The HUF

We opted for a 13 hour overnight train from Venice to Budapest. It was the quickest, the cheapest, and we wouldn’t have to pay for a hostel that night. The train itself looked to be from the 1970’s, but it was comfy and we each got our own 2^nd class double seat on which to sprawl out. Yeeeah, I said seat. We were too cheap to get the 1^st class sleeper beds. All in all it was a good trip. Much better then I thought it would be. We even got in on time, after a short delay where we all thought the train broke down because it was making some crazy noises. The only qualm I had with the trip is that because we passed through Slovenia & Croatia, we were woken up four times by “Passport Control” to check & stamp passports (yes, they stamped us four times), and numerous other times by police to check our tickets. As Kristen said, “It feels like we‘re heading to Commie-town man“…

Alas, we made it.

We are finally done with the Euro, for now. And, thank gawd for that because it destroyed my bank account. According to books, specifically Rick Steves, we are now on the HUF, or forint. Therefore, prices are listed in HUF or ft. Assuming they meant the same thing, and not knowing what a HUF was, when we asked how much something was, we’d ask, “How many “huffs”?” Sometimes we’d get an answer, but mostly we’d get strange looks. The kicker was when we were paying for our hostel, and Kristen asked how many “huffs” it was. The girl was so confused, so Kristen repeated herself. The girl had no idea what she was saying; “Hoof? Hoff?” Kristen tried saying, “forint”, and the girl understood. Kris thought maybe her pronunciation was off, and didn’t think twice about using “HUF”.

I’m not going to lie, we would giggle every time we’d say the word because a.) it sounds funny, and b.) we had no clue what it stood for. Apparently one night at dinner I jokingly said to Kristen, “I wonder what “huff” is short for, maybe huffington?” Again, we laughed reeeeal hard because obviously I just made that word up. Even spell check is trying to get me to fix it right now. Anyway, by day three we were still calling it that, and later found ourselves on a free walking tour of the city. About 2/3rds of the way through, our tour guide was telling a story and says something about something costing x-amount of “Hungarian Forints.” It clicked. I looked at Kristen and said, “Oh my god… HUF. Hungarian. Forint.” We stared at each other like we were nuts then laughed harder right then and there than we have this entire trip. I’m pretty sure the entire tour group thought we were insane. All I kept thinking after that was what I would think of a foreigner calling the USD (US Dollar) an: oo’-said.

Budapest was fantastic. We liked it enough that we ended up spending an extra two days there. We saw most of the main sights while on our walking tour. We spent one evening at the Opera - for $2.50. Even though it was sung in German, had Hungarian subtitles, and we had to look on Wikipedia when we got home to see what it was actually about; it was pretty to listen to. The next day was spent at the Szechenyi Baths - basically pools that are naturally heated from thermal springs. It was pretty amazing. It was so cold out, but the water was so warm, and there were waterfalls & jets, and, it was just fantastic…minus the large, burly, extremely hairy, Hungarian men wearing speedos.

Of course we had fantastic Hungarian food. There was a huge Market super close to our place that sold lots of authentic goodies. We had some amazing goulash, stuffed cabbage, some sort of cauliflower lasagna, this fried doughy thing that I don’t know the name of. I don’t even remember what else, but it was all tasty. Hungarians are big into hot wine. They just heat up red wine and add some spices - usually cinnamon & cloves - and serve it. Perfect for cold weather. Their beer wasn’t too bad. It just made for a crappy hangover. I’m more excited for the Czech beers in a few days.

Our hostel & the people were what made this city though. Our hostel was small - only slept 25 - but it felt like home. The employees were fantastic. They karaoked with us, (at a cowboy and Indian “exclusive dress up” karaoke party ), cooked us breakfast, & gave us superb recommendations - for Budapest and cities beyond. The people staying there were pretty darn cool too. Without sounding too dorky, it was a little sad leaving them.