Krakow (Part 1)

The trip started out a wreck, as do most things that JM and I do together.  We got up at 4:30, after less than 5 hours of sleep, ate a quick breakfast, and headed out the door.  We walked to the metro, took the red line two stops, changed to the blue line, took the blue line 6 stops, and got off the metro.  The travel agent said we need to go to the bus station once we get off the metro at this stop, so we walk upstairs to look for the bus station.  The stairs open into a huge, bright building lined with benches--the bus station.  It’s surrounded by huge charter buses, so it looks like we’ll be riding in style.  Way too easy.  We look on the board and see our bus leaves at 6:15 instead of 6:00, so we sit down and close our eyes for a bit, since we’re about half an hour early.  The bus finally pulls up and we wait in line to get on.  As I walk onto the bus, I had my ticket to the driver, who is checking the tickets, and he says something in Hungarian.  “I’m sorry?” I say.  “Wrong bus line.  You want one by stadium,” he replies, and points across the street.  Dammit!  I step off the bus and we look across the street to see, what is probably our bus, driving away.  We go underground and across the street anyway.  We come up the stairs to a dark street corner.  The building that is the other “bus station” isn’t open.  It’s not lit.  There are no buses around.  We stand confused for a few minutes until another bus pulls up.  People suddenly pile out of cars and appear from the shadows, and board the bus.  We are now sure that we missed our bus.  We head back home and decide to straighten it out after a little more sleep.

When we get up JM calls the bus line, only to find out that there isn’t another bus going to Krakow for 3 days.  He walks about half a mile to the train station near our place and books us on the night train to Krakow.  We have a small lunch, nap a little, have dinner, and then, to prepare for the long train ride and to help wash the morning away, we kill a bottle of Johnnie Walker.  We get to the train station nearly an hour early (we’re not taking any chances) and the alcohol has definitely kicked in.  A homeless man hassles JM for a cigarette and some money.  Being drunk, JM isn’t in the mood for speaking Hungarian, so he replies in English.  We’re drunk, so for some reason we get a kick out of the pantomiming and five-or-so English words this guy knows.  Anytime he says a Hungarian word that reminds me of an English word, I start talking to him about it in English.  A girl standing near us can understand both sides of the conversation and can’t stop laughing.  JM gives the guy a cigarette and 300 forint, and we get on the train.  Already round two is getting off to a better start, or at least the alcohol makes it seem that way.  We chat with  the Aussies a couple doors down from us for a bit, and then settle into our little bunks.  I must say, a train isn’t a terrible way to travel overnight, if you get to lay down.  The bunks were actually more comfortable than my “bed” in Budapest, which says nothing about the comfort of the train and EVERYTHING about how uncomfortable my bed is.  We both sleep fitfully¾nodding off when the train is rolling and waking up when it jars to a stop at the stations.

We get to Krakow just after 6:30 in the morning.  We magically pick the right direction to walk from the train station and end up in the huge market square in the city center.  It’s an interesting and unique experience to be walking the streets of a new city as the sun is coming up, and before most of the people who actually live there are out and about.  We walk  around the square and window-shop.  We check out St. Mary’s Basilica, which is in one corner of the square.  We take a small side street away from the square and come to a big park.  We learn that the wide green space circles the entire city center, and is where the main wall used to stand.  We walk back into the center and find a little café that is open early (7:30.  Everything else opens at 9) and go in for cappuccino.  Warm and awake, we head back out to start taking everything in.  We hit up all the usual tourist stuff (the market square, the city center, the churches, the statues in the green space).  We find a little restaurant and eat brunch (potato pancakes and goulash).  We walk up the hill to see the castle and it’s church.  There’s a massive marble courtyard in the middle.  We walk down the hill to the Dragon’s Den.  We walk along the river.  I’m not going to go into much detail since I have pictures and this post is going to be massive already.

At this point it’s late enough in the afternoon that we can check into our hotel.  It’s only supposed to be 4 kilometers from the city center, so we decide to walk it.  JM has directions and after about 15 minutes of walking, we situate ourselves enough to head to the street we need.  We walk for about 45 minutes and end up where the Google directions sent us.  Unfortunately, our hotel is not there.  We ask around and most people just give us confused looks.  We sort of get directions from a guy who doesn’t speak any English.  He writes down a new street name, so we feel like we’re back on track.  We think he says that it’s just down the road about 800 meters.  We get there and not only is there no hotel, but the street that he has written down for us isn’t there either.  We walk around for a bit and still can’t figure it out.  We find another guy who roughly tells us that we have to take the bus, but we think we should be close and he doesn’t seem too sure about it, so we walk around some more.  We cover the entire neighborhood one more time before we ask another lady.  She doesn’t speak English at all, but gives us very specific directions to go straight two stoplights and then go right.  We walk in that direction and finally come to a part of town that looks like it might actually have a hotel.  We see a taxi, give up, and get in.  He drives us directly to our hotel…on the other side of the city center!  The directions Google maps gave us were at least 10-15 kilometers off.  After nearly 2 hours of walking, we’ve made it.

Finally at our hotel we spend a little time taking naps or showers.  We kill just a couple hours there before we head out to meet up with Ewa (Eva, for all you Americans).  We met her through CouchSurfing.com.  She seemed very nice, invited us to dinner at her place, and said we could hang out with her and her two friends who were in town.  We get there and she tells us to make ourselves at home.  Already the beautiful little apartment smells like delicious food.  We chat for just a few minutes before her other two friends show up; Andre from Romania, and Karolina who is from Krakow originally but lives in London.  We start in on one of the four bottles of wine (we all brought some) and jump right into the conversation.  Ewa is finishing preparing the meal, Karolina makes a salad and then makes birds out of the napkins for the table.  After dinner we finish off all the wine and catch the last tram to the Jewish district.  Ewa takes us to a bar, which I believe was called the Singer or Singers.  I don’t remember exactly,  but most of the tables were made out of old Singer sewing machines.  It was a cool little place and was pretty mellow when we got there.  They bought us hot beer, a shot of some special Polish drink that was absolutely toxic, hot honey wine, more hot beer…  By our second drinks (third if you include the shot, sixth or seventh if you include the wine), there was a drunk couple attempting to dance in the middle of the bar.  They were barely doing a good job of even standing up, but no one seemed to be bothered by them at all.  In fact, everyone there seemed to just be having a great time.  We had been drinking a lot and went from zero to drunk pretty quickly.  The next thing I know, most of the people in the bar are dancing, including our group.  At one point, Ewa and Karolina even end up dancing on a table.  Eventually we leave the bar but I think I left my camera so Andre and I go back in.  We search for a few minutes before I find it in my coat pocket.  We get back outside and, somehow end up in a cab, and then somehow end up at the hotel.  We stumble out, slurring goodbyes, drag ourselves into our hotel room and pass out at nearly 4am.

This is the second time in a few months that I’ve done drunk goodbyes, and I must say I hate it.  The same thing happened at my going away party.  I got drunk and stumbled out of there to walk home, just like I would at any other party.  None of the goodbyes were very heartfelt, and I even forgot a few people because they were passed out or I just didn’t remember they were there.  Same thing here, I didn’t get to fully express my gratitude and appreciation for the good time we were shown by these great people, and I regret that a little bit.

This thing is getting pretty long, so I guess the rest of it will have to wait for the next post.

Thermal Baths

Yesterday JM and I went to the Király Baths.  Here's a little history first: Hungary sits on one of the largest resources of geothermal water in the world.  Of the approximately 1300 thermal springs registered in Hungary, about 300 are used for "bathing" purposes and about 130 of those are located in Budapest.  The Turkish ruler of Buda started building the Király Baths in 1565 (which was finished in 1570), just inside what was then the Castle gates.  He wanted to make sure that, in the event of an invasion, the Turks could still bathe.  Some of these baths were only for men as recently as 2007, and even now there are only certain days when women are allowed to go.


OK, so here's the story:  JM and I decide to have a little relaxation before our trip to Krakow (a little relaxation before our relaxation?).  We went to the Király Baths, and as soon as you walk in you can smell the sulfur.  We paid at the front desk and went upstairs.  Once upstairs you walk into what is essentially a locker room that had sex with a dressing room.  The man at the door hands you a "towel" that much more resembles a thick bed sheet in size and thickness, and, what I can only refer to as a "junk apron."  This is essentially a thin white piece of cloth about the size of an unfolded napkin, with two very long strings attached at one end, which you use to tie it around your waist; it's a loincloth.  Oh, and it's white, so it's pretty much useless as soon as it's wet.  We were there on a mens only day, so the entire experience had a very locker room feel.  


Anyway, you go into one of the dressing rooms and change into your loincloth.  When you come out there is a guy with a bunch of keys.  There is one key in the door, which you use to lock the door and then tie to your loincloth, and then he uses a key to lock the other lock to the door and your stuff is safe.  We walk through the locker room, making sure to walk exactly side by side so we don't have to see each other's butts (we do still have to live together).  We head down a couple flights of spiral stairs, and the entire time the smell of sulfur (from the water) gets stronger.  Once at the bottom the air is so thick with it that it's like eating a sulfur/air sandwich.  There are showers at the bottom of the stairs, which you must use before you get in the baths.  You walk down a short hallway and it opens into a large domed room with a giant octagonal pool in the center.


We went in and sat on the second stair, which let the water come up to my neck.  The dome of the room is dotted with small circular windows in a concentric circular pattern.  There are a handful of other guys there, most of whom are older gentlemen, but a couple who looked about 40 and one other guy who looked to be in his late 20's.  There wasn't much talking going on, and what we did hear was mostly in low voices.  After just a short time in the main pool, I realized that the water wasn't really hot, but more like warm bathwater.  JM went to test out the other two smaller square pools, located around the edge of the main pool.  He dips a foot in the first one, turns around and shakes his head no.  He goes to the other one and gets in.


When he returns he says that the first one is cold, and the other one is very hot.  I venture over to the hot one.  After 10 minutes I come back to the main pool which, in contrast, feels cool now.  We sit for a little while longer before JM decides to check out the steam room.  This is when stuff gets weird.  While he is gone, two guys have gotten quite close.  One is laying face-up with his neck on the edge of the pool, almost floating.  This was the younger guy.  The other guy was at a weird angle to him and I was pretty sure there was some inappropriate touching going on, however, none of the other guys seemed to notice.  


Upon JM's return, my suspicions were confirmed.  Not only did he say he thought the two guys I saw were up to something fishy, but he said there was some questionable stuff going on in the steam room.  Of course, he said the steam room was crazy and I had to check it out.  We go in the steam room and it's amazing.  I've never been in one before, but it's just oppressively hot and humid.  After being in there for about 5 minutes I came to the realization that the water dripping off of my body  wasn't because I was just in the pool, but it was because I was sweating profusely.  We're in there for maybe 10 minutes before we leave again.


When we come back out, the main room has become a fondle-fest.  The two guys from before have moved to the other side of the pool and one is unabashedly fondling the other one.  There is a  group of three older men, two sitting against the side facing the middle of the pool, the other standing between them facing the edge of the pool; he's fondling both of them at the same time.  When one of them leaves, another  guy floats up to the other two and starts very gently stroking the face of one of the men, while positioning himself for some of the action.  I'm sure I was wide-eyed, because I wasn't expecting this.  Sure, I had steeled myself against seeing old, flabby men in nothing but a loincloth.  I had also steeled myself against the guy doing a weird naked spa workout, and sure enough, there was one.  I had not, however, expected blatant sex acts in the middle of a public bath.  There were only a couple of other guys in there who seemed to be caught off guard as well.  We decide to call it a day.


That was by far the craziest thing that has happened in Budapest.  While searching for the information in the first paragraph, I found many reviews of the baths, most of which had something or other about the Király Baths being "the gay one."  Now you know.  In two hours we leave for Krakow to explore a new city for a few days and meet up with some random internet people.  I'll be back in a few days with my blog on the trip.

Christmas Market

I had a pretty good weekend; I got a job offer, a phone call from my mom and grandma, and I finally made it to the Christmas market.  Yesterday I got a Christmas card from my grandma as well.  My family will be sad to hear about the job offer because it means that I can afford to stay here until June.  It will be nice to be able to afford to do a little traveling.  Krakow in a week, and (tentatively) Rome in February and Geneva in April.  However,  I just found out we're only a train ride from the area of Romania know as Transylvania.  That's right, just 500 kilometers from Dracula's castle.  I think that calls for a weekend trip for sure.  I mean, this is the real deal, not that "Twilight" B.S.  Anyway, it was nice to talk to mom and grandma.  It's difficult being away for the holidays, so it's nice to hear some familiar voices and get caught up with how the family is doing.

From what I understand, there are a couple of different Christmas markets in Budapest, but I went to one of the bigger ones at Vörösmarty tér. There are a bunch (50-75) of little log booths set up in a huge square in the middle of the shopping district. Some are serving foods, such as meats, vegetables, hot wine, baked goods, etc. It smells like a delicious version of the state fair. Others are selling various hand-made wares, such as dolls, wooden chess sets, metal ornaments and candle holders (made on-site by a real-life burly blacksmith), pottery, glassware, etc. It is quite a neat experience, but I can't help but feel that it's at least partially a show put on for tourists.

We finally got snow here today. To be fair, there were flurries the other day, but they didn't stick. Today we got maybe a quarter to half inch. By late afternoon it had mostly melted from the streets and sidewalks though. It's finally getting cold here (below zero degrees Celsius), but I'm getting conflicting stories on what to expect of the weather. Some people tell me that in recent years it hasn't snowed that much, others tell me that they've heard we're in for a lot more snow this winter. Weather here is a guessing game, just like anywhere else in the world. I guess some things never change. I don't start my job until the new year. 2010. I can hardly believe it. It seems so futuristic every time I say it. Anyway, JM and I will be visiting Krakow soon, so I should have some good stories and pictures from that trip. I hope that wherever this blog post finds you, you are well.


-E

Glimpses

Today I walked outside into the cool autumn air.  The sky was blue and there were thin wisps of clouds sailing by overhead.

There is a guy who lives on our floor by the stairs.  Occasionally he’s sitting on a chair outside his door, enjoying a cigarette and a cup of coffee.  We always exchange, “hallo’s.”  He never smiles.

There’s a gumball machine by the front door of the little corner store down the block from our apartment.  I’ve never seen anyone use it.

Sometimes when I’m walking through the city I try to guess if people speak English as their native language, just by looking at  them.

Being here has been difficult at times, but it has helped me straighten some things out in my head in a way in which I can’t quite explain.

The Christmas lights along Andrassy Utca are on now and it makes the city seem more warm and inviting.  It’s getting cold here, but it doesn’t feel like it.  Not having to deal with the wind makes the temperature deceiving.

The streets are narrow and I feel like I’m always in the shade.  That’s not a metaphor.

The lady in the apartment next to ours is listening to opera music and doing a fair job at singing along, although at a considerably lower octave.

The city is still not familiar to me, but I don’t feel lost here anymore.

I went to the National Theatre a couple days ago.  It was another wonderful day when I started out, but it seems to always get cloudy, and thus cold, in the early afternoon.  The sun sets by about 4 and leaves me longing for the drawn-out days of summer.  The weather has been mild, and it still doesn’t feel like winter yet.  I’m sure it’s coming.  I hear there’s a winter market set up somewhere in town, and I think I’ll go look for it sometime soon.  But I digress.  The National Theatre has some crazy architecture.  It looks almost as though the entire building is sitting on a boat in the water and the water spills over the edges.  The edges start by the building, as if it’s the base of a triangle, and meet at a point in front of the boat.  The cool thing about this is that the water just trickles over the edges near the building, but once you get to the point the water is rushing over the edge and roaring the small lion’s roar of a miniature waterfall  transplanted in the middle of this urban jungle.  They also kept a wall from the original theatre before they tore it down to build the new one, and it’s laying in the water next to the boat.  There are a few statues sporadically dotting the grassy landscape in front of the building as well.  Johnmark told me I should go check it out, and I’m glad I did.

Click here to see all the photos

Today I gave my first lesson to a student I picked up to tutor.  She’s a senior in high school and is applying to colleges in the US.  She speaks English pretty fluently, but mostly wants help with her written grammar and punctuation for her college application essays.  She’s cool, and the lesson went well.  I made six grand (in forint) for an hour and a half, and actually doing a little “work” left me feeling productive for the rest of the day.  I might get to tutor her mom as well, so things are definitely looking up on the job front.  JM and I decided to celebrate by getting groceries and eating crazy Hungarian food.  I tried some lo kolbasz (horse sausage).  Yeah, you read that right, horse sausage.  It tasted like…sausage.  Surprise!

Cheers!
-E