Sunday, March 4, 2007

Walking in circles

After dinner, we want to try and find an internet place again so Mom can check her work email and I can try and upload the blog. We strike out at the Soho cafe and the guy at the front desk is less than helpful with his recommendations. I look in the guidebook and find a 24 hour place listed, but it's across the river.
The front desk guy directs us to the Metro station up the street at Batthyany Ter, only to find that the metro line here is shut down due to construction. There is a replacement bus, but apparently, one cannot buy a ticket on the bus. There is a bus ticket machine, but it only takes coins and we don't have enough for two tickets. Down in the metro station, there are no ticket offices open, and no change machines. We ask complete strangers for change and no one has any. We go into a Pizza restaurant and the server there can only manage 200 ft change. Tickets are 230 ft and we still don't have enough. We ask a taxi driver how much to our destination and we quotes us 2000 ft.

We walk back to the hotel, get change from the front desk guy who says "oh, yeah, guess the metro is closed". By now, we've been walking in circles for an hour, but we are determined.
Down to the chain bridge we go, hoping to find a bus there and a ticket machine. Yes, bus, no machine. At this point, it's take a cab or go back.

Suddenly, a teeny, tiny cab stops (think smaller than a Mini Cooper) driven by a huge bear of a man with a giant beard. Mom asks "how much to go to 46 Andrassy, near the Opera Metro station?" "2500 forint",he says. Now everything I've been told, everything I've read, has said never pick up a cab on the street, always call for one. But, we have no cell phone to call. So, mom says, "no, that's too much". They go back and forth and he agrees to take us for 1000 ft! So, in the cab we go and we're there in about 10 minutes. No problem. And there it is, the aptly named "Internet Cafe" at 46 Andrassy- 200 ft for 15 minutes. And, luckily, they allow customers to use their usb ports so I'm able to upload a little to the blog. Mom is happy too and I have to drag her away from work after about half an hour. We walk all the way back to the hotel and crash.

Pedometer reading for day-5 miles

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