But I did want to capture my last few trips here and share them with you too. So here are some retroactive blogs that I hope you will enjoy about my last few trips around Eastern Europe.
Getting Hungary
When I left Prague, life got pretty crazy. My friend G came back to Belgrade with me, and I showed him around the city in between going to work, packing, having the movers come, and getting my apartment deep cleaned in preparation of moving out. We had a good time though, and I was glad that I got to share this amazing city with another one of my friends.
Here is a shot near sunset of the confluence of the Sava at the Danube in Belgrade.
On Friday, G left, and I headed to Budapest with some of the Belgrade Hashers for the 1000th Budapest Hash Run Weekend. S was kind enough to drive, and so 2 Americans and 2 Serbians headed north after work to begin the weekend. We practiced our hashing songs on the way up, and crossed into Hungary and the European Union with no trouble. For those of you not familiar with hashing, the songs tend to be bawdy, and S and I had to explain some of the English slang to the two Serbian guys. Trying to translate some dirty words was....well, embarrassing and interesting and funny.
We met the other Hashers at a pub in Pest and got our hash gear. It was my first hash gear (shorts and a bandanna!) and I was pretty excited about my first "interhash". Friday was a party, and we got settled into our cabin and met a lot of cool people. There were people there from Vienna, London, Turkey, USA, Serbia, and even Texas. Yes, I'm including Texas as a separate country. Have you been there? Then you understand.
The 1000th hash on Saturday was what they call a ball buster. That means that it is very tough. It was 13km through woods and lots of shiggy (mud, burrs, stinging nettles, ticks), but the check point was at a beautiful hilltop with views of Buda and Pest. The Danube was flooded through the city, but everything looked peaceful from our vantage point. Unfortunately, I didn't snap any pictures. But trust me, it was very beautiful.
The group headed back to camp and then we had our circle. The RA's that lead the circle did a great job, with a real sense of theatre and made sure that everyone was included.
S and I were unlucky in our cabin choice, because our cabin kept alternatively losing power and then water. I managed a very cold shower, and was reasonably presentable for dinner.
On Sunday, it was the 1001th Hash through Buda. It was a toga theme. Trust me, you get a lot of stares as a group of 30 people wearing togas running and walking through a major city on Sunday morning.
S let me borrow a sarong that she fashioned into a toga for me. I thought it was a good fashion statement.
Part of the tour was supposed to be on the river, but as mentioned, it was flooded.
You may recall my post about Budapest from December. It was my first Eastern European city outside of Belgrade during this assignment. But going to Budapest in December vs June was very different. The sun was up until about 10pm, which was great (compared to going down at 4pm in December). This was also the trip in which I shed my cloudy and cold curse! It was warm and sunny and I even got a little sun burnt (and freckled).
Budapest has a lot of statues, and here are some that I didn't see during my first trip:
This is Peter Mansfield. He was a young boy that was a hero during WWII.
This is a statue commemorating car crash victims. It lists the number of people killed by car crashes for the last 20-30 years. The numbers drop dramatically as Hungary has implemented new strict drunk driving laws.
These are statues of whores. Even whores get their own statues in Budapest! Notice the togas too.
As an American, I'm still amazed and impressed by the history in Europe. Here are some Roman ruins that they didn't want to disturb. So they just built the highway over the ruins.
We ended the weekend with a final circle which was supposed to be held at an amphitheatre, but it was flooded.
As our kennel headed south, I was both happy and sad because this was my last time to see the Belgrade Hashers and S, who became a very good friend. I got home late on Sunday, and had to pack because I was leaving my apartment the next day forever. This experience (the weekend and the last 7 months) was so much fun, and just as I was starting to make friends and feel like I belong, it is time go to back to the USA.
When my landlord's mother showed up at 8:30am on Monday morning with pastry and coffee, it hit home that I was really leaving this wonderful city and that my experience was quickly drawing to a close. I suppose you could say that I was hungry (Hungary) for more adventures and definitely not ready to head back to TX yet.
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