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Im not in a good mood... The relatively good nights sleep on the night train to Krakow was exchanged with a horrendous nights sleep en route to Budapest. Eddie had the top bunk this time and I was on the bottom, leaving Ben indifferent in the middle. The lack of air conditioning meant the window and the blind had to be left open. This allowed light in every time we entered a station and with poor quality rails, it was very noisy.
10 hours down the line we roll into Budapest, one capital but two cities. We had a little lie in this time compared to the previous night train. This would have been very convenient had I got any sleep! HUH... Ben found it particularly amusing that every station announcement preceded with a lengthy chime which sounded like it was played on a small Casio keyboard. It was very cheery though if not slightly annoying.
Budapest was warm and sweaty and we had a little walk ahead of us with heavy backpacks to our accommodation. We arrived and the owners daughter let us in sporting very tiny shorts. This with immediate effect put a smile on Eddies face. She showed us to our room, the best yet! This room had sofas and a fabulous penthouse view of the city. It was still early as our train arrived at 8am, so Eddie suggested we strolled across the river and explore Buda. It was very pretty and less corporate than Pest.
Getting used to the ridiculous nature of the Florint was a mission. No wonder most places here prefer to trade with the Euro. I had 30 thousand Hungarian Florint in my bulging wallet, but that's only 95 quid!!! You really would need to tighten your belt a buckle or two if you received your change in coinage. Buda had many trams so we decided to completely wing a couple of trams back to base. Randomly hopping on and off trams vaguely going in the right direction and with a little bit of natural intuition thrown into the mix. We winged it to great success but before hopping on the trams we had to overcome a little difficulty.
I placed 400 Florint into the ticket machine and pressed what I thought was the correct button. Nothing happened and it became evident I had lost my money. A local shabby looking lady was attempting to communicate with me in Hungarian. She wouldn't leave me alone but I still appeased her and smiled. We walked round to the ticket office and queued up. This lady followed us with her equally shabby looking husband and attempted yet again to communicate. It was warm, I had lost money so consequently my patience started to crack. She continued and so I SHOUTED, "I'm English love so I don't have a clue what you are talking about" "and if YOU don't understand that you need to watch more American films!" Unfortunate circumstances continued with Eddies 500 Florint note being rejected as it had a small tear in it.
Two successful trams later, we walk into our lift to take us to the third floor. This lift is a dodgy looking thing and you have to close the internal doors yourself. Mid way between the ground and first floor, Eddie was intrigued and attempted to open one of the internal doors. ERROR! The lift stops. We look at each other. You have to be kidding me! I get claustrophobic at the best of times, a small stuck lift big enough for 3 people wasn't ideal. Eddie muttered, "I'm sorry fellas". Lacking in oxygen the lift did start to move at irritating snails pace. After what seemed a lifetime it reached the first floor and stopped. Opening and closing the door seemed to give back its marbles. That was a close shave.
Evening had arrived and I pondered over an ironed chicken in a very cool restaurant. I had visions of the chef steam pressing my fillet. We were advised to enjoy the hospitable delights of a bar called Morrison's. Nothing like the supermarket. Beer was about 80 pence a pint and they had karajoke!
We met several Americans who joined us for a few songs! It's late and now bedtime. Breakfast and then maybe a Hungarian Spa in the morning! Good call...
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