7/23/04: Abruptions
The aforementioned best-laid plans (midnight flight to Europe, getting sleep en route) did, in fact, go awry. I got less than an hour’s sleep during the flight from Newark to Copenhagen (no direct flights on my budget). This was partially because of the fact that airplane designers are clearly biased against the gawky. It was also because one of the passengers BROUGHT HER DOG ON THE FLIGHT IN A CARRY-ON. I’m serious. Some biddy had her poodle in a handbag on the goddamn plane. And, wouldn’t you know it, dogs don’t deal well with the changes in air pressure.
Neither did the three-year-old in my aisle. I felt bad for the kid, because he was in absolute torment.
Fortunately, official VM Dad bought me a pair of noise-canceling headphones from Bose. I owned a pair from Sony, but they were earbuds, and got mighty uncomfortable on long flights.
The headphones paired nicely with my latest geek-out episode: buying a new 40 gig iPod the day before this trip. My rationale was that the 12-hour battery life of the new model would serve me better on a long trip. And I’m a geek.
Anyway, I listened to music and read a chunk of Lester Bangs’ reviews and essays during the flight. Then I drifted off.
Let this be a warning to you, dear reader: never drift off while listening to your 40 gig iPod, set to shuffle. Oh, it may seem like a good idea, heading off to slumberland with your very favorite tunes a-play (6,692 of them, according to the Pod). But, I ask you, what if you have Van Halen’s Eruptions among those 6,692 songs? You would be most unhappy to be awakened by that particular song, especially with its high recording level.
Otherwise, the flight was uneventful, although landing was a bit strange. We were on a new Airbus 340, and every seat had its own video screen with all sorts of entertainment options. Among those options: checking out the views from the in-flight belly and nose cameras. For most of the flight, there was nothing to see (note: do not cite Bowie’s Nite Flights here). But during the landing approach, it’s pretty weird to see the view from the nose of the plane. I mean, I’ve played my share of flight simulators in my time, but it’s different when it’s YOUR GODDAMN PLANE THAT’S MAKING THE APPROACH.
Anyway, I’m writing this during the short flight to Budapest. I’ll try to find a hotspot once I’m there, so I can post away.
7/24-25/04: Dateline: Tiszaroff
Wow.
Here’s the chronology. I got into Budapest at 4:30pm on Friday (7/23). I didn’t sleep much, as mentioned earlier. My suitcase was the third one out at the baggage claim, which is unprecedented. I got my passport stamped again. I met up with Rene, another guy coming out here from NJ for the wedding. We got his rental car at 5:30. We drove out to a little town called Tiszaroff, to the castle where the wedding party was staying. We had no currency, and the ATMs on the road weren’t on our network, so we stopped at a supermarket on the way and charged some bottled water, candy bars, and other supplies.
The drive took more than two hours, and the traffic frustrated Rene, who was not accustomed to driving our little Peugeot. We arrived, checked in, greeted the wedding guests, then went to our rooms. I showered, dressed nicely, and headed down to dinner.
The rest of this is somewhat blurry. I mean, I remember everything, but that doesn’t seem to mean much. I ate a little at the dinner, around 8:30pm. By my body’s clock, this was only 2:30pm, but I hadn’t slept the previous night. So I figured I’d have a beer with the guys, then turn in and get a full night’s sleep.
Instead, I had a couple of beers, got into many conversations, had more beers, walked in on a German girl in the bathroom, joined a contingent of Americans and Germans in the pool, decided to doff my swimsuit after the realization that 6 out of 8 of us were swimming naked, and drank more beers.
I thought I bailed out around 3am, but it appears that our skinny-dipping contingent actually split up at 4:30am. Which is to say, I had gone a very long time without sleep, and had 8 or 9 (?) beers in me with virtually no food.
Got upstairs to my room and went to sleep, evidently at 4:30am. Woke up to noise (people going to breakfast) around 10:45am. Knew that if I moved, I’d be sick. Around 11:30am, I moved. I was sick.
After worshiping at porcelain altar, and sitting on floor of bathroom in a cold sweat, I dragged my ass back to bed. Woke up at 3pm.
Got up, showered, ate a candy bar and drank a Coke from the minibar, and put on my suit to get down to the wedding party, which was convening at 4:15.
We drove 15 minutes in a convoy to the town where the bride grew up. The church service was Lutheran, I think, and pretty brief. The minister didn’t know much English, and we joked that we understood her better when she was speaking Hungarian. (This language, I should note, bears virtually no connection to the romance languages, and is made even more incomprehensible by its speakers’ thick accents.)
Got back to the hotel for the reception out by the pool. I drank half-heartedly, but engaged in good conversation with a cinematographer who was seated beside me. He’s married to a Hungarian girl too, and said that he has never understood anything that her parents have said to him. I told him that this was probably a good thing.
Some local teenagers put on a performance of local dance, which was entertaining. I cracked, ‘Whenever I see eastern Europeans in boots, I get a little nervous.’
At midnight, the bride came out in a red dress. This is a traditional rite of marriage, with the bride signifying her no-longer-a-girl transition into womanhood by changing into the new red dress.
We had eaten at a buffet from 7:30-9:30pm (or thereabouts), but now a new buffet was opened up, to feast for the new phase. I ate some pastries, drank half-heartedly, as mentioned, then moved back to Cokes. I stayed sober, and did not jump in the pool naked again.
I had a conversation with the German girl I’d accidentally barged in on the night before. Around 3am, I thought about heading up to my room, packing, and getting ready to leave for Budapest with Rene at 10:30am (he’s flying home on Sunday). But the band stopped playing, and I was cajoled into bringing my iPod down and hooking it up to the speakers, so we could listen to bad ’80s music. We did for a while. (Yes, this means I was DJing at around 3:30 in the morning.)
Two members of the band were absolutely transfixed by the iPod, and asked me many questions about it. The younger one also asked me if I had any Thievery Corporation music. I told him I did, complimented him on the Groove Armada CD they put on between sets, and introduced them to the music of Zero 7. Then I pleased some people by playing “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” by the Scorpions, and “Separate Ways,” by Journey. The band packed up all its stuff, and eventually had to take the speakers away.
Just then, I noticed the sky starting to lighten. A rooster crowed, and I said to Rene, ‘Let’s just stay up, and roll out for Budapest around 9 or 10am.’ We committed to that plan, but later realized that, because of the change of latitude, “it gets early early around here.” It was only 4:30am when we made that realization.
But we decided to stick with our plan. We hung out by the pool, and a few of the other guys, including the groom, jumped into the pool naked. I just watched the sun rise over eastern Hungary.
Now we’ll stay up all night, have some coffee and breakfast around 8am, and roll on to Budapest. Where I will sleep like a motherfucking log, dear reader.
Thanks for your interest.
Here are links to a bunch of pix from the wedding day:
Jon-Eric & Monika at the reception.
Rene, Jon-Eric, Axel (whom I nicknamed Ahmet), and Paul.
7/25/04: Zarva
I’ve settled into the Hotel Gellert in Buda, jus above the Danube by the Liberty Bridge. A single room with no air conditioning: 65 euros. It jumps to 200 euros if I want AC. I’ll probably try to find better (middle-of-the-road) accommodations tomorrow. I napped, then took a walk. Found an Internet cafe, so I could at least check up on my e-mail, if not post this rambling entry.
Sounds like I’m missing another great Yankees-Red Sox series back in the U.S. Oh, well. To establish my Ugly American credentials here, I walked around in my Derek Jeter jersey.
It’s Sunday afternoon, and most of the establishments in Buda are closed (Zarva). My dinner consisted of lo mein and paprika chicken at a Chinese restaurant. Time to chill out and read some of that Lester Bangs.
All speedfreaks are liars; anybody that keeps their mouth open that much can’t tell the truth all the time or they’d run out of things to say.
7/26/04: Andrassy Ut
Took a walk across the Independence Bridge over to Pest, then trundled up Andrassy Ut, which leads up past some pretty significant buildings, to the City Park. It rained (and figures to for much of my stay here, alas). I took a bunch of pix. Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night, turned on the TV, and saw South Park in German. I’m pretty sure I was awake, at least.
I ate Thai for lunch. I’ve now had two meals here, and they’ve both been Asian. Eventually, I’ll have to have some goulash.
During lunch, I read about the history of the city. I found out where my hotel (and the hill it’s located on) got its name. Sez Lonely Planet:
In 1046, a Venetian-born bishop named Gerard (Gellert in Hungarian), who had been brought to Hungary by King Stephen, was hurled to his death from a Buda hilltop in a spiked barrel by pagan Hungarians resisting conversion. The hill now bears Gellert’s name.
Whew! Mystery revealed! (Of course, it does raise the question of whether pagans kept a supply of spiked barrels around for just this occasion.)
Here are links to some pix I took today:
The Millenary Monument (unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good shot of the colonnades behind it).
Same shot, different proportion.
A monument I don’t know the name of, on Buda hill, right before the Elizabeth bridge.