Hungary for more!
We've been in Budapest for two days now and still have two to go. This city is totally different from Prague and Krakow. The other two were relatively small and easy to navigate on foot, but this city... it's a crazy jumbled network of trams, buses, bus-trolleys, metros, etc. Can't really walk everywhere, but this city definitely has some beautiful buildings. Yesterday, we decided to go spelunking in the caves under the city and while the brochure had looked at warned us that it would involve some crawling in tight spaces, it wasn't enough to prepare us for the actual cave tour.For nearly 3 hours, I squeezed myself into the tight spaces under fallen boulders, slid between slabs of rock less than a foot apart, climbed head-first into narrow downhill passages, and managed to squeeze myself into tunnels so narrow that my head and helmet almost didn't fit and the only way to get through was to lie flat on the ground on my stomach head-first, and raise on arm over my head (because my shoulders were a little to wide to fit through) and wriggle through the mud like a worm. I had mud in my hair, clay under my nails, dirt on my face, and developed bruises all over my elbows and knees. And it was so totally exhilerating and fun! I don't think caving will ever become a hobby of mine, but it was one of the best experiences I've had. At one point during our climb, when I was wedged between two boulders so close together that I couldn't turn my head (I've always thought that my head was round, but apparently, it's a lot wider front-to-back than left-to-right), with my face in the dirt, I started laughing uncontrollably because it had finally clicked just how absurd this whole situation was. I had just paid some random Hungarian guy like 20 bucks to cause me intense physical discomfort. But in the end, I think it was a twenty well-spent.
The whole caving experience really lifted our spirits. The previous 24 hours or so (our "24 Hours of Hell"), the exact midpoint of our trip, Kim and I were kinda down in the dumps. It all started when we tried to leave Krakow. We had heard about the fact that on trams we had to buy two tickets, one for our person and one for our luggage, but we didn't think our backpacks really counted as luggage, since they weren't nearly as big as suitcases or anything. Boy we were wrong. We got caught by under-cover police and were fined 75 zloty. It actually turned out to only be like $25, but it was the principle of the thing. It was obviously targeted at tourists (who are already bringing money into the city and the country without having to try and scam/cheat us) and any information they had was unclearly labelled and visible signs were only posted inside the trams so that by the time you read them, it's too late because you're on the stinking tram already. When we got to Budapest (via our 11 hour overnight sleeper train), we were tired and cranky and couldn't figure out the public transportation system and ended up wandering aimlessly through Budapest, not really taking it in. We decided to splurge on a nice dinner to help perk us up, but the restaurant that we picked ended up having atrocious food and abysmal service. To top it off, we realized that we were going to end up way too far south (if we stuck to our plans to go to Croatia) to make it back up to Berlin by train in time and when we looked for flights from Dubrovnik, they were quoting prices upwards of $700 - $800 for an in-Europe one-way flight!
Long story short, swe went to bed, woke up the next day feeling much better, went caving, found cheap flights, ate a very yummy and very cheap lunch, and things are looking much better. I guess every trip needs a disaster story, and hopefully that's ours. I don't want any more set-backs. Next stop, Sarajevo.
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