Hungary

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Budapest (and Hungary for that matter) was yet another one day, two night stop on our push to Greece (I - Jen - was desperately in need of an island getaway and some serious downtime at this point!). We arrived by train from Vienna (an easy 6 hours - I love European travel), and immediately found our way to the Malev Hungarian Airline office to sort out our flight from Budapest to Athens. Although we had confirmed our plans over the phone a week earlier, it wasn't as simple as we had thought... but thanks to a very nice ticket agent (who only bent the 'One World' rules a little), we left feeling very relieved with ticket in hand!

Budapest highlights:

- Strolling along the east bank of the Danube River on our first night, taking in the spectacular night skyline of Buda on the western bank of the river (Pest is the area of the city on the eastern side of the Danube). Castle Hill lit up at night is breathtaking!

- Soaking tired feet in the Turkish baths at the Szechenyi Baths in City Park. There were 9 or 10 indoor and outdoor baths of varying temperatures and sizes to relax in, with beautiful architecture all around. The people-watching was also great (Europeans are not shy), and getting swept up in the fast current in a circular section of one of the outdoor pools was lots of fun!

- Learning 'Latte Art' at a Viennese coffee house. We found an ad in a local publication (targeted at ex-pats) for a course in how to do make the perfect latte, and it was free (!). The event happened to be at a coffee shop around the corner from our hostel, so we couldn't resist. The store owner was very enthusiastic and we all got a chance to try our hand at latte art. It was particularly funny to watch the owner patiently teach the foreigners (in English), and then when helping the locals (in Hungarian) he would be yelling and talking a mile a minute! It was basically all you could drink lattes, so after a couple of hours we were on serious caffeine highs!

- Having a really nice dinner on an outside patio after our latte art class. We were on a busy tourist street, but we had a great meal wrapped in blankets sitting under the heat lamps.

- Finding out what paprika looks like at the Great Market (Nagycsarnok), an indoor market in a huge steel and glass building.

One day just wasn't enough so we look forward to more travel in Eastern Europe someday!

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Photos

'Buda' Skyline
Castle Hill in the background

Look Deep into my Eyes
Jen checks out the leader of the Budapest revolution

The Old and the New
Mountain biker hanging out at the cathedral square

Anonymous
Andrew checks out what it's like to be a famous, anonymous, writer of Hungarian history

Turkish Baths
It's a picture of a picture, but it was the best way to show what the outdoor baths looked like

Latte Art
Now will I be able to do this at home...

Russian Dolls
A vendor at the Great Market - look very closely at the dolls