The Lygers » Budapest http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:32:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Chair pushing landspeed record http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/chair-pushing-landspeed-record/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/chair-pushing-landspeed-record/#comments Thu, 16 Mar 2006 09:35:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=193


If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
Since our plane was delayed 3 hours in Budapest we decided to have some fun.

]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/chair-pushing-landspeed-record/feed/ 1 What’s your favorite farm animal? http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/whats-your-favorite-farm-animal/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/whats-your-favorite-farm-animal/#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2006 19:34:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=192


If the video does not display properly
click here to upgrade to Flash 8
After Bill asks his now famous pick up line I had to jump in and start the camera rolling.

]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/03/whats-your-favorite-farm-animal/feed/ 1 New Year Eve, Budapest http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/new-year-eve-budapest/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/new-year-eve-budapest/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:31:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=144 New Years Eve started out a little tense. We had 5 people who had 5 different ideas of what they wanted to do for New Years Eve. We spent a couple hours wandering all over Budapest checking out various locations where we could spend the night – none of them seemed to have exactly what everyone wanted. For a while the top rated choice was an Irish pub that had a steep cover charge ($50) but included, so we were told, unlimited alcohol and buffet dinner. After wandering around for a while we went back to that location and they had changed their story to only free buffet and 2 free drinks. All of a sudden it wasn’t a good deal anymore. The wandering around wasn’t a complete loss as we were able to see some of the outdoor pre-New Years Eve festivities. Most of this involved setting off fireworks everywhere – parks, crowded squares, in the subway… Near the train station there was also a live music act playing (although they weren’t terribly good).

Eventually we settled on another Irish pub we had checked out earlier who also gave us some runaround at the door. They said each guest got two free Vienna sausages. We asked the doorman if we could get them right away and he said “yes, just wait 2 minutes.” We waited and after bugging him a couple times he finally said that there would be no sausages until midnight. Why didn’t he just say that to begin with? It wasn’t really a huge deal, except for Mike who was extremely hungry (and now quite irritable), so we still decided to stay there, but Mike and I ran next door to grab some kabobs.

The night started early when Bill started hitting on two girls sitting next to us. For a description of the event I will quote an email from Mike (see Mike’s blog here) on the subject:

“He quite honestly executed his approach with lightning speed. When he first went in, I thought, “This guy’s gonna last 2 minutes tops.” I was so wrong. Within 2 minutes, he was getting strong “lean in” from the girl, and soon after, frequent hair twirling. Within 5 minutes – repeated hand on arm contact as well. Bravo, Bill.

What happened next though let me know he was in fact a pro – at least at the pick up stage of the game.

We were all perched along an area that was “high traffic” – people (read: hot women) coming and going past us left and right. Now, because he was engaged in this conversation, Bill had his back partially turned to most of the traffic flow. On top of this, as he was talking to the girl, he was giving – and holding – flawless eye contact. It happened very quickly, but out of the corner of my eye (and I was facing traffic), I saw a very nice looking woman approaching. About the time this woman was just behind Bill, for some reason the girl Bill is talking to turns and says something to her friend. As if he sensed the other girls presence (perhaps he saw something in mine and Ryan’s eyes), Bill executes a full turn of his shoulders and head to the right, leans slightly backward, and fixes his eyes on her ass until she passes and walks into the other room. Then, with the smooth precision of a fighter pilot coming out of a 4G split S reversal, he resumes his position talking to the first girl just a fraction of a second before she turns from her friend and begins talking to him again.”

Also note that Bill did all of this wearing the same underwear for the 4th consecutive day (since he forgot to bring a change of underwear to Budapest). In his defense, on one morning he did take a shower with his underwear on.

At some point in the night Bill (Maverick) and Joel (Goose) broke off to continue talking to Bill’s two girls while Mike (Iceman) and I (Slider) went off to talk to another two girls. I didn’t witness all the action that happened afterwards, but it involved Bill’s girl talking about her ex-boyfriend (something Bill loves to listen to), while the girl Joel was playing wingman for ended up puking everywhere.

A couple good things came out of it though. Apparently, Joel had a pretty well-timed fart while he was sleeping. I was also able to witness the next morning Bill accidentally drinking out of a water bottle that “pukey girl” had drank from the night before. We knew right away what happened when Bill asked, “Why does this water bottle taste like puke?”

While all of this was happening Mike and I were still partying hard at the bar. We finally left and hung out with the two girls for a couple hours (where I fell asleep on a wooden bench), before rushing back to the hostel to ensure we made out 10am check-out time.

The next day Julia vowed never to stay with us again, calling our hostel room a “sophomore dorm.” Hey – better than a freshman dorm, right?

The next day (New Years Day) involved us trying to waste as much time as possible since it was cold, rainy, all the tourist sites were closed, and our plane wasn’t scheduled to leave until that evening. We sat under a tarp for a while near a temporary outdoor skating rink that was playing Pink Floyd music. We all thought Pink Floyd wasn’t terribly appropriate skating music, but then we weren’t skating so we weren’t going to make a fuss.

The really good part of the day was finding the one and only decent Mexican restaurant in Eastern Europe (as far as I know). Not surprisingly, it is within sight of the American Embassy. I think we were all quite happy to have our first Mexican food in months (well, except for Bill who doesn’t know what it’s like to live without Mexican for 5 months.)

We finally get to the airport on time and find out that our plane has been delayed for 3 hours. More waiting!! Wizz Air was kind enough to give us a voucher for 4 euros to the terminal cafeteria. Too bad that didn’t even buy you a sandwich and a water. Joel tried to hack into the airport’s computer system to make the plane leave earlier but couldn’t figure out the password. We finally get back to Sofia close to 3am. Bill had of course run out of cigarettes, so rather than going to bed (like I wanted) we had to wander around for someplace for him to buy cigarettes. Luckily there was a 24 hour gas station nearby. We got back to the hotel, went to sleep and Bill’s vacation in Sofia was about to begin…..

]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/new-year-eve-budapest/feed/ 4 Bill in Budapest Airport http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/143/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/143/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:28:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=143 Bill using our 3 hour delay in the Budapest Airport to his advantage. ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/143/feed/ 0 Budapest – New Years Eve 4 http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/142/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/142/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:23:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=142
Emese, Melinda and Mike ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/142/feed/ 0 Budapest – New Years Eve 3 http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/141/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/141/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:21:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=141
Once Bill has a girl targeted, she isn’t going to get away. ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/141/feed/ 0 Budapest – New Years Eve 2 http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/140/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/140/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:18:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=140 I-talk-about-my-exboyfriend-all-night girl, Bill, and Ryan ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/140/feed/ 0 Budapest – New Years Eve 1 http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/139/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/139/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:14:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=139 L to R: Joel (wearing his slightly-too-stylish sweater), Mike, Ryan (throwing the special MBAEC gang sign) and Julia (sporting the white woman’s overbite).

]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/139/feed/ 0 Some Budapest pics from our first few days there http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/some-budapest-pics-from-our-first-few-days-there/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/some-budapest-pics-from-our-first-few-days-there/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2006 05:28:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=138 Bill getting picked up by a Kiwi in Cactus Juice. ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/some-budapest-pics-from-our-first-few-days-there/feed/ 0 Budapest Restaurant http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/137/ http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/137/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2006 05:26:00 +0000 Ryan http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/?p=137 The infamous scam restaurant. See Joel’s blog for all the exciting details. ]]> http://www.ryanlyford.com/myblog/2006/01/137/feed/ 0