Flash to Bang

Rebecca arrives at Budapest Ferihegy Airport March 10, 2007.



"Guess what?! It's a movie!"

Those are the names of my three lovely friends who will be visiting me in Budapest over the course of the next month. I don't have a single girlfriend, or friend for that matter, in Budapest, so I'm importing them from abroad!

Erica, who grew up down the road from me in South Salem, N.Y., and who I've known since I was 5, arrives tomorrow morning and will be here until the 19th. Every time I think about picking her up at the airport, I can't stop giggling. My memories of her span 23 years. It will be so comforting to be in her company again.

Mary arrives March 5 and leaves April 12, which means she will be here for my birthday April 8. We're in the midst of planning a lot of travel while she's here, which could include trips to Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Bucharest and Istanbul. Warsaw and Belgrade would be cool, too....

Rebecca arrives March 10 and sadly, will be here only for a week (until the 17th). But, it will be her second visit to Budapest since I've been here, which makes her a truly spectacular friend. B.F.F.!

These wonderful women are so precious to me and I'm so elated to share Budapest with them.

After Rebecca graduated from Smith, she moved to Brno, Czech Republic, to teach English, and also made some friends in Bratislava, Slovakia, so we decided to take a trip to the former Czechoslovakia while she was here. Bratislava, or Pozsony as the Hungarians call it, was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, but the Treaty of Trianon after World War I greatly reduced Hungarian territory and Bratislava became part of Czechoslovakia. The city is a short two-and-a-half-hour trip from Budapest.

We made it to Nyugati Train Station in Budapest about 15 minutes before our train was scheduled to leave. We found the international ticket windows and from each extended lines of at least 100 people. We rushed to the front and asked a few Italians if we could cut in line. They agreed. A Scot told us he had been waiting an hour. We stood there for about 5 minutes and the line didn't move, so we opted to buy our tickets on the train.

We had a compartment to ourselves and the conductor didn't come until we neared the Slovakian border. When he discovered we didn't have tickets, he decided to charge us the amount from Budapest to the border, and did not give us paper tickets or a receipt. Once we were traveling through Slovakia, the Slovakian conductor made his way to our compartment. Rebecca speaks some Slovakian and told him we did not have tickets. She told us after he left that he asked her to name a price for all three of us. He agreed to the price on condition that he did not issue us paper tickets.

Bratislava is a charming, ancient European city on the banks of the Danube. We walked from the train station to the old town and Rebecca led the way to a dark, cavernous restaurant for lunch. We checked into our hostel after eating some traditional Slovakian food and relaxed for a few hours before meeting Rebecca's friend Sacha. Sacha gave us a tour of the old town, which was crowded with outdoor cafes and restaurants, street performers and meandering pedestrians. She took us to a few bars where we tried traditional Slovakian liqueurs. We also visited a club Rebecca went to when she was in Bratislava before and we ended up running into the same friends of Sacha's that Rebecca met the night she visited the club years ago.

The next morning we checked out of the hostel and caught a train to Brno, Czech Republic. Rebecca wanted to revisit the city she lived in for almost a year. It is also the birthplace of writer Milan Kundera. We wandered through the cobblestone streets, had coffee and read books at a cafe, got ice cream cones, went to a traditional Czech beer hall, drank Czech beer and ate Czech food. At sunset, we returned to the train station and were whisked through the misty countryside on a modern train that originated in Hamburg, Germany.

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We made a few day trips when Rebecca was here. We traveled to Esztergom, Visegrad and Szentendre, three historical towns northwest of Budapest along The Danube Bend.

Esztergom, the royal seat of Hungary from the late 10th to the mid-13 centuries, is where King Stephen (as in St. Stephen) was born and crowned. We went straight to the Esztergom Cathedral, high on a hill above the Danube River. We walked across the cobblestone parking lot, leaned against an old stone wall, and soaking in the expansive views of the Hungarian countryside.

Inside the cathedral, Rebecca and I sat in the front and stared up at the massive oculus. Then we had a long conversation with God. Michael took pictures of the white statues overlooking the pews, and a skeleton head in a glass case.

Later, we walked around the grounds of the cathedral. I took a picture of a busking, pied piper. Rebecca found a crystal shop. She got an aventurine stone. I got two jaspers and an aventurine. Michael took a picture of a huge bronze, warrior statue. We also visited a strand of merchant shacks selling souvenirs. Rebecca bought souvenirs for friends in the states.

After lunch in Esztergom (which included eating pork knuckle), we traveled to the Visegrad Citadel. We trekked up a steep hill and again enjoyed amazing views of the Danube and the countryside. The citadel was a stony, medieval maze, and only a shell of the original. A falconer asked Rebecca and I if we wanted let his hawk perch on our arms. We said no. Rebecca said she did that in Russia once. After we descended the hill, we bought something to drink and Michael saw a t-shirt he liked. It said Hungary on it, with a horse head. But they didn't have his size.

Before heading back to Budapest, we stopped in Szentendre, a famous outpost for artists in the early 20th century. We drank Dreher sor (beer) at a bar on the Danube. We didn't get a chance to explore the town because it was getting late. Michael and I hope to go back soon.

While Rebecca was here, we also went to the Szechenyi Baths, where the thermal waters apparently heal various ailments; and took a ride up the chair lift at the Niche Camping site next door. The lift drops you near the Elizabeth Lookout, a tower built in 1908 at Budapest's highest peak, 527 meters. We opted not to hike up to the lookout and instead bought some beers and found a spot in the woods with a good view of Budapest. We watched the afternoon wane, made rings with grass and talked about pretty much everything.



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We were sitting around with Rebecca, smoking on the balcony and heard music blaring at the campground next door. I imagined a weathered, log cabin bar crowded with German and French woodsmen, dancing to Hungarian folk music on their summer vacations. We found nothing, but opted to continue our pursuit of Budapest nightlife. We took the bus down to Moskva Ter where we found a bar atop the Metro station. It was our first night out on the town since our arrival, and even though the bar wasn't a trendy Pest hotspot, we were endeared by the open air terrace, the antique Singer sewing machine tables and the foos ball.

It was a great feeling to be around Rebecca again. We've been best friends since meeting at Smith College in 1998, and she's the first friend to visit me abroad since I left New York in May. Our friendship has remained strong over the years while we've both traveled and lived in seperate places. She moved to New York City last August, which put us in the same city for the first time since college. She was a monumental source of support for me, especially before my departure. She and Art came to the airport with me for a teary goodbye. When I embraced her at Budapest Ferihegy Airport, we were crying with laughter.

The beers went down easily and the terrace afforded us views of Moskva Ter, a major transportation hub on the Buda side of the Danube River, crowded with trams, buses, and Western businesses like McDonalds, Burger King and Citibank. It is also neighbor to Mammut, a massive shopping mall.

We eventually tried our hand at foos ball. My skills had receded noticeably since my foos ball days at Hotchkiss. Michael managed to single-handedly beat Rebecca and I. Our raucousness attracted some Budapest teenagers who convinced me to play a round with them. They told me the only English words they knew were fuck and shit. When they asked me where I lived I told them "Uptheroad utca." (Utca is street in Hungarian.)

We finally left the bar around 4 a.m. and started to walk home. We were hoping to catch the night bus. When we got to the bus stop, we saw a tram waiting across the street, Tram 56. On impulse, I suggested we get on it. I knew it was headed into the Buda Hills, and would probably have a stop at least somewhere near home. I also thought it was cool because it invoked the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, when Hungarians revolted against the Soviet Union. The 50th anniversary celebration of the revolt will be a huge event in Budapest next month.

The tram ended up taking us well north and west of home, climbing through the hills of Buda and finally terminating at Huvosvolgy. By this time, dawn was breaking and Rebecca had lost her patience with my whim. The station was crowded with hikers and students. There was a bus waiting and Rebecca asked the driver how we could get home. He told us we'd have to go all the way back down to Moskva Ter and by that time our bus, No. 158, would be running.

Rebecca told me later that the uncertainty of the adventure led her to imagine that she'd never make it home. Her mind played out a fate that left her on the side of a Buda mountain, fending for herself in the woods for the rest of her life.

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Rebecca arrived last Thursday and we've been having a hoot of a time. We're leaving for Bratislava, Slovakia, in an hour, but I'll be able to write more about our adventures when we return to Budapest tomorrow night.

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