Night in Budapest

[May 18-20]

We felt a little tense as we arrived in Budapest, lightning cracking the humid air on either side of the train's last few miles to the station. The weather was certainly inconvenient, but not really dangerous. The concern lingering in the back of our minds was over our lodging, which we'd managed to book in the last minute before leaving Prague.

Apartments in Budapest were fairly expensive online (by our standards), but we managed to find one cheapo that was still available. It didn't look the greatest, but it could hold five people for less than a rented van. Also, it had a kitchen and a great location. What had concerned us was its availability -- anything that's still not rented the day of arrival couldn't be that great, right?


Shaving by candlelight

The elderly "Magdalena" spotted us through the fogged glass panes of the front door, and we were introduced to our new home. The place smelled stale, with a hint of paint odor hanging in the stagnant air. It had plenty of space, but the kitchen wasn't exactly equipped for cooking. Still -- we felt lucky to find this place for 55 euros a night, the day of arrival.

It turned out that our luck didn't hold. Our first afternoon in town, we returned to our flat to discover that the electricity was out. After a number of phone calls and text messages, we found that the power had been shut off at the electric company, who would wait until the following day to fix it. We gave them a deadline for returning power to the flat, and sure enough, it took until a minute from the deadline, when our bags were fully packed, to get it turned back on.


Chatting with mom in a dark apartment

While we were glad that the power was back on, we still had to spend one night in the dark. The owner delivered some treats to appease us and some candles to light our evening's activities. I guess it all worked out.


Marita, Dean, and Roland

Particularly since we were occupied with getting our apartment in order, the highlight of our first day was meeting with Roland Jorg, a Servas day host who showed us around our neighborhood and acquainted us with some Hungarian culture. While trying some old-style Hungarian sodas at "Jaffa," a very hip local cafe, he asked what we knew about Hungary.

Silence.


The Jaffa cafe

We'd read a little about the country, but to be honest, the majority of our understanding boiled down to "Someone told me that Budapest was cool." It turns out that Hungary has a fascinating history relating it to its Austrian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Croatian neighbors, and while this isn't really surprising, I felt strange about not knowing anything about it. At least we managed to pick up a little local culture later in the evening when we attended a concert of a Hungarian fusion jazz group, the Agostones.


The Agostones in concert

After an hour of world music, we were off to Holdudvar, where we chatted away the hours before heading home to our darkened cave of an apartment. Thanks, Roland, for a great night.