The Here and Now

Honoring the dead

is best achieved,

it seems to me,

by spending time

with the living.

-BW 7/12/2016

In our last post, Wormwood shared some heavy thoughts on tourism. Since then we had a few experiences that fertilized our love for new places. We did a one-night trip to Budapest on recommendation from several people. Then we connected with some awesome locals in Austria.

Budapest was a whirlwind 24 hours. We trained in and immediately went to the public baths. There are several around the city and all use natural hot springs to deliver warm pools of varying temperature. The  experience is incredibly unique. The Szechenyi Baths that we explored had multiple outdoor pools, all around 30 degrees Celsius. Then there were saunas and steam rooms, some with medicinal herbs. One basement sauna maintained a temperature between 80 and 100 degrees Celsius! We lasted about three minutes in that room. It’s a unique experience, sweating from every pore, but feeling dry because the sweat evaporates nearly instantaneously. Don’t worry, immediately after we plunged into a pool of 10 degree Celsius water. That wasn’t shocking at all…

Nightlife in Budapest is thriving. There seemed to be a good mixture of nonchalant bars and posh restaurants, which reminded us of Minneapolis. Combine that with a record setting number of V-neck T-shirts and man buns (haircut) and you’ve got yourself a Twin Cities in Europe! Buda =  St. Paul. Pest = Minneapolis. There’s a river that runs through both, and enough “third wave” coffee houses to turn the Danube brown.

Wormwood went to a few bars and ended the night at a dance club with multiple music rooms. Needless to say, two midwestern boys were a bit out of place on the Pop, Disco, and RnB floors, but then we found the House music. Ben instantly lit up like the Fourth of July (which we sort of missed this summer.) Both of us enjoyed the repetitive and predictable flow, so we shook our tail feathers a bit! We danced at the nightclub until far past our bedtime and then spent the next day walking around the city looking for further “hipster infrastructure” and enjoying much needed quiet. We found plenty of bike-happy zones. Go Budapest!

Wormwood spent its last evening in Ausria in the company of two lovely locals. Barbara and Vincent were introduced to us by Baylen’s roommate, Julian. We travelled to the Beethovengang once more to meet this friendly couple and share some Viennese wine with them.

As it turns out, Viennese have never been proud of their vino, and the traditional way to drink is to mix the fermented white juice with sparkling water to help it go down. We liked it! but when the company is good, it doesn’t much matter what you drink, eh?

The four of us shared a meal and exchanged notes on the cultural differences between Minnesota and Austria. While we chewed on dumplings and schnitzel, the group agreed that Midwesterners are the caricature counterpart to the Viennese. There is an equal and opposite to “Minnesota Nice” and we laughingly called it the “Viennese Scowl.” Note to other travelers: If an Austrian frowns at you, it does not necessarily mean they are angry!

After dinner the group went down to the Danube and Wormwood played a set of music for our new friends. The river is not particularly blue, but with evening sun it gleams like molten silver. Das ist gut! Several passersby were happy to stop and listen. They even paid our tram fare with some loose change. Thank you!

As we bid our friends goodbye and began preparations for our travels to Prague, we reflected on our week. One thing is clear: A city is only as great as it’s people. Budapest showed us a vibrant modern culture of “refurbished and repurposed” living. Vienna eventually revealed its simple charm by the grace of two locals. Thank you, Barbara and Vincent for reaching out to these two crazy Americans! Our German is terrible, but I think we are starting to make some sense of the world.