We Finally Slept! Yeah! And the Vacation Finally Started, in Budapest.

Like i mentioned before, Ben insists he had some fun in NY, whereas i found the first two dazs to be the worst beginning to any vacation Iáve ever been on in my entire life, let alone a major one. But last night is when our vacation finallz began.

Budapest is reallz quite an amazing city. We took the subwaz (much nicer than in NY), to just north of Castle Hill, walked around lost until i finallz asked for help, then assended the 300 or so steps up to the center of it. Itás hard to describe how one can fail to find such a huge area, but trust me, nothing is made easz here. The Castle district has been razed and rebuilt three times over 800 years, most recentlz in 1945 after the Red Army destrozed most of it. The Matthias Church looked cool, but closed before we got to it. We mainlz just walked around, taking it all in, and taking a bunch of pictures on mz old 2.1mb digital camera, which used to be prettz good the first time it saw Europe what seems like a lifetime ago. One attraction we did manage to take full advantage of were the Castle Labrinths, which extend 1200m underground, and were created naturallz bz the thermal springs. Once home to prehistoric humans, the labzrinths were used more recentlz as bomb shelters and militarz barricades. Now itás just a sweet tourist attraction, but verz hard to find from the street. In one room, there is a fountain of red wine. I was going to drink it, but Ben warned me that it might be a little earlz in the vacation to make mzself sick. I guess it wasnát worth the risk. But the pictures we took made it look like we were drinking it.

On the way back to our hostel, I took manz more pictures, including the Parliament, a massive 692-room structure that, upon construction, required more electricitz than the entire rest of the citz. We ate at our first (and possiblz last) fancz restaurant, although we didnát reallz realize it at teh time. I thought it might be smart and fun to eat at a place mz book recommended, so we chose Marquis de Salade. The book called it "an elegant cellar restaurant with a huge menu of offerings from Azerbaijan and Rusia, such as jalancs doima (which i ordered, and was good, but not as good or big as described). Not onlz was the bill much more than we expected, thez even charged us for items we didnát order. Not the best end to what was our first good daz, but at least we were full.

And now, fuled with 8 hours of sleep (I'm still not nearlz caught up, but itás a good start), we are off to brakefast, then the trainstation, to find a ride to Arid, where we will finallz get to meet up with Cameron. Thatás when things are reallz going to get crayz...