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I just realized why I never post anymore. It's because I don't obsessively read blogs anymore. How do I know this? I've been obsessively reading bloggy stuff about Budapest and Hungary in anticipation of my April vacation there, and the once-familiar impulse to blab on my own site has returned.
So here I am, excited to blab about planning for my trip to Hungary.
Here are my main sources of information thus far: The Lonely Planet Guide To Budapest; The Rough Guide To Hungary; Pestiside; The Hungary Years; Beth's account of her trip there last summer, and, crucially, Karen, who pointed me to several of these in addition to sending me lots of long emails stuffed with good information.
What my boyfriend and I have planned in certainty is limited so far to our general whereabouts for the week: Budapest for two sleeps, then a night in Eger, then back to Budapest for two more. According to meticulous research, Eger, a relatively short train ride away, is a pretty town where you can drink wine constantly for the duration of your visit.
From there, our ideas are still fairly conceptual. We want to do a lot of walking in certain areas. We want to go to one of those wine cellars where you pay a flat price to sample at will from like 60 bottles (I'm thinking, Home Town Buffet, but with wine!! and in a cellar, which implies Intrigue). We (well, I) want to go to at least one of the grand baths, where old men play chess in the pools and you try not to look at other women's cans. (AD fans: "You're just jealous because I have a hot wife with huge cans.") I am interested in looking at churches, because I have a memory of beautiful churches from when I was in Budapest in 1996 (OMG TEN YEARS AGO OMG). Anyway, these ideas are obviously pretty general.
But as I've been studying, my mental prep has gotten the tiniest bit more specific. Primary among my concerns right now is the fact that I don't have a working camera, because I left my charger in the Bahamas. Obvs, I'll need a camera for the trip. The clear course of action is to hit up B&H (or wherever) for a new charger. But I'm wondering, now, if maybe I should just get a new camera? Or borrow one? Mine is pretty old now (3 - but that's like 85 in technology years) and has taken thousands of pictures and isn't that great a piece of equipment anymore.
There's also the issue of what to pack. You can never predict what the weather will be like in April. It has got to be the most unreliable month on the calendar. All the averages in the world are not the slightest help. The closest to a firm estimate I can count on is something along the lines of, "between winter and summer." Essentially I can be certain of nothing except for the fact that the temperature will hover right around that line between needing a jacket, and not needing a jacket. Great.
I am a girl, so this presents endless concerns for me. Should I bring flip flops? (That probably sounds ridiculous, but flip flops are my travel shoes. They're more comfortable to me than any other type of shoe, as long as temperature is higher than, say, 55F.) What type of jacket should I pack? How many sweaters?
This compounds the existing uncertainty about what to wear in Hungary (an uncertainty which is sure to explode into panic in approximately one and a half months). Who cares about warmth and comfort - what won't look stupid? Screw my affection for strolling around foreign cities in flip flops, if they're a red flag that I'm American. What if Hungarians hate the color green? What if they think V-necks are tacky? How can I dress well by Hungarian standards? Is there a Hungarian Vogue or something? I need some serious direction here.
Finally, there is the issue of Where To Eat And Drink. Ordinarily when I travel (like I'm cosmopolitan or something, yeah right), I let this stuff sort itself out. When I get hungry, I find a place nearby, and eat there. Then again, my eating experiences abroad have not been wonderful. Plus, the signage will be incomprehensible to me, so I can't count on restaurants' facades to tell me anything about what I'll find inside. What if the sign says "Disgusting Food, If You Can Call It That"? I'd never know! Of course, I wouldn't want to eliminate the element of spontaneity from our trip by planning each meal in advance, but maybe we should prepare some basic guidelines. A list of appealing restaurants and bars for each neighborhood we plan to be in, for example, just in case the perfect restaurants don't present themselves.
Addendum: My comments have been down for a little while, we're just trying to sort out a server-overloaded-with-spam issue. This isn't much of a problem for me because I never post so people never need to say anything. But if you have suggestions or comments about Hungary or Budapest, totally email me. If you don't already have my email address, use the one up top.
