I was walking the waterfront promenade and in front of the massive modernist foreign hotels, I was approached by two ladies who looked like galley cooks, except they weren't. They started off asking if I wanted a massage, in very good English. I tried to politely bore them by being non-commital. They offered for us to go back to their place for "sex, blow-job, it's okay?" So I said that I prefered walking and walked away quickly before the spaz reflex could kick in. Those happened to be about the only short, fat, ugly young ladies I saw in the whole town.
Strip clubs also have 'salesmen' outside advertising 'big boobies', with a rising intonation. Meaning: are you interested in ___. But, they're nowhere near as pushy as their Prague colleagues. Of course, this is Europe, so strip clubs are a tour of the netherworld and a window to the Mafia. Fungoul!
Don't bother with that. Ah, how I miss Canada. There, if you want to sit and drink a beer, no problem. A girl glued your face? no problem.
A lot of the communist era is still visible. The tram system is one (another is the underground) but I took the waterfront run and imagined myself being in 1975. It was really awesome, replete with the buzzing incomprehensible intercom system.
One old central control problem was the fact that no one could legally sell me a stamp on a weekend, so brought the postcards home and posted them from here.
I checked out the underground/subway, which is the oldest on the continent and the set for the massive uuuuhhhhh... "underground" movie, Kontroll. It's motto was "tichket, tichket!" The inspectors nowadays only check people as they enter, but the hollow look in their eyes as they glower at you is great!
One time, I misread the signs and went to a dead end on the subway train. No problem. The driver walked past me grumbling and got in the cab at the other end and took off again.
As I walked out at the first station, you guessed it, I got the glowering looks, because I was stupid, but I wasn't assaulted. Bonus!
Generally, I'd heard that the Hungarians were surly, but I didn't find this. I learned one word basically and the use of it typically brought a smile to even the most stony face:
thank you = kosonom (with umlauts on each 'o')
so it's more like 'kusunum'.
try also 'nem toodok'= I can't speak (Hungarian)
Hungarian sounds like it's mostly Turkic with a bit of Finno-Ugric.so it's more like 'kusunum'.
try also 'nem toodok'= I can't speak (Hungarian)
I tended to be greated in Hungarian. Perhaps this was just my interpretation, but, either I didn't look like a tourist or they just hedged their bets that I was local.
It's odd that in my business, teaching writing at university, I've seen just about every nationality from Europe and beyond, but not Hungarians. I can kind of see why. While, some people clearly have money, most don't. The place is full of foreign banks, something that a British tv news brief said about Hungary while saying how the country is close to bankruptcy. Is that a coincidence?
There were lots of Brits in town, and Italians, French and Austrians. Slovakia is also not far away.
Another thing I noticed was that the Gypsies were particularly nervous. I was worried but didn't understand whether they were thieves, violent or just scared. It's only afterwards that I found out that Gypsies are falling victim to racist killings there.
I'd heard something about the plenty of hot spring public baths. Unfortunately, I was told afterwards that they were a good place for a relaxing afternoon and not someplace to get painfully anally gang-raped.
Saw a church in a cave. Impressive, but not unique.
Margaret Island is found off of one of the northernmost bridges, the 'boomerang bridge'. It's a good walk in the woods. Just be aware that if you're a lone male you'll be looked at like you're a sexual pervert of one kind or another. Luckily, I can do the 'piss-off!' look in any language.
Eating dis-orders: Most of the restaurants that have English menus, especially if they're on sandwich boards, are tourist traps. They suck money out of you. You're not required to pay any service charge either, but there it is, on your bill. So, you have to fight the garcon just to get your way. Not worth it.
Until I went in to one of these places I was wondering why there were so many American fast-food places, McChucks, Burger King, Subway. Now I know why. Nobody harrasses or cheats you in those places. It's just not food, unfortunately, so I just refused to go there as well.
The solution is to go to 'authentic' restaurants, but they have one two-by-four window, so I couldn't see what was going on inside (It's a left-over from communism. they didn't want their customers to be ratted by passing on the street). I didn't know if they had sandwiches or human sacrifices. I'm gutless, I know. No goulash for me.
The hotel, Radio Inn, was great. It was a 15 min walk to the centre of town, up Andrassy street, and my room was bigger than my London flat. Kitchen, fridge and all that for 30 pounds a night! It had funny proctology toilets, with a shelf, so you get to examine your feces, whether you want to or not. Then somehow it goes away without splashing putrid water everywhere. Patent that!
The Inn was close to Hero's Square, the Fine Art Museum and the Modern Art Gallery, another, Disney-like castle, the duck lake and the quadruple-size outdoor skating rink. Massive! The UN, EU and many embassies were set up there as well. Tereszvaros. Theresa's place!
Advice: Don't get your camera out first thing. You'll be photographing every second building and you'll get a sore neck.
Succumbing to the art thing. Found a felled hollow tree trunk that could house a family... of raccoons.
Half the town is for sale or for rent. Business is pretty bad. Old people selling dried flower arrangements. The vast majority of the poor don't bother anyone. They seem to be very proud. That is except for the Krishna monks who apparently feed some of the destitute. The amount of open freeganism was also shocking. It goes on all day, in most places.
Tourist thing: I wasted almost no time inside buildings of any kind, but I toured the Opera House. Real nice. Gold leaf on the walls, ancient gods painted on the ceiling, e.g. Dionysus. And yet they've got fake marble walls.
It had English tours, but most of the other visitors weren't English, but Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and Greek.
