Taking Back Saturday

Great cities have multiple personalities. You don't know who they are. One minute they are safe. Others times they seem like they might hurt someone. They are rich and they are poor. Boring and exciting. Cool and not cool. This way or that way...

They are difficult to get to know, but easy to judge right away.

But take a discovery walk down a new street. Climb out of a cab when you see something strange. Those snap judgements you made earlier will change quickly. The best cities reward those who abhor routine.

So, with this in mind, what do you do when you have your first Saturday off in two weeks?

Everything you possibly you can.

A work friend invited me to the fights, so I went. These are mixed martial arts fights, and are technically unsanctioned. Like Muay Thai in Canada, these are demonstrations, and can take place anywhere. 

These are held in gyms with a few dozen people attending. Sometimes there are chairs, often not. You’re closer to the action and get a greater appreciation of the athleticism and technique displayed in the ring. Some of the best fights you will ever see are club fights. 

When we were initially invited, we were told it might be in some dank basement.The venue changed to a sports complex near the airport. No basement. It was the main floor of a small building with a high ceiling and big windows on the front to let in the light. No dank.

Nine fights in all, but this one was great.

  

This fighter just found out he must fight an extra tiebreaker round. 

There were nine fights in all – eight were bouts between young fighters. The first fighters looked like they were 15. The rest ranged in age, experience, and skill level. The fights were two three-minute rounds and then a third tie-breaker round, if necessary. In one fight, when a third round was announced, both fighters slouched their shoulders and visibly sighed. Neither wanted a third go-round.

The last was a great bout between two pros. Both were patient, waited for opportunities to present themselves and struck in combinations. The sort of stuff a Muay Thai-Boxing guy would love.

Then we climbed into a cab to return to downtown Budapest. Taking a different route, we passed the “Chinese Market” in the Kobanya neighbourhood, which roughly translates to rock mine or quarry in Hungarian. The hood looks like it sounds. It’s a gritty, industrial neighbourhood.

Clearly, we had to jump out of the cab as we passed and explore.

How do I describe the “Chinese Market?”

It is a shantytown built from shipping containers crammed between a brick wall running along the street and the train tracks. During its business hours, it’s a pickpocket’s paradise. Tight walkways, very few exits, and cheap, flammable polyester clothing everywhere. I suppose it has potential to be an arsonist’s paradise as well. It is like a rusty ramshackle-modern-day bazaar.

Knock-off sneakers, flammable T-shirts, brass knuckles.

They had more market madness across the street in an old factory.

But we survived, and some of us even plan to return for the bargains on brass knuckles and things.

The long, eventful day did not stop there.

After a three-and-a-half-hour “nap” I unpunctually visited a work-friend’s house party. It was a fun, if a radical departure from the fights earlier in the afternoon. There was music, nice people, a bartender making cocktails, and a lot of muscular gay men dancing together in the living room.

These guys were circus strongman big. I think the proper non-straight nomenclature for them would be gay hunks. And they were still dancing and carousing when I left the party at 2am.

Anyway, that was my Saturday with Budapest’s multiple personalities.