Day 15. Budapest

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I would like to take a moment to talk about the benefits of being short while backpacking, the formost of which may be leg room on planes and trains and other such advantages. But one very great advantage is that I not only fit easily on all hostel beds, but I can also fit all of my clothes on the bed with me while I sleep and not be bothered by it.

I got up this morning and headed out to have a snoop at one of the sister hostels, Grandio. I grabbed a (disgusting) pastry on the way, rented a bike and happened to get a coffee at the cracking good place I found the day before. Then I snooped away at the other hostel. I ran into Eddy, the tall Irish guy there too. this hostel was damn fucking cool. It was an open courtyard ringed by ground level rooms and a balcony with a second level of rooms. The courtyard was glorious with trees, beer pong tables, a bar and barbecues. People were all over the place chilling and the vibe was sick. 

Having snooped enough I rode on off to thermal baths that Budapest is famous for.

They were lovely, I soaked, I relaxed and I chatted to group of Aussie guys who were on a Busabout tour and raving about Krakow, hmmm, Krakow, one day I shall meet you. 

After returning from the baths relaxed and invigorated I tagged along with Jess from the hostel to the much talked about happy hour for half price margaritas at a little Mexican joint around the corner. There was a group of staff members and hanging out with them was the best conversation and eye opening (ammeter and uneducated) anthropological study of my trip (I do love to observe a culture). Well, hostel workers, it appears  are members of a strange and unique sub-culture. 

After slugging down several punchy little margaritas I followed Jess who needed to do some shopping for the hostel. I, in a drunken moment decided to do some shopping and buy some food there. This actually turned out to be a good call though as I saved some money over the next few days and avoided gross pastries. 

We then gathered and set out for my first Hungarian bar crawl. We stopped off at several ruin bars, I mentioned these earlier but for a bit more of an explanation. Ruin bars are a rather new concept and are a venture that serves to make use of the heritage listed and abandoned buildings in the Jewish quarter. What some clever little people started to do is fit out the buildings with super cool art and open up bars. The spaces are huge and you can wander round and explore all the various levels and rooms. Jess and I had a fun time checking it all out and messing around posing for photos. 

A series of bars and people latter and we wound up at a place that has been voted the third best bar in the world. And it was fucking awesome. But I didn't get any photos of it, because I am a dick. 

FOAM PARTY!!!! The bar crawl ended up at the wonderful wonderful foam party. I have been to a foam party before and loved the hell out of it. However my friends didn't really love it, this time however I was sans friends and flying solo so free to soak up as much of the foamy goodness as I could. I did kind of underestimate the foaminess of the foam. I found out latter that on a whim the organisers had decided to order more foam then usual. There was so damn much foam. Like you could be standing up and buried in it completely. And god jesus it was fun. 

You can see me creeping in the background of this photo creepin' 

Then the hypnotising guy from the past two nights walked in, and that was the start of another story entirely. Its not really something I want to put in the blog, but I just can't ignore someone that was such a big part of the rest of my stay in Budapest. 

Oh and his hostel nick name, was Krusty. lol.