Ten months on the road today.

A few faces from the last six months. So many more in the archives, but these are just a few I liked.

Six Months.

So I’m a bit hung over, chilling in tonight sipping some beers and decided to write another post. I think this blogging is interesting now, it’s a great way for me to document my memories for myself and if other people enjoy it, bonus.

After ten days here I feel comfortable, I was skating back to Dori’s place tonight and bumped into two different locals (I’ve met recently) randomly on the streets. I’m learning my way around Pest quite nicely. Now if I could only get a grasp on the language…

The other day I met a local girl on the street named Farago, she invited me to an underground party. So I wandered down to this party which was in an old factory a little outside of town around 1am and had a great time, a couple DJ’s one inside one out, some interesting projection graphics up around the party. Old couches and chairs inside made for a rad ambiance. Found Farago and chatted a bit, met a couple nice girls from England who I ended up hanging out with for the night. Some old hiphop made for a great night. Shimmy shimmy ya!

Last night.

It’s design week in Budapest, great timing for me to be passing through. I decided to check out a exhibition opening at FISE. It was high quality designed objects for sale. Some beauty work.

So after viewing the peices in the gallery and sipping some nice Hungarian wine I grabbed my pack & board and went outside where I ended up chatting with three Polish peeps Michal, Monika & Anita. They invited me for some drinks at Godor square. Rad spot where all the locals hang out and chill. Downstairs they have a club with free live bands every night and it’s all right next to the skatepark. So we grabbed some beers at the supermarket and chatted over some drinks. All three peeps were super friendly and told me if I need a place to stay I could stay at there flat in Pest and also if I make it up to Wroclaw in Poland I could stay with they’re friends at there flat. Shit! How great is it to have places to stay and peeps to visit with all around the world! I picked the right people to chill with! I’ve had some serious luck on this trip with connecting with the right people. So after a few big bottles of beer we decided to go check out this bar called Szimpla. Pretty cool joint, after I finished my beer at the table I went to grab another beer from the bar, randomly Michael’s standing there with his buddy. YO! So him and his friend come join us at our table, I grabbed a shisha for us all to smoke. Super tasty. Another guy from England joins out table at this point. It was an international night of drinks. I couldn’t get a hold of Dori (Where I was staying) so I crashed at the Pol’s place and woke up to a nice breakfast with Charlotte Gainsbourg playing in the background and some hilarious recapping of the night. It was a bit of a slow start to the day, I left the Pol’s and headed to the skatepark to break in the new setup. A random series of events led to a great evening, good laughs, new friends and new places to stay.

Today I woke up in “Homemade Hostel” in Budapest, I’ve been in Budapest for about 9 days exploring this beautiful city. Technically I’m not even allowed in Hungry at the moment, but some how I’m here. As a Canadian citizen I’m only allowed in the Schengen states for three months from date of entry, then you must leave for three months in order to re-enter. I was in Europe for my full three months and then spent two and a half months in Croatia. (Check my post on getting to Croatia here - https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150793827725705) Then one night I well I was staying with my friends Martina, Maja & Pinky in Zagreb, Croatia we were having some drinks and speaking about L.B.S. who was playing at a club in Buda, Budapest. I told the girls I wasn’t allowed back into Europe yet. We drank a few more beers, I decided we should give it a try, really what is the worst thing that could happen, I spend a night in the train station at the border waiting to catch a train back to Zagreb. Thats fine. So there was a train leaving Zagreb in a few hours at four AM. So I packed a couple pairs of pants, tees, droors, shorts, socks, toothbrush & Suzy (my camera). The next thing I know we all wake up to border patrol knocking on the door of our cabin, Pink and the girls passed over there passports, I was last. He scanned my passport (I think) and looked at me, looked at my passport and handed it back. Relief… Everyone went back to sleep. I snagged some pics with Suzy on our way into the train station. We partied that night and had an amazing night.

Some amazing times with some good peeps around a few different hostels up until now. But jumping ahead to today.

One day in Budapest

Today. I woke up had breakfast with Kate & Cesar. Then I wandered around the streets of Pest with Suzy. As I’m walking down a side street, I hear some good hiphop coming from behind a gated door. I peeked in for a closer look, inside was some amazing paintings! Really good stuff! And I saw the artist painting away. I yelled in hello, he came to the door to see what the hell I wanted. I asked him If I could come inside to check out his work. He welcomed me. We spoke a bit and I asked him if I could roam around and shoot some photos, he agreed. The studio space where he was working was a perfect enviorment. It was an old textile shop within this old building rammed full of character. Sketches, paintings, spray cans, markers, brushes lined the space. Looking around the space I asked him if I could wander through the old building. He took me through some old hallways to a door that led into the basement and turned the light on for me. “Go ahead” he said. Suzy & I went down the stairs to the cobweb infested basement. This place was rad! A gold mine for Suzy! After chewing on cobwebs for a while I went back up stairs and “Fatheat” (Graff name) gave me a coffee and we had a couple smokes and chatted while he painted away on his big canvas which he was preparing for the upcoming Graffiti exhibition on Saturday. Ghostface was hammering away in the background. He told me about some parties to check out and the exhibition on Saturday. I asked him where I could find a skate shop so I could pick up a new complete. After chilling out for a while in the studio we exchanged contact info and headed down the street.

I’m walking down the street towards the skate shop and I see a guy chilling on a bench with a board beside him. I walked by and decided to turn around and ask him about some local skate spots. He introduced himself as Michael. We chatted a bit and exchanged info and I left on my way to the shop where I would pick out the perfect setup. After eye-fucking and groping all the decks on the wall and the wheels in the display, I put it together and chatted with the shop keep. After the bushings where just right I paid up and pushed down the street back by the spot where I had met Michael. He was working inside a mexican resturant. I went inside to tell him I got my new deck and set up a skate date. He hooked me up with some cheep eats. Burrito & Horchata! I was happy to have some Horchata as I haven’t had any for about 4 months since I was back in Spain. Delicious drink! So refreshing on a hot day. Tonight I will stay with a Hungarian girl Dori, I met on the metro about a week ago. We had a couple drinks last night and she invited me to stay at her place for a bit while I’m around. Good bye Homemade Hostel. Today was a good day full of randomness. Kind of a typical thing these days. I’m so glad I quit my job.

So I decided to set up this tumblr account because there was some interest in my travels. I’ll do my best to update from time to time. It could be full of nonsense and a waste of your life reading/looking… But here we go.

Nutshell:

I worked a lot, saved some money. Quit my job and sold all my shit. Well except for some of my shoe collection, I love them too much.

On April 10th, 2011 I got on an airplane from Toronto to Lisboa, Portugal. Best decision I’ve ever made!

Portugal, Spain, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, U.K., Croatia & currently Hungry… I had a heap of fun everywhere I went and met some amazing people and have seen/done some interesting (to me) things. I’ll try and go back and cover some of the highlights a later date. For now I’ll be current.

Here is just a few photos from the first month and a bit. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150569006985705.652091.512975704&l=86b352db9c&type=1