Budapest in December – Photo diary

Awky Maz – movin’ on up.

When I was younger my fave pages in magazines were always the *cringe!* ones. The short, embarrassing stories, usually about stepping in dog poo just before a date with your crush (worst word in the world). My daily life sometimes seems to be a montage of this with added awkward, humiliating moments.

Sooooo I thought I’d put them on the internet.

I had a friend who used to call awkward moments ‘awky mo’s’. Awky Mo’s stuck but Awky Maz is replacing it as Maz is my old nickname. Thanks whoever came up with that flawless phrase that I’m stealing for this title.

me lookin awk

My first awky mo is from Budapest, late December 2014. So like a few weeks ago. I was already so flustered because I’d been sitting on a train all morning and had arrived in Hungary assuming they used Euros. Never assume a countries currency because you will be wrong 110% of the time. I dragged myself and overly stuffed bags around the station, managing to find a ticket machine that would accept my card, speaking tourist English to a few guys who worked in the train station and found a route to get me to my host’s flat.

The train was busy; lots of foreigners all happily chatting about their trip and a few locals just making their way around the city. I got off the train and saw the long escalator to exit. Since 2013 I’ve had a weird fear of escalators; I can go on them but long ones that you find in tube stations really freak me out. Especially when you have a heavy bag on your back. It’s like, if you fall backwards, smash your head on the moving steps you’ll probably die. So I saw the long escalator and hurried onto it; impatient to reach the top and see my first proper view of Budapest. It turns out the escalator was actually moving the other way, coming down instead of going up. So I tripped hard. I tried to find my balance and hold onto the rail but obviously that was moving towards me too. I did a little trip dance and by some miracle didn’t end up face down (and inevitably dead. kinda.). Instead of laughing at the situation in front of the packed station I tried to style it out by running to the right moving stairs. And everyone just stared.

Maz x

Christmas and NYE travels 2014

If you don’t follow me on twitter or we aren’t friends on facebook then you might not know I went for a little adventure over the Christmas holidays. I had a great time interailing and couchsurfing and met loads of lovely, funny people. I left Paris on 20th December; I got the train to Vienna in Austria. It was a long journey and I had a bit of trouble actually getting my first train. The thing with interailing is that some trains require a reservation as well as your standard ticket. Of course I didn’t realise this and faced having to buy a whole new ticket for that leg of the journey, a ticket costing around €200 for one way!!! I obviously was in no position to pay that so the woman at the desk said my last hope was to speak to the train manager who might be able to give me a last minute reservation. Luckily he was super friendly and gave me a reservation for €20 instead 🙂

I was in Vienna with mum, dad, G and my cousins Bo and Li and aunty and uncle. And their adorable dog Thomas 🙂 We had a lovely traditional Christmas and there were even real candles and sparklers on the tree. They’re not exactly safety conscious in Austria… We went to a Christmas market, baked cookies, played on the Wii, went out for a meal and did all the usual Christmassy stuff. My uncle Bernd took me for a ride on his motorbike (with heated seats, sat nav and a radio. very fancy) round the city and up the mountains.

I then went to Budapest, Hungary on Boxing Day. It’s such a beautiful city and I can’t wait to visit again when I have more time. I met up with 4 different couchsurfers and saw lots of the city. Next stop was Bratislava, Slovakia. There was heavy snow and lots of delayed trains and buses but my hosts apartment was so nice so I didn’t stress for long. We stayed in for a drink because we couldn’t face leaving the warmth. I learnt some Slovakian words and spent the day seeing the pretty buildings before giving up and going to the shopping centre because the light snow was literally turning into a blizzard. I then travelled to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. I’d planned to go to Prague or Krakow but I was running out of time. More train delays, cancellations and very nearly getting run over by a van before I reached Nina’s apartment. 4th country to see each other in less than a year; I’d say we’re pretty international buddies by now. I saw Georgie, her bf Chad, their friend Moniek and her bf Matthieu the next morning. We explored for a while; everything in Amsterdam is very in your face. The next day I saw Yasmin and 3 of her friends from uni. We had a long but fun day and welcomed in the new year. I’ll upload all of my photos from this trip so you can get more of an idea of what we got up to. 🙂

I made a little video of parts of my trip^^. Now planning my next trip (and also saving money as I am broke)

happy new year by the way!

Mary x