I love flea markets like I love the American flag. Did that sound patriotic enough for the fourth of July? I didn’t see any local celebrations in Budapest at all, but it’s OK. It’s OK because someday…someday we will ALL be Americans!
Europeans never think that’s funny. I don’t know why.

I went to the Petofi Csarnok flea market in the City Park both days this weekend. Every year it becomes a little more sanitized with more of the same sellers and the challenge to find a good deal is harder, but it’s all Budapest has since “famous” Ecseri Piac is a flea market like Paris Hilton is an actress and the Ocskapiac behind Keleti train station closed down. Last year in the Ocskapiac I bought 8 or 10 passports from gypsies. Ah, the good old days…

This time what did I buy? A soldier’s ID card from 1959, a ticket to Hungary’s first Formula One race, old tickets to Deep Purple and Saxon concerts and other absolute junk like this.

I wake up everyday at about 6:30am no matter what time I go to sleep. Some days it is 5:30am, in which case I force myself to sleep a little more, but I am constantly in a zombie-like tired state. It’s awful.