La Multi Ani

And all that stuff.

One of my friends from Oxford, a Russian Jew living in Boston, came to Vienna on the 30th. we than took a train on to Budapest on the 31st. Got there around noon and walked around a bit trying to find an exchange place. Budapest is a pretty town and the snow made it prettier but I quickly realized that walking with a hole in my shoe is not the best of ideas.

Budapest was at one time two different cities Buda and Pest, they are separated by the Danube. The train station was in Pest and we walked to Buda, there was monument to the WWII dead on a hill and we climbed to that. I didn't much care for it. But my friend liked it at least in comparison with what he saw in Berlin. In Berlin there are almost no reference to the Holocaust besides the Jewish Museum. All the references to WWII are made to the resistance. He did not like that very much, can't see why. It seems that the winners aren't the only ones that write history.

We walked along the castle that is there in Buda a bit modern, wonderfully ornate but idk seems like such a waste. It was similar the the palace in Bratislava but much much bigger, the Hapsburgs knew what they liked. Went into cafe to warm up and ran into some American tourists, and some Romanian tourists. I have taken a great dislike to tourists and all touristy stuff. I have never liked tourists an have never aspired to be one. I hate the idea f going to a place to see the things there are to see and think you have come to know the place, but at the same time it seems like something you should do. I am considering buying a eurorail pass and going from place to place, but why do that besides to say that I have been there. I don't like that. See a place just to see it. It might be more interesting to get to know the people, but that is too hard if you do not already know someone there. As someone said after a certain point different cities become merely different architecture, at least for tourists.

My friend was telling me about the good experiences he had with couchsurfing. He went to the arctic circle and there in a small town he found a girl that let him stay. She worked in an ice hotel and while he was there the Noble Delegates came to visit (including the inimitable Al Gore). He is going to spain and he is planing to the same. I doubt I could do the same. Don't trust people enough.

After the castle we headed to Pest. We came across this square which was lit up with different colors in a mosaic patten. The ground and two of the buildings were full of light and there were fires burning. By this point there was probably more water in my shoes than shoe. I really like this sort of "graffiti" NYU has started teaching a class on how to make that kind of art. It is an interesting way to be able to crete nonintrusive urban art. There is something utterly enjoyable about breating new life into old places.

After that I had to call my mom which is always an experience I can do without.

We alternated between two stages for most of the test of the night. There were fireworks and cheap champagne on every street. We ate kebabs before we started "partying." the second of the two places was organized by radio danube. The first time we were there they had this pop singer that made up for her voice by being attractive. So we stayed there for a bit. We walked down to what must have been the principle ceremonial boulevard. We walked down it talking about life and love until we came to this open plaza between two museums. There were several people at each end of this square lighting fireworks, not the ones that sparkle but the ones that shoot up in the air and are seen from quite a distance. Occasionally one would misfire and shoot out towards the museums. There was a large plastic tent that had become a makeshift club next to the square, we avoided it because it seemed to lack any character and well, you couldn't see outside.

We headed back towards the original stage, but losing our way. We got there with 5 minutes to spare, having bought a small champagne beforehand we thought we had done our duty to father time, only to realize that it was a screw top. We quickly found three euros and brought a proper bottle. As the clock struck twelve were in in this middle of this hugh crowd soaking everyone with champaign and listing to this guy with a viking hat onstage counting down and signing some incomprehensible song. After the crowd had dissipated a little bit we headed towards the other stage.

We were able to catch the last act and only a few songs as that. We danced drunkly bumping into people as if in a desire to create some form of solidarity. A couple joined us in our merriment. The man had a tendency to kick his wife's ass and seemed like an angry drown, so we avoided that situation. We ran into some pseudo-Russian with a bottle of vodka that was more than happy to further our demise but was a little to clingy and a little to confused to justify our extended attention. We danced away like leprechauns through a train station desperately in need of a place to relive ourselves.

At some point during the night we had decided to go to a strip-joint to warm ourselves after the night spiraled downward. We jumped on a trolly which was heading in what I thought was the "red light district." Much to our chagrin it was not. We took the trolly in the other direction. I was so tired/drunk that I dozed off and lost sight of my friend. I got off to find him only to realize my cell phone had no more credit. After some mindless walking and a successful trip to a urine stanched Subway I realized I could use a pay-phone. I made use of this dying commodity successfully and we were shortly thereafter reunited.

To our luck we were able to stumble a cross what we at the time thought was a strip club. We were seated next two two poles on a circular couch, and given menus. Some elderly girl got up to dance in a red dress and black high heels. She worked her way around the pole lifting up her dress just enough to titillate us but it hardly conformed to our preconceived notions of a strip club. We ordered Jacks, they came warm which worked well on our cold tired bodies. Two girls came to sit next to us, I had the more attractive one. She was wearing nothing but lingerie and disgustingly high heels. She asked me if I liked Hungary and what I did, what hotel I was staying in... twice. She had make up on her eyes but the rest of her face was rather bland. She kept moving her feet and playing with her hands. At one point she said that if I bought her a drink she would dance in my lap and for a fee we could go in the room and "you can touch the girl." I told her maybe later. I asked if she would be dancing. After a while I told her that I'm probably not wiling to spend any more cash, so she left seemingly relived. She started to dance after the next song.

After a while another couple of girls came to it and chat but we were both so sick of the place and so tired that we payed them little mind. In many ways I think the experience changed me. i never before that night realized what it truly meant to objectify a person. There I was, in my drunken state, slouching on this couch looking at some almost middle age woman move around a pole in could hardly be called seductive. But I was sitting there mentally undressing, well some of them anyway, looking at the bits of flesh their movements exposed, wondering hopping they would proceed further down this erotic path. I reduced these women to nothing but the object of my sexual inadequacies and it was not an unenjoyable experience. There was nothing truly sensual about the experience but m ability as a spectator to make it thus. Those women were there bored probably wondering how their kid was doing at home all alone on New Years, and here I was reducing them merely to flesh. I have never ben able to look at a woman like that before that night, either out of timidity or out of a concern for social customs, certainly for a lack of desire.

When you reduce a person like that you yourself feel less human. By devaluing other people you yourself lose in value.

As the night wore on and we warmed up we decided it was time to leave so we got the check only to realize that it exceeded a the amount of money we had. We put together all our money including a dirty 20 from my friend's sock and we were still short. After a while were to be quite honest neither of us was really worried, at least I wasn't. I felt a little numb. We were finally stood up taken to a back room, made to empty our pockets and sent on our way. We left the club at around six and made our way to the train station with out any money in our pockets, in just enough time to catch the first train to Vienna.