Budapest: Arrival.

arrive to... zs in every word, cars on the RIGHT side of the road, unpainted buildings, crumbling roads, a giant futbol field... people running red lights, bridges clogged with cars, and a river, right there, separating the old city from the new. my 'hotel' (hostel... uninhabited dorms?) is behind gellert hotel. wish my stop was there... credit cards didn't work, lucky i could pawn my various pounds dollars and euros to scrape together enough cash to get here. i guess when i told my creditors that i'd be in 'europe' i failed to specify that hungary, too, is a part of 'europe'. silly me.

met a whirlwind of people at the end of my britain journey-- a san franciscan in cardiff who had been away from home for a week and eight days. computer engineer, travelling employee-- he said the life gets lonely (but oh how much more liveable than in the states!). state-side, yo. (i've never been one big on referring to home as 'the states'-- i think it's rather obnoxious. but what else you gonna say?) ... the cardiff station had a fire the morning i wanted to leave, so hopped a loooong bus to birmingham and then a train to manchester, where i immediately went on a pub crawl. few americans over there... none can afford it. but canucks, aussies, kiwis are all pretty down-to-earth...

and here. just here, now. dinner tonight, orientation... we will see how things turn out.

love you all, ta-ta.

-->if you don't send me your addresses, how will you ever get a postcard??