Happy New Year!

Theme song for the New Year: Foo Fighters, DOA

Yeah, you know I did it, it's over and I feel fine
Nothing you can say is gonna change my mind
Waited, and I wait at the longest night
Nothing like the taste of sweet decline
et cetera. And no one's getting out of here alive.

The remainder of our sweet decline, I mean break, played out about like you would think: we sat around, we drank, we watched a lot of MTV and movies. One day, we ventured out of the house to go see King Kong in the theater. Despite being dubbed, it proved to be an excellent movie - it even cured a hangover!

On Friday, Erin arrived, with some minor train-related drama. I had a mini-adventure which involved going to Bp. Keleti at 5 am, then waiting in the freezing bitter cold for hours, for a train that was three hours late, and which Erin wasn’t on anyway. But in the end, I bought a new hat, and she made it to Szolnok all by herself so all's well that... blah blah.

The other arrivals on Friday night were Kat, Jeremy, and Harpswell, freshly returned from their Grecian conquests. We had a relatively calm night without leaving the apartment to brave the nasty wind. Saturday morning, the three of them got up at an absurdly early hour (8 am! It’s still break, people!) to make it to their hostel in Budapest. The rest of us lazed around until mid afternoon, when we finally left the house. A highly entertaining train ride, involving beer, music, dancing, and random blurts of radio, got us into the city slightly before dark. Having not found anywhere better or cheaper, we begged a room at the Kollegium.

After dinner at Marchello’s, we met up with Kat, Jeremos, Harpswell, and Steve, their Aussie roommate from the hostel. After walking up and down the same street a couple times, we found Harpswell’s friend’s Tibi’s flat, where we made ourselves at home. As is usually the case when the Americans go anywhere, none of the Hungarians were dancing when we came in. We changed that.

We danced and drank right up until midnight. Actually, I had forgotten to be paying attention to the time, but the sudden shouting of “Tizenöt!... tizennégy!... tizenhárom!..” got my attention. Proudly, I was able to count backwards right along with the screaming Hungarians (Laura and I had been practicing earlier). Champagne (and beer) flowed. We all puszi-puszi-ed (the cheek kiss). Some people puszi-ed more than others, but hey, it’s holidays.

After Tibi’s, we headed to a bar/club down the street. I’m torn between which was better: the bonfire in the courtyard, the people capering madly around it, or the snowball fight that ensued. Or who knows?

Well, that’s half the story. I’m tired and I need to consider what to write further, so tune in later for the rest.