They say Budapest is a cool city

And they're definitely right.

Recently, I've kinda been hit on the face by a speeding shinkansen and its impact has knocked me off my feet for a couple of days. No proper sleep, no food, no energy. It's as if I've turned into a zombie, a very exhausted and negative one at that.

Recently, they've been telling me Budapest is the place to heal your heart and soul.

I pray they're right.

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We arrived in Hungary after the shortest flight I've ever been on (35mins), late Thursday evening. After trying to find out whether there's a public bus to the city center at that time (11pm) and being told there isn't (liars - there's the 900, but you gotta change into 905 and then, unless you're staying in the city center, into another one) we decided to bargain with a taxi driver to take us where we were headed (hotel Mediterran). He agreed too quickly, thus letting us know we were still overpaying. But hey, we decided we can let it slide this once and thought we might be able to reduce the price a bit after arriving at the hotel. We weren't able to do so and additionally got to see some strange Hungarian maths at work - we agreed on 15euro for the fare and when we reached our destination it turned out we only had10euro bills. We asked the driver if he could give us back 5euro to which he answered he could give us back in HUF (Hungarian Forint, the national currency), one thousand to be exact. We said that was definitely too little and I found 5 euro in coins. However, that he didn't want to accept, as he'd have problems exchanging it later, at which point we said ok - let us pay 10 euro and the rest in forints. Everything seemed fine until he said: "So that'll be 10 euro and 2000 huf". How the hell did the 5 euro go from being worth 1000 huf to 2000 huf within 2 minutes? I hear you ask. Well, my thoughts exactly.

We ended up paying 10 euro and 1500 huf and left the car, finally arriving at our hotel close to midnight. It was a very long day (we took a bus from Warsaw to Kraków at 9am, a plane from Kraków to Budapest at 10pm) and I was barely alive, yet still managed to have problems falling asleep and to woke up at 7 am the next day.

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I very rarely use the word "hate" but I seriously hate what's been going on with me those last two weeks, and this week especially. I've been driving myself mad by going through things over and over again in my head and never finding an answer, as well as brought myself to a point of utter exhaustion by not being able to rest or nurish my body properly. Actually, yesterday was the first day since Monday that I managed to force myself to eat anything at all. The bad part is, I did so by having some lángos, which is not the wisest of choices after 3 days on an empty or close to empty stomach. The good part is, my body reacted in a most normal way in the given situation and it shut down, thus letting me fall asleep for a short nap.

I'm also mad at myself for ruining the trip for my travel partner, this is so not what she signed up for. Luckily, she's an amazing person and has been of great help. Also, was so excited and glad to see Paszczak, one of my best and oldest friends, who's currently doing his Erasmus time in Budapest. He took us out yesterday and we got to see a couple of the city's clubs and pubs, and they're awsome. It's really incredible how poor Warsaw's nightlife is. I just wish I let myself enjoy it more instead of putting myself down all the time and whinning like a little b... baby. However, I think I've had a breakthrough today. I'd been telling myself I'd be at peace again once I understood things. But I'm pretty sure I won't, so that was a dead end street, not the best perspective. I think I've finally accepted it though and the knot in the stomach is gone, the tension seems to be leaving me as well. About time, Magu!

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Today Ewelina, Paszczak's gf is coming over for a week. Also, another primary school friend is flying down tonight to stay for a couple of days, bringing with him two others. My travel partner and I didn't quite make it back to the hotel last night, so now we just dropped in to freshen up and change, and should be leaving soon - a photo frenzy awaits (Budapest really is beautiful and very majestic). It should end at Paszczak's place where we'll be preparing dinner for the whole group (at round midnight, after everyone will have reached his place, we should be 9 together). We don't expect to go party but I won't be naive again - this time I'm taking my toothbrush with me!