Budapest is an absolutely beautifully designed city. The International Kempo Competition in Budapest was not. The competition was about three days long and full of disappointments and missed deadlines. Overall, it was very frustrating. On Thursday, the first day of the competition, the Sweden team was peppy and excited to see how the next three days would play out. We arrived at the venue early, a little around nine, so we could grab the best seats and scope the competition. The announcements and opening ceremonies would start at ten, the competition at eleven, and the day would be over at six, giving us all time to go back to the hotel, shower and still have time to spare before dinner. At least, this is what the schedule said. What actually happened couldn’t have been more off. The announcements started a good half hour later than planned, and dragged on and on as the event planners made sure that everyone in the audience knew just how formidable this year’s competition would be. Then there were the dance performances from other countries presented as gifts to the Hungary team as thanks for hosting the event. Once the opening ceremonies were finally over, the audience and competitors were antsy to start moving and competing. Too bad for them, we would then have to wait yet another hour before the fighters were finally even allowed on the mats. The fights finally began and I was slightly startled by how flashy and dramatic the performances were. Everyone was cheering and finally having some fun! That was, until maybe about two hours in when they were still on the same event. The first event was probably about five hours, and as it got closer to six o'clock, I was definitely ready to go. That is, until they said that we couldn't go home before the fights for that day were over. That didn’t make me too worried. I was thinking that maybe we would go home at seven or eight instead because we only started about two hours late. I and everyone else who thought that were was very wrong. As the night slowly crept on and it didn’t seem like we were getting any closer to finishing the days events, arguments arose and team captains and coaches started speaking up against them keeping us there all night. At ten-thirty p.m., we were finally told that we could go back to the hotel, eat dinner, and get a little bit of sleep. They would just continue the events they did not finish for the first day and push them onto the second day. Once finally back at the hotel, everyone headed straight to the dining room and forced down a dinner of questionable freshness and then journeyed back to our separate rooms of questionable cleanliness for the night. The second day of the competition, Friday, went almost exactly the same as the first, but was accompanied with some drama as well. There were once again announcements, but they thought it necessary to let one man onto the mat to make a very special announcement. “For the man from Portugal last night that attacked me, now’s your chance to fight!” boasted a man from Romania. “You were too scared to fight me then, but we can fight now. Meet me on the mats, or meet me outside and we can get this over with.” About half of the crowd thought this was great entertainment, but the other half was too tired from the first day to even care. The announcers then proceeded to spend the next fifteen minutes translating the mans threats into about six different languages so EVERYONE would understand. At the conclusion of the announcements, we once again started the day late, and once again ended it extremely late. Saturday was the final day of the competition, and because all of the events were pushed back so far, Sofia and many other Swedish team members were actually able to compete this day. Sofia loves to attack and play wrestle with me at home so I enjoyed seeing her wrestle in an actual competition. Sadly, she didn’t win, but after the previous events, she wasn’t even certain they were going to have time to let her compete, so just being able to go out there and fight was a win. After watching Sweden finally compete, Cecilia and I took full advantage of our last full day in Budapest by taking a break from the competition and just lying in the hot sun. The last few hours of the competition were just awards and handing out prizes so we didn’t feel any need to be inside to watch those. As the sun set and we started to get hungry, we once again were told the bus would be delayed. At this point, no one was surprised. A few hours later a bus showed up to take us to our hotel where we could then get ready for the after party celebrating the competition. Dinner was to be served at the party so we wanted to get there as soon as possible because by this time it was already ten thirty. Once we arrived at the party, we ate Hungarian food, danced to Russian music, and talked to Portuguese boys. The Sweden team left the party early because we had to catch a morning flight out of Budapest the next day, and we were all tired as is. Despite the entire International Kempo Competition being a total catastrophe in my eyes, I was able to expose myself to many more nationalities and cultures than if I hadn’t had gone to Budapest at all. I’m not sure I will ever want to go to a Kempo Competition again, but I will definitely be going back to Budapest some time in the future.
