Plenty o’ pictures in the Flickr set.

My four nights in Budapest have now turned in to ten. Times is good. To the important business first:

Reader Request: Christening The Danube

There comes a time in a man’s life when he grows up. He is less concerned with immature things. His perspective is older and wiser. His decisions are reflective, balanced, and thoughtful. He is not bothered by his friends when they egg him on to do stupid things.

This is not me.

I peed in the Danube river because Brian asked me to in a Reader Request.

It was the middle of the day after a walk to the top of the mountain for a beautiful panoramic view of Budapest. The Danube sparkled back at me. Tempting me. At that moment, I made up my mind and decided I could not let Brian down. I would go forward boldly. I would pee in the Danube.

The problem, however, was actually getting to the Danube within range of micturition. This proved to be more difficult than I expected. I considered one of the bridges for a direct shot, but decided against it. Bad call. Too visible. Peeing in the Danube is one thing, but getting arrested in a foreign country for indecent exposure ain’t worth it.

After about an hour of searching, I eventually found some steps that lead directly down to the river (pictured left) in an only moderately trafficked area with bums hanging out by them. I walked past the bums and made my way to the river under the Chain Bridge. It was rocky, scattered with trash, and had a few clearings where people obviously slept. I doubted the bums would mind. Might even make ‘em feel at home. The people with shoes have come down from top-side to embrace their world.

I stood there for a good five minutes considering whether or not this was actually a good idea before I finally left my mark on Budapest. Congratulations, Brian. We have brought Nathan Shipley Travels the World to a new level of pensive, respectful travel. I peed in the Danube.

I have video of this as well. In the likely now pointless interest of maintaining some slight degree of respectability, though, it is not publicly available. I’ll be glad to send you a link if you care to see the act; just send me an email and ask! (nshipley at gmail) Sorry, Joey; no nudity included.

The Strike Continues and Christmas is Coming

I’m still in Budapest thanks to the rail worker strike that has now entered it’s seventh day. This is a pretty good place to be stuck, actually. I could probably figure out another way out of the country, but I’m not prioritizing it. I like my hostel, I’m meeting cool people, and I really like the city. The goulash soup is good (pictured right). We just had a gaggle of cool Malaysian med students roll in. Eddie from Wall Street is here. Kata, George, Kinga, the Swedish med students, and a host of others. I’m considering just staying here for Christmas rather than trying to get to Romania in the middle of all of it. A Hungarian Christmas doesn’t sound too bad.

So what have I been up to in the mean time?

A Hungarian Christmas Market Presented by Kinga

I met Kinga at the hostel. She is a tourism student originally from Romania. She, Sab, and I put up Christmas decorations at the hostel then she offered to take me to a Christmas market. Nice. Tourism students generally make great people to walk around a city with — full of fun facts and eager to talk about their city. Kinga is no exception.

After eating liver spread sandwiches that she made at the hostel, Kinga and I set out for the Christmas market. We looked at what was for sale, walked to the Danube (which is quite beautiful at night), drank hot spiced wine, and ate delicious Hungarian grease-covered bread with onions and paprika on top. (Paprika is originally a Hungarian spice. Grease is just universally good.) They have cookies that say “Neked” on ‘em, too. With cold feet and hands, we eventually walked to a mall to warm up and use the massage chairs.

In pictures, it went something like this:

Going Out in Budapest

My two favorite spots in Budapest are Szimpla Kert and Instant. That’s the basement of Instant on the right. Both are labyrinthine, somewhat bohemian joints with a few large rooms and lots of smaller, more intimate rooms connected to them. Good fun and I inevitably meet people in both of them:

Two Americans, Two Germans, one Hungarian at Szmipla:

Annoying Girl, Nathan, Cool Girl at Instant:

I met Eddie at the hostel. That’s him on the right. He was working for Lehman Brothers on Wall Street and is a newly shit-canned and traveling result of the economic crisis. He decided the best thing to do would be to get out of New York and take two months to run around Europe. He’s also making a documentary about how the economic crisis is affecting Europe. Good guy.

Last night at Szimpla, however, we did not get any useful information about the economic crisis. We met a bunch of American high school students on a host-family study abroad program. They were out, they were drinking, and the results were, well, like a bunch of high school students getting drunk. Funny for a little bit, then time to get out of dodge. Eddie’s face describes it well:

We got away from the stumbling high school students and met a group with an American guy (pictured), three Russians, and, of all things, a Peruvian girl (pictured, bundled up in twelve coats) from San Borja in Lima. What are the odds? Good fun.

By and large, I likes me some Budapest. I could do without the racism, but that’s for another entry.

Adios for now, people.

Here’s your Flickr set again.

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