Worn out

I had a very interesting last night in Bratislava. I went for a quick bite to eat at this sandwich/pita place. It was cheap, and I figured if the food was going to be bad, it might as well be cheap and bad. Turns out it was actually the best food that I had in Slovakia. The pita still had cabbage in it though. But the nice chili sauce camoflauged it well. Anyway, while eating, I got to chatting to the guy who worked there, and some other guy who I am not sure if he works there, owns it, or what, but he was often there. This place was next door to the coffee place I went each morning and I had repeatedly seen him there. He turned out to be Italian, and the other guy was Palestinian. We were having a very lively talk about world politics and such and friends of the younger guy (the Palestinian) kept showing up. He asked me if I would like to go for drinks after he got off work with some of his friends. I was finding the conversation so interesting that I decided to go. So I went with him and some friends (a couple - he was from Palestine and she was Slovakian - they had met on the internet and recently got married) for drinks. It is always enlightening to talk to people who are from different places, and I found it particularily interesting to get the perspective of the two Palestinian men on the ongoing conflict there. The one guy had not seen his family in 3 years because if he leaves Slovakia, they will not let him back in. He is currently waiting on a decision regarding citizenship. A trained air traffic controller, the guy is making sandwiches for a living. The other guy is an engineer, and similiarly makes sandwiches for a living. To find out firsthand what daily life is like in Palestine is very sad. Each time I get to hear or see evidence of people suffering, I really wonder why the world keeps making the same mistakes over and over. Doesn't anybody realize that fighting does not solve anything!

It turned into a rather late night, so instead of catching the early train to Budapest, I caught one in the late afternoon. I had absolutely no clean clothes... well I actually hadn't for days, so I decided I MUST wash clothes when I got to Budapest. Of course, only one washer and I had to wait. Then I had all sorts of problems with the washer and dryer... it was 4:00 am before my washing was done. I guess I had been overdoing it for days.. probably the last 2 weeks, because I was exhausted! I ended up sleeping all day yesterday! I suppose a bit of a waste of a day in Budapest... but I clearly needed the rest. I was feeling a bit sick as well so I figured that I should rest rather than keep going and maybe get sicker. The sad bit was that in my room of 8 people, we were all in bed all day! Everybody else because of staying out late drinking. Budapest seems to be one giant party.

So today I start hitting the sights. Hopefully the rain goes away. I am sick of rain! Since I left Krakow, it has rained every day. That's more than a week. And it has not been warm either.