We have spent the last 2 days in Budapest and had a great time.

The city is composed of 2 suburbs, Buda and Pest, dissected by the Danube river. The Buda side contains a castle and a monument to the freedom of the Hungarians (which started off as a monument to the Soviet "liberators") and many socialist monuments, which were moved there from all over the city after the end of the communist regime, in order to preserve their history.

The Pest side of the city is comprised of an eclectic mix of buildings, borrowing architecture from many different cultures and eras. It makes for a unique combination and is not surprising, given the Hungarians have suffered through centuries of occupation by the Huns, the Romans, the Turks, the Austrians, the Germans and then the Soviets. They have only really achieved their own identity since the dissolution of the USSR in 1989.

We caught up with our friends, Irene and Alan Jolly, for the second time on this trip, and we had a blast.

The first night, we all caught a traditional Hungarian Folk Music show. The band were amazing, consisting of around 10 violinists, a bass, a clarinet and 2 zithers.

They played a variety of Hungarian folk songs and at times the violinists fingers were working so quickly you could barely keep track of them. The lead zither was also incredible, at one stage playing in the dark and never missing a note.

The band were accompanied by a troupe of dancers. There was a whole lot of clapping and boot-slapping going on by the men and the women did a dance with bottles on their heads that was really amazing.

There was also a lot of Kylie Minogue type squealing happening and the costumes were appropriately garish with bright embroidered colours that in any other context would make your eyes bleed. Somehow, while sitting in an old theatre in Hungary with the folk music, it just worked.

After the show we came back to our Hotel, the Corinthian. Believe it or not, it used to be called the Grand Hotel Budapest, which certainly made me chuckle.

We sat in the piano bar with the Jollys and enjoyed a couple of bottles of Malbec before bed.

The next day, the Jollys joined us for a city walking tour. Our tour guide, Joseph, a chubby middle-aged Hungarian, was very knowledgeable about the history of Budapest and entertained us for 3.5 hours.

We finished the tour on the Buda side of the city, where we enjoyed a traditional Hungarian lunch, including beer of course, given it was around 30 deg.

After lunch, led through the labyrinth of buildings by a confident Irene, we headed down to a monument along the Danube river dedicated to the Jews that were slaughtered in the city during the holocaust. Apparently they were dragged out of their homes and lined up on the banks of the river, where they were told to remove their clothes and shoes, then shot and dropped into the river.

The monument consists of iron shoes lined up along the river bank. It is very moving to see these shoes, representing the last possessions removed from the Jews before being executed for no good reason.

After this we walked back to the area near where the Jollys were staying and had a drink at a very touristy bar, frequented by the hundreds of tourists that land each day in Budapest from the river cruises. We were glad we didn't eat there because the meals did not look very appetising.

We then went to a Thai massage parlour, where the girls had a foot massage and Alan and I had a full body massage. My masseuse tramped all over my back like she was stomping grapes and even took a phone call during the massage, where she massaged with one hand and held her phone with the other. Alan was offered a happy ending, which made me feel rejected, since no offer was forthcoming from my masseuse.

All in all, despite feeling like a jumping castle at a 5 year olds birthday party, it was a great massage and although my spine is now located somewhere in my chest, I feel a lot looser around the back and neck.

After this we went back to the Jollys apartment for a few more drinks and listened to Christmas carols before heading back to the hotel for a quick paprika chicken before bed.