As my time in Budapest came to an end, I stopped searching for paper clips. In fact, the only reason to stop looking for them was that I knew exactly where they would be found: In the street where I lived, between the copy shop and the university. Quite obvious and obviously boring. My last night (not to be confused with the last night before Christmas…) brought me a last paper clip though, at Szimpla. I was brought to Szimpla by a chain of unfortunate events. First and most gravely, WestBalkan was closed again due to a mass panic two nights before, in which three people died. Secondly, it was a Monday and therefore the only day Instant is closed. Thus we landed at Szimpla, which is not the worst thing that could have happened.
As ever so often in Budapest, I decided to have one drink only and be home around 1am. As ever so often in Budapest, whenever we said that, we stayed until closing time. As never so often in Budapest, I found a paperclip, on the floor in front of the cinema chairs we sat on. It is unimportant who was there, and how long everyone was there. I remember feeling a bit like in Garden State, I just sat and watched people coming, saying hi, and going, saying bye, for the last time. At some point we were four people remaining and were shoved out of the first floor by the big, big bouncer with the black jumper jacket. Downstairs, we re-settled on the very old, very dusty red velvet sofa across the post-office, where Tim and I were almost led to buying ridiculously expensive Szimpla-Postcards and stamps to have them sent to our own homes. Instead, we ordered a water pipe. The smoke mixed with the dust and it smelled like dried out fruit tea and we barely saw the cigarette-stained table. Pretending this wasn’t goodbye, we laughed and learned Finnish from Leila, and Leila learned curse words in German, but all I remember is takk, which is not even Finnish but Swedish (sorry Leila). Kippis means cheers and that is Finnish but I’ve known that before that night. My knowledge of Hungarian is still embarrassingly rudimentary, but when the big, big bouncer came around the corner again, we decided it was time to go, and he seemed to strongly agree with us.
As I arrived in my parents’ place in Italy, where I first found paperclips, I was disappointed with all the paperclips laying around everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I’m led to believe that the ones I found in Budapest’s bars were left there by Italians.
As ever so often in Budapest, I decided to have one drink only and be home around 1am. As ever so often in Budapest, whenever we said that, we stayed until closing time. As never so often in Budapest, I found a paperclip, on the floor in front of the cinema chairs we sat on. It is unimportant who was there, and how long everyone was there. I remember feeling a bit like in Garden State, I just sat and watched people coming, saying hi, and going, saying bye, for the last time. At some point we were four people remaining and were shoved out of the first floor by the big, big bouncer with the black jumper jacket. Downstairs, we re-settled on the very old, very dusty red velvet sofa across the post-office, where Tim and I were almost led to buying ridiculously expensive Szimpla-Postcards and stamps to have them sent to our own homes. Instead, we ordered a water pipe. The smoke mixed with the dust and it smelled like dried out fruit tea and we barely saw the cigarette-stained table. Pretending this wasn’t goodbye, we laughed and learned Finnish from Leila, and Leila learned curse words in German, but all I remember is takk, which is not even Finnish but Swedish (sorry Leila). Kippis means cheers and that is Finnish but I’ve known that before that night. My knowledge of Hungarian is still embarrassingly rudimentary, but when the big, big bouncer came around the corner again, we decided it was time to go, and he seemed to strongly agree with us.
As I arrived in my parents’ place in Italy, where I first found paperclips, I was disappointed with all the paperclips laying around everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I’m led to believe that the ones I found in Budapest’s bars were left there by Italians.
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