Not much to report, well, except for the best night out we've had in the city so far. I don't know if rioting counts as a "night out", but this was the best one involving alcohol. We got a call from "crazy German Len" at about 8.30pm telling us he was bored and all his friends were either back in Deutschland or ill. He asked if we wanted a beer, and we thought a couple of hours in town would be nice. This turned into seven.

Szimpla is the best ruin bar in the city, and it was our destination:



The ethos is to go into an old house with a courtyard; rip its guts out; put in a bar and add a splash of dramatic lights. Then they whack in some old furniture from the 70s and there you go. Easily one of the best bars in Pest.

We got some mulled wine and waited for Len. We got seats in the corner, with Americans on the right, Germans on the left (unusual -- Ed) and Hungarians in front. It's a very international scene.

We talked to Len for a while. I said that it was nice on that date (November 11th) that we were able to come together and have a drink, and that we're all friends now. Len replied "Yeah, you wait till I buy a round -- I'm gonna piss in your beers".


Us with Len


Crazy German Len with his medical kit

The talk got onto politics, with me explaining to Len why England is the cradle of all civilisation. My point (in a joking manner of course) was that we created:
A. Parliamentary Democracy - The world's political system
B. Free Market Capitalism - The world's economic system
C. Football - The world's most popular leisure system.

This got too nationalist and heated so we invited an American called Matt to play cards. Typically he was the last person to join our table that night.

I won at cards and seem to remember shouting "You lose, you lose, like you did on this day so many years ago! We made friends, it was OK, then you ruined it for a second fucking time!"


Szimpla, in all its glory

But this was taken in good heart of course, we then went on to make fun of the French. Ahh, common ground.

We got a bit too political discussing North Korea. American Matt and I have similar political views. Both of us are libertarians and neither of us support pulling out of Iraq until it's stabilised. Len thought North Korea had a right to the bomb. We didn't. USUK versus Germany again. Things got nasty so I swapped seats with Len. Me and Matt talked about the disgusting nanny state in both our countries, while Peter and Len discussed which famous people they'd happily dissect. Unsurprisingly, Len would happily cut anyone up, as he is the love child of Gunther Von Hagens.



It got to 3:00am and I was tired, so home I went. Peter stayed out with Len, playing table football and chatting to random people. Matt left when I did. I found the night bus OK and ended up back in the concrete Communist tower by 4:15. Peter walked back to "burn off the alcohol" and got in at about 5:30, after nearly being hit with a poisoned dart by the bush people.


A video concerning the bush people

More about the bush people on the next blog...

- Philip

P.S. I've been learning some more Hungarian with the help of an online flash card system: