Kesonom Budapest!

Phew...back home after a hectic 4 days in Budapest!

What a city! A completely new experience in many ways - new currency (spent 10,000 in one day!); totally incomprehensible language (the only thing I learnt was kesonom, pronounced gesonom, which means thankyou!); amazing architecture.....cheap food.

After about 10 minutes in Budapest I realised that this was the first place I had been where I had no way of communicating with the locals. It gave me a new appreciation for the little German that I do know - although I cannot understand much when people talk (although this is improving daily at the moment!) I can string a sentence together...."ist das Zug verspatet?" and get the info I need. Not being able to communicate is such a strange feeling....I now have a renewed enthusiam for learning German, and quickly!

The city of Budapest is just stunning - it is not as clean and well maintained as, say, Vienna, but for me that is the little bit of character that gave the place such a great vibe (it's not dirty...just not glistening!).

We took the long way to Budapest - taking the super cheap option of the Einfach Raus ticket for only regional trains to Vienna, then an early morning Spar Schiene ticket to Budapest...this meant we arrived in Vienna at midnight...and our train didnt leave until 5am! The lack of sleep and need to make our own entertainment made for a fun night - cards and silly antics, including a visit from "Anna Pommie Hands" (fries are called pommes here, and Anna is half British)....

We arrived sleep deprived in Budapest to a cold, overcast day - straight outside the Keleti station are massive roadworks and construction going on and the lady at the tourist office was absolutely downright rude...we had no idea how to get to the hostel, and had no local currency so couldn't catch a bus...not that we knew which one! After an hour and a half...we found our wonderful hostel, and the 'Fantastic Four' almost ready to head out for the day.

First stop was the Heroes Square/Milennium Monument near City Park. Next we went to the Market Hall - cheap fruit, vegetables and bakery goods...and pricey souveneirs. The afternoon was rounded out with a long walk along the main shopping street, ending at the stunning Parlament building..based on Westminster, but I think a bit more impressive. For the Four's last night we (eventually) get to a place just a few doors up from the hostel for dinner, where the cultural dish of Goulash is a popular choice. I order a "potato pie" that ends up being a fantastic potato pancake with vegetables.

After a good night's sleep we hit the city with vigour on Friday morning, although it is another dreary day. The clouds and cold don't ruin the stunning views from Buda (city on the west of the river, Pest being the city on the east). The National Gallery is interesting, and free thanks to a kind security guard. The Matthias Church is under construction (like quite alot of things in Budapest at the moment), so we couldn't see that, but the Fisherman's Bastion was great - with stunning views over the river and Pest.

We round out the day by walking a loop including the Margherita Island. Back on the Pest side we find lamingtons, yes lamingtons, in a little bakery. Rita is absolutely over the moon - she is always telling me that her favourite thing since visiting Australia 8 years ago are lamingtons....and they were pretty good too. Friday night we have another great, cheap dinner at another place up the road from the hostel, then we check out the local 'english pub' before getting some well deserved sleep.

Saturday we awake to a glorious day - woohoo! Blue skies and sunshine all around. After sleeping in we rush to find some breakfast (I get a banana, apple, mandarin and iced tea for 1.50 Euro!) and head out to the Statue Park. This place was set up to house the Soviet era statues, rather than destry them - the idea is good, sadly the execution of the plan looks like they had big ideas, but ran out of money, because it is obviously half finished, but there is no construction going on. There is a succinct display on the Communist era of Budapest and a documentary on the secret police/citizen informers which is very interesting. Bizarre to think that all this only ended 18 years ago.

In the afternoon the others are keen for a spot of shopping - not wanting to waste the great weather outside I do some wandering along the river and touristy part of Pest. We time our climb to the Citadel, on a hill on the Buda side, perfectly to see the glowing orange ball of the sun through the smog quickly descend as we ascend, missing a picture of it by seconds! But no complaints here, the colourful sunset and then the glowing city as it got darker was glorious.

Next stop is the baths - a Budapest specialty. We head to the baths in City Park; after hiring some dodgy swimmers and navigating the change rooms it is clear there is no shame at the baths - doors don't exist in the change rooms!

The baths themselves are fantastic - outdoors, heated to about 37 degrees (and a slightly cooler pool) - they were pretty busy with locals of all shapes and sizes, and especially popular with couples of all ages! As an aside, the idea of "getting a room" is a bit like the fact that "cigarettes cause cancer" here in Europe - foreign ideas; the baths were certainly no exception.

For dinner we head back to the restaurant we ate at on Thursday with the Four - this time it is our turn (excepting me of course) to try the Goulash - we also meet up with Jordi and Alba for this meal. The Goulash is a hit - but it isn't enough to perk up our exhausted bodies; after some ice cream we head to bed, knowing we need to be up when the alarm rings to get our train on time.

Sunday morning we are up bright and early - the weather was bright, but not us! We make the train in reasonable time after the anticipated confusion of changing metro lines, finding a post office and finding some breakfast using up our last Forints. The train ride is uneventful - almost full; along the way getting close to Vienna there are thousands of wind turbines, and with the sunny blue skied day outside it made an interesting site.

We arrive in Vienna with five hours to pass - then a six hour train ride, again taking the super cheap option home. The Christmas markets open this weekend in Vienna - some locations are open as we wander through town, while others are opening in a couple of hours. We get the brilliant idea of using the free city bikes for an hour and cycle around the Parliament, Rathaus, University and Church - a much quicker way to see all the pretty buildings; before heading back to the station and getting on our regional train.

After 5 trains and six hours we get back "home" to Puch Urstein at almost midnight, in freezing rain and utterly exhausted, we are all happy to get back to our own rooms and beds - this is close enough to home for now!

Basicly Budapest was fantastic - I really loved this city. For me it had a lot more atmosphere, and a unique vibe, compared to Vienna. New York is still hard to beat, but London and Budapest are up there for my second favourite city :D