Kicking off 2006 in Budapest! - Part 2 - Lucky Penny

In case you didn't know - Budapest is freakin cold in the winter time.

We arrived in Budapest late on Dec 30. We pretty much went straight to bed and got up early the next day, all rested up and ready for the New Year's celebrations. Only problem - we didn't have any plans yet. The hotel we were staying in was having a gala, but Susan and I quickly ruled that out. We're in Budapest, why would we want to hang out with a bunch of Americans? Especially ones that we see now and then on the base?

Dec 30, 2005 9:00am

We spent the day of Dec 31 sightseeing with a tour guide. This guy was really cool. He played the bass guitar in a band - wish I could remember the name of it. We saw all the touristy sites in Budapest - the castles, Hero's Square, the famous bridges... This is a super cool city. The worst thing about it was the cold. There was snow on the ground and ice on the steps. The sidewalks were slushy so walking was a chore. But even with all this, it didn't take away from the spectacular arcitechture of the city. I defintely want to go back when its warmer.

2:00pm

Now since Susan and I decided not to attend the gala at our hotel - we weren't allowed to stay in the hotel that night. This was no problem because other arrangements had already been made. There were actually some other people on the trip that didn't want to go to the gala either. So Nicole, the trip organizer, found a guy that rents out apartments. Susan and I followed this guy - his name was Peter - to our apartment for the night. We walked from one of the main markets along a street towards the Danube river. The buildings we were passing were fairly nice, althought maybe a little old. Most of them were 6-8 stories high. The doors were big and solid looking - most of them made of wood. There were little cafes and convenience stores along the way. We also passed a few streets that had restaurants, bars, pubs, and shops. Susan and I took note of these streets and hoped we could remember how to get back to them. Peter was walking fast.

We were about 100 yards away from the Danube river when Peter made a sharp turn into a building. He pulled out a key and opened up the steel gate that led into a hallway and up some stone steps. The feel of this building was old and sturdy. Who knows how long its been there? We were in one of the oldest parts of the city so it must be farily pricey to live there. But nonetheless, the building seemed dark and musty. The entryway kind of opened into a courtyard and so the cold seeped right in. The walls were cracked here and there. It seemed like a building that was very high society when it was built, but not quite so much anymore. There was a lift in the center of the entryway, but not anything like you'd see in a fancy office building in Dallas! It was basically a cage that rose from the underground levels all the way to the top of the building. Inside the cage you could see the shafts for the two lifts. No other word came to mind except "rickety". Peter walked up the steps that spiraled around the lift and we followed him up. He said our place was on the 3rd floor - and in Europe that usually means the 4th floor since the ground floor is simply called the "ground floor" and doesn't get a number. But apparentley in Hungary the 3rd floor actually equals the 17th floor. Ok, that's an exaggeration - it was the 5th. But it sure seemed like more than that.

Our apartment was nice and modern looking on the inside. Peter said everything was furnished with Ikea stuff. Hardwood floors. A kitchen, a bathroom, and a living/sleeping area with a nice big queen size bed and a little sofa. We thanked Peter and quickly got ready to leave again to go find our drinking spot for the night. As we walked around the apartment, we noticed that the aprtment seemed 'lived in'. Like very recently 'lived in'. There was prescription medication in the bathroom, socks and underwear in the drawers, and utility bills on the kitchen counter. After an exchange of confused looks, Susan and I shrugged our shoulders and headed out.

Before we left we noticed that all the doors in the building looked almost exactly the same, and we knew it would be late when we returned plus we would be drunk and tired. So in order to prevent us from getting accused of breaking and entering some poor old Hungarian woman's apartment, Susan put a penny on the ledge of the window of our door so we could identify our door when we came back.

3:00pm

We were both starving. We ate a cool little Thai reastaurant. Try finding a Thai restaurant in Italy... good luck!

5:30pm

Its New Year's Eve, we're in Budapest and we have no idea what we were going to be doing that night. After last year's experience in Venice, we wanted to make sure we got into someplace cool. It seems that in Europe, most bars/clubs/pubs have private parties that you can usually get into if you're willing to shell out the cash.

We stopped into a few bars that looked cool. One Irish pub, one place that called itself Fat Moe's Speakeasy, a jazz club, and about a dozen other places that still had availability for their parties. They cheapest one was 60 Euro per person - all you can eat and all you can drink. Sounded great to me! But we decided to check out some other places before committing, and by the time we came back they were full. Oh well...

6:00pm

Every other place seemed to want 70 - 85 Euro (~$100-$110) to get in and that didn't include drinks. I was starting to get bummed. Then we found out about this huge party being thrown by the Budapest Universtiy of Economics - in a warehouse right on the river and down the street from our apartment. 25 Euro and all you can drink. Sign us up!

And now onto the next obstacle... finding it.

It sounded simple enough, but the problem was that there was more than one warehouse AND more than one NYE party. We knew we were in the right general area and we saw a few discrete signs posted on this big huge building in front of us. Then we saw about 4 guys standing at a gate that went into an empty parking lot. The scene was right out of a movie. This winter night in Budapest was dark, cold, and this industrial area was empty and quiet. We went up to them, hoping they understood English.

"Where do we buy tickets?" I said.

They understood! Yay! We followed his directions around the far end of the building, around the corner, up some stairs, and into an unmarked door. What we walked into was some sort of backroom or storage area for a bar. Young people scampered past us while Susan and I just tried to stay out of their way. A couple guys looked at us as if to say, "What the hell do you want?"

"Tickets for the party?"

They pointed to a small door in the corner marked "office". We went inside to find a man standing in front of a desk and two women, one sitting at a computer and the other on a couch. The man asked if he could help us. We asked about the tickets and he told us they were 65 Euro each,

65 Euro? We were thinking it was 25. Must be the wrong place.

"Thanks anyway" I said as we turned to walk away.

We headed back outside into the cold and back across the still empty parking lot. We weren't sure if we were gonna be able to find the right place in time to buy tickets. We thought we might end up paying more than what we wanted to. That would be okay but it sure would be nice to find this 25 Euro one.

6:30pm

Then we passed another huge building. This has gotta be it. We went inside a door on the side of the building. There were only a few people inside, but the room just looked like an empty bar. There were dozens of people - probably university students, running around setting up tables, stocking the bar, etc... We bought the tickets from a guy sitting at a table. He told us the doors will open at 9pm and they are expecting over 5000 people!

Did you catch that? OVER 5000 people!!!!! All you can drink!!!!! It was gonna be quite a night...

6:45pm

A quick stop at another Irish pub to kill some time turned into a fun couple hours, just as most stops at Irish pubs ususally do. We met some Italian guys from Vicenza and watched them entertain the crowd by using ridiculous pick up lines on every single woman in the bar - including my wife! All I could do was laugh...

There were a lot of Italiains in Budapest.

8:50pm

Time to head back down to the warehouse and get in line. Hoping that the Hungarians have more respect for lines than the Italians... We turn the corner and see a huge mob of people trying to get into the warehouse. So much for orderly fashion. So we take our place in the herd. We're shoulder to shoulder, immovable unless the crowd moves. Pushing, shoving, the usual. I'm trying not to get irritated. I really want to have a good time tonight! We get inside, check our coats, and head to the bar. Sure enough, its all you can drink, any drink you want. Beer, liquor, wine, whatever. The inside of this building is enormous. Its looks like an old train station or something. There are three floors and dozens of bars everywhere. Old ticket offices were now bars. Old baggage rooms were now coat check rooms. Old waiting areas were now DJ booths. Mostly techno music at all the bars, but we found one that was playing 80's stuff. We stayed at that one most of the night! : )

There sure are a lot of Italians here...

11:50pm

We'd spent most of the night doing a little dancing, people-watching, and drinking at a moderate-to-fast pace. A few other American guys from our group were with us. Susan went with our friend, Levi to the bar and came back with champagne for everyone. I didn't even realize how close it was to midnight. The bar did the usual countdown thing and 2006 was upon us!

Jan 1, 2006 12:30am

The rest of the night I was mostly preoccupied with the increasingly high possibility that a fight would break out. I was getting pretty annoyed at how everyone seemed to go out of their way to bump into you. But then again, since the bar was filled with probably about 50% Italians, it shouldn't have come as a surprise. A simple trip to the bathroom almost turned into a fight when a guy cut right in front of me and I shoved him right back. He backed off. That's how you have to deal with these prissy arrogant assholes, if you stand up to them they always back down.

I come out of the bathroom and wait for Susan. When she comes out she tells me that the same thing happened to her! And she reacted the same way... that's my girl!!!

1:45am

What are all these Italians doing here?

We headed back to our spot and stopped by a bar to get another Jager and Red Bull for me and a water for Susan. Then this goofy looking guy, obviously drunk comes up to Susan and I and puts his arms around us. He starts speaking some language that I couldn't make out, and he reaches out and tries to take Susan's water right off the table and tries to walk away! WTF???

We just stood in line at the bar for 15 minutes for that water! No way am I gonna let some drunk Eurotrash take it. I grab it back from him but he won't let go. He keeps talking to me like I understand him. I'm telling him to get the F away from us and give me the F'ing water - in English and Italian. Finally a bouncer shows up and stands in between us. And the guy goes away.

As soon as the bouncer went back to his corner, the same guy comes back and tries to close talk me! He didn't seem like he was trying to fight, but I was sure getting there. And I'm pretty patient - even if I'm a little buzzed. Now I have to admit, by this point I was irritated by the crowd, the new year's elation had worn off, I was a little tired, and Susan was done drinking. So whatever this guy was trying to tell me, I had no interest in listening to him. He was a bit bigger than me, but I press my left forearm into his chest to push him back (my left wrist was still in a brace while it was recovering from 3 broken bones - that's another story), and I give him a mush right in his face with my right hand.

Don't know what a mush is? Its not a slap or a punch, its just a palm pressed on the side of the face and then a shove, done with the intent to send the message 'get the F away from me'.

Looking back at it, it may seem like I overreacted. But like I said, it was the culmination of many different factors. The bouncer came back and separated us again. Luckily that was the end of it cause I never saw that guy again. And I really didn't want to spend Jan 1, 2006 in a Hungarian jail.

Maybe since I'm getting a little older, this club scene just isn't as appealing as it used to be. I think I would have been happier to just hang out in that Irish pub.

2:45am

Even though this party was gonna go until at least 5am, it was time for us to head home. We'd had enough excitement for the night. We got back to our apartment a little after 3am and had to find our way back to our room. Confident that we would be able to find our door. Thank goodness Susan put that penny on the ledge! We rode the rickety rusted elevator up to what we thought was our floor, walked to what we thought was our door and looked for the penny...

No penny.

Oooops, wrong floor!

Back down the stairs, found the penny, smiled, and retired for the night. Thanks Abe.