Together we stand... divided we fall

Because of the things that happened in the past few weeks, I haven't taken a single photo since I returned to Budapest, so here are some shots from recent months.

Do you know what it's like when the girl you love is taken by her parents, quite literally interrogated (about you, her, and every little detail that is really no one else's business), told a bunch of lies about you, then put on an airplane to be taken to the other side of the continent so that you may never see her again? Without even being able to say goodbye... Then a few weeks on you get an email from her, basically saying "we'll never see each other again" and that we better pretend like we never even knew each other..

Moral of the story: don't let anyone get too close... except those you want to beat the shit out of.

Back in November, a British professional photographer sent me a message saying he will be coming to Budapest soon, and I seem to be the only Urbexer around. I agreed to meet him and show him some interesting places - these ended up being the insides of the Elizabeth and Liberty bridges (although we had a lot more planned, but time was short).

Of course, he had a proper camera - and this right here, is the first photo I've ever taken with a DSLR. :-)

At the top of the bridge, Andy successfully got himself stuck in a hole in the most noticable place possible. He could only move one arm... but he wasn't trying to free himself with it :-)

We were still inside Elizabeth bridge when the city was suddenly obscured by thick, magnificent fog.
A foggy night in the city is one of the most melancholic, disturbing, and depressing things one can experience on this planet. I LOVE it.

There were even a few photos of me taken this time :)

by Andy / uselesspsychic

Welcome to Budapest...please watch out for falling objects locals

by Andy / uselesspsychic

I can't swim at all, by the way..

Elizabeth bridge is a luxury residence for arachnids. No wonder, with all the decoration lighting attracting dinner directly into their 'living room' :)

We were right at the top of Liberty bridge when I noticed a drunken group of four blokes being loud and yelling stupid bullshit on the pavement below. All of a sudden, without any warning, one of them simply pulls his fly open and starts pissing right there in the middle of the sidewalk!
I thought I'll see if I can give the asshole a little scare, so I yelled down to him:

STOOOOP  PISSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN!!

I've often yelled this sentence out the window of abandoned downtown buildings, almost always resulting in hilarious shows of the 'suspect' looking around in panic, and then running off as if he was being chased.
This time though, I made a big mistake. Normally, you can't see a thing looking up at the top of the bridge from the pavement, thanks to the glow of the street lights. But this time, the thick fog, reflecting the light of the city, provided a nice golden backdrop for my silhouette...

One of the dumbasses noticed me right away, and stood there in shock and awe for all of 2 seconds, before reaching in his pocket for his cellphone. I thought he was going to take a picture, so I quickly pulled back inside the steel structure - only to watch him start dialing...

Not only does he piss on the sidewalk, he then goes and sets off the same expensive shitstorm that happens every time one of those self-important people climb up here, who want the whole world to stop what they're doing and watch them turn themselves into a digusting patch of bloody organs. Firetrucks have to be deployed to try and get the bastard down, and the whole bridge has to be closed lest someone's nice car gets squished by a 180 pounds of Dumbass.

I yelled over to Andy, "We have to leave FAST!", then we both started hurrying down the arms of the bridge in opposite directions. I walked down towards the middle of the bridge, while he walked directly above the heads of our dear jackasses.

As soon as I reached street level, I quickly hurried to the other side so they don't see and recognize me. Andy soon appeared, and as he walked towards me, I saw the first patrol car arriving behind him. The jackasses were still all looking up at the sky, wondering where the hell we went. They had no idea at all that we've just escaped from right above their empty heads. :)


By the time we walked over to the Pest side, there were already four police cars on the bridge, soon to be joined by two firetrucks and a police boat equipped with a large spotlight. They used it to scan the bridge up and down, while more police cars were driving around the neighbouring areas, with pigs scouting as if they were looking for a bank robber at least. Liberty bridge was just a big blur of pretty, pretty flashing blue lights :-)

I said goodbye to Andy and walked back to the bridge, where the cops were just about to give up the search. The blue lights were disappearing off the bridge one by one, and soon even the last of the firetrucks left. I walked across the bridge in the thick, beautiful fog. Only dim little specks of light could be seen from the neighbouring Elizabeth bridge.
As I was standing there taking pictures, a girl stopped next to me on a bicycle, grinning at me.
She wasn't from Hungary so we resorted to English, but we had a nice conversation - she said she's never seen fog like that before, and was amazed at the sight. Her name was Katharina - she was from Poland, and initially only came here to study. But she fell in love with Budapest so much that she's decided to move here, and change her name to Katalin. :-)

This makes it even more obvious that the only people who think Budapest is an ugly place and want to leave it behind are the people who were born here - right into the capital of Europe's most unhappy, depressed nation, where everything that was once pretty gets graffitied over and demolished, and everything that still is, will just be sold by the gram by our corrupt politicians. Perhaps it is time to realize that our city is one of Europe's most beautiful cities, and it should be our goddamn duty to preserve it and make sure it stays that way. But instead, the most memorable entities of our country are still our empty-headed politicians and all the crazy shit they say and do to embarass our entire nation. It's time to stop arguing about your political beliefs and which stupid party or politician is better than the other, and realize that you're just picking between liars, thieves and dictators. No egoistic, power-hungry Big Brother figure is going to dwarf 1100+ years of history with his bickering. This is Hungary, god damn it, not Orbánia, not Gyurcsány's Land, not a "People's Republic", and most of all not - yet - Airstrip One.


Now that we brought politics up for the first and last time, it's time for something a lot more meaningful: abstract art. :)

Goodbye... "Angel".