Here I am, enjoying my last day in Budapest, lounging on the couch. Which oddly enough, was what I did yesterday . . . in fact I haven't actually done anything touristy since coming to this hostel on Saturday. Most hostels become disturbingly quiet during the day - I hate when I feel like staying in, and I'll be the only one, save for the employees. Here, no one really goes out during the day, except to buy food and beer. Otherwise, everyone just sits around, playing cards and smoking the hookah. As I expected, the hostel is 90% Aussies - I'm the only American - and while Aussies are certainly fun, I just don't seem to get along with any of them very well . . .

Tomorrow is my flight to Transylvania. I'm pretty nervous, because apparently it's pretty hard to get around in Romania. When I get off the plane, I first have to figure out how to get to the bus station, and then to this other town, Sighisoara. They use minibuses to charter people from Targu Mures (the place I'm landing) and apparently there's no room for luggage, they fill up quickly, and the bus drivers are known to overcharge. Plus, I'm definitely not thrilled about the time change - I hate trying to find my way in the dark. I really just wanted to go straight to Brasov, but apparently the hostel is hard to find, so I decided to stop in Sighisoara, where the hostel is right next to the bus/train station.

Overall though, I'm incredibly excited about Romania. I've heard such good things - cheap, beautiful, nice people, etc. I'm tired of all these big cities and ready to spend some time in the countryside. Hopefully the weather won't be too wet, and I'll be able to do some trekking in the mountains. Also, three people from this hostel will be in Brasov for Halloween, so it'll be nice to see some familiar faces.

This evening we're going to some international students party - crossing my fingers that there will be more than just Aussies. I don't want to stay out too late tonight though because I need to catch the train to the airport around 9 am. If I go to bed too late, I tend to sleep through my weak alarm on my watch that beeps about 5 times and then stops. The good thing about this trip is that I seem pretty impervious to hangovers. It's quite impressive. There was the 11 shots of bison piss vodka (Poland's national vodka which contains a piece of grass that a bison has peed on . . . are there even bison in Poland?) that made me woozy all the next day, but I have never been incapacitated in any way.