Day 134-136: Budapest

Overlooking the Danube (Parliament behind me on the left,
chain bridge and St. Steven's Basilica on the right)

 I had no idea what to expect from Budapest. The name sounds foreign, eastern, even a bit dangerous. My mom told me to be careful; after all, when she was last in the area, the USSR still existed. The quote that kept running through my head was a line from The Avengers, when Hawkeye says to Black Widow: "You and I remember Budapest very differently." Thanks to that, I was expecting some dark place full of intrigue, like in Black Widow's first scene in The Avengers.

Not quite sure what this was... but so fairy-tale-esque!

But, no. I arrived around noon on Monday, January 13th. It was a sunny day, and Budapest seemed dry and dusty, not cold and forbidding. Tripadvisor had warned me that taking public transit into the city was difficult, but I did it anyways and had only a minor problem (I misremembered which metro stop I had to get off at).

The Danube and Parliament at night

Kayla was already in Budapest, having flown in the night before. I met her at the hostel, which at first seemed terribly sketchy. It was small, just a half dozen rooms at the top corner of a large apartment building. The elevator was just a little terrifying- you had to manually shut the doors, and the floor sunk a bit whenever you stepped in. Still, despite initial misgivings, I think the Black Sheep Hostel might have actually been my favourite hostel on our trip, thanks to its friendly atmosphere. It had a full kitchen, so everyone sat around and ate together, especially at the complimentary breakfast. Also, since it was so small, I managed to get to know everyone in the hostel.

The Baths

We started off our time in Budapest by taking a walking tour. Almost every city we went to had free walking tours (tips appreciated) led by local guides, and they were simply invaluable for getting our bearings. In Budapest, the guide took us to a number of places we wouldn't have thought to go, as well as across the river, with some of the most gorgeous views I've ever seen.

One of the ruin bars- such a weird place!

That was the neat thing about Budapest- it's simply beautiful. While a lot of the city is rather run down, it's pretty clean for the most part and there are some majestic buildings down by the river. Their parliament is the 3rd largest in the world (it was the biggest when they built it, but two countries since have surpassed it), and they have some elegant churches, a large palace, and some lovely bridges. It's a very photogenic city, by the river at least, and I took so many photos.

The Danube, seen from the top of the hill

Over our three day stay, Kayla and I took a night riverboat cruise, toured parliament, visited the baths, and went out to the famous Ruin Pubs (old communist warehouses converted into bars) every night. We made new friends, like the boys from Oxford university's hockey team, and met up with some old ones, like another Canadian exchange student who happened to be in Budapest at the same time as us. Our stay in Budapest was busy, but so enjoyable, and I'd definitely recommend it as a sort of 'different' European destination. 

Day 137: Gotta Keep on Moving

(view of Budapest from the top of a mountain-thing)

I'm currently in country number five since leaving Saint Andrews (six, if you count driving through France in the middle of the night) and I've got two more to go before heading off to the UK in a week. Kayla and I just arrived in Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) this morning, and we're already leaving tomorrow morning. All throughout our walking tour today I kept thinking 'We should take a better look at that tomorrow' only to realize that tomorrow I'll be heading off to Vienna.

I'm not sure what I think about this nomadic lifestyle. In some ways it's exhilarating, jumping from country to country, always with new places, people, languages, activities, food, sights... etc... It's so cool to hop on a bus knowing it's going to take me to another country in just a few short hours.

At the same time, though, it's tiring. Not just physically- although my feet certainly are sore!- but more mentally and emotionally. Life is so off anything that could be called routine so it's impossible to settle into a comfortable pattern. Every day is different, so it's hard to mentally keep up with what's going on. You know how you forget what day it is during Christmas vacation? Well, it's getting to the point where I forget what country I'm in!

Emotionally, too, it's exhausting to continually meet new people and places only to lose them a few short hours later. I've met so many neat people recently, in hostels, on tours, and in restaurants, and it's quite likely I'll never see any of them again. On Monday, Kayla and I went out for drinks with some guys from the Oxford hockey team who were touring through Europe, and tonight we ate supper with two American exchange students we met on a walking tour. In both cases, we chatted for a few hours, got to know the people, and then hugged them goodbye. Maybe I'll see them again, but most likely they're gone from my life.

The places, also, are gone so quickly. As much as I love the unusual beauty of these Eastern European countries, I have no plans to return. Never say never, of course, but with some much of the world to see, a return to Bratislava is hardly high priority.  It's so fascinating to be here, learning about the history and culture of this area, but in a week, when I'm back in the west, these places will be nothing but a memory. It's weird to leave a place knowing how it's likely I'll never return.

Travel really isn't what I thought it would be. It's not the effortless jetting from place to place that it always seems like in the movies. It's a panorama of sights and sounds and people and places and greetings and goodbyes and hostels and busses and new friends and unfriendly conductors and nights walking down cobbled streets and mornings climbing mountains and sore feet and cold hands and endless photos. It's everything. 

It's like a kaleidoscope, an ever-changing image. And, just like a kaleidoscope, to get to the next pattern you have to lose the last one. And even if the new place isn't any nicer than the old one, that's okay. The point of a kaleidoscope is change, not creating the perfect pattern. That's why travel isn't about finding the perfect destination- it's about experiencing them all.

Day 134: The One-Third Mark

(I'm currently in Budapest- so gorgeous!)

A bit over a week ago, around the time I got to the Netherlands, I passed the four-month mark of my time here in Europe. Since it appears that I'll be over here for a total of around a year, this also means that I've spent just over a third of my time.

It's a little odd that such a sizeable chunk is gone, but what's more odd is that I've only been here for four months, a third of my year in Europe. In many ways, it feels much longer. I've already finished my first semester, with just one more to go, so it seems like I should be half done. However, the second semester is much longer, with more breaks, and then there's the whole summer after that.

The biggest thing, though, is that I feel like I've been an international traveller for longer than four months. Now, sitting in an airport in Brussels, waiting to leave for Budapest, then Bratislava, Vienna, Prague, and finally London, travel has just become part of life. It seems odd that four and a half months ago I hadn't been out of Canada for longer than a week.

My whole mentality towards the world has changed. I guess that's what an exchange is supposed to do-- broaden your perspective. Yes, Canada is a diverse, multicultural country with two official languages and a wide variety of people and landscapes. Still, that's nothing to Europe with its endless variety.

Brussels was a fantastic example of this variety. There are two official languages, French and Flemish (a type of Dutch) and English is also frequently spoken. The friend I stayed with was half Spanish and half Greek, so conversations at their dinner table flowed seamlessly between languages (with the occasional pause to translate something for me-- I could normally follow along, but French puns are still a little beyond me!)

It'll be strange when I go back to Canada and everything will be in English (with a bit of Quebec French). I'll be able to say that I'm from PEI, rather than "Prince Edward Island, an island on the east coast." I won't be able to pop over to another country for a weekend or book a return flight for $50. I'll just have one currency in my wallet, not six, and I won't have to constantly convert everything back to Canadian dollars in my head.

It'll be comforting to go back to Canada. After flying with budget airlines from Brussels to Budapest, AirCanada flights from Charlottetown to Toronto will never seem stressful again! Because, of course, travelling Europe does involve a lot of stress. Constantly meeting new people and being in new places has basically exploded my comfort zone.

And that's a good thing. That's what I wanted this trip to do. And now that it's happened, now that this semi-nomadic life has become the norm, it's weird to think that just four months ago, I was so different.