Deep Dark Budapest

Left the parks for Zagreb with Nial and Eimear. Not much to see in Zagreb. Pretty dead city really. Pity too, I was kind of hoping for some vestiges of communism or such, but no it's pretty western. The most exciting thing about Zagreb was the massive thunderstorm we had. The wind howled, the rain fell in what I can only describe as torrents, and the lightning smacked across the sky. I LOVED IT. But I guess they don't get storms like that in Ireland because Eimear and Nial would have none of it. So we headed back inside the hostel just in time to avoid being drowned by the Croatian rain. Probably a good thing too, because moments after we got up to our room the wind ripped a chunk of plaster off the building across the street and flung it to the ground, narrowly missing a few cafe patrons.

After and extremely long and uncomfortable train ride, I arrived in Budapest.
Checking the directions to my hostel with the info center my heart sank. My hostel was a good bit outside the center of town and required some bus riding in order to get there. But it turned out to be not quite the haul I imagined and in the end I was glad I hadn't listened to the hostel touts at the train station. My hostel is AWESOME! It's a complete hippy guesthouse complete with theme rooms (The Jungle Room, The Love Shack, The Green Room, The Bob Marley Room, Ganesh's Palace and such.) and incense wafting through the air. The staff is super sweet too, which makes it all the more homey.

Yesterday I woke up with an urge to explore, so I tagged along with a few of my hostel mates to the Statue Park to take a gander at a collection of soviet sculpture. Bit weird because Hungary has effectively exiled the statues to the outskirts of Budapest. Though I suppose anything less would be seen as an endorsement of communism.

After the statues a group of us signed up to do some caving in the thermal caves underneath Buda. I'd seen photos of this from the Modern Gonzo guy, but seeing and doing are two totally different things. What a trip! I never could have imagined myself crawling army style on my belly through impossibly small tunnels and squishing myself into and out of outrageously small cracks in the rock. (Though apparently our tour was through the "easy" part.) It was pretty slippery though, so I compensated by using my flimsy and practically non-existent arm muscles. So I'm a bit (a lot!) sore today. But it's a good sore. It's a "I've just crawled down through the freaking earth and back again. HOOYAH!" kind of sore. It's a "I never thought I'd do that ever in my entire life, but I DID!" kind of sore. So all said and done, it was an awesome experience and I'm SO glad I did it.

However, today I did absolutely nothing. Literally I just bummed about the hostel and read and chatted and chilled out. It was lovely. Especially when we had another thunderstorm here and the power went out. (I actually wanted the power to stay out longer!) Was neat hanging out with my hostel mates, chatting by candle light.

Tomorrow I'm determined to have a more productive day. Maybe make it to the museums or the thermal baths. We'll see!