After roughly two weeks here in Bratislava it's finally time to leave. It's been really slow in Slovakia, but I've met some good people here and had good times. Our destination? Prague. Hitlers favorite city, which is the only reason it wasn't leveled to dust like most everything else in Europe during the war. Fun fact huh? As usual I make my way to the station alone by taking the bus. And as usual Zane is late, arriving by car. I get a Subway sandwich before our bus arrives and devour it before it departs, not that I endorse Subway, or even sandwiches for that matter, which are abominations anyway you slice it, but being stuck without food on a bus or anywhere for that matter, is an undesirable situation, especially while traveling. Luckily I also had a bag of oranges for us to eat, which lasted till we ate the last two while leaving Prague's bus station. My first impressions of Prague were really very good. It is a clean city, rich in history, culture and architecture, again, thanks to Hitler, with plenty to see and do. Among Prague's other prestigious accolades are it's draw of people from all over the world for vacationing and that it has some of the cheapest and finest beer I've ever tasted, and taste it we did, repeatedly...We checked into our hostel and unloaded our bags. The whole place was themed, each room having the name of the artist who painted it on the door. Ours was peter, with a sunflower theme. Just like Hungary, the Czech Republic is outside of the European Union, thus our euros needed to be changed. We asked the young lady at the desk where we could get a good rate and exchanged some money there before heading out on the town. The first place we went was the main square, where Zane was during Christmas and incidentally where the Christmas market is held. There were a few stands set up at the end with people inside and out, handing out promotions for clubs or dealing drugs in hushed tones to those alternatively minded enough to make such a visual impression, depending on the pushers critique of you of course. We didn't buy drugs offered in hushed tones or give any serious consideration to the club promotions, we just walked on, finally coming to and crossing one of the famous bridges leading to the castle on the other side of the river that divides Prague. We got to the top of the hill, which overlooked the city in a beautiful swath of open panoramic space, then ate dinner at a monk brewery inside the old church walls. It was very strong beer, and the food was delicious. Zane said it was his first time having duck. It was all pretty pricey, but worth it. At having met our elegance quota for the day, if not the entire week, thanks to the duck and celibate recipe beer, we shifted gears and headed back to our hostel with a bottle of rum, beers, a group of Canadians and a Hungarian woman. The group of us very quickly became too loud for our surroundings and took the party to the brewery next door. There, a string of unfortunate events lead us both back to the hostel in sorrier shape than before.First, Zane and I were having a drinking contest with our 1L beers, seeing who could finish faster than the other, but I was too drunk to keep drinking so I tried giving my beer to the Hungarian woman, but Zane wasn't going to let that happen, and slapped the beer out of my hands and spilt the whole thing on the table. To which Zane started laughing uncontrollably. Then we, As in I, started yelling about this and that political thing with the Canadians, at which point they left, presumably for bed.Second, I went to the bathroom and tripped straight down the stairs nearly knocking down a waitress in my path, I curled and avoided her though. She just happened to be our waitress as well and had the stink eye on me the rest of the night, clearly with good reason. On our way out of the brewery, Zane ran and tackled me into the street, giggling as we both tumbled to the ground, but I don't remember that, the Hungarian told me the next day after I complained about how bad my ass hurt. "It was probably when Zane tackled you in the street." She said, "what, he tackled me?" I asked, totally surprised. "Oh yeah.. Pretty hard too. That's when I decided to go home, you guys were on whole other level. Do you remember what happened after that?" She asked, with mused interest. To make things easier on us both I summed up the night with," we just went out and drank more, walking a long way and then came home." All true, but completely devoid of specifics, a conversational specialty of mine usually employed by lawyers, salesman, politicians, philosophers and compulsive liars alike. What I do remember after the brewery is going to some super sleazy strip club in the same square we were earlier today, with blue tinted black lights everywhere, and shadowy characters in every corner of the establishment all thinking about the contents and limitations of things in their pants, or lack there of as it was for us. For in places like this the only thing one does is hand money to naked ladies, or leave, nothing else. So we ordered stiff drinks, finished them in a haze of cigarette smoke, watching bodies twisting and turning in ways best left to the imagination, words failing to express what is otherwise an experience held in private quarters at establishments just like this. After leaving we were immediately surrounded by shades approaching from the alleys outside the club, and were offered the same drugs by the same people as earlier, only now there was nothing hushed about their tones, no critiques or double takes in their choice of words or to whom they are spoken. If your on this street, at this hour, coming out of that strip club, your either already on drugs, or looking for some, and the guys to sell it to you are right there, they always are. So we talk to these guys for a minute and the first thing they show me is a bag of what looked like laundry detergent. Zane and I just laugh at them, pointing at the little blue balls that lined the bag. Without skipping a beat the short and stalky, leather jacket wearing dealer puts away the laundry detergent and pulls out a bag of green stuff, and when a good smell of its contents clears inspection and passes mustard I buy some before our long walk back home. Before we return to the hostel, Zane and I get pizza and veggie kebabs. Zane was out of Czech money so he used the $10 I gave to Zuzka for gas money in Bratislava, which she gave to him because she owed him $10 as well. Now Zanes using it to pay for our food.Zane woke up the next morning without any small change and swore the kebab guy just took all of the change after we got our food. I've had it happen before and we were very drunk, happens all the time. Ahh the flow of money, how creative! We then crossed the street and smoked outside the front door of the hostel, falling asleep promptly upon finishing. It was a good night, but not without it's appropriate toll.
American Outlaws in Hungary
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.
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.
Thanks to Masala
In the morning the ladies make a super big breakfast, but all I can eat is the sliced apples and orange juice. Meanwhile Tal and Peter ravage through the bread, cheese, eggs, meat and butter like starved wolves in a chicken coop. After the slaughter we join the Israelis on a journey through the city. They are on their own mission, I just wanted food and water, so we eventually split up. We may be in the capital city, but that doesn't matter, it's Sunday and this is still Germany, and that means that almost everything is closed. So we walked for what seemed like hours, looking for food and water. Eventually I really slowed down, Zane was always at least 15-20 feet ahead of me, which isn't unusual considering his super long legs and quick speed, but this was ridiculous. It was cold too, and eventually Zane and I made the call to return home. Paying a premium for a little bottle of water in the train station, which Im still happy for regardless.By the time we get back to Annika's I have enough bloating and pain in my stomach to know I'm in for a long couple days running back and forth to the throne room, and I'm pretty damn sure it has everything to do with that sweet and sour slop I ate at Masala, the Indian joint yelp thought so highly of.From dusk till dawn I'm squirting Masala like nobody's business. Getting up so often that at one point I decide to just stand over the sink drinking water to continue the next volley thats sure to come. By morning I'm a zombie, wrecked on so many levels its sad. I need food so bad at this point that I leave the house before anyone is awake and go to the market. I slam my finger in the door jam on the way out, a blood blister from the start, just great.. At the super market I get apples, mixed salads that came with their root ball in the bag, very interesting, and an avocado.I eat alone until Annika comes in the kitchen and makes a few cups of coffee, both of which she drinks to her face before she can muster anything more than "hey"... Apparently she's not a morning person, and today, neither am I. At first Annika was going to meet us somewhere in the city, but this was not going to happen, I knew that much. Fortunately for us she quickly finished what she had to do and we all take the bus to a Russian war memorial in Treptower park on the outskirts of town. The place is a graveyard for 80,0000 Russian soldiers who died taking Berlin, its a fairly large rectangle lined with massive iron gates, emblemed with the classic communist star. The entrance is flanked on either side by huge statues of Russian soldiers baring arms and heavy winter coats, while the sides are unmarked graves lined with depictions of the communist struggle against fascism, all of which leads up to the biggest statue of them all at the back. This statue is of a burly russian commander crushing the nazi swastika under his boots, which towers above the pavilion on a mound. Under which lies a little gated room filled with mosaics. I believe it was the only marked grave there. But I can't be sure, since there was no writing I could understand. Next Annika took us to a Mexican restaurant which I only used for the throne, while Zane had a chicken casadia and a beer. From there Annika brought us to the city gate and left us to take her English exam. We wanted to enter the Reichstag, an impressive parliament building erected after the war to commemorate those in office who were slaughtered by Hitlers men for opposing them, but the next available tickets were for the night time, several hours away and we didn't go for it. Instead we head to check point Charlie, the most famous checkpoint between East and West Germany during the cold war, where so many people were shot and killed trying to escape from the Communist regime, including dozens of West Germans who were aiding them in their escape. Its a pretty interesting place. There were actors there in uniform posing for the tourists. By the time we get home Im a gas bomb ready to blow, and I do, just as I sit down on the throne. It was like having several balloons in my body all releasing at different times, the human body really is an amazing thing... Im so exhausted and weak that when Zane talks about going out to the club I half laugh out loud, but mostly cry a little to myself at the thought of actually attempting it. Luckily for me Annika returns from her test and nurses me back to health. She gives me some black Chinese medicine balls, much like those I had in India during our Sk-23 adventure, only those were white. Then she puts a hot water bag on my belly because I'm shivering and feeds me those little pre toasted pieces of bread that my German Grandma (Oma) used to dip in her coffee, only I dip it in peppermint tea, since I don't drink caffeine. I've got to eat something to fill the gaps that are now expanding exponentially inside me, and this fits the bill nicely since I can hardly stand the sight of food right now. I pass out in Annika's room for a power nap, wake up to a bowl of mushed bananas which I slam down. Pack my bags for our bus to Oma's tomorrow and now Zane is leaving with Annika to the clubs, which although was the impetus for our trip to Berlin, I have absolutely no intention of going to, thanks to Masala..