I lost my heart in London but I lost my liver in Budapest

Challenge 3: Go on lots of day/weekend/many day trips (don't stay in the same place, explore, travel, wander)

I've never really been the spontaneous type, an impromptu trip to the pub is about as unplanned as it gets. However, when my Australian Tax Return and a voucher from STA travel came through in the middle of my six week summer break, I couldn't resist the calls of an old uni friend urging me to meet her somewhere in Europe. Purely based on dates, Budapest was the chosen destination for five days. Before I begin attempting to recap, I feel as though there should be some kind of disclaimer that this will not be a story about our cultured trip to Eastern Europe... 

The girls and I arrived in Budapest on Sunday to discover that it was the last day of the Sziget Festival, one of the biggest music festivals in Europe. Feeling a little sheepish that we didn't know it was on, we were almost resigned to the fact that we would be the only people in Budapest not donning a yellow "Lets Sziget Fucked" singlet and making our way to Freedom Island. However, choosing to ignore the "out of stock" notice on the website we went ahead and ordered the tickets anyway. Before we knew it we were printing them and heading off to Sziget. Simple as that! 

The festival was like nothing that we get in Australia. Not only did it have the main stages, there were circus acts, piercing parlours, traditional Hungarian dancing and bars galore. Due to our late entry the only act left on the main stage was David Guetta, so we made our way straight there. Amidst the laser lights, confetti, fireworks and gropey European men, we danced while Guetta pushed some buttons and did a lot of fist pumping. Sounds trivial but it was pretty amazing. The rest of our night was spent dancing to various DJs and exploring the island. Among the crowd we noticed that one girl had brought her mum to the festival. Keen to join in the fun with the young ones, 'mum' jumped on the back of a bike with a side cart, dancing in that unique middle-aged woman way. Unfortunately, she was so consumed by the attention that she lost her balance and fell backwards into the cart, legs straight up in the air like a cartoon character! I only hope I can embarrass my children half as much as she did when I'm her age!

The following day was spent eating ice-cream and enjoying the sunshine. I had planned on sleeping in, but was woken by my British roommates returning from the festival around 7am. They were very concerned that one of their trio hadn't come back, not because he was lost but because the girl he had gone home with wasn't very attractive. Trying to dig deeper into the male psyche I naively enquired whether their mate would get any kudos for picking up at all. He informed me that no, his friend would not as he would rather remove his genitals than engage in coitus with said female (but not nearly as eloquently as that). 

Once we had recovered from Sziget it was time to jump back on the horse, or in this case boat. Monday night's festivities consisted of a booze cruise down the river Danube. Despite the large bottle of champagne we were given (each) we were awe struck by the city which looked stunning by night, especially the beautiful building of parliament and the Chain bridge which lit up the river. There was a loose rule that whenever the boat went under a bridge you had to kiss someone. I now understand how my Nan feels at Christmas as all the kisses I received were on smack bang on the cheek. 

On Tuesday we took the opportunity to enjoy the heat at one of the oldest thermal bath houses in Europe. Lying in the beautiful ornate surroundings of the bath house with the Budapest sunshine peaking through the clouds was the perfect way to spend the day. The lovely warm water also did wonders for our aching muscles from all the dancing in the previous 48 hours. However, the best part of the baths was definitely the people watching. There were tattoos, piercings, six-packs, guts, breast on ladies, breast on men, selfies, cellulite and more hair than you would find on yogi bear himself. Perched on a sun lounge with my big sunnies on I was enjoying the display of the human species when we were unceremoniously asked if we wanted to pay for our sun lounges. Our bikini clad bodies lying on the ground must have been a pathetic site because the gentleman in charge of taking payment shortly returned to inform us that we could have our sun lounges back free of charge as long as we didn't tell anybody. 

By Wednesday we realised we hadn't been very cultural while in Budapest so we decided to take the walking tour of the city. We learnt that Hungarian is the second most difficult language to learn, a Hungarian invented the Rubik's cube and that Budapest is the largest exporter of baby hippos in the world. Possibly most interesting the the fact that Budapest has the third best bar in the world and it was just around the corner from our hostel. So of course that evening we jumped on a pub crawl and went to visit the famous ruin bars. These bars were decaying homes which have been emptied out and filled with an eclectic mix of retro furnishings and decorations and turned into very cool night spots. Szimpla is the one that has the top rating. It goes over two stories linked by winding spiral staircases. Fuelled with a little dutch courage from a hefty pre-drinking session, we went about meeting some new friends in the tourist-filled bars. As a result we encountered some of the most creative pick-up tactics I have seen in a while:

• Apparently, if your name is George you are in luck. With the recent naming of the royal baby this name now has some serious pull, as a 21 year old English lad discovered with one of my friends. 
• Also, lulling the girl into a false sense of security with quite camp mannerisms and studying fashion seems to (almost) work. Another friend of mine found herself sitting on a guy's lap for this reason but became quite confused when his hands started wondering up and down her leg. By the time he offered to buy her a drink she was out of there. 
• Or finally, if all else fails and you're Canadian and attractive, you can just grab the faces of three girlfriends and give each of them a cheeky kiss. You may even have the audacity to remind the girls of this the next day (well played "Canadian Dave").

Needless to say after a night of vodka shots, beer chasers and Baileys on the rocks my last day in Budapest was spent sleeping, eating and debriefing with the girls. On my way to the airport I met a Hungarian-born American who told me she had caught up with her ex-husband while in Budapest and had gone for a candle-lit dinner to "celebrate" their divorce 30 odd years ago. She seemed to think Budapest was a good place for karmic retribution. I just think it's a good vibes city and I was so sad to say goodbye.