European Excerpts #1

A Hungarian Rhapsody

So, we were going on a bar crawl, and the guy from the hostel said we were going to Morrisons. This was confusing for two reasons. Firstly, I didn't think it was much of a bar crawl if you resorted to getting beers from supermarkets. And more importantly, I knew they had Aldi's and Tesco's in Budapest, but I didn't expect a typically northern supermarket here. Would a Hungarian Ant and Dec be greeting us at Market Street?

"This better be authentic Hungarian meat Dec!"

No, it turns out Morrisons was a karaoke bar in Budapest. But it was still surprisingly English.

We got there to hear the music glaring and, just below the bar, a dance floor where the karaoke was taking place. In this place we were witnessing people from all across the world - Germany, Australia, America, Denmark - all belting out the non-stop American/English classics that were playing: Bohemian Rhapsody, American Pie, and so on. Here I am, an Englishman in Hungary, and I'm witnessing various Germans sing Queen word for word. I felt guilty as the only German band I knew was Rammstein, and those guys are not exactly the right kind of vibes for this place.

Except maybe this video.

After singing my heart out to The Proclaimers' 500 Miles with a guy from Watford, I did want to find something non-English during my experience here. There were other rooms to explore, so I was figuring I'd encounter some traditional Hungarian club music (in hindsight one cannot expect to find true authentic culture in a place called Morrisons). But before my fruitless journey, I saw yet again a foreign reconstruction of something typically Western: a middle room with tabletop football and an Xbox playing arcade games free of charge. Admittedly they were only demo's, but what a brilliant idea! Why on earth isn't this done over here? They had some proper classics on there like Galactica which I hadn't played since I was a kid on a Nokia brick. The first (and only) round was very easy, but an American was watching me and commented "Wow dude, you've definitely played this before!". Mate, I've played Dark Souls, this is child's play, even if I am little drunk.

This damn game.

Anyway, I ventured into the next room. Much more modern dance music, but still largely English. One might think my dreams of a cultural night out had been dashed and that I was distraught, but by this point I was too drunk to care, and the music was banging. I can't remember if I had lost my friends or not by this point, but I saw a couple of Danish girls we had met in the smoking area earlier. Some of the guys they were with had been sent to the drunk tank for anti-social behaviour outside. Let's just say I wouldn't recommend messing with the Hungarian police. One of the girls had told my mate he was cute. Good on him. Such good vibes in the face of arrest meant only one thing: time to dance.

Who knew Rammstein could satisfy all my dance gif needs?

I am a bit of an eccentric dancer, but the other Danish girl didn't mind. We were both going for it. I was loving her moves and she was loving mine. I get sweaty quite easily, so after a while I told her I had to go to the smoking area to cool off. She followed. And just to reinforce how sweaty I was from a bit of dancing, a guy on the way out asked me if I had taken MDMA. I'm afraid not, only if this was an actual Morrisons.

By the time Dec got to Market Street, his jaw was swinging.

I've always been a bit insecure by how much I sweat so I apologised to her. She smiled and said it was only natural. Here I am, hardly able to speak a proper sentence in a foreign language, and there she is as a Danish girl comforting me in English. We went outside. Talked about our degrees. Smiled. My friends came out and we all had a joke together. We headed back in to dance some more, but after a while the two of us went to the bar for a drink. We then sat at a table across from it.

Chatting about Budapest. She'd been here before. She was studying an art degree, so I asked if she had visited the Hungarian National Gallery which we had done earlier. She was surprised with how much we had seen of Budapest as we neared the end of our three night's stay there. 

We talked some more. Every now and then we'd stop and just look at each other, smile and laugh. It's weird how two people can so quickly connect. Yeah we were drunk and this was hardly a romantic setting - some woman was screaming ABBA with all her lungs - but here we are coming from completely different countries and we just click.

After a while she said, smiling, "I don't know what to say now". Me neither.

"Sorry."

"What for?"

"I'm just a bit awkward ahah."

I felt so dumb, not just for this, but how she could connect with me so easily using English yet I couldn't speak a word of her language. It felt like she was making the effort to connect to me on my level, yet I couldn't return the favour. Nevertheless I was simply interested in her as a person. I wanted to know as much as I could about who she was. She was an art buff like me and I had only 15 days to talk to as many people from across the world as possible before I went back to Britain. The most exotic people I generally talk to here are southerners.

Their ways are mysterious and arcane.

Every now and then I edged ever so slightly closer. I was going to go in for a kiss. We probably could have done this sooner if I hadn't been so bloody curious about culture. I wasn't really expecting anything after - the party hostel we were staying at wasn't an ideal place to bring back a female companion. But a kiss kind of completes the connection we were feeling, ya know? It's nothing major, but it's reassuring, and with a cool person it's just kinda nice. I leaned in further for a kiss and...

Her friend came up to her. There was drama with her group, probably due to the fact the lads had either been arrested or sent to a drunk tank. Oh yeah, I forgot being locked up by the police in a foreign country is quite the pressing issue. They obviously needed to talk things through together elsewhere. She gave an abrupt goodbye, but I could tell she was genuinely either sorry or caught off guard. I was a bit annoyed to say the least. I could feel the connection, and my mates said she could barely keep her eyes off me. But the law of the land is 'hoes and bros before foreign bros' after all. I saw her again and tried to strike up conversation, but I could tell she was too preoccupied with the drama, the possibility of her going elsewhere with me would only plunge their group into more uncertainty.

This is all with logical sober hindsight. At the time I just felt awkward, unsure what to do, like having read an engaging book with no real ending. A 'club romance' shouldn't even denote this much thought. But it was just so cool bonding with someone from another country. We talked about our courses. She was my type. Even just looking into each other's eyes was a pleasant experience. 

But this wasn't Romeo and Juliet. We were in a karaoke bar in Budapest which had just played 'Barbie Girl'. It probably wasn't even an authentic night out in Budapest, and even if we did kiss, I probably wouldn't see her again. Ah well. We had five more cities to see, plenty of people to meet, and other memories to make. At least not many can say they have had a Scandinavian muse. T'was a night to remember.

Gifs courtesy of http://rudrobin.tumblr.com/, http://rammgirl20.tumblr.com/ and reddit. Everything else is courtesy of Ant and Dec.