I came to rest in Budapest

BUUUDDDDAAAAPEEEEEESSSHHHHHHHHHT!!!!! Woohoo I had finally made it. The place I had randomly chosen as a final destination purely based on the fact that a former communist country may give me a few cheaper nights out at the end of my travels. It turns out I was not wrong. On Thursday night i had a four course meal and three beers in a restaurant for about £10. Niiice!!!

Walking around the city itself was certainly an experience. Looking on all the signs the Hungarian language is a bit like when you get dealt a crap hand at scrabble or you forget to ask carol for a vowel. There's a kind of security of being in a country where you could at least attempt to pronounce what your ordering to eat or where you are going? In hungarian every word is like clearing your throat when you have a cold. I learnt phonetically how to say the following,

Say-p oh sy-med = you have beautiful eyes
Egen, hall saga von = Yes, It smells like fish
Meg.foug hah tom AH pop-shit dat? = Please may i fondle your buttocks?

Nostalgia wise i was delighted to see the C&A clothing shops are still going strong over here. Everything else was distinctly early 90's much like ................ (fill in a crap town near you live).

On a slightly more upbeat note all of these subtle differences made budapest a delightful city to visit. Out of all the places i have been it is the place i will most likely return to soonest. Buda is one one side of the Danube and Pest is on the other. Buda is on hills with older buildings whilst pest is more organized and communist as it is very flat.

On the first night i stayed in a hostel called the "red bus" as i wanted a safe haven and the name gave out images of a nice hot cup of tea followed by question of sport. That was the case and i managed to get my clothes cleaned, my body showered and made a few friends for a quiet drink. After that one night of rest i moved hostels to the 11th hour hostel to find a livelier scene. It was here i met an Australian called mike who i went for a walk with. We walked over to Buda and up the largest hill we could find. The view was pretty neat. We wandered around for a bit and this guy was dressed up as robin hood and I paid him £1.20 for 5 shots with his bow and arrow. Good value i reckon compared to the local market for bow and arrow shooting. It was another one of these cities where i walked and i walked. I have the most horrendous blisters on my feet but it was well worth it.

The evening was certainly entertaining. Everyone at the hostel was back from their day of roaming the locality and feeling the thirst that only a beer can quench. We had a good solid group of about 15 of us and we sat in the kitchen and played international drinking games. I was the resident Brit so i was determined not to let the queen down. Thinking about it the Australian's should have been doing the same haha. It was also a bonus as Ive found on my travels that American girls seem to like my British accent. I often got asked to repeat words in my cute British accent. For some reason "fire fighter" is a favourite. Its not an angle i get to use often so it was quite useful. I probably played up to it a bit much by talking about how i missed roly poly pudding with custard. Anyhow it turned out to be a ridiculously cheap night. From your local shop a bottle of beer was about 40-50p. Everything tastes better when its cheap so we drank a lot until Captain Red beard led us to a club that turned out to be a Hungarian folk barn dance. I got lost on the way home and found a kebab somewhere. I woke up in the morning in a panic about my wallet but it was hidden under my bed. Its probably a good sobering way to wake up.

Anyway that's about enough of this blog. Ive written a lot and spelt very very poorly. I have drank different beers, with different people, in different cities, in different countries. I am now at home and have enjoyed a fry up, I have a 2500 word essay in for friday, the football season for the llamas has now finished, one of my friends has left the sunday lunch radio show i do and life moves on but back to normality.

I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as i have writing it. The whole experience has made it the best two weeks ever. The people i have met have been amazing and if i retain atleast 10% of the knowledge i have gained on this trip then it will be ace. Its also nice to see that with Lloyds doubling sponsorship money ive raised somewhere between £700-800 for the princes trust. If anyone has enjoyed reading this and would like to add to that total then http://www.justgiving.com/richardlees85/ is a good place to go.

Thank you very much and hopefully cya all soon,

love Rich x

The Final Hitch

For one final day I pulled out my thumb and headed south. It only took one hop to get to Budapest but this lift was probably the most stressful one yet. The guy driving the car was a complete fruit cake. All silence had to be filled and he had no radio in his car. He quite liked beat boxing so he would occasionally go off on one and we also sang songs to each other. Turns out we both knew the pink panther theme tune so was hummed that for a good 10km. He also taught me the Romanian national anthem. In between songs we mostly shared Michael Jackson impressions. This was all taking place whilst his car ran out of oil and started making disturbing sounds. We had to crawl down the motorway to each petrol station hoping to find the right oil for his clapped out golf.

When we finally drew close to Budapest he mentioned that he would drop me off by a bus station to get into the city. I wish that had been the case. Much to my panic he pulled up along a slip road on the motorway. He wouldn't take me any further so i had to jump over a fence and get away from the motor way as quickly as possible for my own safety. It was a weird situation to be in because had no clue where I was and I cant speak any hungarian. Worse still i had not yet changed my euros into foirints. I ended up walking through these woods and i stumbled upon a small road. I followed this traffic less road for about 4 miles and i came across a small village. In this village i saw a sign telling me of a tescos 8km away so i thought if the worst happens i could probably walk to it. Luckily the village turned out to be a small town with a bank and a train station. Salvation.



Just thought id attach a great picture from last night. Budapest update tomorrow after i get home.

cheers,

Rich

The soundtrack

Ive just got back from a really long walk around budapest and im currently sat with a local beer called a dreher in the 11th hour hostel i am staying at. The hostel has its own film room where the project films onto the wall. Its a pretty random place. I helped shift a fridge for the owners earlier today. It made me feel well manly. I like to think they thought there looks like a guy who can shift stuff!! I also fulfilled a childhood dream of being shouted at by a man in a communist style hat today. I was ambiling along quite peacefully next to the parliament building when i was apprehended by an extra from goldeneye with a stern face. It turned out that i was in high security zone and i didnt have a permit. How cool is that? I complimented him on his hat and slinked away to the nearest pedestrian zone.

Budapest is a city of stark contrasts and communism hangs over the city like a dense fog. Even though its approaching 20 years since the free market took over there is still much that has remained the same. Rust and pot holed pavements are long down the list of things to fix. The result is a startiling combination of old and new. I havent been in a city with such a high amount of beggars and luis vuitton shops. Theres one women with a horizontal back and a weathered head scarf that i have seen 4 times today in different places. If anyone can remember the droopy the dog cartoons its a bit like that how she keeps popping up wherever you go. Much like subways or greggs.

Moving on I briefly wanted to touch on music that has fuelled my march accross europe.

1) My most listened too track has to be spinnin by speech debelle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58Bd8d8DSDo . I can see why she won the mercury prize.

2) Another favourite has been hard sun by eddie vedderhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZbiZxA9b5k . This is from one of my favourite hitch hiking films called into the wild. It embraces the spirit of the road perfectly.



3) comedy award goes to a track by a guy called frankie knuckles. It has the most horrendous synth sandwich and walking bassline. It builds and builds and builds till this creepy voice tells us in quite an erotic way that he cant let go. Cue the whip noises. Funny stuff. Ill fish that link out at a later date for a treat.

Its bye for now. Im home tommorow so only reallistically two more days of me being a self indulgent blogger. Its embarrassing how much i enjoy it. I depise myself haha.

take care folks,

love rich x

Coffee and cake

I spent the whole of tuesday roaming round vienna with only my book for company. It was a rather odd read about a sheep that kept crawling up inside of people and using them for its own political gains. It didnt make much sense but i polished it off in a day and it is handy to have a book with you when sat in places by yourself. I was sat on a park bench at one point and an old lady came and sat next to me. I read my book whilst she just sat there gazing into the distance. This happened for half an hour without a word between us. Maybe old people have so much time they dont have to be doing stuff. Either way as soon as we started talking she discovered i was english and then she moved to another bench. I guess there is still a lot of history in europe.

I wont spend too long on vienna. Its a place i regard highly and is the prettiest functioning city i have been in. However most of my interesting stories are unfortunately fuelled by alcohol and coffee was my liquid of choice in vienna. I did however stumble across a chain of classical toilets. It was quite an experience to listen to mars whilst taking a leak. It makes the whole procedure more epic. Maybe oneday i will build my own in Sheffield playing a medly of the human league, ABC, def leppard and pulp. The other mildly suprising thing in vienna was a protest march that went through town. Ive seen communists waving red flags and chanting in Koln, A facist rally in munich (it was a bit like footage from a hitler speech) and a march about jobs in vienna. Times are not great in europe as a whole it would seem.

Anyway im delighted to tell you that i arrived in Budapest last night. It was probably my most eventful day of hitching yet. Ill fill in that story at a later date. Im off for a swim in a bath stroke spa thingy that was built when everything was in black and white.

cheerios,

Richie (every australian calls me it for some reason) xx

Vienna stories

I woke up early in the Nord Sam campingplatz in Salzburg and met the owner to settle the bill. Normally you pay upon arrival but i arrived under the cover of darkness and used my patented fumble around in the dark like a tit approach to putting up my tent. In retrospect i could have got away without paying as the owner didnt even know i had camped. However hitch hiking has tought me many beautiful lessons. I almost beleive in a watered down version of karma now. My own personal thinking is that if someone does something nice to you, pass it on. Ive never been that superstitious in the past. I did however have a routine before football games in the 98-99 season for Henfield FC. We went on a 13 game unbeaten streak and won the plate that season along with promotion to the horsham mini minor league a. I used to spit into my shinpads before games. lovely huh?

Anyway I digress from the real story. I set off into town and chanced upon a spar and bought some semmel (buns or baps depending which part of england your from) with cheese. I cought a bus into town and had a lovely breakfast at the mirabel gardens.



I then popped on a bus to walersfied where i tramped my way to a shell garage for my hitching. Ive found it saves time to get to the outskirts where cars and lorries are travelling long distances instead of to the local shops. Within 45 minutes i had secured a lift with a Romanian guy and his family. There was little we had to talk about as the language barrier was too vast. My usual tactic of mentioning footballers failed to interest him. I managed to gleam that he had travelled from bordeaux so it must have been one hell of a journey. It was actually quite nice for a change to relax and watch the countryside go past. Austria is not all mountains and singing nuns but it is still rather pleasing.

I got dropped off on the outskirts of vienna at another service station. I love and hate these places. In europe they always charge you for the loo. Paying to eat and drink makes sense but paying to get rid of the bits and bobs you dont need is going to far in my book. In estimation trips to these Mr sheen wonderlands has probably cost me between 7-10 euros so far. Thats atleast two mcdonalds or a trip to the cinema.

Anyway i asked about and the nearest train station was three miles away on the other side of the autobahn. Lucky for me there was a service tunnel going underneath so i got to do my own version of the great escape before climbing an embankment the other side and hoping a fence. Feeling all macho I swaggered to the station and into vienna.

Vienna is immense. Ive seen town halls less ornate then backery's in vienna. The scope of the place is huge too. Unlike the old town in salzburg you know that vienna is a real functioning city and not a place preserved for tourism. It just happens to be fully functioning, interesting, vibrant and colourful whilst looking good. I met up with a girl called July who i was to be couch surfing with. Couch surfing is essentially sleeping on someones couch for free. Its good because its all built on trust and you meet real people who live in the city your visiting.

Im off for food an edit later perhaps. Rich xxxx

The hills are alive

The last time I went to salzburg was on a holiday with an ex girlfriend. I had a lovely time and it was probably the best holiday in recent memory. This time round i arrived lugging my back pack and got bemused looks from people as a half eaten bag of haribo fell from one of my pockets and scattered across the pavement. I was stuck in two minds with what to do. If i left it i might get tutted for littering. If i picked it up people might judge my dishevelled appearance and assume i was going to eat it. Its funny when moments like that hit you and you wonder whether you have progressed or regressed in life. Im generally quite laid back but im always keen to be moving forward. As I contemplated my dilema I decided that life is like juggiling. Its difficult to be amazing at everything at once. Yes i no longer have a few things i had a few years back but i now know how to do small talk with eastern european truck drivers. Surely that is far more usefull then being in a stable relationship???

Anyway i met up with an old college friend called Ali who i once went to T in the Park with. He has a fantastic job were he travels austria teaching english in a different school each week. Its a great way to travel and get paid for it. He was with another teacher an australian girl called zetty (sp?). We spent a good hour looking for a hostel and eventually ended up in one called the institute of San Sebastion. It was a religious refuge with its own bell tower. Breakfast was also ridiculously early. The alarm was the said bell tower. However it also had the comfiest beds in the world. We set off in the evening for some tea and a few beers. The menu was a bit of a lottery. I went for Wiessbierbeuscherl which had the word bier in and sounded like a safe bet. Ali had wiener scnitzel and zetty had this weird german carbonara thingy that looked like vomit but tasted as good as scoring the winning goal for port vale in a potteries derby against stoke city.

The biers flowed and we ended up in a cavern pub with a lager called zipfer on tap. There was this weird band playing irish versions of robbie williams tracks amongst others. There was also loads of smoke. I woke up smelling like a victorian chimney sweep.

The next day we explored the city of salzburg. It is very pretty indeed. The view from the danube across the aldstadt with the cadtle high in the sky has to be one of the best around. We went for a monster alk up one of the mountains. We didnt sing any sound of music once can you beleive. At 2.30 the largest beer garden in europe opened so we bought some bread and meat and cheeky beer. We played a game called factcents which is where you get given an accent to do and a topic. You then have to tell a fact in the said accent. For example "jamaican and carrots" if anyone laughs they have to drink. Fun times! Anyway it hit about 5 oclock. Ali and Zetty had to get to commute out of salzburg to their teaching locatians. I found a campingplatz in north salzburg at 8.00.

Thats about all i have time for today. Ill update maybe tommorow in budapest and tell you about vienna. I am currently couch surfing at a lovely couples flat called July and Sunny. They have a two cats, johnny and lucky + two turtles. I have also enjoyed coffee at cafe central. Lenin and hitler are rumoured to have played chess there.

love rich x

beer today, gone tommorow

Its been a couple of days since i last blogged and so much has happened i could probably write a small book. I am now in vienna and the following is the start of how i came to be here:

After my last trip to an internet cafe i went for a meander around munich. It is a suprisingly clean city with a real buzz to it. Walking down the street you get the feeling that any kind of wonderful thing is around the corner. The magic of the place was probably magnified with it being okotoberfest. Literally every german was dressed in their traditional liederhosen or dirndl. I like to think that even lawyers and bankers disregard their suits for 3 weeks and turn up to work in their traditional outfit. To put it into perspective it would be like us in england hanging around in morris dancing gear or dressed as beefeaters. The weird but very cool thing about it is that no one cares it looks rather silly. Who say the german people dont have a sense of humour. Big respect to them all!

Anyway i went to a outdoor market in the centre of town and had the first few steins of the day (1 litre beer) At 1.00 i noticed a japanese couple were already passed out asleep on a table whilst everyone else just went about their business as if everything was normal. I then decided that the day would likely be a long one and went on a walk to see the sites of munich. I walked through this park called the Englischer gardens and for some reason everyone was nude. It was a sunny day but not warm enough to give everyone else the privilege of seeing my own special bits. I quickly scuttled off before any more OAPs appeared. The rest of the day was spent in the very impressive beer tents of oktobefest. It is like the best party you have ever been to. There was crazy oompah music, a giant ox roasting on a spit, dancing on tables and enough beer to fill all the lakes in the lake district. Needless to say my memories of the evening grew hazy. I made friends with a few irish lads and drank to our health. I woke up the next morning suprisingly hangover free. The beer gets drank so quickly they dont bother with all the preservatives we get in english lager.

After a hasty packing of my tent I was back on the road. I have developed a great technique using google earth for finding the best hitching spots. Typically i type in tankstelle munich into google maps. It then locates all service stations on the map. I found one on an autobahn in the right direction. I then search for the nearest train station. I flip the map into satellite view and if there are not too many things to jump over im on my way. The only downside is the walking . My converse are now so battered they are actually like a lyric from an artic monkeys song. After hopping over 3 fences and 1 ditch I had made it to a shell service station. I then had two lifts to salzburg. A woman called Nicol who was returning from Stuttgart. She worked as an estate agent and had a really nice convertable mercedes. She also like driving it fast. Everytime she talked i had to duck down to hear her as the top was down. I got dropped half way at another tankstelle where i met another hitcher (trampen in german). She was like a character from a book with her faithul hund (dog) in tow. We exchanged stories, I gave her some chocolate and she gave me some cola. We tried to get a lift together but the first taker we had didnt want to give a dog a lift too. After an hour in the car with amelio and his wife i was dropped at salzburg airport. more of wich in my next post.