Under the surface in Budapest
Wow! I had a fabulous day doing something I never expected, especially in a big city -- caving.
When I checked into my hostel last night, I saw a brochure for exploring the caves beneath Budapest. I thought, "hmmph, that's interesting." Then I talked to a girl who had done it the day before and said it was awesome. So I weighed my options between walking around another big city today or doing something I'd never done before. And I signed up.
We met this morning at 11 am. It was me, four Scottish guys (well one of them is Spanish, but he lives in Scotland and has a Scottish accent), who were also from my hostel, and two Alaskans and an Aussie from another hostel. Perfect little group. Our guide was, of course, Hungarian.
We took a couple of buses to the far reaches of the city and went to a house where we could lock up our things and suit up. We were supplied with full-on jumpsuits and helmets with lights on them. Our guide had a helmet with a gas flame -- much brighter than the flashlights.
On to the cave. We entered through a locked door on the face of a rocky hill. Then we used a ladder to descend to climbing depths. I think we all sort of wondered what we had gotten ourselves into when we immediately had to get on our stomachs and crawl through a small passage. I was a little worried I'd get claustrophobic, like I had in the pyramid, but I was fine. I was more than fine -- it was so freakin' cool!
We had an athletic group -- I was probably the least in-shape -- so we took the "hard way." Dude. There were parts where you had to be pulled up by someone ahead of you because it was so steep and slippery. And there was one hole that so tight that I had to basically lie on my side, limp, one arm up, one down, and be pulled through by my feet -- there was zero wiggle room. That was the hardest part.
Along the way our guide gave us a few challenges. One was that we had to climb up a steep little cave hill, and wedge ourselves into the top -- maybe 12 feet up -- and clap three times with our hands and feet. If we did it we would prove ourselves as cavers and not just tourists. It wasn't easy. And I had little confidence that I would be able to do it, especially after some of the guys failed, but I totally did it! I was so proud of myself!
The final challenge was at the very end. We had about 60 feet to go and we turned out our lights so that it was PITCH BLACK and we had to find our way out by communicating with each other. Freakin' hard. There was one point when some people got ahead of us in the back, and we had our feet dangling over an edge -- no idea if there was ground right below us or a hole below us -- and that was scary. But eventually we all made it out. Without turning on our lights. Very cool! After 3 1/2 hours climbing and crawling and slipping and squeezing, we all shared a beer at the bar underneath the changing rooms. And we were exhausted. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. But what a great day!
When I checked into my hostel last night, I saw a brochure for exploring the caves beneath Budapest. I thought, "hmmph, that's interesting." Then I talked to a girl who had done it the day before and said it was awesome. So I weighed my options between walking around another big city today or doing something I'd never done before. And I signed up.
We met this morning at 11 am. It was me, four Scottish guys (well one of them is Spanish, but he lives in Scotland and has a Scottish accent), who were also from my hostel, and two Alaskans and an Aussie from another hostel. Perfect little group. Our guide was, of course, Hungarian.
We took a couple of buses to the far reaches of the city and went to a house where we could lock up our things and suit up. We were supplied with full-on jumpsuits and helmets with lights on them. Our guide had a helmet with a gas flame -- much brighter than the flashlights.
On to the cave. We entered through a locked door on the face of a rocky hill. Then we used a ladder to descend to climbing depths. I think we all sort of wondered what we had gotten ourselves into when we immediately had to get on our stomachs and crawl through a small passage. I was a little worried I'd get claustrophobic, like I had in the pyramid, but I was fine. I was more than fine -- it was so freakin' cool!
We had an athletic group -- I was probably the least in-shape -- so we took the "hard way." Dude. There were parts where you had to be pulled up by someone ahead of you because it was so steep and slippery. And there was one hole that so tight that I had to basically lie on my side, limp, one arm up, one down, and be pulled through by my feet -- there was zero wiggle room. That was the hardest part.
Along the way our guide gave us a few challenges. One was that we had to climb up a steep little cave hill, and wedge ourselves into the top -- maybe 12 feet up -- and clap three times with our hands and feet. If we did it we would prove ourselves as cavers and not just tourists. It wasn't easy. And I had little confidence that I would be able to do it, especially after some of the guys failed, but I totally did it! I was so proud of myself!
The final challenge was at the very end. We had about 60 feet to go and we turned out our lights so that it was PITCH BLACK and we had to find our way out by communicating with each other. Freakin' hard. There was one point when some people got ahead of us in the back, and we had our feet dangling over an edge -- no idea if there was ground right below us or a hole below us -- and that was scary. But eventually we all made it out. Without turning on our lights. Very cool! After 3 1/2 hours climbing and crawling and slipping and squeezing, we all shared a beer at the bar underneath the changing rooms. And we were exhausted. I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. But what a great day!
posted by Mer @ 4/09/2006 11:54:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 4/09/2006 8:43 PM,
Anonymous said…
wow, that sounds soo amazing!
mbs
Post a Comment
<< Home