Put away the camera and no one gets hurt!

Travelling to different countries has provided me with many new experiences over the past few days. Some have been challenging, and at times frustrating, but all of them have been memorable and funny.

On Monday, I got it into my head that it would be a great idea to try and mail a postcard in a foreign country. After selecting some awesome post cards and writing desperate messages to my family back home, (just kidding)

this expresses my postcard's general sentiment

I asked the front desk where the nearest post office was, and was directed to the square where the metro was. This being the place where my past adventure started, I took this as  an awesome sign and set out.(If you haven't read about my metro adventure, click here) Before I continue, let me mention that we left the hotel knowing the post office closed in twenty minutes. This gave our whole excursion the air of the final seconds of Deal or No Deal.

Sort of like this, but less cool.

You had to choose the right door wisely or you might lose your prize (or in our case, the ability to mail your post cards in a timely manner). As we reached the square, we asked a gentleman which way to the post office and he pointed to the grocery store. After several minutes of wandering inside to no avail, we were directed by the lady selling tea to “the opposite street corner.” The supermarket being a middle building, there were a few “opposite corners” to choose from, and time was running out. We decided to take a stab in the dark and headed to one of the many corners. We were in luck, and soon we were in line inside the post office. Unfortunately, we weren’t out of the woods yet. The line for the post office seemed to take forever, but finally it was my turn at the window. Up until this point, I had never thought of trying to convey where I was trying to mail the postcards. To complicate matters further, I was also mailing someone else’s letter, and needed to pay separately for it. After lots of miming, I explained where I needed them mailed, but I still couldn’t explain that I needed the postcards paid for separately. While this whole scenario was happening, the security guard, sent to guard against the post office bandits, spotted a contraband item and proceeded to harass the person holding said item. I turned to see what all the commotion was, and Cassie explained to me that she was holding her powered-off camera in her hand when the postal worker spotted it and started to freak out. She quickly put it away, but not before the guard made it quite clear we all were all to “TAKE NO PICTURES!”

Very logical in a post office

 I understand her concern. After all, Hungarian postal offices are known the world over for their splendour and breathtaking architecture, as well as their secret documents, and they wouldn’t want an average tourist taking pictures of either back to their home country. Anyway, back to the story. So I was having some trouble explaining to the postal worker that I needed to mail the letters separately. She handed me a piece of paper, and I managed to convey using pictures what I needed. I finished my transactions, and she told me the letters should arrive within three to four days. I am really excited for my friends and family to receive my letters back home, and am hopeful they may show up before I graduate university. 

Another new experience occurred today, when Cassie and I decided we could no longer put off laundering our clothes. We went down to the front desk, and asked for directions to the nearest Laundromat. At first, I was afraid they might send us to the total opposite end of town because we had asked them so many questions about the internet earlier in the day. Luckily for us, they did not seek revenge and we soon arrived at the coolest Laundromat I’ve ever seen! It was painted in bright greens and oranges, and even had a machine that both washed and dried your clothes. Cassie and I were experienced launderers, but none of the boys had done their own laundry before, and so we had to teach them. We started with the basics of colour sorting, but it soon got tricky when it came time to turn the machines on. A man in the Laundromat told us that soap was already inside the machine. We took this to mean the laundry machine, but he meant the machine you pay at. So after we finally guessed our way through the German instructions, we had washing machines running, but they had no soap in them.

Totally not needed for laundry

 Luckily for us, some of the clothing must have still had soap on them from their last wash, and the clothes came out smelling fresh for the most part. We then threw all our clothes into one dryer, finished up and headed back to the hotel. Lesson learned for next time I have to do laundry, bring your own soap!

These two experiences were both challenging and funny in their own way, and through them I learned a lot about being an independent adult. I realized that these activities are things I’ll have to do when living on my own, (well maybe not in a foreign language, but that’s beside the point) and this trip has been good practice. Hopefully I will continue having more experiences like this, so that I can come home more independent and ready for university than when I left.