Blogs from Pest, Budapest, Central Hungary, Hungary, Europe

We woke up today to the sound of rain and thought temporarily we were back in Edinburgh!! Disappointed but pleased wed done most of the exploring yesterday we headed down for breakie again which was same as the day before and just as nice. We then found out about shopping in Budapest and found there was a big mall relatively close to our hotel. So, we went in search firstly with our hood up for a new umbrella as Mellow Yellow had a sad unfortunate death in Copenhagen a few weekends ago L Umbrella above us we headed to the mall and did a spot of shopping. Well be did! Shirt, jeans and shorts – good effort! I didn’t buy anything but was really cheap shopping! Decided it was time for a baileys coffee (which seems ... read more

*sry if these first few paragraphs are weird, they were typed on my iPod.* Arrived by orangeways bus: decent bus, seats small but leather, had a stewardess, free coffee, and movies. The ride here was fun, I watched some movies, played some games, and did some reading. Slovakia was really cool, I kind of regret skipping out on Levoca and Spisky hrad but I’m glad I had a few days to chill in Krakow. I arrived at night with no map to the hostel, so I had to follow directions old school “left at the light” style which was pretty cool. The hostel was in upper floor of a building seemingly like all the others, kind of falling apart but cool, old Hapsburg architecture. Building and gated hostel door looked shady at first, but it was ... read more

Temetői látogatás, rendhagyó idegenvezetés tanulóink, a KOPINT-DATORG Szakközépiskolaidegenforgalmi szakosai (idegenvezető, protokoll, utazás ügyintéző) számára. Egy novemberi csípősen hideg pénteken elzarándokoltunk a Kerepesi temetőbe. Megtekintettük nemzetünk nagyjainak az emlékműveit, sírhantjait. Meghallgattuk tanáraink magyarázatát, elgondolkodtunk elődeink példáján és sorsán. Első állomásunk Vörösmarty Mihály sírköve volt. Felidéztük a Szózat sorait, amelyet minden tanévnyitó végén igazgatónk mond el. "Légy híve rendületlenül Hazádnak, oh magyar: Ez éltetőd, s ha elbukál, Hantjával ez takar. A nagy világon e kívül Nincsen számodra hely; Áldjon vagy verjen sors keze: Itt élned, halnod kell." A korlátra felkötöttük a nemzeti színű szalagot, tovább sétáltunk. Nem m... read more

This is the big one*. A whole 17 days of uninterrupted travel through central and East Europe. Not only was it booked before I left Auckland back in April, but it's the primary reason I left in the first place! Why? One word: Oktoberfest!! I actually made a pact with a few friends in New Zealand last year that we would all be at Oktoberfest 2011, though the Rugby World Cup dissuaded all but one die-hard traveller (She joins me later in Munich). The story starts in Budapest, Hungary, with a whole week to go before we would finally gaze upon the magical gates of the beerfest. I landed late on Friday night with my age-old kiwi friend Hannah, and quickly found our spacious apartment at Boulevard Hostel. We awoke early the next morning for our ... read more

The floor of the Quiet Room was cold, hard and not particularly sanitary. It was also the only place I could find to sleep off the hours before my flight to Budapest. It was 1am and the temperature outside Doha International Airport was pushing 40 degrees. Inside was a chilly 18 (feels like 10 when you’re sleeping on the floor). I woke up and looked at my phone with a start. How could I have slept for 7 hours and missed boarding? Turns out I was worrying needlessly – my phone was still on Kathmandu time and I had only slept 45 minutes. The hours passed in a haze of tea, internet use and aimless wandering before my flight was finally called. Out into the searing heat and onto a shuttle bus, we were soon en ... read more