Budapest VIII. kerület

It was my first time setting foot in Europe in a long time. A foot exposed to the cold with only a flipflop for protection.

The Hungarian winter had no mercy for my unprepared ass. All I had to shield myself off of the below zero outside temperatures was a hoodie, jeans and flipflops. Not sure if it was only in my head, but I felt very observed.

The airplane landed around midnight, and I must have arrived at my hostel well later than 1 am. While the feet freezing was bearable in the beginning, by the end I started feeling pain with each step. The hot shower that ensued felt heavenly.

On the next morning the first order of business was to buy clothes and shoes, this time going about wearing socks with my flipflops at least. It was far from sufficient. Wherever I walked everyone gave me side looks.

Coming out of the underground I heard two girls speaking in Portuguese. I thought "at least these two I will understand if they make fun of me." So I stepped onto the escalator behind them and soon after I hear one say to the other in Portuguese — "look, the guy behind us is in flipflops", they giggled. To which I, with the biggest satisfaction in the world, said "just so you know, I speak Portuguese". The girl who spoke turned every shade of red. "I... I'm so sorry! it's just that it's so cold outside...", she said stumbling in her words. I told them I was very well aware of how cold it is. She would have hidden somewhere if she could. Her friend barely looked at me from the embarrassment. They walked away as quickly as they could. It felt like poetic justice.

I got me some shoes and wormer clothes from Decathlon and went about the city, now much wormer. I spent the afternoon exploring the Jewish quarters, chilling at the hostel and getting an haircut.

Later I met with Noni and her dog Panka for dinner. I had met them both 6 months back while traveling through Europe. We had dinner in the Italian restaurant "Pasta Bazár Trattoria" and then she took me to a ruined bar frequented by locals named "Klub Vittula". The bar was empty but still had a nice and relaxed environment. We observed as Panka made friends with everyone else at the bar. She's the best doggo.

The next day was a lazy day. I slept in in the morning, then went out to do laundry. Found a nice place with typical and cheap Hungarian food, and just strolled around in the afternoon.

I felt like going to the cinema so I invited Noni to go watch Larry, a movie about an Hungarian kid with a speech impairment from the poor countryside who finds in rap a way to channel his angst — basically the Hungarian version of 8-mile. Later we went to grab some food (Noni's favourite kebab place) and went for drinks in a jazz bar.

The following morning I took Panka for a walk and left to go spend the day at the amazing Széchenyi thermal baths. I spent the day dipping in all the pools, worm and cold, and enjoying the various saunas and steam rooms. My favourite was the outdoor pool. It had the perfect water temperature sitting at 38°C and was surrounded by the beautiful architecture made more mystical by the pool's mist. The only problem there was getting out of the water to a below zero outside temperature.

In the evening me and Noni had dinner and moule wine in the Christmas markets and then met with some of her friends in a nice hipster bar.

A few hours later I was waking up in the middle of the night to get to the airport and take my flight to Lisbon. It was the end of a life changing 4 month journey.Read more