Hungary

After a long night of catching up with Brittany the last night at Austria, we continued chatting as she went to the train station to see me off then explore Wien afterwards.


The train ride to Budapest went well, and I made my way to my next CS host, Sara, who instructed me to arrive between 18:00 to 18:30, if I was late, I would have to wait until after 20:00. The reason for that was because she had a yoga instructor come to her house along with 4 people taking Yoga together, and I was welcome to join!


When she was teaching english in India, Sara met Deaf people and learned some India sign language. Even though her signing was shitty (Her words!) She was still a pleasure to chat with, and very good with gestures!


So, performing yoga with Francois, the French Yoga instructor was good for the traveling body. I never really gave my body a good stretch, and yoga was just what I needed! After it was done, my stomach was growling, so I went ahead and ate at a Doner Kebab place (always delicious, never disappoints) with two other Yoga partipicants Billy and Zoltan.


We burned through several pages of the notebook writing back and forth, and decided to continue it at a nearby local bar - Szimpla - which became my favorite bar I have went to in Europe! It was a cool, hip ruins type of bar with a great environment. I later found out it was also recommended in my Lonely Planet book, so tally up another one for LP!


Upon returning back to Sara's home, we chatted sipping wine and before we knew it, it was 2 in the morning! Sara had errands to do at eight in the morning, and she had no spare keys so I had to get out of the house at 8, which meant waking up at 7... I told Sara no worries, college has prepared me very well for situations like this! THANK YOU GALLAUDET!


As I got out, I went to Printa coffeshop gallery based on Sara's reccommendation, it had good coffee and a cool gallery, lots of interesting art and purses made out of seat belts. lots of recycled stuff like that but I don't remember much else but the seat belt purses stood out to me.


Printa was right near the Jewish Quarter, so I went to two small synagouges and made my way to the Great Synagouge - the biggest Synagouge in Europe - which included a museum but the museum was closed! So I would have to wait to visit the Synagouge on Sunday since it was closed on Saturdays. It turned out to be a good thing anyways.


From there, I went to the gigantic Nagy Vasarcsarnok - Central Market - and sampled Goulash Soup. very nice! filled with food, I climbed the Citadella (A lovely hike) with the Liberation mounment atop the hill with a great view of the city! It was at that moment where I realized I enjoyed taking hikes up hills/mountains and taking in the view a lot. It just never came to me, so i will start putting that on my facebook, CouchSurfing profiles and stuff like that. It is also rewarding when it is free hiking up by my two legs and not taking the easy way riding the funicular.


Saw some more sights at the Castle Hill and walked alongside the Danue River back to Sara's house and called it a night, but Sara also had another CS coming over, so we shared the sleeping room which was a big room which also was the kitchen, dining room, yoga room, basically a multi-purpose room so it was cool.


The other CSer was Mist from Iceland, we chatted a bit and she was taking a break from her studies to travel Europe, which was cool. SPOILER ALERT: Mist will also make an appearance in a future blog entry. Just Saying.


Originally, I was supposed to stay with Tamas from CS, but he was busy during the week and was available only after saturday, so Sara was willing to host me on such a short notice which was very much appreciated! After two fun days, I went to meet the energetic man who knew Hungarian Sign Language. When looking for him at the metro station, he simply had an "ILY" handshape so yeah, I knew it was him.


Apparently, Tamas had a secret job as a tour guide, because he really knows Budapest well, and told me stories, history and took me to some sights at Pest. I saw most of Buda the previous day.


In case you are confused, Budapest is split in two - Buda and Pest, split in half by the Danube River.


Then we met up with a friend of his - Katrina - who also knew sign language, so it was fun meeting them. Katrina was Jewish also, and she knew a Deaf Hungarian man who would be happy to meet me and take me to the Great Synagouge, Jewish Museum and the Holocaust museum, so it was a great plan!


So we agreed to meet at 13 the next day, and so we did. Remember, I don't have a phone, but the old fashioned way still works well!


After parting ways with Katrina, that evening Tamas had plans of going to a birthday party and it was open, so I tagged along to the Silenca bar at the ground floor and dance club on the first floor. Before, Tamas was not sure about how Deaf people would think hearing people look funny while dancing because they could not hear music. I explained to him that we could feel the vibrations, and dance along with it, but we do not need to hear the music to see if a person dances well or not :) No worries, Tamas was an excellent dancer though. Dancing With the Stars awaits him!


The next day Tamas took me to the Hungary Parliament Palace which was the third-biggest in the world. It was a nice tour, and Tamas was great trying to interpret the tour guide for me. The building had a lot of gold inside, and it was nice to see. One cool spot was the waiting room with the row of cigars! When I post up pictures eventually, you will see what I am talking about.


Tamas had to leave to meet up with his family, so before meeting with Katrina at 13, I went to the Terror Museum, where it formerly was the headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party. Very Communist and it was an educational tour throughout the museum.


After meeting up with Katrina and lunch together, we met Gyar, the old Deaf Hungarian man who was wonderful and told good historical stories about the Great Synagouge.


Afterwards, Gyar and I went to the Holocaust museum by metro, and I didn't have to pay for it. In Hungary (And most of europe) the Deaf - and the disabled too - has a card that enables them free public transportation including trams, metros, buses and sometimes trains, AND it includes a "plus-one" passenger too which was ::drumroll:: me. The card also includes free admissions to museums too... I should had met Gyar a long time ago!


It was fun chatting with Gyar, and we parted ways, as I went ahead to reward myself with a visit to a well known Hungarian attraction: Thermal Baths! Lonely Planet said Gellert Baths was one of the best and most popular, so yeah that was where I went. It was worth it and I came out feeling like a new man!


Keeping up with the "new" feeling, the next day, it was on to a new country: Romania! I caught the morning train to Cluj-Napoca and...