades, and immediately donned the get up. I was roasting, but luckily there were huge zippers down the sides so I could get some air flow! The lenses in the glasses fell out later in the night, but I managed to fix them on the fly and keep rolling. David dressed very appropriately as an Asian, complete with poncho and lampshade hat, and managed at one point in the night to try and jump through a freestanding plexi-glass frame on the street, providing a great source of hilarity! The newest game is called "cut and paste" and be ready people: I'm bringing it home. When someone says a fabulous one-liner, you immediately say 'cut', at which point they must remember what they said and anytime you say 'paste' they have to spit it out, no matter where they are or who they are talking to. I got Adam and Harry with a great one that I used when they were chatting up chicks later. When asked why they didn't wear makeup with their costumes to add to the authenticity, they replied "makeup is for fake bitches." You imagine how well THAT chat up went after such a comment!
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