Tour De Hungary

We had to check out of the apt by 10:00, so we got up early, packed, checked out, and headed down to the Siofok beach. There was an area we sat the previous day that had wooden lounge chairs and was right next to the trance music area. They played a lot of great ambient techno/trance/house music, which created an excellent atmosphere. This was the optimal location for taking a nap, which we all did off and on throughout the day while toasting ourselves in the sun. It was about 80 degrees and clear with a light breeze, which allowed us to work on our goal of skin cancer for about six hours. The water was crisp-cold and dirty, but it was good for cooling off every hour or so after sleeping. I did a pretty good job at keeping myself white, though there are some areas that I missed or didn't cover sufficiently that got mildly burnt. We read magazines, drank Bacardi Breezers, ate crepes and sausages, and chit-chatted the whole day and it was great.

At about 5:00, we packed up and decided to go to Budapest for the night because of the disappointing Siofok crowds. I had some points left from living at Marriott hotels, so we made some calls back to Roland's hotel to have the receptionist look up my Rewards number in my Palm Pilot and after a half-hour of trying to guide her to the right area ("There's an Apple that shows up when I press the button"...Uhh, I think that's my iPod, not my Palm Pilot ;o), we got the rewards number and made our reservation at the Budapest Marriott. After a long drive down to the city (about two hours with terrible inner-city traffic), we landed at the Marriott and checked in, checked email, took showers, and applied ample body lotion to soothe our patches of red skin.

At 10:00, we headed out to dinner and ate at the fabulous Matias Pince (Mathias' Basement), which was a traditional Hungarian restaurant with a small string band playing traditional Hungarian folk music. The decorations were elaborate and exquisite and the waiters wore traditional Hungarian garb - it was the perfect tourist trap. But the meal was fabulous and real Hungarian food, so I couldn't complain. I went for the $35 Royal Dinner special, which included cold goose liver with it's own MAKO fat (I realized, much like the bone marrow experience last month, that the ball of something on my plate was not potato, but rather cold and hardened far from the cooked liver) followed by lamb ragu soup, the main entree (roasted abergine, bell pepper, and squash with grilled venison and fried potato pancake), and dessert (a plate full of Hungarian desserts like honey-cake, poppyseed tort, ice cream, and a bread-pudding like item. I couldn't even come close to finishing this and was a fat and happy Royal Magyar by the time I was done.

Afterwards, we walked off our dinner by strolling around the vacant Vace (say: Vat-see) street (the street open only to pedestrians with stores). We were going to meet up with a friend of Roland's later that night at a house party, but then the plans were changed and we went to a University party instead. It was at the most famous liberal arts school in Hungary that has students from around the world attending. Every day before the semester, they have something going on in the courtyard to keep people entertained and tonight it was a party with music and everything. There were about 5000 people at this place and it was very surreal with speakers below every window in the courtyard and a massive bar setup along one side. We hung our satiated bodies around for a while while waiting for Roland's friend and found the standard German contingent that is omni-present at these parties. The girls acted completely disinterested in talking about their trip to Hungary so I left that alone and hung out with Csilla and and the big Swede who was trying to get her to dance with him. He said his father was "a big Hungarian stew" to me. I was like "huh?" and after he repeated it several times I told him I think he had the wrong word. He said "You know, a strong, young male horse". After a few minutes of him repeating it, I lauged and said that he must be thinking of "stud". Pretty funny.

After a bit, we headed to new scenery in the courtyard and I heard my name being yelled. Sure, enough, there was Hendrik. Hendrik is a friend of my German friend Alex who had worked in New York last spring and summer. When Alex was in town, we all met up and went out together. I knew that after NY he was going to Budapest to study and I had mentioned to Roland and Csilla earlier that he was in town and I should've emailed him, but it's been a year and he must be back in Germany by now. Nope! It was crazy that we crossed paths, totally crazy. So we talked for a bit and he introduced me to hundreds of people that he knew at the party, did some free-style rapping (in Spanish, no less) with his Mexican friend and buzzed around the courtyard in typical Hendrik fashion. This guy is wild!

We had to get up early the following day, so we headed back to the hotel early (around 3:00). By the time we walked home, got ready for bed, and finished watching an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm on my laptop, it was 4:30 in the morning and everyone was passed out asleep in bed. We had a long day ahead of us the following day, and we had to be fresh!