Yesterday's bike ride to Szentendre went fairly well...except that I got a flat tire 12 kilometers outside the city with about 6 more to go, so I had to hop on the commuter train the rest of the way! Trying to get a ticket with a bicycle outside the city brought me back down to earth a little bit, as I haven't really had any problems communicating because a lot of people in the city speak English...however outside the city it is not as much of a requirement to learn it. I missed the first train because I tried to enter a cabin that apparently I wasnt allowed to with a bike, and everyone sort of yelled and pointed and I didnt know where to go. Fortunately I found a nice lady who pointed out the area where you could get on with a bike, so I had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one. Once I got on it was no big deal, but it really hit me that I should get a few sentences in Hungarian down for situations like these that would help me out a great deal.
Once I arrived and met back up with Kevin, we went to grab lunch and we both had goose liver with caviar, which was scrumptious, and walked around the town and visited Kovacs Museum, which displayed artwork from local artists, most of it being pottery and sculptures and the like. We also visited the Marzipan Museum (for those that dont know, Marzipan is similar to cake icing, only made primarily out of almond meal. They had a life size sculpture of the late great Michael Jackson made completely out of the stuff, and also different scenes from disney movies and sculptures of notable Hungarians, past and present. It was pretty interesting to say the least.
Last night we went to the Moulin Rouge Budapest to meet up with some of the Frenchies and Germans, expecting a caberet and dancers and whatnot, but it really was just a glorified dance club/bar with a stage and two girls in feathers not really doing much of anything. But I had a really good time, and the music there was awesome. I've discovered that in Budapest, some DJ's are extremely good, and others just play 5 year old American Pop/Hip-Hop songs that honestly I've had enough of back home. My love for techno and electronica, as well as house music has increased since I've been here, and I always seem to have a good time at the clubs/bars that play those types of music.
Tonight, I am leaving for Germany. I am taking the overnight train from Budapest to Munich, and then transferring for my train to Cologne, arriving around noon time on Friday. Thankfully, most sightseeing in Cologne can be done in a day, and my friend Dan has promised to take me out to enjoy some traditional Cologne meals and drinks. Saturday morning I plan on hopping on a train to Munich with hopes of spending a good 7-8 hours at Oktoberfest, and taking the night train back and arriving in Budapest Sunday morning. The API group has a day trip planned to visit the Danube Bend and visit the towns of Visegrad and Esztergom, and take a short hop over to Slovakia. I hope to update sometime Sunday evening, but it will most likely be on Monday!
Enjoy your respective weekends everybody!
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