Budapest-Hungry for more

(I'm sorry for that)

Initial thoughts: Bordering on wow city status. Danube+rolling hills+excellent wine+goulash=damn good city. Buda-Old and historical with a great hilltop view. Pest-New and financial and business district. Can feel the history here and see how the city has been slowly mixed and shaken and stirred over the years.

Hostel is homey and friendly and the first place to make me wonder what would have happened if I had done his trip about 6 years ago. There’s a few Americans who ended up here in much the same way I ended up in Korea. They stayed here or moved her e on a whim and now live here, with plans to return sometime soon. They act as I acted and have the same excitement I had. I am in some ways jealous of them and wonder what might have become of me had I gone to Europe rather than Asia to work way back when. I’d like to think that Sue and I are destined to be together, but how would things have been different had I never gone to Korea? Would I even have gone to Asia? Would my life be backwards? Worse? Better? These are the things I wonder meeting lively (and friendly) 20-23 year olds in Suite Hostel in Budapest .

Sue (describing the design of the outdoor section of the Turkish baths: “This is what people think Heaven looks like.” You can probably guess that Sue and Jung-Eun loved the baths. I enjoyed them too, but Korea’s jim jil bangs still occupy the largest space I my heart. Maybe because I find it weird to have to wear swimming trunk in a bath. Give me nudity or give me death!

Back in Austria an Asshole American talked about learning Arabic because it was different and couldn’t be easily recognized. He also thought I was a soldier and that the only reason I went to Asia was for the women. I thought of this dick while in Hungary because it’s the first nation we’ve been to that’s not a romance language based nation. Therefore, I can’t make heads or tails of anything I hear or say. I don’t even know how to say yea or nay. This seems to be ok. It’s kind of like Korea. They don’t expect you to know anything.

Sue is much more outgoing than me and this is a godsend. I don’t know what I’d do without here to break the ice and guide us. I hate asking for directions or talking to strangers.

Bodegas are open past 8PM here, thank god. In Austria everything except bars and restaurants closed at 7 or 8. This made it near impossible to buy a bottle of water at 8:30. It was downright ridiculous spending 45 minutes wandering the streets in search of water. Here, everything was open till at least 9, and some places till 12. My kind of town.

The hostel is in a historic apartment building. I could get used to walking into the grand entrance and having parties here on the winding staircase, although the 50 year old elevator almost broke down and killed us.

The economy-Mores asked me if the sense in Europe is that the sky is falling like it is in the US. I talked to a Frenchman who blamed the US for screwing up the world economy. On CNN International, it’s US and world economy news-all the time. It has actually helped us with dollar rising, but Korea is f-ed (almost 1400 won to the dollar after being around 950 just 6 months ago) and the overall feeling is “Is this another depression?” Hope not, but we’ll see. Not sure if a bailout is the answer because it would do the markets some good to correct themselves naturally for the long term. I don’t know that the governments are going to let that happen though. Sue’s mom mentioned that we’re as lucky as anybody because we can avoid the media blitz that most people are seeing in regards to the economy and not have to worry.

Don’t ever snore in the same room as Sue. We had a “California Dweji” girl who snored consistently for 3 nights, although the sounds she made varied from human, to animal, to robotic. It was funny at times to be woken up by a sound that I had never imagined existed. Sue found it significantly less amusing and woke the girl up by poking her one night, and then woke me up the next night by cursing the girl in Korean while she made otherworldy noises.

Opera-I tried the opera again last night in Budapest. I believe this is my 3^rd (maybe my 4^th). I’m still waiting for the epiphany where I’m touched deeply by opera and all that it stands for. I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. Each time I see an opera, I go in with high expectations, only to have them crushed after the first 10-15 minutes of the performance. The first 10-15 minutes are fantastic, as I always feel that I’m in the presence of aliens, albeit much smarter and more talented and sophisticated aliens than me. The performers are singing beautifully in foreign languages. The orchestra is playing flawlessly. The building is ornate and impressive. And the rest of the audience seems to be enjoying it all. Inevitably, I realize that I could care less about everything that’s happening in the story and start checking my watch and predicting the intermission. The whole style of opera doesn’t jive with me. I don’t “feel” it. I don’t “feel” the story, the music, the acting . . . any of it. I wish I did, but I always end up just grinning and bearing it and counting down the minutes till it’s over in my head.

A friend of mine described his experiences with marijuana similarly. He tries it every 6 months to a year, convincing himself that he’ll enjoy it. Inevitably, he gets paranoid and uncomfortable, just hoping to make it through the experience, and swearing never to do it again. Then, inevitably, he forgets his resolution and repeats the whole experience 6-12 months later. That’s me and opera.