Archive for August 6th, 2011

Sometimes, you just never know what you’re going to get.  We arrived in Budapest by train as usual, and got out Hazel’s handy-dandy notebook where we’d written the directions to our hostel.  It was reasonably convenient to get there, just a metro ride followed by a short block, but we discovered to our dismay that nobody answered the doorbell when we got there!

Of course we weren’t about to let that stop us, oh no, so we followed another person through the outer gates of the building and entered a 4 story courtyard with anonymous doors – and no sign of a hostel!  So we split up.  I went upstairs and Hazel searched the downstairs doors.  After a good while I reached a door on the top floor that had a sign: “XYZ Hostel – Guests, please call this number when you arrive”.  This is still super suspicious because nobody was there to unlock the outer door — how could we be expected to get to this inner door?

Moreover this door was unlocked.  So we go in and find a more-or-less hostel place but completely abandoned.  At this point we are really stressed out – what happened to our hostel?  Why is nobody there?  We went out in a near-panic.  We had no hostel and no phone to contact the hostel with!  We went to the nearest hotel and phoned this mysterious number.  Here’s how it went:

Do you have a reservation? Yes?  Well sorry we don’t have any space for you.  Yes I know you paid to confirm the reservation, but I can’t help you.

So at this point we were really unhappy!  And to boot it’s getting dark and we don’t have anywhere to stay.  Eventually we find a place with wifi – the Pink Cadillac Pizzeria – and start looking for another place to stay while we eat our dinner.  We did find a place, called “Home to Home Hostel”, which was a really perfect spot for us.  It was even more central than our first pick, had really nice and helpful owners and a great vibe.  We loved it!  So all ended well after a stressful day entering Budapest.