Bud-Arrest

Dear Earthlings

We pulled ourselves away from Munich to relax in the warm sun of Croatia. It was freezing. Our first day we met an American girl at our hostel who was heading to Plitvice National Park the next day. We agreed to join her but only if she could rouse us from our slumber early the next morning. She succeeded and off we went. The park was really cool but we could tell it would be much improved in the summer with warm weather and a greener atmosphere.

The rest of our days in Zagreb consisted mainly of relaxing in the common room watching March Madness on the T.V. It was a much needed relaxation period after the storm in Munich.

From Zagreb we ventured to Budapest. Upon our arrival we met two English chaps Phil and Nathan who were in for the weekend. They quickly changed our plans for the evening and convinced us to accompany them for a few pints. It was an interesting night to say the least. As dawn approached we grabbed a taxi back to the hostel and agreed on a fair price. When we arrived at the hostel the cab driver attempted to charge us double because we were a group of 5. We would have none of that. Dave and one of the English guys jumped out and yelled for the others to follow while the other English guy poked his head in the front door and tried to reason with the driver. Thinking we were just going to ditch the fare, the driver burned out of there with Greg and Nick still hanging out in the back seats.

Dave and Nathan fell on the street with laughter. Phil thought he was superman and tried to chase the taxi down the road yelling for him to pull over. As he was running he slipped and fell head over heels. Dave and Nathan laughed harder while the fate of the other two hostages was unknown. We decided to go home and sleep.

Meanwhile Nick and Greg were trying to hatch a plan to get out of the cab. The driver was still demanding double the fare and refused to slow down. He then threatened to take us to the police and was surprised when we jumped at the proposition. Ten Hungarian cops were hanging out inside and not one of them spoke a word of English. Greg did not seem to mind, and ranted about the injustice of the situation with many a French word and requests for the Canadian Embassy. After about 15 minutes a translator showed up and heard our story. After consulting the other policemen he came to us, requesting that we pay the entire fare. We turned him down and they took our I.D. to press charges, but Greg quickly interjected that we also wanted to press charges of our own. That seemed to do the trick as they immediatly released us and we ended up with a pretty good story and a free taxi ride.

We stayed at the most laid back hostel in Budapest. After hearing our story, the manager declared us the quickest guests to the police station in hostel history and then decided to leave us in charge of the place for an afternoon.

We wandered around Budapest in the following days but the cameras were out of commission so we have no evidence. We now reside in Krakow, Poland.

Our American friend Gianna

Our Canadian friend Shallyn

For Melissa

Phil and Nathan in the middle

They are oblivious

That gyro looks tasty

Van Surfing

Just making a phone call

Hungarians know how to make a pizza

Hungry Hungarians

Just running the place, no big deal