Budapest

19 SEPTEMBER 2021

I had the pleasure of landing in Budapest in the middle of the night, it was cool on my skin after having slept the 2 hour flight from Paris, passed out against the window snoring. I was anything but refreshed, I looked like I needed a good shower and some clean clothes and felt like it too. I don’t wake well and decided to sit for a second in the cold unwelcoming arrivals hall. It was next to an older gentleman who was already settling in the for evening with his head on his bag and his feet on the chairs stretched out behind him.

I actually could have slept anywhere at this point.

Keeley was now in charge of accommodation for the night with an updated budget of ‘as cheap as you can manage’. With some ideas in hand and a tired and weary face she made me get up off my new bed of garish green plastic chairs and hail a cab, a light rain was starting.

One thing about travelling on the spot with no plans and no idea is that you have exactly that, no bloody idea. Others were lined up cordially with their taxi booking in hand. We looked lost, tired and over it all. Luckily we ran into a young military gentleman from Norway whom I’d had a brief encounter with at Charles de Gaul airport and was rather grateful to me for inspiring him to not miss his flight apparently. Can’t say I recall the exact words I must have said but it had worked, he made the flight.

 

This was his first solo trip which despite the fact that he can shoot a gun and survive the wild or go to war, his mother helped book and was insistent he didn’t go for fear of something happening to him, go figure. We jumped in the cab with him at his request and had a brief but memorable chat whilst heading into the city. Some of these brief encounters are the most memorable I find. You have just moments to share who you are, why you’re here, where you are going, your purpose. The streets are empty, lights are out, there is a chill in the air, a new country and new adventure.

Hello Budapest, nice to meet you. The following morning it’s the soft bellow of the beige floor length chamois curtains across my naked body that wakes me from a deep tablet induced slumber. But where better to wake from my weird slightly erotic dream about Brad Pit than the hedonistic city of Budapest. I’m staying in a David Lynch esc church that’s been recently transformed into a 10 euro a night hostel. While it seems seedy and strange, I soon discovered the showers which would rival any five star hotel, how do I decide between the overhead Amazon rainfall shower or the heal the stress knots in my back power shower? This all comes with a good looking sexless front desk man, a grand piano and free wifi. I’ve hit the honey pot. It’s goulash time.

According to Keeley it’s time to put on the black eyeliner, listen to Ismael Rivera and explore another unknown city with new people, new music and new food. I can’t imaging living any other way. The taste, the smell, the sound, its pure heaven, with every new stop your senses are challenged and it changes you, matures you, heals you.