Leaving Krakow behind, I head over to Budapest to see what’s the fuss about this city after all. Being named as one of the obligatory stop to those who would endure a journey in Eastern Europe, I allocated a few days to be spent here.

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Budapest castle overlooking the Danube river

There is no doubt the city is unique by its very own standard. The Hungarians (or Magyar) is people who have an isolated descend compared to their Indo-European neighbours. Their languange give testament to this. It doesnt sound more Polish, but rather more Finnish. A languange from the Ugro-Finnic family, its hard to imagine how this branch of languange travelled all the way from the cold scandinavia to this center of European continent.

The highlight of the trip is perhaps walking by the Danube river at night. The castle at the “Buda” side of the city stand majestically, as if conforming the Royalties authority upon its people. On the opposite of it, the “Pest” side of the city stands proudly to the testament of people powers, as evidence by its Parliamentary building, that will remind you of the same building standing in centre of London.

In Vasa Utca, I almost get ripped by a scam woman pretending to be lonely girl who asked me to accompany her to a bar. And let alone the prostitute who couldnt speak English, but just for a dare, come towards me and blurted the most 2 important English words she might know to survive.

“Hello!….sex??? “

While in Budapest, I stayed with a middle-age woman and her son at their apartment quite out of the city. I think she really loved having international guest there, as I see a lot of different bank notes from all over the world on her wall. I proudly add to her collections a good ol’ Ringgit Malaysia notes.

Apart from the amazing view, I have to admit I felt a little bit lonely in Budapest. Its hard to strike a conversation with strangers here. I managed to get to know a Romanian guy who worked here for several years, and he explained me, the locals might think that I am one of many gypsies that they distaste lurking around the cities.

Which brought me to say hi to a lone gypsy playing his musical instruments. We couldnt take much due to languange barrier, but we managed to finish a bottle of Cola while listening to his music together.

All in all, I felt a little bit intimidated in this spiraling, modernizing city of Budapest. There’s a sense of urgency in the air everywhere. So what I did was having a retreat in one of their many communal bath. And trust me, its an experience you should never miss.

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