I was staring into my half human sized locker this morning in awe. What a wonderful life I live. Everything fits into such a small space, yet I don’t even begin to feel deprived. What does that say for how I used to live? What did I even need all that stuff for in the first place? Don’t worry, I’m not about to become a hippy. I think that people who work extra hard to look like they are not trying are the saddest breed of poser.
I have a new theory: If you can do something comfortably for 6 months, there’s probably not much that could hold you back from doing it indefinitely.
This of course should be applied to things like swimming every morning before work, or volunteering every Sunday at the soup kitchen; not to beating your wife or sniffing cocaine. I’m not even suggesting I travel indefinitely, just limit my possessions to a half man sized locker, even when I get home.
I ran the hypothetical: Would I rater have (almost) nothing to see (almost) everything? Or Would I rather Have (almost) everything to see (almost) nothing?
America, prepare to be offended: You are (largely) the second. There are tons of exceptions but I feel that we should embrace the sweeping generalizations if we are to learn anything about our culture as a whole. Quit hiding behind the iron clad sense of individualism (that the rest of the world doesn’t seem to notice or understand about us).
Ok, maybe I’m taunting a little, but I want to challenge each and every one of you who read this to take a little longer to acknowledge the choices that we tend to take for granted. At every moment of every day we make a choice (believe it or not). We tend to just make the same choices over and over again, until we are numb. Then we begin to believe we don’t have any choices at all.
Cliché? Too preachy? Righteous? That’s fine, I’ve got it out of my system for now. Just don’t tell me how jealous you are, or how lucky I am, Nike : JUST DO IT!
I’m in Budapest now after suffering though a 13 hour overnight train in a seat (not bed). The only moments on this trip I’ve ever thought going home are when I was sick and when I spend a night without sleep on a train or bus.
I’ve been bathing in the wonderful baths that this city has to offer for a few days now. They have 13-15 pools and 10 saunas of all shapes and sizes as well as temperatures. They even have a fountain in one of the pools that shoots out water at such a rate that if replicates a deep tissue massage. But let’s not forget the pool that spins people around with jets of water like a giant whirl pool. I was having a wonderful time in there until I caught one of the jets in the Bollocks (nuts) and paid dearly for it.
The people in Hungary are very nice and helpful, even if they don’t speak much English. Everyone except for the people who are at the “information desks” in the train station.
Me- “Do you speak English?”
Hungarian Lady- “No”
Me- “But you understood that much didn’t you?”
Hungarian Lady- “Listen, I don’t speak English! All right?”- With little to no accent.
Me- “Ok well were are the tickets sold?”
Hungarian Lady- ” Over there.”
Wait a second, that whole sequence was a Romanian Gal. I am traveling too quickly now. All the Hungarians have been great without fail. The only failure I’ve run into has been my hostel being as anti social as I can remember these things ever getting. I came here with several people who I met in Bulgaria, but we all had to split up due to hostel availability issues. We have been meeting up every day and giving updates on our collective hostels and mine has been the dud by far. Everyone else have met loads of people at theirs, but mine seems to be full of German 6 and 8 packs (groups or 6 or 8 Germans traveling together who are impossible to start a conversation with.)
The only failure on the city’s part is the rampant graffiti. It seems to be the scourge of Eastern Europe as a whole, but particularly shameful in Budapest because this city is so strikingly beautiful in so many places. One place that doesn’t have a drop of spray paint on it is the major church in town. Larger than life, this place provoked one thought when I entered “such a load of shit.”
That’s right, such a load of shit, is what I felt the rest of the world looked like in comparison to the perfection upon me. It made every other Church, Cathedral, Mosque, Temple, and monument look like a sorry scribbled picture made by a 5 year old. Where had all the money and talent in the world gone? Here.
If you’re on the fence, you might want to go here.
I was walking home from a night out a few days ago and experienced something that I never thought I would. This is like seeing a UFO in the world of Car Fanatics. I saw a REAL F1 race car speed down the road of Budapest in the middle of the night. That thing wasn’t a car at all. It was a 800 horse power, over grown, go cart. It didn’t sound anything like a car. It made some pitch of noise that was completely foreign to me. It accelerated around a corner; 10mph to 100mph in under 3 seconds, and persisted to zig and zag across all lanes of the street, showing off it’s more than perfect grip and handling. A physics professor would be eating his words if he saw this thing do what it did. Not of this world! And In an instant, It was gone forever.
That was as illegal as it was impressive.
The reasoning behind the name Budapest comes from the first bridge that joined the two cities together. A large river runs between two cities. On one side, Buda, on the other, Pest. After hundreds of years, the two towns finally built the first bridge and the new super town was named Budapest.