Are you Hungary for a little Budapest?

Weekend in Magyar...

Simply loved this sign at the airport.... "chill travelers" on the right, one legged travelers "on a mission" to the left please. I flew to Budapest this weekend to see my true blooded Hungarian friend, Rob. Like rockstars, the night started with bootleg wine (Hungarian VAT is 25%!) before hitting the pavement on a club hopping adventure. We walked from Rob's apartment to the Basillika to join the rest of the bootleg drinking hoodlums in the plaza.

After finishing our wine (and a shot of palinka from the street vendor- ugh) we stopped for some live music at Gödör Klub under the church plaza.
In the mood for a bit of dancing we headed across town to Romkert
where a picture of some random guy's chest ended up on my camera...
and then on to Klub Rio. Sadly, no decent pictures but it was incredible. In the huge outdoor courtyard, an awesome dj was spinning and many many beers and jaeger shots were consumed (except the last round which someone does not even remember ordering, but his good friend steered him away from it) and made it home sometime around sunrise. The next day, Rob, the brilliant planner, took us to nurse our hang overs with the 'healing' waters at one of the infamous Hungarian bath houses. Hilarious sign... I didn't think it was that "Bad". Actually, it was quite beautiful and ornate ...



The pool was cold but refreshing. After swimming a few laps we spent the next 5 hours getting pruney in the warm baths, drinking a beer, talking to ridiculous American tourists and melting away. How I do love local markets... this one was designed by Gustave Eiffel (and much nicer than the Eiffel tower). Filled with typical market fresh produce, meats, souvenirs and a food court upstairs.


The architecture of Hungary is quite unique as a mix between typical Eastern European and modern.

Several bridges span the endless miles of the Danube River...

and are lit up in the evenings making the river dance until 1am.

The river is lined with art and a very cool memorial of bronzed shoes dedicated to the victims of the Holocast.
Night two started at a Karaoke club with some locals singing Lady Gaga in Hungarian. We moved on to Szimpla Kert, another cool bar with an outdoor courtyard and entirely too many 18 year olds from Britain. Could not help but take this picture....
... if you wish to throw out your cell phone, sunglasses or keys, please do so in the trash, flushing such things down the toilette is just not appropriate for Hungarian plumbing. The next day George (Rob's dad - who looks just like the old man from Up) took us out to Dunabogdany where his Aunt made us an amazing lunch and endless tasty cakes. We got a flat tire on the way and Rob's dad taught him how to change a tire. :) Must love the European cars... they actually lifted the car while I slid the jack under it.

After lunch, Rob's cousin's crazy boyfriend drove us to the Basillika Esztergom where we climbed a gazillion spiraling staris to the ring at the top where you can walk around and see Slovakia just over the river.


We stopped back at the house for some tea and another round of amazing cakes ... and a quick game of chess.
Taking it easy the last night with a beer, some hookah and of course some chocolate (devoured and not pictured).
I took one last walk around the city before my flight back to Munich. Caught some good tourist pictures and even a currency exchange place for counterfeit three euro coins.

The Cup Overfloweth...

Why decide if the cup is half full or half empty when you can just make it overflow?

Displaced Americans

The Fourth of July! ... How else could we spend the Fourth of July but bbqing? Back to the Isaar river… skipping stones, bbqing, swimming. And the boys did the dishes!






























Denny Comes to Munich … Giving him just enough time to set down his bag, we headed off to what was supposed to be live music at a bar in Geisling. No music, but we did play pool and Denny got his first German Weissbeir and Schnitzel dinner. That’s one happy camper. Still in search of live music we set off to find “Oklahoma” I think Jeremy may have googled the actual Oklahoma. A three mile walk and hour later we ended up at the zoo! Not to worry we spent the next night at Paul Oakenfold listening to “live” music and dancing until 4am!


























With the class final over, a trip to the English Garden was in order. Ah how the German’s do love to swim naked. We kept our clothes on but did take a little “float” down the river. Deep as it may look, its not! My arse was red from hitting the bottom the whole way. I don’t know if I was laughing hysterically from the cold, the rocks hitting my butt or just because it was fun nonetheless. But next time it’s going to be an inner tube adventure.

Checked out a cool ‘beach bar’ called… yup you guessed… The Beach Bar with some of the people from work. Weather was not so fabulous, we have been getting some really cool storms. Close to 100 degrees one day and then cold and pouring the next.







Sonnenrot Festival…. Not entirely sure how we picked this concert to go to. A few bands with recognizable names, the price was cheap when I first found it, but far from it when we actually bought our tickets. Two days of music, camping next to a lake… sounds good, no? On the shuttle to the concert we were asked “Where are you from?” “America” followed by “Why are you here?” It was not the last time we were asked “why the hell would you come all the way from the states for this concert?!” Hahahahah but we had a blast. In the first 10 minutes we had to have seen 10 naked guys running around. But it only got better, as the weekend went on, there were full bunny suits with a Mexican style bandolier filled with jager shots jumping into the lake and answering power strip cell phones. We set up “camp”, yes three of us in my backpacking tent with the bare necessities we could gather and carry in the day before. Luckily, we picked the best campsite, our neighbors were awesome! Mitch invited us to share the shade of his canopy as it was close 100 degrees when we arrived. It was the beginning of a beautiful drunken friendship… joined by four ridiculous Austrian guys the blurr of a weekend began! Mitch’s girlfriend and her friend arrived many hours later to join the party already in progress. They were fantastic, made food for us and taught us German.



Stabbed by a piece of hay I had to visit first aid to have it removed… sadly the beast of a medic woman escaped the picture! There was beach volleyball and an awesome lake with a floating platform. You’d never have guessed there was a serious storm brewing…

While the clouds on the second day were a welcome relief from the heat, the incessant rain that started midday and did not end until 2am … well sucked. We braved the first few hours until it became too wet and cold. We spent the second half of the night huddled in the front of Mitch and his girlfriend’s tent listening to the music from outside. Katie, the most adorable 5 foot elf you’ll ever meet was trampled in the moshpit the first night and decided the comforts of her bed were too much to resist the second night. She let us steal her dry warm tent. Bless her heart. Like a bunch of drowned rats we gathered ourselves this morning and headed home for a hot shower and a soft bed. Ah the memories.