Day 14 - Prague to Budapest

Before I bore with the details of today, I would like to point out that I write this on my iPod and it has been pointed out to me that there are a few 'humorous' spell corrections. I would like you to know I can actually spell, it's just the iPods fault with its silly autocorrect.

Anyways, today began like all the other traveling days; early and in silence. We made our way to the station and spoke to a lovely lady about train reservations and she informed us we need to book all our Italy trains ASAP. We also booked Vienna to Florence. I can't believe we get to Italy on Saturday, I just hope the rest of the trip doesn't go too quick now. We boarded the train with our bag of food and bagged ourselves a cabin just for us, then we drew the curtains to be antisocial and so no one would disturb us.

Long train journeys are becoming second nature to us now, we are well into the swing of this travelling malarkey. None of us even had a proper sleep on this 8 and a half hour journey today. We got cabin fever, yet again, and we all had a good sing song (by 'we all' I do just mean me, Dee was too busy listening to Celine Dion). We had a competitive game of boy/girl and I became an arrow word champ. It was a successful journey. The closer we got to Hungary, the more we took notice of what was outside the window. When we reached Bratislava we started notice a change in the temperature. Then as the scenery became more beautiful and the train stations became more rural (I think this is the polite word to use when describing a station that doesn't even have a platform), we started to melt. It was boiling. We opened the windows and sprawled out, downing bottles of water like there was no tomorrow.

We pulled Ito the station at Budapest and I swear I could feel my soul melting. The sun wasn't really thy strong, but it was a horrible sticky uncomfortable heat. Not the kind of heat to be carrying your life around on your back in. We also had another hurdle, the currency. €1 is worth about 265HUF. We worked out that to get us to the hostel, pay for the hostel and eat tonight, we would need to get out 20,000HUF. My brain cannot cope with these numbers. I has holding two 10,000 notes, it was the weirdest thing ever. We ambled around looking for the metro and then made our way to Astoria Hostel.

Well weren't we surprised. We didn't get our hopes up cos we feel we have been spoilt with the hostels so far as they have all been lovely. This one is something else. It's like our own apartment in the heart of Pest. Double beds, a little balcony and our own bathroom. They also gave us vouchers for free beers. We like it here. There is a Tesco down the road too, just like being at home, only the beer here is better. Especially when it's free.

We found the free beer and had some wonderful food. I am not going into detail as a certain parent has commented that she thinks I am "eating my way around Europe." well you know what Ange, Europe tastes pretty damn good! Our bill came to 11,000HUF (€43) and we still couldn't get our head around the currency, I nearly cried when I saw that number.

W have planned our day tomorrow, including a trip to a park full of old communist statues and a stroll along the Danube. We are also going to continue our new favourite game, 'gay or european', where we spot male passers by and try to guess if they are gay or just well groomed european men. They're all a but too clean looking here for me, I do miss a good scruffy northerner. It's going to be scorching here tomorrow, Budapest is boiling!

Ps, mother, I am having withdrawal symptoms from tea. No one does a decent cuppa here, it's either black or green tea. This makes me sad.