Damn cover fees ...

Man I'm loving this city. We had our orientation party for exchange students last night, and I wasn't planning on drinking or staying out late. After a summer camp style "name-game session", a hungarian folk dance, and a casual pint at a pub, all 100 of us decided to visit the student dance club.

The girls got their student cards earlier, so they were given free cover. We slept through our student card pickup periods earlier this week, and the welcome assembly yesterday went overtime (useless and drawn out - we should have slept in today as well) so we missed out on the 12 noon closing on Friday as well.

Tristan was bartering with the bouncer not to pay the 1000 forint (5.31 canadian) cover, since were WERE corvinus students with ISIC cards and had HUNGARIAN metro passes. Eventually we caved, and I'm glad we did.

Apparently when you pay cover at this place you get 4 free drink tickets. That's $1.32 a drink in a night club. Even when I get my student card ... I'm paying cover from now on. The cheapest beer there to buy with cash is $1.91. I love this country, I can live like a king. Haha Sweden and your 8 euro pints.

An authentic hungarian experience

Two days ago Bea, Tristan's trusty Hungarian tandem buddy led us to a restaurant we would surely not have been able to find on our own. We all had authentic Hungarian Goulash, a delicious stew/soup that we quickly devoured. What really made the visit though was the atmosphere. No tourists, no non-hungarians, and a uniquely eastern-European feel to the place. We are definitely going there again.. one bowl of goulash cost us around 500 forint, which is around $2.70 Canadian. 

Picture taken with my Nokia E71, so excuse the bad quality ;D

Mike eats cat food

Ok, so maybe it wasn't cat food, but he ordered liver thinking it was beef, and that's never a good thing. Obviously he was upset with his dining experience. My meal was fine - I orded the greasy chinese food that I recognized from home.



The rain dampened an otherwise solid day. Tristan's awesome tandem partner Bea toured the 7 of us around the city, highlighted by a trip to Hero's square. Because of the rain we were unable to take decent pictures, but more importantly - miserable with wetness. I posted a couple pics of hero square highlights below. Guess which one I took?


I think that's all for now, mike already commented on last night at Morrison's II. I made it home safely, but maybe with less of a story.

life as i know it (circa 4:50 am)

its nearly five after one of the longest treks home from a bar ever. im sure there have been longer. i left Morrisons 2 on szent iftvan utca and talked to a cabby who wanted to get me desperately into a stripclub down the street. all i wanted was a nightbus home. he directed me to the next main intersection which was the Oktogon. I have been there before and i recognized it immmediatley. i got on the 906 busz heading what i believed to be across the river to Buda. eventually after 25 mins i realized that wherever this bus was going wasntg where i wanted to be. i spoke to a nice Hungarian lady who didnt speak any english, (nor I any Hungarian, making it very difficult to speak) but our body language confirmed that 1. i was drink. 2. she was sympathetic. 3. she knew where she was and 4. i did not. i continued to travel on the bus and i began talking to these greek people once my hungarian friend left. stereotypically enough they were looking for gyros. they were very kind and eager to chat, but were determined to get gyros. after my drunken attempt at egg in toast ( i ate only the egg, leaving the toast for tomorrow) i feel like maybe the gyros wouldnt have been so bad. looking back on my experience im sure that i shouldve got off the busz there. i did not because i was waiting for Musvckva ter. i did not see the stop and continued on across the bridge back to the side i came from! i got off the busz and decided the best thing i could do would be to walk. the busz is a useless hunk of metal and a waste of sweet precious youthful fun time so i got off the busz and walked. i did not know where i was nor of course how to get home. i was planning to walk across the bridge and to the left. until i saw the bright white lights of the gellert hotel and i knew where i was. i turned right and began the walk home. the odd thing about Hungarian telephone companies is that it is cheaper to phone Canada than to phone Hungary. so I spoke to my lovely young princess girlfriend for most of the way home. i did not have much battery left however, and as i was telling her how it might be better if i slept on top of gellert hill instead of going home because i gave my housemate my keys because he did not come out the phone died and i was immediately concerned that i actually did what i told her i was doing. i began to run drunkenly down the street towards home, a run that i have done so many times already, and that today i could only do in short (but strong) bursts of energy without my legs disintegrating beneath me. i made it home and buzzed 47 and after two attempts trevor answered and my life was saved and i made egg and toast ( a really poor version) and called Lauren to tell her that i was home and not on Gellert Hill. she showed no concern whatsoever, assumed that my phone died and that i made it home safely. are we telepathic or does she know that im just a silly boy?
the point of my whole story is that sometimes in life i believe you have to step out of who you are to get a better understanding. its not enough to live life as yourself, for example, tight and serious and predictable and glum, youve got to reach out to the people around you, the greeks who want gyros, the hungarians who know youre entire story without speaking to you, youre girlfriend who is halfway across the world and somehow even more precious than shes ever been. sometimes its not enough to "be yourself" youve got to be something else, something different, whether that is better or worse it is for you to decide (NOTE: this exercise in self awareness SHOULD make you better, not worse). but please do not limit yourself to the boundaries of your mind. constantly expand them.

Day 2 of 18

hello again from Kuny Domokos. day 2 of pushup/situp is done. Max results are as follows:
pushups: 13
Situps: 20
These were both a struggle, but a marked improvement!
I'm >= 10% of the goals already but like Gellert Hill I'm sensing an uphill climb.

I didnt go out last night, i just couldnt hack it. the boys all went out though to a swanky lounger type place where they learned the basics of Hungarian pick-up artists. How do you say "you broke my heart" in Hungarian, tristan? The 18hours of sleep was very important for myself although i thought it would help me run up the mountain in a faster time. it did not. the mountain slayed me this morning in the cold rain. i felt like the dragon thats getting beat up by the huge dude on the top of the hill. well take a picture for you. I couldnt draw that in paint. Today were going to check out a cheap Chinese restaurant of the same Soviet-era motif of the Hungarian goulash restaurant yesterday. the place was rustic to say the least. its patrons were those cold, wrinkled types youd see in a 1980s National Geographic expose on Eastern European quality of life. truly a trip back in time. the owners of the place were some of the most upbeat people however and everyone smiles when "Americans" give a "kösz!" now and again. slowly, with the help of Bea (im not sure how to spell her name, anyways, she's tristan's tandem partner) we are slowly grasping the language basics. Viszontlátásra!

Gellert Hotel

This shot was taken yesterday while we were on our way to the market. Haven't been inside but it does look damn good from the outside! The baths we went to the other day are connected to the hotel.

No Need For A Map

As handy as it is to have my World of Maps in Ottawa Budapest Map (Mike's newspaper map is also decent), it is much more exciting to explore the city without it.

You simply walk out your apartment door, choose a street, and start venturing down it. Along the way, you find another street and you branch off and trek down that path. Along the way you come across so many interesting shops & restaurants and some amazing architecture. It's amazing what you can stumble upon when you have no clue where you're going.

Today, on this gloriously sunny day, we did just that! We picked a main street and began walking down it, soaking in all the sites, and discovering along the way a supermarket, the Opera House, and the National Museum of Hungary. We then cut over a street to where we thought the Parliament buildings were. Turns out, those weren't them; we're not sure what they were but they were gorgeous regardless. And behind them we found a little pedestrian square which we then chose to stroll along.

We headed down it straight, until we hit the river and then decided to walk along it for a bit. We had no clue where we were going, but the view to Buda was gorgeous and we found our first gypsies! Trekking along the river brought us to another set of buildings guarded heavily by police in funny uniforms, and these ones turned out to be the actual Parliament buildings! Unfortunately we just missed the last guided tour, but we have ourselves our own little tour - of course standing out as tourists!

Eventually we decided to make our way back, but we couldnt take the same route. Instead we just took street after street, turning here and there, exploring the side streets of Budapest where all the locals hang out. We knew we were heading in the general direction but weren't sure exactly. We were considering pulling out the map....and then all of a sudden we hit Vaci street: our favourite pedestrian street that we've ventured to every day since we've been here (there's just so much to see!)

And yes we ended up doing a lot of walking, but this city just fascinates me and so I love exploring every nook and cranny of it....especially when we stop for a fresh-baked chocolate croissant on the way home!

6 weeks to fitness

Im only 21 and ive already jumped on the health craze band wagon. in an attempt to rid myself from first semester and holiday malnutrition i have decided to give myself to physical fitness over the duration of the exchange. some may think this is stupid considering the vast quantities of alcohol consumed and the unhealthy hungarian diet of Whoppers.

The guys and i have started the program at hundredpushups.com and twohundredsitups.com as a goal. apparently in 6 weeks i should be able to complete 100 and 200 pushup and situps respectively without taking a rest. the beauty of it is that it requires no equipment, only determination. along with running up Gellert Hill 3-4 times per week (we've made it a commitment to run every night we are planning to drink thereby counteracting the harm done) and having a membership at the gym around the corner (it has a sauna!) fitness shouldn't difficult. I'll keep you updated each day i do the pushups and situps so i can hold myself accountable for missed/hungover workouts.

pushups: 10

Situps: 16

Each day finishes with your maximum effort. sadly, those were mine.


Fat Mike, Dad, and too much bacon- 21st birthday

Night of Mayhem - Fat Moe's

Saturday was the craziest night yet. The 6 of us, and two new friends from Quebec represented the great white north well. I'm sure we drank more 3 euro wine and gin than the "euro-bums" passed out in the metro station. We were at it at the girl's flat until nearly 1am, speaking broken french as a result of our "joie de vive". Of course we arrived at a hotspot bar called "FAT MOE's" around 2am. NOTHING good happens after 2am.

Some of the lowlights
- ordering cognac and HOMO MILK as a substitute for cognac and mint creme liquer
- girls dancing with an overweight shirtless dude affectionately dubbed "fat mo"
- spending like we were sheiks

Some of the highlights
- being the only people in the bar knowing ALL the words to the american songs (and living EVERY lyric)
- staying so late we were able to take the MORNING transit home

Morrison's tonight, and Tristan moves in today from down under. I wonder if he'll will be able to handle the euro nightlife ...

Sunday Night Dinner

Finally a post from one of the "queens ladies"...We have settled in nicely in Budapest and love our "flat". It's downtown Pest and quite close to the school. Safe, clean and outfitted in modern Ikea furniture. It's in a great location, so we don't mind having the queens boys over often! We decided to make them Sunday night dinner, as a thank you for never coming over empty handed the last two nights (think lots of bottles of cheap wine). We were happy the boys were impressed with our cooking skills! It was a good way to finish up the week and recover from our previous nights out. They promised to make us dinner in the near future...the rivalry has already started.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

at dinner with the queens ladies tonight we realized something very interesting about tequila shots. that is that the whole of a tequila shot is greater than the some of its parts. no one would lick salt off their hand, no one would bite into a lemon, and no one would take a tequila shot otherwise. but together its a delicious combo. cheers to that

Quotes of the night

I'll blog about our crazy night out at Fat Moe's tomorrow. For now, I'm going to start a new Budapest 2009 feature - "quotes of the night".


"No! I don't want a &*%! glass of bathroom water" - rock after being offered a glass of bathroom water by alana since drinks at fat moes were wayyy too costly (ask mike)

"I cant believe I hooked up with FAT MO!" - by one of us ... try to guess who

"We should buy some CRUNCHY NUT" - trevor contemplating which cereal to buy

"Get DOWN!" - mike to FAT MOE's barmaid

"Toujours frais" - rock invents a new catchphrase talking to "les QUEBEQUOIS"

The metro

Snapped this photo on the way down the escalators to the metro, which is pretty deep underground. Public transport in Budapest is great... we've made use of the metro and trams quite a bit, but we somehow still find ourselves taking the 30 minute walk back home every night...one day we'll figure out how the night busses work.

Very nicee.....

Today we run into number 2 prostitute in all of Budapest! Very nice!

She ask "Sex???" in metro station near girls apartment as we walk through at night. Wawaweewa!

Too bad my apartment in newer neighbourhood, have seen no prostitute there as of yet.

how to carry 90 kg worth of shelving across budapest

if you noticed from the pictures, our rooms are very unfurnished (except for some sweeet ikea beds and a lamp and night tables that are really cardboard boxes with gift wrap on them to hide their true identity) so Rock and I ventured to where else but ikea to grab ourselves some dressers, rugs, pillows, and mirrors because one of the bathrooms doesnt have a mirror. We did not really consider how to trek two 45kg dressers across the entire city and get them on and off the metro line. it was really an exercise in team work. at first we held the two 5.5 ft long boxes on top of each other and carried them in one hand with bags in the other (see fig 1) but this was really awkward. then we split it up and put one box in each hand on either side of our bodies. that was pretty good but all the weight was on our fingers and it hurt (see fig. 2). At this point we still werent sure whether the people at the subway would let us on with all of this shelving. Delivery would have been about 5500 Forint or $30 canadian (in retrospect its not that much except that when you consider the shelves themselves only cost $60 total its alittle bit excessive). This technique got us all the way to the subway.


When we left the subway, we realized that it might be easier to work as individuals to carry the shelves instead of together. Rock suggested that if we carry the shelving on our shoulders it might be easier. Usually when tasks are to be experts agree that to work as a team determines the best course of action. In this case individualism won out revealing two important facts. One. Experts are wrong. Two. Individualism rules. case in point. im going to try and fit an I in Team.

Tieam?

Teiam?

Teaim?

iTeam? (an apple product)

Teami? (The I is silent, naturally)

well its a stupid saying anyways. Theres a ME obviously in Team, theres also an AM which is the only conjugation for the verb 'to be' that makes sense with I, theres also an EAT which is done alone (because no one can eat for you) and an ATE (which happened sometime ago when you were alone and hungry), other words like TEA and MEAT are things which I EAT therefore making them individual as well, finally the most difficult of course is MATE because that is done with someone else and therefore in a team and not individual. Mate can refer to the first or second mate of a ship (individual) and a complete stranger as in 'G'day mate, lets put another shrimp on the barbie!'

As you can see, TEAM is just another word for I and therefore i will never accept teamwork as the correct way to solve a problem or carry out a task. with this logic i shall find that the best way to win a hockey game is not to play; space travel should be done alone (from building the rocket, to ground control, to reentry); and that all games should be called Solitaire.

Less fat naked guys than I expected

So today we went to the famous Hotel Gellert to visit the baths. Great time, super relaxing. Sitting down in hot water for a few hours really helped melt away the 3 euro bottles of wine from last night.

A couple things surprised me though
1. I expected many more fat, hairy, naked Hungarians. The fact that most people were in bathing suits was a pleasant surprise. I guess it's just more of a tourist attraction than a local hangout (in more ways than one).
2. I expected a wider variety of baths and temperatures. There were 3 pools: lukewarm, lukewarmer, and cold. I was kind of looking forward to working my way up to boiling to try to make it a truly epic experience.

Thats all for now, our cleaning lady just finished cleaning the apartment, so I can finally unpack!

Photo of the Day

This was taken in front of a famouse art museum we saw while we were jogging back to our apartment.

Wanna stand out? Take a jog through Budapest

Hey everyone.. it's my first post on the blog. A hello from Budapest to Canada, Lebanon, and Kuwait. I'm actually thankful I can sit and and type because we just got back from what I though was an incredibly exhausting jog (Mike and Trevor seemed like they could go on forever) from our place up to the top of this hill that overlooks the city. I'm incredibly out of shape after a month of no exercise and a lot of food (thanks mom ;), and so I've made it a personal goal to be able to jog the same route non-stop. Anyhow, here's a shot of the city from the hill. Budapest is a really beautiful city.

We stood out quite a bit running through the city, especially with the temperature being around 3 degrees C... people must have thought we were crazy, but those of you in Canada can surely understand ;D

I'll keep this post short for now since we have to head out. I'll be uploading a picture of the day on most days and I'll upload the first one later tonight.

Our new and dangerous neighbours

We really wanted to get out of the hostel. My room in Kingston was probably bigger than the hostel rooms 4 people were expected to live in. At least the hostel was cheap ...

The girls found their place first. We were probably at a point where we would accept anything, just to get our own place. Fourtunately we didn't have to settle. We found a HUGE flat for the four of us (4 person flats are VERY uncommon). The only drawback is that its a bit farther away than ideal. At least we are 20 meters from a tram stop and 200 meters from the metro. We are also within walking distance from the late-night-bus, so we won't have to stumble home from the clubs by foot.


View Larger Map
A-our flat: Budapest, Kuny Domokos utca. Hungary
B-corvinus

It's a pretty safe neighbourhood actually. The two other people on our floor are single ladies over 65. They don't speak a word of english, should be fun. I guess that means no parties.

Here's a quick tour.


Quick view from the front door


A-front hall


B/C-dining room and kitchen


D-common room


View from balcony outside common room


E represents the staircase. How can a flat be two stories?!?!

F-mike's room


G-trevor's room


H-tristan's room


I-rock's room


J-laundry room/wardrobe


K-washroom

L-upstairs landing

Thats about it, stay tuned Canada.

the first three days

****NOTE*****

The post that was started is now going to be used by all Queen's Budapest students! This is a very exciting turn of events!

***************
hello all and welcome to blog "Budapest 2009". i create it specifically with primary intention of communicate to friends and family near home (maybe abroad) what happen to me/what i want happen to me/ and the happy or sad things that happen lately. maybe you see that speaking is difficult for me now. hungary is a sad place with a sad language... it makes me speak like them to me in english. very much a bad language, make mouth and lips and tongue go crazy in face. to example, i go to Central Market yesterday to buy meat (100g) and bread for cheap lunch (130 HUF ~ .73 CAD) which was tasty but lady at meat counter can only smile. force me to grunt and point like ape (i forget all hygienation exercises at home make me smell and look like orangutaun). a man communicated what I want and then small strange man start made funny noises with face. he try to say something but i no make sense. forget all nice things i ran away before he eat me.



in other facts of long trip to date: i now have place to live under permanence. homies and me find mostly good price (250 euro ~ $405 CAD) two storey flat in Buda (address for those who like to send nice things to me in mail like smiles and poutine write me at: 1012 Budapest, Kuny Domokos utca 3-5-7. 5/2. Hungary). i will post when picture box unbraken. i steal internet from man named DePaul. download Hot N Cold Katy Perry. i love. he may not like.



other students seem nice because not hungarian.



hungary battle france last night for handball champion of worlds. i did not know handball was sport. seems very odd. like soccer/basketball/hockey for children but man plays for country. hungary get killed (27-22) that made me smile.



plane ride nice. watch Little Miss Sunshine and cried. why creepy grandpa in trunk? sleeping? then i laugh because he dead. funny movie. i ate 4 ham sandwiches and they stole rye mickey.



young ladies i travel with are nice. they found flat which much pretty than mine. better location. pretty furniture. same rent. smells like flowers.



beer is cheap (255 HUF for pint Sporani which tastes like Alexander Keith's ~ $1.42 CAD). Burger King everywhere (9:30am CET: Whopper meal w/ fries and Coke 1200 HUF ~ $6.70 CAD). no beer for breakfast yet. good cheap food everywhere. rent car for pennies. drive near cliffs for ski lift and jump. warm weather here. all rain but no snow.



gym near flat help me stay strong and in shape getting fat from beer and sad and happy times eating lose breath up stairs during journey. toilet has ledge for piles.



bars are smoky and clothes smell gross like cigarettes and nicotine. hungary flat has 2-in-1 washing/drying machine. shocked face! why no such invention in Canada? land of free? land of house with useless appliance.



****************



All joking aside, Budapest is a very pretty city. I was surprised by the amount of graffiti but other than that the city is kept pretty clean. The student organization that runs the exchange program is doing a very good job. My tandem partner, Laci, met Laura, Alana, Devon and I at the airport and proceeded to arrange our taxi, take us to lunch, take us on a tour of the university, the Central Market, the metro system, he set us up with cell phones (not me because I'm not sure I need one, I'll probably cave tomorrow and buy one anyways), and tried to teach us how to speak Hungarian. It really is a troubling language. Its impossible to make anything of it. for example, fruit is Gyolomocls but add a bunch of dots and accents on the o's to make it more absurd. I feel like whoever developed this language wasn't very logical.



Everyone should get Skype and add michael.melito as a contact. Then we can chat in my bedroom ;)



Our landlord is a really nice guy and our flat is really nice in a nice part of town. It doesn't have many extra things as far as furniture goes but its pretty well equipped. I didn't realize how big the exchange program is at the University. They apparently have 700 students each year from abroad. Last night I went out with a couple Spaniards, a Dutch, a Swede, a Frenchy, and a Hungarian girl who was dating the Swede. Pretty crazy. Already my legs are sore from walking all over town. I bought a metro pass for a month for 3500 forint ~ $19.42 Canadian and it takes us everywhere.



I'm going to set up my camera and take a bunch of shots and add sweet things to this blog because I'm having fun with it. For now I am going for a run with the guys up Gellert Hill to the Freedom Statue overlooking the Pest side of the city.