Chilling in Budapest....on to smaller towns tomorrow

We decided to stay in Budapest another night.....the comfy bed and kitchen were definite pluses. This morning, we walked around for about an hour before hitting a Chinese restaurant in which we were probably overcharged (but at Hungarian prices...overcharged meant like 9 dollars instead of 5...not a huge deal). We hit the market to buy some supplies for dinner tonight......a kind of chicken fritter over spaghetti. The prices here are very reasonable....and we are in the city...it will be interesting to see if they go even lower when we venture out into smaller cities tomorrow. Budapest is 10 times bigger than the second biggest city in Hungary....so....any travels in Hungary will definitely be a change of pace. We will be heading to a smaller town tomorrow....not sure which yet....but something east of here that will get us closer to Romania.

Last night, we had another delicious gyro (here they called kebabs) for around 3 dollars. That was going to be our night, but when we returned at 11pm, some friends of the hostel worker invited us to an open-air party....and....of course...had to check it out. Our guides were very nice.....Esther had an especially fun and warm personality along with the one of the cutest accents in the world. The bus was interesting.....it was like a bus that would cart you around Purdue...except packed to the brim. The bus that picked us up was already overflowing....and then 30 more people got on.....totally jam-packed. The open-air party had a cover of 100 forint....which is about 50 cents....no problem there. Dave and I got a beer for 2.50....Pilsner Urquel....the first bad beer I've had since heading across the ocean. This beer must have been imported from the states...because only us yanks know how to brew beer that tastes that skunky right out of the keg. I would equate the party to an outdoor Neon Cactus of sorts. There were maybe 4 different music areas....the two we stopped by were the early 90's rock (Nirvana, Blur) and the modern hip-hop. I am not that into dancing, but our hosts were....so...I played along. Then, I was inspired by my Kerouac reading of yesterday. Kerouac and the Beat generation were very into people who knew how to love life. So...I did my best to make my dancing an expression of my love for life......it was still ugly of course...but....I enjoyed myself. The two best songs to dance to were two random oldies......"I feel good" and "twelve o'clock rock". Cory....you would've dug this place. Dave and I passed some of our time people-watching....a fav. activity of ours. Especially grand was a punching bag test of strength game that the drunk folks were all about. We had a good laugh when one guy practically missed the bag.

I just caught a show on the DaVinci Code which has re-enthused me for some travels to Italy....Sistine Chapel...all that good stuff....mmm.mmm.mmmmmm. Well.....I'm going to read some more Kerouac until I fall asleep for a nap. Then.....cooking some dinner before bed.