Budapest Day 1 : Balcony moment

A panicky moment at Budapest airport when there was nobody there to meet me on arrival, but a quick phone call established that M+D were on their way and had been delayed because of a construction project and a change of the airport bus connection point.

When they did get there, they wasted no time telling me that they'd planned the night and were taking me to a club which was having its last night tonight. I thanked them, but pointed out that my priority was for food rather than clubbing, only having had a snack pack on the flight since breakfast. Fortunately, they phoned a Hungarian friend of theirs who told them nothing was happening at the club after all, so the plan had been changed and we were going to the club-owner's apartment instead. We got a taxi and stopped off at an unprepossessing place near the apartment so I could be fed. Rather predictably, I asked for goulash. It was fabulous, and cost next to nothing.

The apartment was only a short walk away, so David dragged my bag and away we went. The plane had got in at 7:25 pm Hungarian time, and it was ten or so when we climbed the eight flights of stairs to the penthouse apartment. Drinks and chat flowed, and then suddenly it was almost midnight and I didn't have a blip. That's why my first photo from my trip to Budapest is a quick snapshot, taken on the roof terrace where we'd ensconced ourselves. My friends Michael and David are on the right (Michael facing away), and that's their Hungarian friend Tamás with the red pullover. They've been friends for most of the six years that M+D have been in Budapest, and they originally made a deal that they would help improve his command of English in return for help with Hungarian from him. David knows 'quite a few words' in Hungarian now, but still can't manage to string them together grammatically. Meanwhile, Tamás now speaks English with an Irish accent.

We got a taxi back to M+D's place eventually, had more chat there, and I finally fell into bed around 3:30 am or so. Quite a hectic start to the trip.

I have 400-odd photographs to go through from the trip, so it will be a while before I blip my Budapest choices (no access to internet while away, and didn't bring my MacBook to transfer to and sort through). This, snapshot as it is, at least gets the ball rolling.

p.s. That's just one of the bicycles that people had lugged all the way up those eight flights of stairs. Bikes are big in Budapest.