I had a long night out with a Vierka and two French couch surfers who are riding their bicycles through Europe for 6 months, thats these guys:https://m.facebook.com/Electripdream-246190632219484/?ref=bookmarks . It was rough having to be at Zuzkas for a ride to the train station the next morning, especially having to walk through the rain. We got to the station with less than 10 minutes to buy our tickets and board the train, so we split up into two different lines in case one was faster. With 1 minute to spare we stood at the platform, tickets in hand, the train was 2 minutes late. The cabin was clean, air conditioned and very nice in general, there were already four people there but we squeezed in, which was fine because the train would empty more and more on our several hour journey to the Hungarian capital of Budapest.When we passed into Hungary the border security guards got on our train and went cabin to cabin asking for "Papers please?" Zane and I totally spaced. "Um papers?" Having just crossed international borders without passports they could easily send us back to Slovakia on the next train, or worse, and more likely, detain us until confirming our identities. We both handed them our California drivers licenses hoping beyond reason that this would not spell disaster for us. "These will not work, where are your passports?" The black clad duo bellowed, each now resting their hands on their service pistols. "Were sorry we totally forgot them, we didn't even think about it." They looked at each other, said some scary sounding adjectives in Hungarian and continued in English "how long will you be in Hungary?" "Two days.." Another round of harsh sounding language and questioning fascial features to each other."If you travel internationally you need passports! Don't forget!" The large lady officer said, and then slided the door closed. It was a miracle of modern security standards for sure, had this occurred in the United States of America we would have experienced a very different outcome. The rest of the trip we wondered if they would change their minds and send us back. After this the train came to a slow and time consuming crawl through the suburbs of the city, an hour later we finally made it to Budapest. The train station there is actually pretty cool, certainly much better than the one in Bratislava. We made it to the city center and walked in circles around the block that supposedly had our hostel, once we found it, we checked in and met a very passionate and smiling Hungarian girl who worked there. She was telling us about all the pub crawls and crazy drunken nights she's had recently, how much she loved krakow Poland and that I shouldn't miss it for the world. We had a welcome shot with her of homemade Hungarian liquor and then in walks Barak! The Turk who I got all political and religious with at the couch surfing party in Bratislava, Lol what a coincidence. Then we have welcome shots with them. Also joining in are two Canadian girls whose first question for us is where they can buy tampons? As Zane would so aptly put it to me later, "this should have been our first clue.."Even though Hungary is the harshest on drug laws out of all the countries we've visited yet, Zane's priority is still trying to get marijuana from a friend of his that he met here the last time he came. Somehow we talk ourselves into bring the Canadian girls with us on our walk. They see a pharmacy and head for it while we continue on. The place we have to go is several blocks away and once we find it we almost don't get anything because we couldn't get wifi and were waiting at her door without any information or clues. So we buy a small beer from a bar to use wifi, contact the contact and zane meets her while I drink his beer. After getting the weed and liquor from the store, we head back to the hostel, at this point we see two grown women, obviously drunk as skunks, holding each others hands as one was about to black out, they were leveraging all their weight against each other until their hands slipped and they both fell backwards, one hitting her head on the uneven stone road right away and knocking herself out, the other landing ass first, tearing her pants open from the crack up. Im closest to her so I give her a hand up, while Zane and the girls tend to the other.One of the Canadian girls was obsessed with helping this lady, talking to her passed out body repeatedly in English as if it made any difference. "Honey I need you to get up now. Can you tell me your name? Do you know where you are?" This lady was literally out cold, and Canada just couldn't let it go. Finally a group of locals came and she woke up. For me this was the perfect time to walk away, but not for Canada, oh no, now that this barely conscious person was aware of her surroundings Canada had to make sure she could cross all her T's and dot her i's, in English of course, a language I'm sure she didn't speak, because her other friend, who never lost consciousness, responded to my questions in pure Hungarian. I tore Canada away at this point and left the Hungarian ladies in Hungarian hands, we then returned to the hostel. We smoke, drink our bottle of gin and juice, talk to a few people in our hostel, then go out to a few places with the Canadian girls. Zane also meets up with a polish girl who comes along with us, even gifting Zane her small bottle of Vodka. She seemed to really enjoy the Canadians company. We end up smoking hookah like sheiks in some dark corner of this extremely large, three story club, with the walls heavily drawn upon by staff and guests alike I imagine. They must have been going for the classic dark art noir of heroin come downs, because thats exactly what it looked and felt like in there.We play team foosball next, the results of which I can't recall. At which point Zane and I left to dance elsewhere, but we just ended up going to get pizza two different times, at the same place, before going to bed.
Another side of Bratislava
I woke up in pain. This couch needs to be thrown out the window on to a pile of burning coals, it's a death trap! As soon as Pedro woke up I asked If I could sleep in his room, he must have known how bad the couch was because he apologized if it was hard to sleep and happily agreed to sharing his room with me. Pedro left for work and I left at around 2 pm to meet Zane in the city. I waited at the bus stop for about 10 minutes and got on board when it arrived. There wasn't anyway to get a ticket on the bus itself and the driver gave me the precise look one gives a stranger in whom no fucks can be given. I got the message and sat down promptly.Within moments we were at the substation for several bus routes in our area. A young lady attempted to help me but gave me instructions of a complicated nature that involved several transfers. None of which I understood because she barely spoke English at all. Even if I wanted to join her on the bus she was about to board, before our conversation ended a technician came up to the ticket box and started disassembling it before I could buy a ticket. Thus I was left with the only option I had left, take Pedro's advice and board bus 70, and so that is what I did. Along my journey through the barren fields outside of Bratislava, I witnessed the faces of local people from a region of the world half familiar to me from my own heritage and half alien. This being my first time in Eastern Europe I wasn't really sure what to expect, but I immediately Sensed a coldness and sadness to it, unlike that which I've experienced in Germany or Korea, both of which share their own brand of national shame and regret, but this, this is something different. Korea deals with its eternal sadness as it being apart of their cultural identity, a fact easily seen through their everyday lives and also their excellent entertainment of the dramatic variety. While Germany's shame is mitigated through the eternal pursuit of order, and excellence, and all whilst living with constant reminders that they once hailed the banner of earths last great boogie man. In Slovakia though, the sadness and shame are to be found in the attitudes of the people in General. Many seek to be totally separated from anything Slovakian, preferring to call themselves European. The second world war ended with Czechoslovakia becoming two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Slovakia getting the worst end of the bargain. After that communism came and all semblance of life as they once knew was eradicated through strict and brutal Soviet policies. To top it all off they were quickly dropped into "capitalistic democracy" when the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 90's and are even now slow to meet this new paradigm. After all they've been through I imagine they're reluctant to believe in any new system that is handed to them. Once I reached the station I checked my messages and realized that the last thing I had told Zane was that I'd meet him, but I didn't specify the time. Not one to twiddle my thumbs I went to the nearest pub and got a beer so that I could use their wifi. Which I didn't need to do because the bar tender gave me the password before I even ordered anything, but I felt obliged non the less.Once contact with Zane was made, I stood on the foot bridge waiting for him. Many people came and went, but Zane took a long time to arrive, and since neither of us had cell phones we couldn't contact each other unless we got wifi. It's a throw back to the good old days when no one had cell phones and if we planned to meet somewhere, we damn sure would, or somebody would be waiting and then leaving without ever knowing what happened, until they got home, or talked the next day. I miss those times. Zane arrived 40 minutes late, I met him and smiled as he told me about how he had lost track of time, he couldn't see then that my German blood was boiling from this affront to punctuality, order and reason, because my face was the picture of calm and tranquillity. A skill I have barely learned to use in the last year or so. Usually I just blow up and live up to the title Blake gave me once during a mushroom trip that I told him not to make a scene in, "Daniel Maddox, the KING of making a scene, is telling me not to.. Ahaha!" He said.We found a nice little pub in which to eat and drink, that was darkly lit and furnished with equally dark furniture and giant wooden spool tops hanging from the ceiling. We drank 1.5L of IPA beer, then bought a bottle of Gin and juice to bring to the couch surfing party we were heading to next. We got directions for how to get there from the bar tender but she suggested we just take a sanctioned taxi from their pub. Which would be cheaper, safer, and faster than the unsanctioned kind.We being the rebellious, trail blazing Californians that we are, totally ignored such sound advice and headed out in the parties relative direction. After walking for quite a while, and seeing no point in going on, we hailed a cab, presumably unsanctioned, and then obviously so, when he charged us 17 dollars to drive 7 kilometers... But we made it there safe and sound, thats the important thing. At the door to the apartment building we rang upstairs and a young ladies voice answered, "whats the password?" "Um... We have no idea" "Daniel?" "Yes it's me" "come on up" and the door buzzed open. We started climbing the stairwell when Vierka met us half way. "My names Vierka, pleased to meet you." She said enthusiastically as she led us up the stairs to her apartment, which was packed with 8+ couch surfers from the world over. We entered into a kitchen set ablaze with several international dishes at work from a few different chefs. Vierka had set up a cook off between all her couch surfers and we were witness to it. The alcohol driven merriment was also in full swing, as several massive bottles of beer 2.5L each were already empty at the table. Once we added our gin and juice to the mix things really picked up. As usual I was immediately sucked into the most philosophical and political discussion possible, this time with a Turk named Burak, as we heavily debated world politics and religion, the others tuned out and discussed their own lives and travels, this being the usual case, we continued on unabated. Vierka told us of a cool bar in town with live music, so five of us, including Vierka, Zane and I, decided to go. While several others, including Burak remained at her house. We left her apartment, took the city bus and made it to the city center. There we came to Zborjnas bar, where Zuzka was already waiting for us. It's a small little place with a tunnel like shape and feel. Zane left early because Zuzka wasn't happy about us arriving at 11 when we said we would be there by 10 or 11, and she arrived at 10. I stayed with the crew and rocked out to the hip band until near closing, then we took a trolley and then a taxi home since the busses had stopped running. I got to Pedro's and passed out in his bed.
The march to Slovakia
I woke up at 6am, having little desire to move I laid in bed comfortably until 7:15, when I heard Oma's voice calling from down stairs, "Danny! It's 7:15!" I had told her I'd be awake at 7, to her that meant I'd be fully mobilized at 7 ready to go. She was very generous waiting the extra 15 minutes before calling up to me, usually it's within 15 seconds of the appointed time. Germans are so exacting.At any rate, I pulled myself out of bed and took a shower. I didn't really feel like one, but seeing as how were going to be sitting in one place on a bus for 10 or so hours its better to be clean than squirming in your own filth. After all this time in Germany I haven't once gone to the bakery for some pretzels, this will change today, and luckily so, because it saves our butts for the first leg of the journey. Dani comes to take us to the train station and we hug Oma and wish her well before leaving. The trains in Germany are well known for being on time, this morning was not one of those times. It was 10 minutes late, and even after 1 minute I could sense the general panic and searching, wondering gazes of my fellow Germans at the station. At 5 minutes passed the expected arrival of our train it seemed that the level of cigarette smoking had nearly tripled, and eyes were glued at the bend in the tracks, searching for the lights that would restore their faith in order and civilization. At 8 minutes passed cigarette smoke had replaced the fresh air completely and even I thought we'd miss the bus. luckily though, the lights turned the bend and we were shortly on board. Not long after that we found our bus bound for Vienna and got the best seats, those at the very front, with a panoramic view and no one to recline on us, which is a real pain for tall people like Zane and I. Zane was playing hungry shark evolution on his phone, he let me play, I broke his high score twice then he took back his phone and doubled my high score. Nothing like a little competition to get your game up! I Was getting really sleepy but resisted the urge, I really hate "sleeping" on buses. It's not really sleep, it's like being drugged. Drinking water really helped, luckily I got a big bottle of it at Karlsruhe station. Once we arrived in Munich we found a Kebab place in the station and ate there. Zane was contemplating McDonalds not 15 feet away over the Kebab place because he was afraid if getting sick, I talked him out of it, but he still ended up feeling sick after. Im still glad he chose the kebab, it was the better choice. I read Worldbridger for the majority of our trip from Munich to Vienna, saving the last chapter for later because I was tired, which was fine because the overhead reading lights were turned off soon after and we arrived in Vienna's main bus and train station at around 10:30pm. We couldn't find Zuzka anywhere for some time, she was supposed to meet us right where the bus dropped us off. Luckily Zane was able to pick up some wifi and contact her. She was lost somewhere in the city and would take time to get to us. We both had to pee, all the businesses were closed and the bathrooms at the station were locked, so we walked into the park adjacent the station and made use of the fine trees growing there. Zuzka finally found us and we sped off down the highway, away from the city of Vienna, which I've never visited except for this one time, and actually have no idea what its like in the day, or really in the night for that matter. But one day I will, maybe...As we headed for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, we passed a large farm of wind turbines. You could see their outlines in the night sky for miles. Each with large red flashing beacon lights perched above them, like flares pulsating in the night. It was a beautiful sight. Especially since we blazed up for the first time since Amsterdam and I was high as a kite. Listening to Zuzka and Zane talk in their special way, a love hate relationship incarnate, I zoned out and spun away with each turn of the many massive blades spinning endlessly beside us. For some time I slept, and awoke when the bright lights of Bratislava hit my face. Once in the city we got beers, cookies and rice milk then parked the car on the sidewalk because all the parking spaces were used up. I don't like to meet people for the first time while high, actually I prefer to be alone or with great friends, but Zuzkas mom was very friendly, open and excited to have us over. Despite my paranoiac state It was very chill. She had prepared rice and chicken for us to eat as well.I had some of the rice with sauerkraut but was happily surprised when she offered me musli and coconut milk as well, which apparently she had bought just for me. I even splurged a bit and used the coconut milk to dip the two chocolate chip cookies with that Zane gave me. Zane and I each had a Liter of Czech beer that was already at the house, everyone went to sleep and I easily fell away into a deep dreaming state on the couch.