Prison Beds

The hostel where we are staying was a building constructed by Austro-Hungarian soldiers in 1882 and used as a military prison until 1991. A group of artists, architects, and scientists from the Culture and Art Association decided to transform the building. More than eighty Slovenian and international artists participated in the Celica project, which started in 1993. First they had to prevent the building from being destroyed by sprawling their bodies in front of it to save it from the wrecking ball. In 1996, the building was named a historic landmark and is now protected. 

The project was a work in progress. Each prison cell was turned into an art piece independent of the others. It has been open to the public since 2003. They offer free tours at 2 pm every day. I suggest if you book here, try to get a room from 101 to 110. They are on the quieter side of the building. Inside the hostel is pleasantly quiet, but if you need a window for air, the artist colony next door is extra rowdy.

We would highly recommend it for cleanliness, service, and overall appearance. Being that we are both tall, the beds are a bit short for us, but otherwise it is quite nice. We would definitely return if we were to come back here.

Hostel Celica

Metelkova 8

1000 Ljubljana

www.hotelcelica.com

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The Other L Word

The train ride was painless, not at all what I had anticipated. I don’t do well in confined spaces for very long, if I know I cannot escape from them. I had not even considered the lack of air conditioning, but of course the weather did not disappoint. It was in the 80s. Some train person had the foresight to open every window on the train. The cross breeze made it acceptable. We were in a cabin for six, but only one thirtyish-year-old man asked to join us. No one bothered to look at our tickets for the first two hours; by that time we were in Veszprém. An hour later, the man left us and we had six seats to ourselves.

We had cleaned out the fridge, taking food that would spoil with us for our meals. Loaded down with four sandwiches, extra cheese cut into thick chunks, two beers (they do spoil when unattended), a large bottle of water, three tangerines, and assorted other goodies, we looked like a catering service. What the conductor happened to walk by again, he looked in, said something like “Oh, you are Hungarian. Good appetite”, in Hungarian of course. 

During the trip, I finished the novel that I started when the train pulled out of Deli station: The Dressmaker, by Elizabeth Birkelund Oberbeck. I only brought one other book with me; I am thinking I should save that for the trip home otherwise I will chew on my foot out of boredom. There were plenty of catnaps in between reading, so it wasn’t all recreation. Sleeping on a train takes stamina holding your head in place. It’s not easy.

We arrived fifteen minutes late, in the other L word, again better than expectations. There were innumerable stops for ten to twenty minutes, but no passport control to hold us up.  We had no idea where to go to find our hostel once we arrived. We only had 2 ½ months to prepare for this, but that is a map thing. Everyone knows I don’t do maps, but Ron is Mr. Map. He fell by the wayside on this one. We walked 2 blocks in the wrong direction, before we asked for directions.

Once we were turned around, our hostel was a breeze to find. I have to say even in the dark, this city has more graffiti than Budapest ever thought possible and that is a real stretch. The hostel is a converted prison. Our room is an old cell, needless to say, there is only one window that opens on high, with bars on it, preventing any cross ventilation and is HOT. The temperature when we arrived was still in the mid-80s. More about the hostel later. It is time for a b and b = beer and bed.

For those not in the know, The L Word was a television show on cable TV.

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Prison Break

No, this is not a rehash of the American TV show, Prison Break. This is prison break, Hungarian style. Who said my life is not interesting? Um, that would have been me. What was I thinking? Last night I checked my e-mail after a small dinner party we hosted. There was a cryptic message "I am John Doe's sister. I need for you to contact me immediately regarding him." Certainly, his name is not John Doe. Duh! I am saving him from public disgrace, but this story is too interesting not to share. I e-mailed her back stating we had not heard from her brother for months and I was a bit concerned. He is an American living here in Budapest, but only has been for the last five months. John Doe was a B and B guest a couple of years ago. He landed in Budapest with some friends who were going to hang out here for a year. After a few weeks of being a roomie, he could not take their fighting, so walked out and landed in our apartment. He paid for a week, but then was getting tight on money, so asked if he could barter his services for things about the apartment. We reluctantly agreed to barter another ten days. John fulfilled his part of the bargain, convinced to barter for more work and another ten days. He completed all of his obligations, but left before his freebie nights were used. We gave him an I.O.U. or in this case a WE.O.U. for twelve more nights to be used whenever we had a vacancy. He disappeared for over a year, without any contact and no responses to my e-mails. In September 2007, he reappeared out of thin air back to Budapest. Popped in to see us, but only Ron was home. They had coffee. A couple of weeks later, he e-mailed to come over and see us. When he did, he needed a place to stay. He was living with a woman friend, but it was not working out. He came here for three nights, but during that time, met a hostel owner who was closing the place for the winter and agreed to let John stay there in exchange for keeping an eye on the place and doing some work. John left us to go there. Thanksgiving came and we invited John to dinner. He brought a date. A young man we wanted to card to see if he was of legal age. John is in his mid-forties. This was the last we saw of him, but he did send me a couple of e-mails regarding his adventures with getting a long term Visa to stay in Hungary. That was at the end of November. Nothing after that. According to his sister, in December, he took a bag of drugs he found at the hostel to the US Embassy claiming it belonged to the workers there. He was arrested and put in jail. When he was released, he went back to the hostel and broke windows. He was arrested again and put in jail. Upon release, he went to the Marriott hotel; we were already on vacation by this point, so he would not have been able to reach us. He became disruptive and abusive at the hotel and they called the police. Once again, he was thrown in jail where he has been since December 18th. While in jail, he became combative with the guards, so they put him into solitary confinement for two weeks. His family in the mid-western part of the US hired two attorneys here. The Embassy official finally convinced John to sign a release of confidentiality statement, so they could keep his family updated. In this release, he also named ME, stating we are the only family he has here in Budapest and he trusts us. Notice the plural pronouns, but only my name had been given. Ron lucked out on this one. My guess had been that he was bordering on bi-polar, but now it seems he has had a psychotic break. He had called his mother to say he was named Ambassador to Hungary by President Obama and was having a private jet sent to pick her up. He told the same story to the embassy people and the guards at the prison. Life is interesting.

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A Few Hundred Demonstrate

The next day's news in the Budapest Business Journal.

“A few hundred demonstrators gathered in Szabadság tér in front of the US Embassy yesterday afternoon to protest against the visit and policy of US President George W. Bush. Environmental groups Védegylet and Greenpeace were present, along with others such as the anti-globalisation group Attac at the gathering organised by Civilians for Peace.

Philosopher and communist-era dissident Miklós Tamás Gáspár gave the opening speech, asking on what basis Bush speaks out against foreign occupation in regard to 1956, when the US itself is an occupying force elsewhere. He denounced war and murder and spoke up for hope. Earlier, Amnesty International demonstrators in yellow overalls like those worn by inmates of Guantánamo prison were removed from Adam Clark tér before the US President's convoy drove by. “

Photo is my own.

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