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Alex Burman and Mike Gurney are heroes! Thanks to these highly gifted, generous individuals I now have my mobile phone back, complete with full compliment of contacts (although thanks to both of you who kindly emailed me your numbers when I thought I'd lost it), a bank card that will grant me access to a previously unaccessible yet fairly healthy and therefore very useful bank account, and this morning Paula and I each enjoyed a belly warming, tastebud massaging mug of PG Tips! Alex, Mike, in my eyes the two of you stand atop Budapest's Gellert Hill, shoulder to shoulder with the Liberty statue, lit up by a single shimmering sunbeam piercing a hole in the clouds, proudly holding aloft golden "services to backpacker s" trophies in both hands. Thank you, you are wonderful people.
Back to journeying, then... just left Budapest and we're currently on the short train ride up to Bratislava, the Slovakian capital. After a few days of Mancunian weather the sun has returned, although I suspect we've seen the last of the 30 degrees plus temperatures in Europe. On the plus side, however, I'm happy to report that Leanback Hostel, Budapest, has quietly but competently picked up two hostel awards, friendliest hostel host and best shower! And I think the latter may prove to be unbeatable, unless we find ourselves with mechanical back scrubbers or some of those fairground house of mirror type mirrors that make you look like you have Heat magazine's torso of the week (and this specific mirror technology probably only exists in my imagination anyway). Back to the point, the facilities met all of the reasonable ideal showering criteria, including a range of temperatures to choose from, and without micro-precision tap adjustment to find them, a wall attachment to fit the shower head to, suitable for those over 5ft in a fully extended standing posture, space for lateral elbow movement, a mud free floor surface and a lip between shower and bathroom floor, thus allowing me to dry my feet in the shower and place them on dry ground. Amazing, I didn't think it would happen until our return to the UK. And Roland from Leanback has narrowly edged out George and Daniel from Star Hostel, Belgrade as friendliest host. What can I say, Roland, you were incredibly helpful and friendly, and I hope you get very good grades in your Maths degree and earn that year in Amsterdam scholarship.
Hostel dorm-mates review, Leanback Hostel: some good new ticks on the global list! A couple from Japan, Darren from Hawaii, and a Turkish guy, to add to the unsurprising English and French contingent. Numbers definitely lessening though, now, so I don't have high hopes for the rest of Europe.
Oh, and the city of Budapest... been before a couple of times. I like it. House of Terrors museum grabbed our attention for a good 3 hours, and was our highlight of the visit.
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