Greg and I decided to test out the new highway and hitchhike from Pecs back to Budapest. We like to save money, too, and while 4400 forint (US$20) for a three hour train ticket to the capital wouldn’t kill us, that’s two or three nice lunches, and we were up for the challenge. Only problem was that Greg is my size and has a giant backpack, so here we are, two big guys with a lot of baggage trying to get a lift. I applied the secret weapon, an American flag on my pack, and in about 30 or 40 minutes a guy picked us up and drove us straight to the middle of Budapest.
The guy who took us was non-plussed that I could speak some Hungarian, but sometimes drivers are so surprised and in disbelief that I am not half Hungarian that they ask to see my passport as proof of this, not because I speak Hungarian well—because I don’t—but that I can at all since learning Hungarian isnt something you take on lightly or easily on a whim.

It was Greg’s birthday and he was keen to see a Hungarian medicinal bath, plus I had never been, so we made our way to Szechenyi furdo. It was a lot different than a Japanese onsen. Some of the big complex was like a swimming pool party, a fun place to hang out, play chess, laze around and delve into the crazy whirlpool. It’s a shame it is so expensive (3100 forint/US$14) or I might spend my summer there working on my website. (Wait a minute, there are season passes. Let me think this over…)

I guess I need to write something here. Oh! I met a Russian girl named Svetlana on the bus back from taking Greg to the airport. She swears a doofus like me (she kindly didn’t put it in those terms) can make 40 euros an hour teaching English privately in Moscow. That would be a great place to summer, too.