Hungary

Well I am at the Budapest airport, on my way to Manchester, England. Just thought I would write about the last couple days in Budapest.

Saturday we set out looking for a nightclub, searched on the web for one near by, and started to walk there. Only to find that the building had been torn down, and the club had moved. So we took a cab to the new location, but it too was closed, fortunately there was another club near by called Bank. So we decided to check that out. It was ok, nothing to exciting, it was insanely hot on all 3 floors. So we had a few drinks, danced for a while, then decided to call it a night.

Sunday we set out for the Chinese Market, it certainly was quite the adventure, we took a couple wrong trams, and buses, but finally made it there, however we did get caught on a tram with out tickets, and had to pay a fine of 10,000 Hungarian (about $50 cdn), to whom I hope was an actual employee, and not a scam artist. It was our own fault, but there wasn't really any place for us to buy tickets. Oh well, live and learn. The market itself was quite large, however every little booth had the same stuff, it wasn't quite the shopping paradise I had hoped for. I ended up with a black sweater, for the cold U.K. weather.

We then set out for a Thermal Bath/Spa again quite the transit journey, no fines this time, but finally found our way, and enjoyed soaking in this massive pool with water around 35degrees celcius, it was most relaxing!

Went to a nice Argentinian Steakhouse for dinner, been a while since I have had a nice steak, so it was quite enjoyable, along with some tasty Argentinian Wine. Then headed to a little pub near by for a couple of drinks, and met these really nice Germans, so it was a pretty good evening.

Monday we went for Ice Cream at this cafe, that served up huge fruit and ice cream dishes. It was very tasty stuff! It was then time to head to the airport, and say goodbye to Tan again, but we will meet up again soon I think, she is fun to travel with, so it breaks up the single traveling which is nice.

Posted by Jason Willock

Well I am here in Budapest! Getting here was a bit interesting from Krakow Poland. I decided to fly, as I wasn't to keen on the 8 hour train ride. So I get to the airport, and go through customs. Not sure if the guy there was bored, or what, but he examined my Passport very closely, using a magnifying glass, and kept looking at the picture, and then at me. Then came the questions, like how I got to Poland, I said train from Prague, he asked where the stamp from Poland was. I said the border guy just looked at my passport and gave it back to me, no stamp. Then he asked how I got to Prague, I said bus from Slovakia. He looked puzzled, and asked what I was doing in Slovakia. I said visiting a friend, and had to show him the stamp I got entering Slovakia. Well finally after nearly 10 minutes of this, he stamped my passport gave it back to me, and grunted.

The plane was a small little Bombardier plane, I kind of felt like those commercials where the guy sees various things made by Bombardier, and says, hey that's my Plane, or Bus or whatever. Anyhow I was in Row 11, and there was only 1 row behind me. So pretty small plane, thankfully the flight was only 40mins, as it was a bit bumpy!

Met up with Tan Thursday night, as she flew in from Holland, we had booked a room in a hostel, but it was overbooked as there is the largest Music Festival in Europe here this weekend, which neither of us knew about! So they put us up in a nice apartment on a very trendy street, which is great, a little noisy, but great location!

Friday, we took in a few sites in Pest, (Budapest was two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River), most of the stuff seems to be in Pest though. Went to another Synagogue the second biggest one in the world, so I have now seen the 2nd biggest Synagogue and Mosque in the world. Kind of neat. The Synagogue was designed by this Austrian guy, who had never seen one before, so it looks more like a church than a Synagogue, our guide was great, this funny Jewish lady, who had all sorts of great info. Next we climbed up St. Stephan's Basilica for a great view of the city, it is one big city. Had some pretty good Hungarian food, lots of paprika used here.

Today going to check into a thermal bath/spa Hungary has almost as many thermal hot springs as Iceland, which I found quite surprising! There is also a large Chinese clothes market here, so I think I will check that out, and get some new clothes, for cheap I hope!

From Budapest I am going to head back to the U.K. To Manchester, from there I will head to Scotland and Ireland. I figured I better do it before it gets to cold and while there is some decent daylight left in Scotland

Posted by Jason Willock