The slow crawl home: Budapest: No rest for the wicked.

I have three words to summarize our time in Budapest. Spontaneous, kebabs and snoring. None of these are really related. But they do all recount for what we’ve been up to lately and hopefully this will make more sense as you read on.

A country famous for inventing the rubric cube and matches, Hungary and more specifically Budapest is for me, recognized as the place for fantastic food and backdoor bars. So, as you can imagine expectations were running high (especially after our swift exit from Bratislava).

We all know that you need to live like a local if you really want to feel part of a new city. The first opportunity to achieve this came knocking on our door after our free walking tour. The Opera House just happened to be selling discounted tickets to Snow White the Ballet for that evening. And we just happened to be free. The only niggle was finding something suitable to wear amongst our backpacking attire (that didn’t include a bikini). The show was certainly a lively production mostly in part due to the amount of children in the crowd and the wicked sequels that came out of their mouths.

To be in town during a local festival is always fortunate. Our second ticket to spontaneity came the next evening as Budapest geared up for a weekend of music and dancing. A basic street rave was pretty much what we joined. Our ticket to this mini rave only happening after realizing the size of the festival and that there was more than just the stage hosting Hungarian music (and a very long sound check).

For all this partying and enjoying life a kebab shop was never more than a 3m radius away. It almost felt like every street corner we’d turn, there smack right in front of you would be a lump of greasy meat rotating around and a few picture menus indicating options for where you could turn a few shavings of meat into a meal. The signs for an Istanbul kebab are everywhere.

My absence over these past few days isn’t because I decided to try every kebab in Budapest (instead we did attempt to conquer the top 5 gelato stores). But because time passes too quickly when you’ve having fun (albeit no sleep).

Since we departed for our adventure, the dreaded snorer has visited every place we've stayed in. It’s becoming an in-house joke between Kylie and I before we hit the hay to listen out for any nose grumbling noises. You sit in your bed waiting in silence. It only takes a couple of seconds before the orchestra starts up. A trombone. A few drums. Nothing to dainty and sweet in melody. Usually there is a pause. Than bang. It all starts up again. We’ve been having a laugh about this but only up until you actually want to get to sleep yourself and you can’t push your earplugs in any further.

Last night was another spectacular performance. But this time with a special guest. I’ll blame it on the Radler and hayfever (yes – it is starting to get sunny here now). But I too joined the snoring orchestra. However I’m sure it’s for one night only.

Toodle pip x