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Jonnys Eastern Delights!
Due to a big music festival in Budapest, finding a place to stay had proven to be a bit of a struggle, and in the end we tagged along with Antti and Sota to a place their guidebook had made sound quite reasonable. Howeevr, it turned out basically to be a university hall of residence - providing quite an insight into how Hingarian studenst live! It was an absolute dive - the room, showers, corridors, everything! It was not what we were after at all, but the saving grace was that we could go straight to bed and so we somewhat reluctantly took it. The rest of Monday was then a bit of a write off, with the stress of the last few days taking its toll a bit between the three of us I think, and a bit of a heart to heart was needed in Burger King to clear the air.
Things picked up for us on Tuesday as we spent the first half of the day wandering around Bud, taking in Castle Hill and the massive Royal Palace, before treating ourselves in the afternoon to a few hours in the citys most famous spa at the Gellert Baths. Although you felt like you wre taking a bath in a cathedral, which was cool, I didn't entirely appreciate the extent of male nakedness going on in the single sex baths, and actually got decidedly worried when at one point in the steam room one guy plonked his hairy backside right in my face and later started hosing my feet with cold water! Needless to say I made a swift exit! I felt so chille dout and relaxed after the baths it was great, and in the evening we had another brilliant meal before meeting up with our favourite people the Finnish couple for a drink.
Patience was needed on Wednesday as the whole morning was spent frustrated in queues sorting out our transport out, but we eventually made it out into Pest and did some of the sights there, including the Terror Museum in the old HQ of the secret police on Andrassy ut. Despite it being my second time visiting, it was no less thought provoking as it chronicled atrocities from both the Nazis and the Soviets. I decided I would put myself in a thoroughly bad mood by clumsily withdrawing over 120 quids worth of Forint instead of a fivers worth, but then had reason to spend some of my new found wealth on beers at the station as we were delayed for over an hour. This was one overnight train however that didn't turn into a test of sanity, as we had the luxury of being able to stretch out and actually get some sleep - and arrive in Prague suprisingly with it, and expecting good things.
Jonny
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