The Hibernating Pest (September 1, 2007)

I’m pretty sure my sleep deprivation & running around has finally caught up with me. I woke up about 6am, had some breakfast, then went back to sleep until about 1pm. I went back to Vaci Utca, now very crowded with shoppers. I got some lunch & came back to Vigado Square (just north of my hotel). Here, I finally found some free wireless internet (I had trouble rationalizing paying about $30/day for the service at the Marriott) & spent a few minutes getting my new Bluetooth GPS working my International Blackberry (and Google Maps). I’ve never had too much trouble finding my way around foreign cities (starting back in 1978, when I navigated myself & my parents back to our car on many occasions where my parents would have had a lot of trouble finding it). And yet, it’s pretty cool to have the ability to know where you are (within 3 meters ). This is made all more “cool” due to the fact this unit is somewhat smaller than a stack of perhaps 2-3 sticks of gum.

That walk was so exhausting that I had to come back to the hotel for a well-earned 4pm nap. I think I’ve slept a total about 20 of the past 30 hours. Ironically, I’m still tired. Isn’t that strange…I wasn’t that tired when I hadn’t slept & now am tired when I have slept? Some of my recent yawns seem to have the power of a large-scale hydraulic jack.

Charlie made it to the hotel & we set out for food. I had warned him about the young ladies (and the expensive beverages). I think he was surprised that we were approached several times in the course of a few minutes. Obviously, we just “looked rich”! We were also approached by several gentlemen extolling the virtues of their particular “gentlemen’s club”. The pitches ranged from very direct to occasionally rather esoteric.