EPISODE 8: THE PRESIDENT

Episode 8: The President

As the three friends were walking in the streets of Berlin searching for a free motorcycle, VINYL MINT suddenly stopped in front of a Rock Bar. A guy who looked as if he was a member of SAMCRO from "Sons of Anarchy" was polishing his motorbike just right outside the entrance. VINYL MINT approached him and said:

VINYL MINT: "I need your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle!"

In fact, she needed only his motorbike but inspired by the Terminator she thought that this cult soundbite sounded cool and would bring more easily the desired result. As the motorbiker was an 80s kid, this quotation was enough to make him believe that a New Terminator Model came again, this time in a woman's appearance. 

"Are you the TERMINATOR?", he asked while getting goosebumps.

VINYL MINT: "Actually I am VINYL MINT coming from the 68-Leto Asteroid. My friend and I need a ride to Budapest." 

Then the motorbiker answered with a sigh of relief pointing at another motorbiker: "My pal and I can give you a ride to Budapest".

FILTHY DOG and the METAL MISSIONARY introduced themselves and so he did:

"People call me "the President". I drive many kilometers in my life in order to follow the only drug that makes me get high."

VINYL MINT: "What kind of drug is it?''

PRESIDENT: "The world's best football team...I am addicted to my favorite football team...I came to Germany in order to watch live the game...I live on an isolated island in the South-East of Europe. 3 more fans of my favorite football team live on the same island and we have created a fan club there. I am the President of this 4-member-fan club..."

VINYL MINT, FILTHY DOG and ΤHE METAL MISSIONARY felt really touched by his words as they somehow had a similar kind of addiction to Heavy Metal. Except from travelling around the world in order to discover more Heavy Metal bands, records, etc or to attend in live shows and festivals, we could say that they were something like "music minorities" at the societies where they lived but they were keeping their inner flame of Heavy Metal alive because of their true, deep devotion. So each one grabbed 2 beers for the road trip and began riding towards the beautiful country of Pokolgep, Ossian, Tormentor and many many more...

So, their next destination was Budapest. Budapest, the capital of Hungary is a beautiful city with great buildings of architectural interest and a scenic river, the Danube, the second longest river in Europe. 

Before starting the record hunting the 3 friends with their new company decided to walk through the streets of the city and by the way to try some traditional dishes, as Filthy Dog could not "work" on an empty stomach. Filthy Dog pointed at the Central Market Hall and said: 

"A hungry bear does not dance", so they stopped there, where they tried Kolbász, Lángos and Kürtőskalács. The Hungarian cuisine totally satisfied their taste standards so they thought to discover more about this new country. 

As FILTHY DOG was  a hardcore cooking-lover he bought a sack of sweet paprika in order to enrich his spice collection, and then all together they started roaming around the city...

They visited the House of Parliament, the Chain Bridge, the Buda Castle, the Fisherman's Bastion and many more... somewhere on the way up to the Liberty Statue that stands on the top of Gellert Hill, after having walked for 24km all day long, FILTHY DOG realized that this kind of hyper-activity-tourism wasn't ideal for a high-level-smoker as he was...

The next day after a short visit to Margaret Island they headed towards the Heroes' Square. IRIS detected 4 record stores on the wider area. As they visited the first one, FILTHY DOG commented that the e-selling-platforms have degraded his live-shop-experience because the owners of the shops on Earth adjust the records' prices to the record prices of the private sellers on the e-platforms. He explained that private sellers evaluate their private record collections as "much-more-expensive-items-than-they-really-are" and that results in extremely high record prices in shops. In the first store the heavy metal section was even smaller than FILTHY DOG's James-Last-records-collection...There were only records of mainstream metal bands that they were bored to see again and again on the famous metal magazines and metal radio and TV shows. So they left without buying anything. The second store was an underground store at the sides of a square but it was closed and made FILTHY DOG imagine what kind of metal gems would be hidden in there and he could never reach them...however, they had a better luck on the last two stores. The third store was full of second hand records, CDs and cassettes and it seemed that its owner never had heard of the Internet before because the prices were extremely low as they were 25 years ago. FILTHY DOG bought many Hungarian records such as Stress, Metal Lady, XL Sisters and many other metal records from Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

As FILTHY DOG was ready to pay the tons of records that he had chosen, he noticed a cat playing near a box full of cassettes. He started searching between the cassettes until he found the cult collection that he already owned in a vinyl format Robbanásveszély! and "Black and Speed Metal (1989)" that he had never touched before in his life. Excited because of the new things they bought, the friends headed towards the last store which was an underground store full with only metal stuff. The most interesting pieces that they found there were a few copies of Ария, Август and Мастер. 

VINYL MINT was very happy that she could now have 3 copies of the Ария band as ideally she needed: a Mint copy for her collection, a Mint copy for her spare collection (in case that her main collection gets destroyed or stolen) and a third copy that she could listen to without worrying about scratches etc. 

After the record shopping time they tried the traditional sweet Dobostorta in an old pastry shop at the Opera area and then they headed to the Heroes' Square.

As they reached the Heroes Square the President said:

''Well guys, I must admit that this heavy-metal-vinyl-hunting-thing you do is cool, but I am just a simple rocker and now I prefer going to enjoy a bath with a hot girl that I met at the Danube cruise. So I am going to the Széchenyi Baths . By the way, if you ever go to Ireland, just call me to join you, so that we visit and honor together the absolute guitar magician, Rory..."

Before leaving the President held his fist high and additionally said: 

"So long guys! Stay Hard as Rock and Heavy as Metal!!! ''

(to be continued...)