Eastern Europe Updates on the Fly: Budapest

So I owe a major update with pictures and stories for the whole parental vacation-- which, despite rumors of near-death experiences and "attacks," was really really great-- but I just can't post about that right now. I'm sitting in a hostel in Budapest and its sunny outside for the first time since we got here and we leave in five hours to get to Prague, so this has to got be short and to the point:

HUNGARY IS THE WEIRDEST COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD.

First of all, I never thought I would actually be in Hungary, or Eastern Europe, so I guess I never gave much consideration to what it actually was like. Too bad about that, too, because it the flippin' strangest, creepiest, most Eastern-European like place on earth. That said, it has its...charm.... and we've actually had a blast so far.

To give you an idea of what Eastern Europe is kind of like, think about the Tower of Terror at Disney World, and then think about it being completely real, and you being the only people walking through it at any given time. It is dingy, decrepit, bleak, covered in graffiti, strangely abandoned in every single place, and with an incessant flickering of lights no matter where you are.

On the other hand, the architecture in the city is absolutely gorgeous (which makes the haunted feeling even more pronounced) and the views from Buda looking over the Danube to Pest are awesome. Its so old and so different from Western things--- just when I was bored of touring old cathedrals and palaces, Budapest swept right in and mixed things up. We had horrible weather the first two days, but I imagine today, in the sun and warmth, the decrepit-ness will be totally downplayed and the city will actually seem really beautiful.

Anyway, boring boring scenery stuff. The real cool thing is that we went out with kids from the hostel to this club in the basement of a huge, stately, gothic building, and then the next day walked by and discovered it was city hall. The sign for the club was just a piece of plastic that they put up in the middle of the night and take down by the next morning. Now THAT is some cool Budapesti clubbing. Although, Budapest is known (to student travellers) for its "speakeasies," or, gatherings of young people with music and alcohol in abandoned buildings and lots. Unfortunately (or probably really fortunately) we didn't make it to one of these famed raves, but I guess I have to save something for my return trip to Budapest (never in a million years or for a million dollars).

Anyway, now we're off to catch a seven hour bus to Prague. Friends from the hostel decided to catch it with us, so we're all heading to Czech Republic, where Sinead and I will go meet up with Villanova friend Rob who's studying there. My knowledge of world history is pretty lacking, so I'm not sure whether Prague was hit as hard by Soviet rule as Budapest, which is why Buda is in such disrepair now. So I'm hoping Prague will be a little bit closer to normalcy, aka the Western World. But if not, hey, that's what travelling Europe is all about.

Time to go czech it out! (haha, sorry, I had to).