The Magyar Memoir- Part 11 (The Stones in Budapest)

"Weekends" were the only motivating factor that kept us from jumping ship, since the bosses became progressively more annoying with each passing week. My students were cool, and I actually did look forward to seeing them each day, my main class was silly and made everything fun. The class I had for just one hour was a bit more serious, but they were all so sweet, I loved teaching them. However, by Friday were ready for the weekend! While we were still in Szeged I was doing something on the computer and Mylo came in and said, " hey the Rolling Stones are going to be in Budapest in a few weeks, so you want to go with me? I stupidly asked the a good question, but the wrong way. The way I should have asked the follow-up question would have been "who else is going", but I was too assumptive, and said "is Ashlee going?" He said no, she did not want to go. Again, key follow up, I should have asked "why", but I didn't. He said to me, he really wants to go, and I should come too, because it will be fun if we both go. He even offers to buy half my ticket. I really should have been more suspicious at this point. I say it's ok, you don't have to do that, I'll go, it does sound like fun. Later on I find out the catch…Norma's going too, Mylo, me, and the non-stop chatterbox- super! After consulting with Ashlee and Janie about the hell I was suspecting might insue with only one other person to shoulder the Norma nonsense, I recruited them to come with us to Budapest. We concocted some scheme where we tell Norma we are taking the last train back to Cegled, but we make sure that we get separated after the concert. So that she doesn't look or wait for us, we call her and say don't worry we will take the morning train or some bullshit, when in fact Ashlee, Janie, Mylo and I booked a hotel near the stadium where the concert was. On the way out of town, all five of is take the train to Budapest, it insanely hot, and the train arrives early, so we have to hall ass, and run across track to jump on the train. The train only stops in Cegled for like 3 minutes total. We find our way to our crappy plastic bench seat in the steerage section, after being asked to leave first class…déjà vu for Ashlee and I . We are all squeezed into a wooden box with a window that hardly opens…it's only an hour- right? Hahahah, nope! The train breaks down on the outskirts of Budapest. I was so ready to just walk the last 20 miles! Most people couldn't take it and got off the train and just stood next to it smoking or got a cab. The sun was setting, it was only about two and a half hours until the concert, it was frustrating for everyone, apparently except for me. I was really tired from the long week. The four of them were standing in the galley of the carriage where the door was open to get some air, and maybe some information on the state of affairs, but me, I was passed out, sawing some serious logs in our hot box. It was a monumentally fantastic nap, I sleep until I left the train start moving again, it might have been an hour, I don't really know because I was out cold. It was only a short distance to Nugatti station from there, then a quick subway ride and a quick taxi to our hotel, not sure how we managed to ditch Norma, but somehow we did, Mylo and I ran in dropped off our stuff, while we kept the meter running on the cab, the we rushed off to meet Norma again and go to the show.



The show really was fantastic, and memorable! It had finally cooled off a little that night, there were fireworks at the end of the show, even Norma was actually pretty fun to hang out with, mostly because she was so into the music that she shut up for once. Mylo and I drank a healthy amount of beer, which probably helped as well. Norma ended up leaving before the encore in order to not miss her train, Mylo and I actually felt bad that she wasn't able to stay to the end as she was having such a good time, we;d never seen her so happy. After the show, the crowds were mad, no chance we would get a taxi, the street cars were packed, we weren't even really sure which one to take, but we did know approximately where the hotel was, so we just started walking, and walking, and oh my god walking! I'd been standing at a concert all night, now I was walking 40 blocks home, I think I had bad shoe on too, so most of the walk I did in bare feet! It took over an hour, and one stop for snacks at a gas station, but we made it, and I had another phenomenal night's sleep in an air conditioned hotel!