You know, Hostel, like the movie.

*sigh*

My sleeping issues of a couple of nights ago were resolved by battering my eyelashes at the English stag group mentioned in the previous post. I was too tired to think that sleeping on the couch was going to be that great. But I would have done it had Juulia not said that there was one free bed in the hostel, but it was in the stag party room - one of their friends hadn´t come and they'd paid for the bed to keep the room to themselves.

Anyway, they let me have the bed and were insistent that I not pay for it (which of course I did) and then I felt incredibly guilty about being mean about them previously. They didn' seem like that bad a guys.

BUT my temporary good impression was erased when I woke up the next morning and the following conversation ensued:
Me: Hey. Did you guys have a good night last night? Good weekend?
Guy: Yeah. It was okay. Not as cheap as I thought and I didn´t get laid.
Me: Riiiiiggghhht....aren´t you the stag?

Obviously I have missed something about the concept of getting married. Ah well. At least I was well rested!

Stayed the last few days in Bratislava, hanging with some cool Canadians. It's a small town with not much to do other than drink coffee and lay in the sun. Pretty lazy times. Discovered a fair few interesting facts about Candaian engineers as well.

I know I said I wouldn´t mention bars but this was way too funny to ignore. I don't know how many people have seen the movie 'Hostel', but it´s set in Bratislava. The basement bar at my hostel was decked out in theme from the movie - complete with severed heads and limbs. There was even a ´table´ made out of a bathtub with blood smeared through it. Hilarious! But a bit ghoulish. But the beer was good and very cheap. The entertainment was provided by a group fo 6, 18&19 year Irish girls who were absolutely mad and hilarious. And a foozball table.

Industrial Complex

I have had exactly one hour of sleep, I am going slightly around the bend and I have discovered that there are NUMEROUS really cool bars in Budapest. I also have nowhere to sleep tonight which is something that I should remedy sooner rather than later.

Hung out with Julia, Finnish girl from the hostel and the two French guys. Also spent the night with actual Hungarians - nice to actually meet the locals instead of just running away from them. Briefly considered working illegally in Budapest at a vegetarian restaurant. Decided against it alhough apparently it's what everyone does. Works illegally, I mean. Not specifically at vegetarian restaurants.

First bar last night was in a big warehouse with a massive skeleton structure hanging from the roof. Music was industrial/hardcore which isn't exactly my type of thing (except for the brief moment that I wanted the Matrix Soundtrack in year 10 and thought it was pretty heavy). But it was great. Must hang out with metalheads more when I get home. Having said that, I just don't think Australia has the right type of weather for me to be a fan of that type of music in general.

Second bar was smaller. Last club was crazy - had to get in a tiny lift that only carried 5 people at a time and one of those with the guy operating the lift. Victor, the mad Hungarian intent on improving international relations was, by this point in pretty fine form.

I ended up with Julia, Eric and Manu in a park next to the hostel this morning, drinking a bottle of red wine with the cork pushed in at 6am. Talking about not much and trying not to fall asleep on the bench. Very, very classy.

Yesterday I went to the Terror Museum, St Stephen's Basilica, Heroes Square, the park around Heroes Square and some other stuff. Also manged to see the Croatian Head of State's convoy which included a lot of armed Hungarian guards with machine guns.

The next few posts will not be about bars, I promise. Julia has said I can sleep on the couch at the hostel tonight, which I am seriously considering. Tempting...

And although she may have studied with an expert...

I went to the coolest bar last night. It was in the Jewish Quarter of Budapest where the ghetto was during the war. It seems that most interesting bars in this city are hidden, badly signposted and you have to be in the know or you'll spend all night wandering around aimlessly and stumbling into a kebab store (which is what I did with a couple of French guys and a Canadian the night before). So last night I headed out with Julia, a Finnish girl who works at the hostel.

The bar - it was massive, crumbling, leaking, ramshackle, under ground, upstairs, outside...it just sprawled. It was also exactly the kind of place that would be shut down instantaneously in Australia or the UK because it would breach about 5000 different building regulations. There were holes in the floor, it was an ex-factory style building where no one had bothered to fill in the gaps or smooth the cement and there was a mysterious leak of a substance I had no desire to investigate. The crowd were also very Amplifier-esque but in a much cooler, Eastern European way. Music was awesome. Some very intersting Dusty Springfield remixes included.

After that we went to a Jazz themed bar closer to the hostel. When we got back I managed to run into the stag group staying at the hostel arriving back from their evening out. English men can be such charmers when they're drunk . At least they weren't wearing matching hats or t-shirts.

Oh, and on a side note, apparently it is getting harder for French guys to leverage their accent to pick up women. Bemoaning how unfriendly Hungarian women were, Eric, one of the aforementioned French guys, said 'you used to be able to just say your 'and, eet is so small and white, like a delicate flower and it would work'... Imagine it as Pepe La Pew would say it. Poor things!

Additionally, I have seen some stuff. Like churches. And a synagogue (with Holocaust exhibition) and a park or two. And I went to a market. And saw the parlimanet building. And walked down the not very blue Danube. I also get lost a lot.