15.5.2000 BUDAPEST is literally a turn of the century city. Most of the buildings and infrastructure were built for the 1896 World Expo which coincided with Hungary’s Millennium (Hungary was founded in 896). Budapest seems more of a city, a metropolis without the skyscrapers. It is gray. It is actually two cities in one, the Buda side to the East of the river is where the castle is, and the Pest side to the West, is where most people live.

Arriving in KELETI STATION is not as bad as people had made it out to be. I wasn’t swamped by hostel “runners” or gypsies. Where are the gypsies? Throwing their “babies” through the air at me? They were nowhere to be found. I was both relieved and kind of disappointed. I wanted to bat the baby out of the way as I charged through the crowd…

Take the Red (express) 7 bus to the STATION GUESTHOUSE, a hostel which is a good walk down Mexikoi Utca. I get there and there is NO ONE ELSE staying there. It seemed pretty empty and when I ask Anna how many other travelers are there, she tells me the last of the people checked out earlier that morning. I’m the only one. I figure “No big deal.” But after I leave for a walk around town I’m thinking it’s pretty weird. I mean, the probability of having no one staying there with sixty-five available beds seems pretty slim.

So I check out other hostels because most of traveling, for me, is meeting other people. The ones I visit are all empty. I bump into Mark, a Kiwi (from New Zealand), who I met in Vienna who happens to be staying at the Ananda Hostel. He tells me NO ONE ELSE is staying at his hostel. Is there something I should know about traveling to Budapest in mid-May?

Well, my fears were unfounded. I returned back to the hostel and there are about ten other people staying there.