Sunday, July 17, 2011

L'Europe de l'Est partie 3

That afternoon we hopped on our last bus that would take us to Budapest, Hungary. Claire and I were staying with CouchSurfing hosts. CouchSurfing is an international organisation that links travellers with kind-hearted people who have a spare couch, bed, or bit of floor space that they're willing to open up to strangers. You connect online and share some information to ensure that the host isn't secretly a 60 year old pervert and nor is the Surfer a thieving freeloader. Hundreds of thousands of people from every corner of the world are involved in this open-minded culture share. Claire and I were to stay with a couple named Dodo and Andrea. My instructions to their house were shady at best, and it hadn't crossed my mind to check them out before we left. We arrived in Budapest after the information desk closed and had to ask an English-speaking Chinese store owner for help. He directed us to the metro and showed us where he thought our next bus stop would be from there. Claire wasn't exactly overwhelmed by organisational skills. Nor was I, for that matter.

We'd had about 9 days of sheer luck with riding the public transit for free in both Prague and Vienna, buying only one ticket in each city. We figured we would just play the dumb tourist if an inspector ever came by. There were actually ticket guards in the Budapest metro. We paid some unknown amount of Forints (Hungary's currency that equals about 200 to $1 CDN) for our tickets and went down into the roughest looking subway cars I've ever seen. One subway ride and two buses later, we arrived at the address of our hosts. A rundown, overgrown apartment faced us. "This can't be right," we said. I swung open the crooked chain-link gate and bumped my bedraggled carry-on down a dark path (while poor Claire waged war with her own cumbersome luggage). At the back of the building was a set of crumbling steps that led to the open back door. I peered in. The concrete stairwell, shadowy and ominous, was empty. I texted Dodo's number, feeling distinctly ill at ease. Claire remained at the bottom of the steps, ready to make a run for it if I made such a signal. A minute later, I heard someone running down the stairs. Claire and I looked at each other, panic stricken. A man appeared wearing a t-shirt so long and baggy that I couldn't tell if he was wearing shorts. He bounced through the door, all youthful energy. This, it seemed, was Dodo. He was wearing shorts after all, but the running kind with the slit up the side for freer movement (phew!). He gave us the cheek kiss (also custom in that part of the world) and hoisted Claire's and my bags up the stairs with little effort. We followed, still apprehensive but at least sure that we'd reached the right place.

Dodo spoke little English, but his girlfriend Andrea (whom we met shortly thereafter) was quite good. Their apartment was the only one occupied in the building, which was once owned by the government and then left to disintegrate over time. It was a quirky flat. Our room was no more than a mattress and a desk, and we had to walk through their bedroom to reach it. The washroom had no sink; the bathtub was its substitute. Hot water was heated on site by a gas stove. Before making this discovery, I had a few moments of fear when I caught a strong whiff of science lab. But the place was charming, and for them, it was home.

The location was incredible. On the first night, Dodo and Andrea led us through their neighbourhood to a wild park. From there we walked by cellphone light to a rocky promontory with the most beautiful view of the entire city. Budapest is divided by the Danube River, with Buda on the hill to the left and Pest on the flat side to the right. It was breathtaking to see it all laid out in front of us like that.

Our hosts were so good to us. They spent the entire first day we were there showing us all over the city on both sides of the river. We covered about four days worth of tourism at Claire's and my pace in the space of twenty-four hours. At the end of the day, they took us to their favourite movie theatre. We each sat down with a glass of hot milk (their treat) in the café/lounge outside the cinemas and talked about life. They were such passionate people about many liberal causes. They had some great stories.

We had only planned for two full days in Budapest. On our second day, Claire and I were so deeply exhausted that we couldn't bring ourselves to do any more exploring. We had two things on our agenda for the day: shopping and beer. It was a freeing day, really, not to feel we needed to be somewhere. I bought a stunning dress which I then stupidly left in its bag on the sidewalk as we stopped for food. The Pest side is full of funky outdoor bars, and that evening we checked out a couple local highlights before coming home and crashing. Oh yes, and something I have to fess up: we had lunch at McDonald's. I believe I ate at McDs 3 or 4 times this year, which is 2 or 3 times more than in the past ten years of my life. They're really nice in Europe! They look like Starbucks (but still smell like grease) and sell such goodies as wedge fries and chocolate pastries.

My camera (well, the camera I had borrowed from Maëlle after mine broke) had breathed its last that day. I supposed that if it had to die, it at least had good timing. In Vienna, Claire had tried to upload her photos her two weeks of Europe travel prior to meeting up with me, and her Africa pictures, and the pictures from this trip. When she went back to the computer to look at them, they were gone and her memory card empty. Thousands of pictures lost in the cybersphere.

The next day we made our beleaguered way to the airport. We took the train out to it, and would have missed our stop had not a helpful Hungarian man whisked our bags onto the platform for us. Budapest is a city I would like to go back to one day when it's not at the end of a long tour. I think it has a lot of potential for fun. And our hosts were so lovely. That said, we were happy to be getting on a plane.

Back in Paris, I said goodbye to Claire at the airport. She was flying home to Canada and I had to catch a train back to Angers. 12 days is a long time to spend as a group of two, but it was so great to see her and to share our love for travel. Hearing her stories from Africa was amazing, and she was patient enough to listen to my raves about life in Angers. She's just as hungry to keep seeing the world as I am, but we've been friends since middle school, so despite the distance, I don't think our friendship is going anywhere.

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