Budapest and Sahara

Let me clarify that title: Budapest refers to the country and Sahara refers to the lost episode of Young Indiana Jones that became a movie.

Yes folks, I'm back from Budapest! Well, back being a weekend stopover in London to pet-sit for Megan's Godfather* in his lovely home. More on this later...

Budapest was a slight disappointment to me. I had built things up after going to Prague that all former Soviet bloc countries are thriving affordable meccas of sin and all around good times. Not so. Budapest is extremely expensive and fun must be sought. By extremely expensive I mean like downtown Vancouver. Fun, just like in Vancouver, must also be sought out. The other main difference between it and Prague is the size. Prague can be walked in an afternoon. Budapest, on the other hand, is basically three big cities - Buda, Pest and Obuda (the one that pleases the ladies) - in one. All in all I would venture to say that it is almost the size of the Greater Vancouver area minus Surrey. Because, really, who wouldn't want to delete Surrey?

The weather, however, was gorgeous. I'm not one for sun and warmth and stuff but after 8 months of cold, wet and clammy Glasgow it was nice to have the change. And by hot I mean it got up to 22 Celsius one day. I got a heat rash on the backs of my hands. That's right...I'm a pasty bitch.

Megan, my consort, loved Budapest a great deal. Which is a good thing considering she picked it as her birthday destination.

Speaking of her birthday, it was actually today. We flew into London this afternoon and were fortunate enough to catch a cab ride with a couple we met on a walking tour in Budapest days ago who took us to a nearby train station. They paid and chalked it up to our birthdays. My heroes for the day: Pat and Keith.

When we got to the house we discovered that, like Don Corleone, Meg's godfather also provides. We took our newly procured bday funds and blew it the only way we knew how: sushi. We spent £60 on sushi tonight! Fuck! I felt like Homer Simpson at the all you can eat place right before going for the steam tray. After we left I'm sure the manager turned to the clientele of the place and said "Don't worry folks. They're gone. You will all be able to eat!"

With the little cash we had left over we went to see...wait for it...Sahara. Since Dav has seen SinCity and rubbed my nose in the fact that he was a "little disappointed" (note the snarkiness) I thought I'd relay the horror of 2 hours of Sahara. You haven't seen Sahara have you Dav? hmm? Oh yeah...you have. Oh well...I thought it sucked too.

Without going into too much detail (not like I'd want to spoil the intricacies of such an airtight plot construction) I'd just like to say that when casting Matthew McCoughnayhayvgeh (couldn't be bothered to check the spelling at this point in the evening) as a guy named "Dirk", whose Idea was it for him to grow a lousy porn moustache?!

Steve Zahn saved an otherwise abortion of a movie (as the goofy sidekick, wow...he's never done that before *cough* every movie he's ever been in *cough*) and I thought I'd leave you with my overall impression of the film:
"I went to see Sahara tonight. Boy, the trailer to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy looks cool!"

Ah well...In closing I'd like to bid you adieu for a few more days as we galavant over to Dublin where I will be spending my 25th birthday drinking Guinness and trying not to embarass Megan too badly.

Thanks to Portia for the well-wishes.

Ciao.

*Neither looks nor sounds like Brando. That's a good thing.