A Hungarian Rapper in a "Wife-Beater" and an Accordion

Budapest. Global backpacker destination.

I walk out of the train in Budapest after a 7 hour trip from Zagreb, and I am welcomed by what seems like thousands of guys in dreds, cargo shorts and birkenstocks. White American 20-somethings, perfectly matching every characteristic found in "Stuff White People Like;" with great hatred for their own country oozing out of their oriental scarves and nose rings.
And they leave their mark in Budapest, as evidenced by the tea-shops, organic and whole food stores and the alternative cafe's. Yet, don't be fooled. This is Budapest. It's edgy with a personality as large as the city itself.
Some of the funkiest hairstyles I've ever witnessed (I'm thinking of the rainbow colored dreds I saw in particular), some of the largest attitudes and so much diversity! I met a British Malaysian tour guide (of Budapest) with the thickest British accent--almost un-inetelligible to my American ears-- an Irish jewelry and ceramics student, who was studying in Hungary, a Finnish girl, a student from New Jersey and two French guys all in the same night. I should also note that I discovered that while I find the f word extremely uncouth, for some reason, coming from the mouth of a British Malaysian, I found the thousands of cuss words he uttered kind of hilarious. There was something formal about it....
After watching the gypsy festival together, we headed over to a club. Coolest thing ever! Court yards all over Budapest are being turned into clubs and pubs. So we walk in, there's this synthetic looking plant in the room highlighted by pink lighting. People are sitting in Middle Eastern style seats---real low. We chatted about our lives, our studies and our travels to the soundtrack of what sounds like French music played to an arabic beat . And there we have it: an upside-down room! A small sofa, a lamp and a small table on the ceiling. Next room, a large blue zipper playing the role of the room's spine, as it covered the back wall and curved up to the ceiling. Every room had a theme--newspaper filled bathroom with black and white pictures, the dentist room-- all of them filled with young hipsters, travelers, backpackers and locals--people from all over the world talking.
Then, the main attraction: We go downstairs to the basement--all in stone. And lo and behold, on the stage we have a thin-oriental looking man with baggy jean-shorts and a wife beater, smoking a cigarette while playing the accordion. Can you say bad ass? The main singer, a large middle eastern looking woman dressed in conservative clothing--a long skirt and an oatmeal colored sweater (Imagine people grinding to this woman's song!). A DJ in the background was re-mixing all of this sound with his mac. My first impression: How the hell do you dance to this? According to the French guy, it involved spinning me so much that the necklace I bought in Sarajevo flung off of me, the contents of which landed all over the dance floor. BOO! I loved that necklace!
Towards the end of the night, I had a cigarette burn on my stockings (as a result of the guy in front of me who didn't care to apologize), a broken necklace, a few lost items, and a taste of Budapest.