Moving On

Day 544
My train wasn't until 3 pm so I puttered about the hostel doing a lot of nothing before heading out.

Around 3 I got my act together and took a train to Budapest. Due to massive amounts of construction I couldn't see the metro and ended up walking to my hostel, it wasn't far. After dropping off my things I went to check my email and took the stairs down instead of the elevator. A guy called out to me and asked if I had any cigarettes. He seemed surprised when I said that I don't smoke. Apparently had had made his wife angry and she had locked him in the apartment!

After checking my email I picked up some dinner and spent the evening at the hostel watching movies on my ipod. It wasn't a busy or sociable place so there wasn't anyone else to chat with.

Strange But True

Day 543
I let myself waste time before getting up and showering. Once breakfast was over I went out to get some pictures of the last few things I hadn't seen yet. Pecs is really a lovely place. I'm really glad that I decided to hang out here longer than intended. I'm skipping a few places, but I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

When I was done wandering I headed to the internet cafe to type.

I ended up eating dinner at the same time as an Aussie couple and a Canadian. Suddenly the guy who worked at the hostel, and maybe owned it, came in. He had been missing all day. It turned out that his wife had had twins. We all congratulated him, but couldn't really figure out why he was even at work. Then we headed to a bar and ran into him having drinks with his friends, very strange.

Catch Up

Day 542
Today was Monday which meant that nothing was open. The closed museums didn't really help the situation either.

I eventually ended up at the mall for lunch and for more journal updating. I really want to get to the point that I'm up to date before heading to London. I just don't think that I'll want to do a whole lot of work on it while I'm there and I know that I'll have real issues when I get back to the States. The other journals I've kept were never finished until my next trip began! Maybe this time is different though because I feel like I'm ready to stop traveling and I always just wanted to keep going before. The trips were much shorter.

After a few hours of writing and went and did some typing and photo organizing. That evening I did the same things as the previous nights. As today was rather boring I thought that I should show you how big my bag has gotten in the last 18 months!

Long, Long Ago

Day 541
After some breakfast I headed out to explore the town. Pecs is by far the cutest place and most unique city I've been to in some time. I soon decided to stay here longer than I had originally planned.

I decided to spend the day visiting several early Christian burial grounds spread around the city. The first was called Cella Septichora and was the largest. A lot of it was just the remains of walls and empty graves. However, there were a handful of well preserved fresco's to check out. The second site was called Okereszteny Mausoleum and was quite small. It was all murals though and really cool. At the third and fourth places there was only one ticket checker and one of the sites was down the street. It was kinda cool to get a private tour. There wasn't much to see though. One of the sites had two sets of skeletal remains, one was a child, and the other some simple paintings.

Next up was the cathedral. It was quite pretty and I enjoyed the baroque carvings. There was a odd newness about it. In fact, as much as I like Pecs there is a odd newness to it all. They are redoing the whole town because next year it will be Europe's capital of culture. This means that half of the museums are shut and that the main square is all dug up. It's going to look beautiful though!

While I had been waiting for my lunch the day before I had done a lot of writing in my journal. I sat down and typed a lot of it up at an internet cafe before heading back and making myself dinner.

I spent the evening drinking wine and hanging out with the other people in the hostel.

Choices

Day 540
When the train pulled into Budapest at 6 am I had a lot of thinking to do. I was also very hungry as I didn't get dinner the night before. But that would have to wait.

I went thru my guidebook and luckily there was an open internet cafe. After finding a place to stay I went to by a ticket. Once again I was running for the stupid train. I had just enough time to grab a danish before boarding. There wasn't much to chose from. I felt really bad for the other people in my compartment. I know that I smelled really bad. I slept thru most of the ride though.

Once arriving to Pecs I took the bus but still had to walk quite a ways to the hostel. By the time I found it I was drenched again. Luckily the guy who worked there understood that I needed a shower before checking in and getting a tour. Its really amazing how wonderful a shower can make you feel sometimes.

I was famished, that danish hadn't been very filling. I went to a nearby restaurant and got a lot of food. It was really yummy, but the service was a bit slow. I ended up getting a lot of writing done. Afterwords I tried to wander around the town but I was really beat. I ended up back at the hostel to take a nap.

When I woke up I went to the supermarket and got some food and wine. After dinner I was watching movies on my ipod waiting for my clothes to finish in the dryer when I met two nice German girls. The three of us ended up going out for beers at a nearby bar. We came back to the hostel a bit late, but we had a good time so it was worth it.