NewYearsEve 2012/13: Bratislava, Budapest, Brno

In memory of our last years' NewYearsEve trip to Barcelona we were up to another great trip...  surprisingly, this years' trip excelled last years'... Danny and Tobias wrote a report already, and here is mine:

The trip started (29.12.) as chaotic as usual, always different tho^^ I started from Leipzig, picked up Tobias and Michael in Zwickau, then Ben in Mülsen and Danny in Dresden. So far so good... when you do a roadtrip, nobody can lose a ticket for a train/plane and if there is no train/plane/ferry/bus to catch, you - especially I - can be more relaxed when traveling in such a group^^ However, it wouldn't be us if we didn't manage to find ourselves in some funny situations... equipped with available navigation systems in 3 phones and 2 tablets we drove from Dresden to Bratislava. So it happened, on Prag's outer moterway, that I mentioned "from here on we should see signs towards Brno" what prompted Tobias to switch off the navigationsystem we used. Which wouldn't have been problematic if I had noticed^^ so I drove straight, waiting for the navigation to tell me if I needed to change direction. A hundred kilometers later the motorway ended and I recognized the error. Our copilot - Tobias - watching Sherlock Homes on his iPad meanwhile, earned a storm of protest. That is how our route got this funny shape:

our special way from Zwickau to Bratislava :)

In Bratislava Tobias organized our stay to be in the great Possonium Hostel - THE hostel from the movie "Hostel" :) Great ambient there! We arrived at the evening and so started with dinner at Pivnica u Kozla, cheap with good beers and great liquor after the meal^^ Some longdrinks and shots at KGB bar, Tequilas and some dancing at Radost before we went to the old atomic bunker housing the Subclub - quite an ambient... howerver, our way to the latter was rather staggering and included pissing from the ceiling towards the bus terminal and climbing over some building sites... well, we certainly are less well mannered when drunk :P

The next morning (30.12.) we enjoyed breakfast at Cafe Verne after it was too full for having dinner the day before. Then we wandered up to the castle and enjoyed the sunny vistas over Bratislava towards the end of the year.

view over Bratislava

From the castle back to the center :)

After another coffee in Bratislava we rode one of the electric busses back to Possonium and then our way brought us to Budapest - our place for the NewYearsEve :D Ben and I got us the Green Bridge Hostel (good one), situated close to Elizabeth bridge and the car we parked a bit further away for long term parking. As it was evening, we went to have dinner and chose a greek restaurant nearby... after garlic and uzo and still feeling wasted from the night before, we chose to have only a bar evening. A friend's tip led us to the Szimpla bar. A great choice! The greatest bar I have seen to date - it is more like a modern art museum :D

Tobias and Michael woke up early (31.12.) to do some sightseeing in Budapest. As Danny, Ben and I visited the city earlier this year, we chose to sleep long and then enjoy a superb breakfast with a famous Budapest chocolate at the excellent BARbar.

Good morning view of Budapest's chain bridge (by Tobias)

Then we slandered through the city and planned our evening. Unfortunately, Budapest was not to have a new years firework. But Micha had a friend, Anti, he knew from his stay at Siemens in Kuala Lumpur. He asked him about his plans and he said that he was having some pre-party with his friends at his place and would later go to a nightclub with all inclusive party. We got ready for drinking with dinner at a mexican restaurant and then packed some canned beer from the supermarket and the taxi was to bring us to Anti's place. Unfortunately, Micha did not tell us much about Anti and our imaginations of the setting were completely different from reality. It was 31st of December and thus quite cold in Budapest. We named the taxi the address and it drove its way... after some minutes we saw the town exit sign from Budapest: "where the hell is he driving us to?". Another few minutes later we were uphill some small outer village of Budapest with a great view towards the city. Additionally, one mansion after the other was placed there. The taxi couldn't go any further as the road was covered by ice. In front of a huge mansion Micha called Anti who told us to take the way up. High barbwired walls with security cameras covered our way. And Anti made fun of us at Micha's phone seeing us climbing the ice-slacked way - he had just redirected the security cameras to his iPad^^ At the door a small middle aged hungarian with beer belly opened the door, smiled and greated us "Hi, I'm Anti, come in and feel like home". Already the shoes at the entrance and the furs at the cloth hanger looked quite different from our belongings. When we walked upstairs into the kitchen quite a movie-like setting awaited us. The table was covered with furs, purses, money and watches - the usually belongings you lay off when entering :P Quite embarrassed we placed our canned beer next to the table. Anti introduced us to the kitchen, help yourself with whatever you need and feel like home. Besides all kinds of alcoholic drinks and legal drugs like painkillers, a young slim skin headed guy cramped over the kitchen counter and shaped some fine lines out of a stack of white powder with the help of a credit card. The audience was as diverse as one could imagine. To mention some: an older businessman accompanied by a young lady who saw some cosmetic operations already, a young entry employee from Ernst and Young, a man with his wife who is singer at Vienna's opera, Anti's brother who just happened to exit a room and button up his shirt when we entered and of course Anti himself - who owned some nightclubs including the one we would visit later. After our first impression shock we entered the small talk, had some drinks - including some of our beers, which were seen quite as a funny gesture - and the atmosphere was really relaxed. Ben and I speeded up and then we were to drive to the nightclub. An Audi drove first and 2 of the SUVs from the garage were filled with the rest of the guests. Ben and I in one, Tobias, Micha and Danny in the other - the latter driven by Anti himself. The driver of our car was fine, but Anti drove his car straight into a power pole. Well, he just had a laugh about it "the speed kicks in and I should be driving better then" ^^ We then drove to The Debut in the Cinema Hall with VIP entrance - of course :) The audience was all dressed up and it appeared that we were the only foreigners. I guess it is better if I don't write down all the things that happened that night... but be assured, it was quite a night :P

The scenery in our room the next morning (01.01.) was quite chaotic again. 11:30 the receptionist entered our room: "hey, wake up. You were supposed to check out at 11am!" - "uh, please just give us a little more time"... while everyone straggled to remember everything of the last evening and the stories differed quite some we started to get ready for check out. A few minutes later we reconned "has anyone seen Micha?". "Ehm, no idea". "Let me check latitude... oh, he is in Bratislava - moving fast". Seconds later a message reached my phone: "I went straight to the train as I have to work in Krakow tomorrow. I just happened to find the hostel key in my pockets as well as our remaining Forin - sorry. ". After everything was explained we entered BK for some heavy after drunk breakfast :P Then we took a taxi to my car - Capt'n Balu was to drive again, still drunk tho :/. Right in the car I missed my mobile phone - "damn, it must have slipped out of my pocket in the taxi". Well, a 2 million metropolis with thousands of taxis - any chance to find it back? The driver did not pick up the phone when we called and latitude did not send GPS information when the phone was not in use. The only chance: the taxi driver went back to the place we started. Jackpot! Good luck right the first day of the new year :P Danny and Tobias ran across the street, Tobias lost his cuddly cushion and chased it, meanwhile Danny received my phone from the taxi driver and we could make our way towards Brno - "hopefully no police will stop us" ;)

Ben enjoying the party

The way to Brno blessed us with the firework we missed in Budapest. Seems like the Czech have fireworks at the evening of 1st Jan :) In Brno our hostel was really good as well - one of the cleanest I have seen - we simply relaxed. Short walks through the city and some vistas from the castle. Our trip ended. A memorable trip for sure! I'm curious about the next adventures of Capt'n Balu (I), Sleeping Beauty (Ben), Speedy (Danny), Ödipus Schmu (Tobias) and the painless (Micha)... hahahaha :P

Brno center