The Syncretist International » budapest

‘Pest, Food, ‘n’ Hair

stellar magnet — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:01:02 +0000

I met up with Kyle again and we saw the Pest side of the city today: Hero’s square, the other castle, parliament, and other things. After parliament we ate dinner at Eden Vegetarian, yet another cafeteria style place. We shared the plate of food. After dinner I went to get my haircut, and it was the most stressful haircut ever, the girl was just doing things that I was not used to, like straightening my bangs so she could trim them and also I had wanted to keep my length but it became really short. (There was someone translating to her what I wanted. I guess that was lost in translation). In the end the haircut turned out good, I think. The bangs are a little bit off but not super noticeable. Dora knew where I was getting my haircut at, and she rang the place while I was there. Her and Martin came to say a proper goodbye to me since I was leaving the next day. After the cut, I met back up with Kyle and the sun was down now. We chilled near the Danube for a little bit, became a little bit mesmerized by the fast-flowing water, which looks like gold with the reflection of the lights on the water.

Budapest Parliament

stellar magnet — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:00:43 +0000

I like the architecture of the outside of the parliament building better than the inside. A sort of copy of British Parliament. The inside was okay. The outside is spectacular. I love the purple color. The dome was neat from the inside though, the best part of the inside. The rest, meh. And I had to pay full price admission of 10 dollars. I hate paying for this kind of stuff. Yesterday pretending like I was a student worked, but this time they asked for ID which I didn’t have. I really need a fake student ID card, or my old one. Can someone please make me one? Thanks.

Cafes Named After Famous People

stellar magnet — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:50:12 +0000

There are quite a few cafes here in Budapest that are named after some famous artist or musician or something. See below: Chagall, Picasso, Piaf

Lazy Sundays, Busy Mondays

stellar magnet — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 19:16:04 +0000

My Sunday was mostly lazy. I’ve been kind of sick. I emailed Kyle about meeting up on Monday and we had a plan arranged. Sunday evening I met up with Martin and Dora to watch Milk in the cinemas. I enjoyed the movie… After the movie we had a drink at some place in this weird building, like on the 5th floor and you gotta walk up all the stairs to get there. Interesting place. Good cheap wine all around Europe. Went home, slept, etc.

Monday I met up with Kyle and we explored the “Buda” side of the city (or the west side, we were both staying in Pest, or the east side). We went to the top of the fortress, chilled out, and visited the Labyrinth under the Buda Castle… it kind of reminded me of some Disneyland thing. There was like creepy music playing and one part of it was barely lit and Kyle had to hold my hand to help lead me through. We left the Labyrinth and finally realized where the main castle part was. My camera died when we got to the really pretty part with the great view. OH WELL.

Funny story: Kyle says that he found a wallet in his luggage that was not his, but there was no money or anything at all in it. But the wallet has something to do with Manchester, like our British friend we met on the train who lost his wallet? But how did this empty wallet end up in Kyle’s luggage? We are thinking someone might have gotten to it when we were all trying to sleep and then stuck it back in Kyle’s things. Mystery wallet. None of us got Shaun’s information so unless he finds this we will never know.

Post Vasarely ‘ventures

stellar magnet — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:06:34 +0000

After visiting the Vasarely museum, Martin, Dora and I walked to Margaret Island, which was pretty close. The island is mostly a park. There is a kind of zoo in the island too with mostly birds. Peacocks were squawking about. We all ate at Hummus Bar for dinner. My third time there. No more…

Victor Vasarely Museum

stellar magnet — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:57:43 +0000

Today I met up with Martin & Dora, a cute couchsurfing couple, and we visited the Vasarely Museum. Enjoy the virtual tour below!

Buddhapessed

stellar magnet — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:41:49 +0000

So I took the overnight train to Budapest and on the train I met two other travelers. One was this British guy, named Shaun, and the other was this Canadian guy, named Kyle. We all shared a cabin together and chatted. Shaun had been traveling in India and then he lost his bankcard, so he was taking the train back to London to get a new bankcard so he could resume his travels. Kyle had been away from Canada for a few years, and he was last living and working in South Korea, but now traveling to make his way home. We were all tired and so we converted the couchettes and tried to sleep. It was quite cold though. I think I managed to get maybe one hour of half-sleep. We all arrived in Budapest around 5am, where Shaun realizes his wallet is missing. Kyle tries to help him look for it, but no luck… I exchange information with Kyle since we are both staying in Budapest for a few days and then I guess Shaun is heading back to London, on the train, with no wallet, meaning no Inter Rail pass he was using to get to London? I’ll never know what happened with that guy. Hope he found his wallet.

After I slept, the first thing I did was eat at this falafel/hummus place called “Hummus Bar.” Mmmm, some of the best falafel I’ve had (no picture of falafel, sorry, but there’s a picture of the sign leading to the bar). I did a little bit of wandering (very little) then I became tired so I returned to the hostel for a nap. During the night I went to this place called Szimpla with these Brazilian girls I met at my hostel (with like a group of 10 people, they met up with some euro travelers that they’d met in Berlin).