The so called real border of Hungary went off without a hitch and it wasn't long before we arrived in Budapest. Here we had our first "walk to the hostel with your bags" which some people without the recommended backpack found a little tricky. It was also our first very basic hostel and first being ripped off by the locals experience at dinner. However if I put a downer on Budapest at first - bear with me as it only got better in the evening. Our Latvian bus driver who is with us until the Iran border said that he would take us to a little local club he knew of.Ozbusketeers pointing East in the main square of Budapest.
After the surprisingly expensive dinner and managing to pin down our whistful bus driver to take us as a group, we seemed to trek round the city mindlessly. No one knew where we were going, what we were going to, only that it was a club. After half hour of walking we arrived at what looked like a parking lot. We entered through some battered doors being guarded by some heavies. We ascended a stairwell that I can only describe as being something out of a scene from CSI Miami. This wasn't looking good. But it was sort of intriguing. And the further we climbed, the more we could hear the familiar sound of a heavy club base. Until - we reached a level we entered. Through a more populated indoor area, passed a dance floor and up still more stairs. We were on the roof by this point with red lights, table, chairs, a bar, a lot more people and a great view.
Settling down with drinks as a group we all turned out to have a great night. One that can't be found in Lonely Planet. Before long, a few of us were on the dance floor. If we got bored of dancing (and who would with Britpop gold being dished out by the DJ with forgotten Blur tracks) you could visit next door to the Club indie shop. Here they were selling individually designed clothes, jewelery and other accessories. A friend and I invested in a souvenir badge - hers stating she 'hearted' some Hungarian shot and for me, a comic line from 'League of Gentlemen' sketch that was an incredibly random find in a Budapest club. 'You're my wife now' is pinned nicely on my handbag next to the other San Jordi Barcelona badge and Stop Stansted Expansion ones I have acquired.
The next day I headed to the river for a cruise. Lots on option here and I got a basic student deal. An hour round the island in the middle with English commentary. After lunch a few of us met from the group to head to the 'Labyrinth' underneath the castle on the Buda side of the river. Here we looked forward to navigating ancient foundations with only an oil lantern as our light. Turned out to be a sort of Art gallery with many 'humorous' or confusing 'finds' from supposed excavations underneath the castle. It was a lovely experience - not quite a labyrinth though. Bit mis-labelled that one.
The next day and into our second week on the bus we left Budapest heading for Belgrade. I never thought I'd get to visit a city I'd heard so much of on the 10.00 news but when we arrived, there I was, in a recovering bombed out city. With shiny new malls placed slap bang next to remenants of bombed buildings. At the hostel in Belgrade we experienced our next piece of talk-able drama. Our group was split between two hostels and in one of them we had found a young British girl crying her eyes out because she'd had her passport stolen and her friends had gone on without her. Now if my friends had done that - they wouldn't be my friends for long when I returned home. She had been traveling for 3 months with these people but apparently that doesnt mean you stay with each other when in trouble. Also she had not one copy of her passport or photo ID on her. I'm not entirely sure why you come to a place like Belgrade not preparing for the absolute worst but call it lack of experience. Anyway because we're such a handy group of people to bump into on Ozbus, a few of us along with our leader went to the police station to help sort it out.
The next day she was sorted as she came to have breakie with us and we left for Sofia. If I haven't mentioned what we did in Belgrade it's because there's not really anything to do there along with not much to see in Sofia either. The most interesting thing there was the fact that we went to a restaurant that apologised for being so slow with orders because they were only a cafe with one chef. A very funny cafe with a full on Restaurant menu and waitresses that had lost the use of their second hand and had never heard of a tray. Even though there was a walking tour of the city the next day first thing - it wasn't really very impressive and I was starting to lose faith in the sights of Serbia.
Then we arrived in Plovdiv. What a fantastic historic old town. The actual town is quite large but stick to the Roman bits and you can't go wrong. As you'll know from my previous blogs - I can't really go on holiday without bumping into a few Roman sites. Can any of us? The evening there was spent on the outskirts of a Roman amphitheatre watching Serbian interperative dance. Then a few of us got bored with that and left to find dinner. Where we found the need for a good night out. After dinner we headed to local bar where I got ID'd for the first time (thankgoodness for bringing driving licence) and sat down as the only group there with massive beers. Turned out to be the craziest Rock bar ever and got livelier and livelier the later the night got. Many Ozbusketeers woke up with strained neck muscles the next day due to too much headbanging.
So the next day was a THE real border. We were now leaving the E.U. and entering Turkey. Where the lines between East and West begin to blur. The game was to guess how long it took to get through. I guessed way over at 2hours with the winning guess being a questionably accurate 1hr 14mins from Kate, a late guesser. The prize was to kiss Charlie, our 18 year old 'son' of Ozbus. But none of us fancied that prize and we disqualified Kate for insider information anyway. We drove on from the border until we arrived in Istanbul. Our first real cultural city, away from the tired and tested Euro-tourist trail. Or so we thought.
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