Michael,s sunburn resulted in Jenny having to carry both back packs across Budapest to the hostel. Michael got a ridiculous amounts of funny looks for following a struggling jenny and carrying 2 small bags. We stepped out of the train station to one of the best sights of our time in Europe - an old woman,s sagging backside literally hanging out of her "dress" and the more she walked the more we saw.

But anyway... we arrived at our Hostel to be greeted by one of the coolest old men we have ever met, Andrew the hostel owner, who took the time to sit with us for half an hour and talk us through where we should go etc. etc. We spent the afternoon in the Buda part of Budapest, climbing to the top of the castle and exploring the old town around it. We also saw the moving Holocaust Memorial by the side of the river (picture above) which was dedicated to those Jews in 1944 who were mercilessly shot into the river. We also took in the sights of the Parliament building, which they claim is better than ours, but is not!!! The evening was spent having dinner with a guy we had met in Krakow followed by a pub crawl. We left early due to our age, to summarise a very long journey home - Jenny bought a McDonalds and dropped half of it on the floor and almost cried and we sang Bohemian Rhapsody to the pleasure/dismay of many.

We got up early the next day and headed off on an exploration. We started our day with a visit to the House of Terror, the former HQ of the Nazi then Soviet Secret Police. The museum could have been interesting, but the copious amounts of printed paper with information on instead of any kind of museum display made it a chore. We saw the Opera house then visited St Peter.s Basillica where the delightful Chinese tourists acted as papparazi for a couple getting married! Why, we still dont know!! We also had a trip to the stunning Jewish synagogue which beat the Basillica! We also learnt that being very hungry and tired, and not accepting that the other person could do directions better than the other results in a few cross words, but once watered and fed it was amazing how quickly peace returned!

Our final day in Budapest was spent having a proper visit to the Synagogue, which was even more stunning on the inside than on the outside. It was unfortunate, therefore, that the guide was intent telling us more about the rich donors to the building than anything of any use. We rounded off our time with a trip to the Turkish baths, which were tremendous. Michael enjoyed people watching and we both partook in a spot of "mahogany grandad" spotting - those old men who make it their full time job to appear like they have in fact received a coat of varnish. We enjoyed the indoor spa... well, until after having tried all the different plunge pools realising that there was a distinct lack of (NO) chlorine in the increasingly green pools. But the less said about that the better....

We spent our final evening in Budapest being stereotypical Brits abroad and settling down in a pub to watch the England game. The experience was only made bearable by the Hungarian man next to us who muttered "mmmm yes very nice...." everytime a female fan appeared on the screen...

Croatia blog next...

Yours,

Michael Potter BA (Hons)

Jenny Chapman BA (Hons)