Getting to Budapest

March 23: Here is a little teaser of my spring break trip. I will fully update you when I don't have to pay for internet. Just for the record... I was wearing pink on Easter. Oh.. and that backpack is all I brought with me.

I had quite the adventure gettting to Budapest. I ran into some friends at the train station who insisted they knew a better way of getting to the airport, and since I was alone, I decided to head with them. Turns out they were wrong. The train was slower, but I could deal with that. Then we missed our connection at the other train station. I could deal with that. Then, we got to the bus station and found out that the bus wasn't leaving for another 40 minutes because it was Easter. That put me at the airport after my gate was closed, so the guys were nice enough to join me and pool our money for a taxi.

Once I finally got to the airport, I hurried up and checked in, only to find out that the plane was going to be delayed for about 2 hours. I started talking to this family at the airport, who happened to be from Antwerp (which was one of my favorite cities in Belgium if you've been following along). They wanted to give me a ride, but they didn't have enough space in their vehicle. Instead a guy (Pieter from Germany) at the airport overheard and happened to be going to the exact same street as me, and offered to walk me to the hostel, since I wasn't sure when I was going. We sat with this guy from Romania on the plane, and I got about a 2 hour eastern-european culture lesson. Anyways, we landed around 9:30 or 10, and Pieter and I headed off towards the hostel. He gave me a tour and a little background along the way, and bought all of my tickets for me since I had not changed any money into Forint yet. He walked me to the door and dissappeared almost as soon as I thanked him.

When I got to the hostel, I met the other people who would be sharing the room with me. It turns out we went to the same middle school at the same time, but never met each other until Budapest. It was a crazy coincidence. The hostel I was staying at was basically a flat in central Budapest that two guys had turned into a place to stay. It was really nice because it felt like I was staying at a friend's place instead of the typical hospital feel of other hostels. I had a little closet, end table, etc. which was a good surprise after a long afternoon of traveling. Off to sleep!