Day 8
We decided after the Dortmund game and checking out of the hotel to do an audible and head to Budapest, Hungary instead. I am more than happy to just do whatever on these vacations and I don’t plan too far in advance anymore; I love being spontaneous and doing ad hoc changes to plans. I will say, I’ve used booking.com and Airbnb a fair amount lately and they are great for last minute plans. The best part about heading to Budapest is that we get to see our friend Clem on her home turf instead of Singapore or the USA. There’s so much cool stuff to do here too and having a local give us suggestions is quite nice.
We booked our flights for the afternoon and left Dortmund airport around 5 PM. The flight here from Dortmund was about an hour and a half. Not a long flight. It was slightly delayed for departure but not to worry. We landed a little after 8 PM and got an Uber from the airport to downtown near our first Airbnb. We were like 3 blocks from the actual address (I didn’t know how addresses worked in Hungary so I apparently asked for the beginning of the street lol). Thankfully it wasn’t more than a 15 minute walk. We arrived, dropped our stuff and grabbed some dinner. Met up with Clem to grab a drink at a local dive that was actually really cool. We had some Tatratea which is named after the nearby mountain range and it’s a flavored alcohol. I had hibiscus, Ryan had peach and Mark had some 72% alcohol insanity shot lol. Grabbed some beers and chilled. Hung out until around 11 or so. I decided that I would use the combination washer/dryer in the room, so we grabbed some detergent at the convenience store. Got home and I threw literally all my clothes in the machine, poured some detergent then hit “go”. It said it would take 3 hours so I left it on overnight.
Day 9 (or 10? I feel like I missed a day in here…)
I woke up around 5 AM as usual. Checked the washer and realized it is NOT a combination washer/dryer. It is ONLY a washing machine. Oh my god all my clothes are soaked. So I tried doing a spin cycle to dry them a bit more, didn’t work. Took half of them out and did the same. No dice. Ughhhhhh. So I hung them up around the apartment trying to not to wake Mark or Ryan. After they dried for a few hours while I was watching some garbage show on my phone from 6 AM to 10 AM, I checked them and they were all still damp. I went on Google maps and found a nearby laundromat, donned a set of my least favorite clothes (giving new meaning to the word “drip”) and walked to the laundromat. I don’t mind using laundromats while traveling and many hostels have washer/dryers built in. I don’t think I could convince those two to ever sleep in a hostel with me. Anyway, that’s a tangent. Back to the story…
I dried my clothes, folded them and walked back to the apartment expecting them both to be awake as it was around 12 AM by the time I got back. Nope! Lol. I can’t understand such behavior but I’ve never been one to sleep more than 4 hours a night. So I roused them both and said we should get started with the day. By the time we left it was after noon, which is crazy to me.
I we rented a bunch of Lime scooters and went to Aria’s Card Shop. Bought some cards and completed some of my Path of Silver goals for Ascent World’s, which is really cool. By the time we left the spot it was like mid/late afternoon. Then we grabbed some food and hung out, taking the scooters around the city. We settled on a Lebanese/Syrian spot for dinner and it was actually amazing. The food was incredible, which has been my main takeaway from traveling anywhere outside the USA. We went to a Fallout themed bar called Vault 51. I took some pics there because I knew my brother would love it. He’s a big Fallout fan :).
Rode more scooters around and then went to Karaoke at Blue Bird Cafe Karaoke Rooms. It was awesome. They finally had Bruce Springsteen songs for me to sing lol. After that, we walked around a bit, then scootered to a rave at the McDonald’s. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the McRave before but it was actually kinda funny. I guess if we’d showed up earlier it would have been way cooler. It was actually still pretty dope ngl. I’d be there every weekend for just a basic McRoyal and a drink or something.
Day 10
Day 10 they slept in super late again. I was on like 3 hours sleep. I woke up around 6 AM as usual, took a shower, watched my show for a couple hours and woke them up so we could change our Airbnb (I tried to book it for an extra night but it was already booked). We left the room around 10 AM. I twisted Mark’s arm to find a breakfast place (I’m trying to get him to be more independent) and he picked a nice spot that wasn’t that far away. We walked over there, Mark and I had Hungarian Eggs, Ryan got the Avocado Toast. Everything was delicious. It was about 11:30 by the time we left. We went just down the road to a laundromat so Ryan and Mark could do laundry.
As we were in the laundromat a woman came in and she was hilarious. Mark and I were talking to her about America and I think we gave her some crazy ideas due to language barrier stuff. Her English was very good however, but when I asked her if she was traveling (she had a huge backpack that said “Adventurer” on it) she said no, she’s from Budapest but she’s staying in a hostel. I asked what the prices were like and she was like, 6000 to 9000 Forint per night (which is like 8-12 Euros) and I asked why she was staying in a hostel and she said “because my life is a mess lollll” and I was like “hahaha I feel that. Mine too.” I really enjoyed speaking with her, she was funny and had really good energy. She asked if every conversation in America was this fun and I was like, “Not at all lol”. Good times. Ryan wasn’t having it because he was kind of sleep deprived. I ended the conversation quickly after their laundry was done so as not to punish him further. She said my English was very easy to understand. I’m glad. I actually try to intentionally annunciate and use easy words because you can’t know someone else’s proficiency level. Ok laundry is done, let’s go to the Airbnb, seeing as it’s like 2:45 PM at this point and check in is at 3.
We get to the Airbnb and it’s got like, all this scaffolding going on outside and I’m afraid it’s gonna be like, a catfish scheme or something where the pics make it look amazing but it actually is awful inside. Turned out to be a REVERSE CATFISH! The apartment was incredibly nice even though the exterior looks like the grossest slums and it’s all falling apart. I’m actually thoroughly impressed. The only issue is that it’s up 2 flights of stairs that circle around a central elevator so it feels like way more stairs than it is. Otherwise I’m very very happy with the place.
We’re all super tired, so we get in and take a 3 hour nap. I sleep for probably 1 hour and I wake up feeling still super tired. It’s like 7 PM at this point and I know if I sleep I’ll wake up during goblin hours. I trust my gut and stay awake. We leave the apartment after an hour and a half. It’s 8:30 PM and we go get some food at this incredible restaurant. I got the Deer Stew with these fried dough balls and jam. It was incredible, like absolutely incredible. Mark got some beef dish and Ryan got beef cheek confit. It was amazing and it came with this celery pure and gravy that was just *chef’s kiss*.
After that, it’s like 9:30 PM when we leave and we decided to visit the ferris wheel in the center of the capital. It was actually really pleasant. The view from the top was worth the 4900 Forint easy. I took some pics which I’ll put below. After that it was like 10:00 and Mark didn’t want to come out to the bars with us, so we dropped him off at the room. I was beat so I also decided to tap out last night. It was kinda tough, because I think Ryan really wanted to go out drinking with me. I tell him I can’t, and we just hang out until like 11 PM and I end up going to sleep. I wanted to sleep on the couch because I didn’t want to disturb them when I wake up. The way the apartment is set up, the bed is in the back and the couch is in the front.
Day 11
Since I wake up so early and they sleep in so late, I wanted to write this blog post from the couch and then wake them up. Ryan said Mark snored too loud for him to sleep next to him so he ended up on the pull out couch bed as well. I don’t care personally, but I think I’ll just go back to sleeping next to Mark since his snoring really doesn’t bother me and give Ryan the couch by himself.
I’ve had a cough for the past week and it’s gotten a little worse by the day, but I think that’s why I was so beat yesterday and couldn’t go out. Today though, I’m excited to check out the Museum of Illusions. I wanted to also check out the House of Terror but it turns out that it’s a national museum about Communism and Fascism and the horrible acts committed under those regimes. I thought it was gonna be like… Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees lol.
Anyway, I’m typing this from a Starbucks nearby our Airbnb. It’s 9:30 AM and I guess it’s time for me to like, get up and go do something with my day. After the trip I’m gonna have a frank discussion regarding my trip to Akihabara.
