In Budapest, I was attacked by a tiger

See? That´s my leg, there in his (her?) terrible maw. I now have a robot M16 leg, like that girl from grindhouse. Sorry its been so long, but it has been very hot here, and anyway I have been spending most of my net time coordinating with my new friends Tobias and Mira about staying au gratis in Vienna and Brno, Brno being a small city outside of Prague. I met Mira in Sarajevo, and liked her because she wanted to reenact the murder of Franz Ferdinand for camera at the bridge there where Ferdinand was actually killed. Alas, we did not get to do this. Tobias is the first friend I made in Europe, in Dublin. I have been, actually, getting a lot of offers to stay with people, a fact by which I am delighted. Chris, Colin and Freddy offered me accomodation in London, for instance. More recently, 3 traveling french nurses (!) offered me rooming and food (they love to cook!) in Basque, which would be wonderful since it was the location of much of my 499 thesis. An interesting bit about Emilie, Lucie, and Stephanie later.




Now, comedy in Budapest. Welcome At Our ATM was my initial pecuniary greeting in Budapest. A sound financial institution. You expect poor grammar and spelling on children´s toys. I wonder why they even bother, considering kids can´t read that well anyway. But, with a bank, such things make you wonder about the nature of those handling your, as Phill would say, fat precious loots. FURTHERMORE! For those who think that America is more shallow than Europe, I give you:





Boo, I say. Shame on you Europe. This is worse than Axe, which by the way you seem to love. BoomChickaWahWah indeed. Below you can see me demoralized by this crass assault on the purity, dignity and humanity of women. I am declare myself one sad panda.




Gathered here is the meat of Budapest. Of special note is the Hungarian National Opera house, where I decided not to go for a show as it is not cheap and in Vienna, the heart of international opera, it apparently is. Five euro! Also, my favorite european statue thus far, the Scribe. Beyond that, Budapest has had the best statues so far in all of Europe in my opinion, but mostly because they like to stress their Magyar warrior heritage and craft statues accordingly. Look up Herceg Tere on google image for examples. Don´t worry, I took pictures too. The last picture is St. Stephens Bascilla, easily the largest church I have been too. There was a wedding taking place inside the day I was there, and they had the organ going and an opera singer singing... man, what was that song? It filled the church, calling all the tourists into a gaggle to take pictures and wonder. A spectacle. I felt sorry for the betrothed, but then realized that I wasn´t.


I have many vista pictures as well, but for those who know my shutter tendencies, remember how little I like the personless vista picture. One vista is much the same as another to me. Without people, they are devoid of life. On that note, here is Emilie, Lucie, and Stephanie, my Hungarian friend Robbi, and a life lesson:



Under no circumstances should the casual reveler spend Bastille day with French girls. It is potentially lethal. Bastille Day was the 14th of July. I´m sorry I did not get this picture to ya´ll before. I had... a stomache ache. Yeah. The other picture is Emilie and I on Castle Hill. We both found it a pleasing photograph and I hope you do to. These were actually the first French people I have really met on my holiday. There are many english, driven south by high british cost of living and the most valuable currency in the world (worth over 300 time the poor Hungarian Forent!). Many Australians, driven vagabond by, I theorize, boredom and isolation. There are Irish out for Cracks (means fun in gaelic), Americans out for girls/boys/history, Spanish out for general purpose reverlry, and Canadians because... damn Canadians. But of the French, I have seen precious little. Or maybe it is that they, and the Italians I believe, travel in large groups and need not talk to other travelers. I have seen them traveling. They exist. But they have, for company, all they need. They have brought it with them, the fools, overpacking as usual. Why lug around what you can pick up there?

The 3 French I have met, which will have to suffice as a representative sample, can best be described as Bohemian. It makes me wonder what real Bohemians will be like. I will be in Bohemia within the month.


Gah! There are so many pictures I want to show you, so many things I want to tell. Would you believe I have been at this entry for almost an hour? Not expensive at 300 forents, but I was meant to be taking a nap. The french are cooking for me tonight, since I am leaving tommorow. I will post more later. To those of you keeping up, and new readers, thanks for being patient. To those who posted their addresses, I am sending some from Budapest, but others from Austria and Czech Republic. I leave you with this picture. Comedic, but with a point. Can any of you guess the material that makes up this hilarious hat?







I´ll give you a hint. Starts with M, ends with M.