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Sorry about the delay on the blog from Budapest…I kinda ran out of time along the way & decided to just keep on writing day by day. But I really loved Budapest, & if for no other reason than that I don't want to forget all the wonderful things we did there I'm going to try & write it all down now! :) On Thursday morning we said Auf Wiedersehen to Vienna & took the train further south & east to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Now, if I had my time again I would probably have swapped the time I spent in Vienna for an extra day in Budapest instead (i.e., as per our original plans!)…BUT, then I suppose that I never would have KNOWN that I would feel that way & I might have felt like I was missing out by not going to Vienna anyway! And hey, that's just part of the adventure that is traveling! :)
We stayed in a hostel called Goat Hostel (not entirely sure why…) & when we first arrived there I think we were thinking we were going to have our first really bad hostel experience. The hostel was located within an old, grubby, run down apartment building & when we were walking up the stairs Nigel & exchanged glances of trepidation. But when we got inside the hostel it was just lovely! Very cozy & homely, & the girl who greeted us was really lovely. We got settled in & went to grab a bite to eat - more stew! It was actually pretty damn amazing stew, with Hungarian dumplings, which aren't so much dumplings in the sense you might imagine but kinda like lots of very small pasta-y, gnocchi-y things…haha that's really not a very clear description at all so you'll just have to take my word for it that they're delicious! :)
In the afternoon we spent some time resting at the hotel because we were both pretty knackered & I had been a little unwell that morning. While we lying down we heard a screech & an awful smashing sound outside on the street. I ran to the window & saw that a little girl had been hit by a car while crossing the road on her scooter. We were going to run down to help but there seemed to be plenty of people milling around & an ambulance was obviously called immediately. It was really awful to watch though, her mother was screaming at the driver & crying…the girl was OK fortunately but her leg was obviously broken & at one point they turned it over to check it & you could see that the bone was sticking out the side of her leg. I've never seen a car accident like that before & it was really horrifying. I actually ran to the bathroom & threw up I felt so sick watching that poor girl :( And it was really just an honest mistake because she had come out from the side of the road a little ways down the street from the cross walk, & because she just appeared from between two parked cars the driver hadn't seen her at all until she appeared on the road. Really makes me understand why my parents always drilled into me to check so carefully before crossing the road!
A little later Nigel & I went down to the local grocery store right near where the accident had happened & very cautiously crossed the road at the cross walk after waiting for the little green walking man sign to appear! To calm me down & help me feel better, chef Nigel Lawson cooked me a lovely dinner with lots of vegetables :) Quite the talented boy he is!
The next day we ventured out to explore Budapest, but after walking several blocks we had to double back to rethink our outfits. Turns out it was a pretty cold, rainy day & the heating in the hostel had tricked me into thinking that a skirt, thongs, & a light cardi would suffice! Fortunately Nigel had the good sense to predict that I would definitely get cold later & we went back to change. On our way to the meeting point for the free city walking tour, we stopped by a café (the name escapes me right now…this is one of the many problems with not having Nigel around, he always remembers these things!) that had been recommended to us & there I had the first REAL latte I'd had in weeks! It was foamy, with foam! Actually foam! And like, a lot of it, not just a millimeter! :D I could tell it was going to be a good day ;)
The walking tour was excellent, once again! Confirming my belief that it's always better to go for the free walking tours that the paid ones. In actual fact I think we have probably ended up spending more on each free tour in tips than we did on any paid tour, but that was because they were all so good that we really felt they were worth tipping for! Our guide Emma took us around various sights of both the Buda & the Pest parts of Budapest. Before Budapest (or "Budapesht" as it is pronounced by the locals & those in the know!) became united as Budapest, it consisted of two areas, Buda & Pest, divided by the Danube river. The areas are still quite distinct, with Pest being geographically flat, hip & happening, with Buda is more hilly, residential, & relaxing.
Emma spoke to us about the difficult history that Hungary has had, being on the losing end of many, many wars, & again I was surprised to learn how recently they had truly become free from communism. She showed us an important statue in a park that shows a little Princess with a crown that is famous because it was the first post-communist statue to be built in Budapest didn't have any communist symbolism. The princess sits on the railing by the Danube river, watching out over the city, keeping it safe. She is therefore a symbol of good fortune & you rub her knees for luck! :) Emma also taught us a few phrases in Hungarian (which I have since completely forgotten!), which are quite the tongue twisters. Hungarian is renowned as a very tricky language to learn & it's not spoken by all that many people (comparative to many other languages). Apparently the lines spoken by Yoda in Star Wars were written in English, then translated into Hungarian, before being translated back into English, hence the very strange ordering of words. In Hungarian you can basically say the words in any order you like & the sentence will still be understood!
We finished the tour on the Buda side of the city, high up on a mountain where the fisherman's bastion provides a beautiful view over the city. We had lunch in a café recommended by Emma where we had more goulash! Trust me, the choices are limited…& considering we were choosing from a cafeteria-style set up where we just pointed at big vats of mystery meat I figured that goulash was the safest choice! :P
In the afternoon we went to the Gellert bath houses, which were located just across the Danube river from our hostel on the Buda side. There are a lot of natural springs under the land in Budapest & these provide the water for the bath houses, which are said to be very rich in minerals & therefore very good for the body & the soul :) It was certainly relaxing, that's for sure! You can choose from a number of different baths, both inside & outdoors, which have different temperatures. Some are for males or females only, but most are unisex. So we unwound in a 36 degree bath outside under the now clear sky.
The couple we had shared the room with in Vienna had friends who had visited Budapest & done a dinner cruise on the river Danube, which they really enjoyed, so in the evening we followed suit! It was wonderful! We both said how glad we were that we'd done this cruise after the one in Prague, because as great as that one was, this one was SO much better. We were on a much bigger boat this time, with big tables covered in white linen & a dance floor as well. The food was absolutely delicious & the desert table looked like something out of a magazine! It was a beautiful sunset that night in Budapest & we got to dance to the live music provided by a traditional Hungarian trio of musicians. Nigel & I attempted to waltz but mostly I just wound up stepping on his toes hehe Fortunately we had the whole dance floor to ourselves so we didn't have to worry about bumping into anyone else :P
After we'd docked again we went to the Jewish quarter of Budapest, where Emma had recommended several nice (cheap!) bars. By the end of the day it had warmed up quite a bit & we found a really lovely open air bar with lots of colourful lights strung up overhead & lots of locals out enjoying a few drinks on a Friday night. Eventually we wandered home, knowing that we had a fair bit of traveling to do tomorrow, & wishing that we had more time in the beautiful city of Budapest.
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