Lending bathtubs, borrowing money, forgetting passports, and wandering around Budapest

Thursday night there was a special "Welcoming/V-day" Party for the international students in a very small restaurant (we rented out the place). There must have been 100+ of us. There was free pizza and everyone received one free German beer (1/2 liter in size... is this normal?). I actually liked the taste of it. Our European friends made Manasi and I eat the pepperonis and chilis pizza because, "Oh! It is so spicy!" I thought it was delicious. It made me miss the Mexican food in Tucson.
After schmoozing with the French, drinking our "Sex on the Beach" (which of course an amazing drink for provacative exlamations such as, "Oh! Let's have Sex on the Beach! I love having Sex on the Beach! Let's have Sex on the Beach together!" followed by the endless tapping of glasses and shouting out cheers: "Egeszsegetekre!"), and dancing for a couple hours to a very eclectic mix of house, techno, Latin, then hip hop, old school, and cheesy Ricky Martin, we decided to step outside and cool off. The below-freezing temperatures were hardly intimidating (at the time for hopefully obvious reasons). I particularly took note in the extraordinarily steep road in front of the pub across the street. So steep that I could not fathom how the cars were parked on it. Well, I obviously had no other choice but to hike it with my French amis in order to experience the intensity of the hill first-hand (seemed like a good idea, at the time). We were all in heals that were probably not suitable for hiking, but the laughing along the way made it bearable. Once we were at the top we triumphed in waving down to the others and calling out "Egeszsegetekre!" Very angry dogs from a flat in the dark building next to us began barking death threats so we somehow managed to run down without falling on our faces.
About an hour after that, Manasi, the third American girl (there are four total Americans here), and I decided to take a cab home at about 2am. This was actually somewhat early, but Manasi and Pennsylvania (I can't remember her name but that's where she's from) were tired and I was supposed to be up by 5am to catch a train to Prague for the weekend.
I was in bed by 2:30-3ish.
At 5am, Mauricio knocked on my door to make sure I was getting ready. In my diziness I threw my backpack together with an extra pair of jeans, underwear, socks, t-shirt, toothbrush, toothpaste, tampons, my camera, and Moby Dick (I have to read the entire thing for one of my classes). My traveler's wallet, which straps around my waste beneath my jeans, securely held my passport, traveler's insurance card, Pecs Student ID card, Chase Bank card, 10 000 forints ($60 USD), and my calling card. I considered myself ready. Afterall, it was only going to be 2 or 3 days.
Mauricio and I stood in the hallway, waiting for Hwang to finish throwing his things together. Hwang is from South Korea and he brought his rolly suitcase. It was kind of funny.
The three of us left Szanto, our hostel, and walked in the dark, freezing, windy morning towards the nearest intersection (about a 5 minute walk) to meet up with Tiziano. Only four of us turned up, the other two Italian girls bailed.
Tiziano was also a little late, and before we knew it, it was 5:45am. Our bus, about ten minutes away (I will be giving minutes/hours as a measurement of distance by foot unless I indicate a different form of transportation) was scheduled to be there in 5 minutes. We ran. We missed it.
So, instead, we took a taxi to the train station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 6:15am for Budapest.
We ran around the train station, found the booth to purchase tickets, dished out our Student cards for the truly incredible discount (nearly 1/2 price, I believe) and bought our tickets to Budapest for about 2,200 forint each (approx. $13 USD). We hurried to the train, found our car, and claimed our seats. The train started moving about 4 minutes later.
The first hour (out of three) consisted of Tiziano talking about the Italian soldiers dying in the War in Iraq. "No Italian likes this War. I don't understand," he would say, trying his hardest to express himself in broken English under his thick Italian accent, "Americans have same connection to news we do. The war is because of Petrol (oil) and this is true. How do Americans not know this? Why don't they care? The facts are clear."
Before I could speak, Hwang said quickly, "Same for Korea. Korea has to do whatever America tells us. There are still soldiers from America in my country. Korea has no choice. We have to go to the War in Iraq, too."
I sighed and chose my words carefully, responding to Tiziano. "Not many Americans realize this, Tiziano. Not many Americans read the kind of news that you do. And yes, not many Americans even care. They go to work, they go home, if they have families they tend to their families, then they go to sleep. It is the common cycle of life in America for the lower and middle and upper-middle class workers."
"But how do they not know? Why don't they care?"
"I guess they don't read the news. Americans watch a lot of TV. So they can't really care if they don't know. And even if they did know, they still probably wouldn't care."
"Why not?" he asked, again. Hwang was shaking his head.
"I think many Americans are apathetic or cannot think for themselves."
We sat silently for a moment, thinking about what had been said, and I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the face.
"But, Tiziano, please know this. There are Americans who care. There are Americans who know. There are people who work tirelessly against the war, protesting, trying to spread the word," I said.
"Is it working?" he asked.
"I hope so."
The next two hours, we slept.
We arrived in Budapest to a bright day. We had 15 minutes to get off the train, purchase tickets for the train to Prague, and get onto that train.
The train station was enormous and exciting. We ran over to the arrivals/departure sign, which was a large black thing hanging from the ceiling. Each letter was its own flap, switching to the next letter when forming a new name of a new city, making swift fluttering sounds as names were constantly being changed. I personally had no idea what was going on or how to read this chaotic board of arrivals and departures.
We pushed our way through the crowd towards the international tickets booth. We waited, as patiently as possible, in line behind two people. We had nine minutes left.
Once we got to the window we had six minutes left.
"Four tickets to PRAGUE!" Tiziano spoke as clearly as possible.
"Student tickets," Mauricio added.
"Are you under 26?" the teller asked.
"Yes."
"Can I see your student cards and passports?" she asked.
Hwang forgot his passport.
Not kidding.
He was completely devastated.
"It's okay, it's okay," Tiziano said. "We say you lost it two days ago in Pecs."
And our passports and student cards sat in a pile, minus Hwang's passport. He kept mumbling to himself, "I cannot believe I forgot. How did I forget it?"
"13,500 forints," the teller said.
"For all four, correct?" Mauricio asked.
"No, individual."
That is about $80USD. We were only going for the weekend.
"If I spend that much I won't be able to eat this week," Mauricio said. "That's 45 euros. That is too much for me."
"When is the next train?" Tiziano asked.
"13:00."
"Okay, thank you."
We walked away. Mauricio was shaking his head, "There must be a bus we can take that is half the price. That is so expensive, I did not know. Prices for train are not posted on the website. Now I know why."
Yes, I was very excited to go to Prague for the weekend, and for a moment I was crushed. But then I thought to myself, damn, I am stuck in Budapest. Now isn't that just terrible. =)
We spoke to information booths in the train station, asking where bus stations were, and trying to get price quotas for as much as we could. The bus company they told us about was still pretty expensive. They honestly weren't much help.
We walked around Budapest for two hours, stopping in three Hostels, asking for prices and if they had space for four. One hostel was closed, the other had no space, and the third was too expensive. This didn't really worry me, Budapest must have thousands of youth hostels. Aside from all this, the city is really beautiful. The streets and buildings are really unbelievable and unique. This is when it hit me that I was in Europe and had been in Europe and I will be in Europe for five more months.
Around noon we stopped in a cafe that Tiziano particularly likes because they use Italian coffee machines. We all had a cappuccino. Two elderly men at the table next to us were playing chess.
Our dreams of Prague for the weekend were nearly diminished when Tiziano's friend, who was in Prague, told us about a bus company that leaves for Prague at 16:00 and is only 4,000 forint. The bus station was clear on the other side of town, but we had four hours to get there. We would have to take the subway train to get to the bus station, and we decided to walk to the subway instead of taking a city bus so I could see the city. It was a beautiful day and I could not get enough of the colorful, dramatic, old-fashioned, neo-gothic and neo-renaissance architecture. By 2pm we were at the metro station and bought our tickets.
"Can you borrow me some money for the metro, Justin (Hwang's nickname)?" Tiziano asked. They had been saying, "Can you borrow me (blank)" all morning. Finally, the ESL teacher/extraordinaire that I am, I stepped into the conversation to fulfill my duties.
"It is lend, not borrow. Can you lend me money." This is how I began my lesson.
"Lent?" Tiziano asked.
"No, len-duh." Hwang and Tiziano looked very confused.
"Okay, this is how you say it. Can you lend me some money. Or, can I borrow some money."
They repeated the phrases after me.
"Can I borrow money to you?" Tiziano asked Justin.
"No," I said, "from you."
As we stood on the fastest, longest, and steepest escalator that I have ever been on, I looked back at Hwang. He had a strange expression on his face. "Are you okay?" I asked him.
"Oh, yes! I am just thinking about lending and borrowing."
"Okay," I said. "I need money from you. You are the lender, I am the borrower. You lend, I borrow.
"Oh! Oh!" he exclaimed. "Amazing! Brooke, thank you. I understand. Wonderful, wonderful."
As we stood on the metro, Tiziano confirmed, "I borrow, you lent" (this is just his accent, something I didn't seem necessary to correct).
"Yep," I said.
"This is crazy, all semester and all last year I say, Can you borrow me a book? or money? or something, and no one corrected me," Tiziano explained.
"Well now you know."
"Amazing," Hwang said again.
When we got off the metro and to the bus station, things got complicated and tiresome. I am even dreading writing about it, right now. I will just say that, the bus company at the station didn't have a bus leavning for Prague until 11pm. The company we searched for was parked a mile away in a park, which was a meeting spot. We finally found them (on foot) and the driver told us we need reservations for the ride. Their office location was on the other side of town, where we had just come from. There was no way we could make it there and back on time. We walked a mile back to the original bus station, tried going online to book tickets, but you need to book online at least two days in advance. We called the company, they told us we can try buying tickets from the driver if there are enough seats left. We walked back to the bus across the park. The driver told us that we could buy tickets from Budapest to some random city that I do not remember the name of (their halfway stop from Budapest to Prague), and then from that city we would have to buy new tickets to Prague, which he could not ensure us there would be extras, meaning we would be stuck in that city if this be the case, plus we would have to pay in a different currency, and also we were not sure if they would ask for passports or not (because Justin still did not have his).
We sat on the bench. The sun started to go down. It was getting colder. We had been walking across town since 9:30am. We watched the people with reservations load onto the bus.
"I don't know," said Mauricio. "So much adventure today already."
"You three could go, and I would go back to Pecs," Hwang suggested since he didn't have his passport.
"No, no," I said.
We sat. The Italians were pissed at the bus driver because they felt like he was laughing at us and our situation. "I could kick his ass so hard," Mauricio said as he rolled tobacco for a cigarette. "I could kick his ass for two hours straight."
Mauricio and Tiziano conversed in rapid-fire Italian, smoking cigarettes and, yes, throwing their hands up in the air in dramatic movements.
"We can catch a bus, at the real bus station, back to Pecs for tonight," Mauricio suggested. "Too much adventure today already," he said again, "I am completely destroyed."
"We can still stay in Budapest one night," Tiziano suggested.
"I am destroyed," Mauricio said again.
"I think I am getting sick," Hwang explained.
I just sat there trying not to think about the cold.
We walked back to the bus station. There was a bus leaving for Pecs at 4:15pm. It was 4:10.
We waited in line, as patiently as possible, for the lady only to tell us which bus number, that it would be a 5 hour bus ride, and we buy the tickets on the bus. We ran. We climbed on the bus, bought out tickets, sat down on the crowded bus apart from each other. The driver immediately closed the doors and drove off. Our tickets only cost 1,500 forint, half the price, $9 USD.
I fell asleep, no, I completely passed out for the first two hours of the bus ride. I was probably drooling, my mouth was wide open, and I kept waking myself up from little sleep-talking noises that I was making. Finally I came completely back to consciousness when the woman next to me started gathering her things. I looked around and we were in a different city I had never seen.
"This your stop?" I asked her, nicely.
"Mmm," she said, "Parlez-vous francais?"
Dammit, I thought. I almost said Oui, and je m'appelle Brooke, et tois?, but that is as far as our conversation would have gone. So I just said, "No."
We sat for a moment, and I said, "Habla espanol?" It was worth a try. And at least she would know I could speak more than one language for my own pride's sake.
She laughed, "no. Sprichst du Deutsches?"
Somehow I knew she was asking me if I spoke German. I don't know how I understood, and I even surprised more when I said, "nein."
Well, at least we tried.
I sat on the bus for another hour, wide awake, and I thought that my bladder might explode. I couldn't wait another two hours longer. I really really really had to go. We made another stop, where the driver put the bus in park and stepped outside for a cigarette. I tried following him off, to say, "Toilet?" making sure that he wouldn't leave without me, but he walked around the building before I could catch up. I hesitated. Where was a bathroom? Would I have time? Would they leave without me? Where were we?
I saw a bathroom across the street. I ran. There was a large, burly woman standing at the door with a sign that said: 80 forint (many public restrooms charge a fee to use their toilets in Hungary). My hands were shaking as I rummaged through my traveler's wallet, counting my coins. Not enough. I threw a 500 forint bill at her and bolted into the stall, emptied my bladder like I've never emptied my bladder before, grabbed my change from her and zipped up my pants as I ran across the street, back into the bus. The driver got on right after me. And we drove away.
We got back to Pecs at 10:30 last night. The ten minute walk from the bus stop to Szanto was in below-freezing winds. "My fingers are turning purple!" Mauricio kept yelling. "Today was crazy. I am completely destroyed."
Finally, as we stood in the hallway of our dorm to say goodnight, I spoke my thoughts out loud to our small group. "I could really go for a hot, hot bath right now. Too bad there are not bathtubs here, but I guess that would be kind of gross, anyway."
Tiziano had just moved out of the hostel one week ago and now lives in a flat across the street. "I have a bathtub," he said. And his face lit up, as he announced, "I will LENT you my bathtub!"