Stop 2 - Budapest

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Hello!

We arrived in Budapest via a three hour train from Vienna. Its a good way to travel in these parts as you get to see the countryside go past.

Budapest seems like a very nice hip kind of happening place with lots of young funky people about. It is noticeably not as wealthy as Vienna and has lots of slightly crumbling and faded baroque and art nouveau buildings which gives it lots of characters.

We stayed in a very friendly hostel, Ginkgo, which is hidden in an apartment block so it took a while to find. On arrival we were given some information on things happening in the city and discovered that one of the clubs, the Godoro Klub, had a Roma music festival on so we went to check it out. It,s (I know that,s not s spelt right bu this key board isn,t working very well) in the middle of a park and has a large outdoor area. We saw a huge Roma band playing which had about 25 fiddles in it. Very fun.

In our attempt to find somewhere to eat (there arn,t many cafes or restaurants about compared to Vienna and Belgrade!) we stumbled on St Stephen,s Basilica which is the main church in Budapest. It,s a beautiful building and is definatly one of my favorite churched in the world (after York Minster of course). It is impressive but simple and not over stated. Inside it is richly decorated in paintings and even has a shrived hand of a saint in a small side chapel.

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On out second day we went to explore the Jewish quarter. We visited the biggest synagogue in Europe which was impressive. it is a mix of orthodox and reform style with geometrical paintings on the ceilings. Round the back is a memorial to holocaust victims in the shape of a metal weeping willow with names engraved on the leaves. The area around the synagogue was turned into a Jewish ghetto during the war with thousands of people locked into a small area.

We also visited the House of Terror museum which is in the building that was used as an interrogation and torture place both by Nazis and later communists. Hungery was caught directly between the two forced and suffered a double waming of war atrocities as a result. The museum is very well put together and pretty harrowing in places.

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On day three we decided to take it easy and visit the Szechenyi baths. The bath complex we went to is in an impressive old building and has about 9 pools in total, all different temperatures plus steam rooms, three temperatures of sauna, cold pools and outdoor pools. We rotated around them all and spent quite a long time in the outdoor hot pool which is just like floating in a lovely hot bath. These baths are designed for you to spend the best part of the day in. After about three and a half hours we were quite wrinkly and hungry though so. It was great to feel so clean and invigorated.

After a rest we toddled around the parliament buildings which are huge and Gothic, then found a cake shop! We took the tram a few times as we had three day travel passes. This is actually a really good way to see some bits of the city.

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On day four we went over to Buda (the other side of the river form Pest where we stayed) and walked around castle hill. This is the really old part with a Palace, that is actually not very old, and lots of museums. It,s a nice place to wonder about for the day, if you can dodge the tour parties.

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On day five we took the train to Belgrade (7hrs). On the border we did actually get our passports properly checked and stamped for the first time this trip.

We are in Belgrade now, which is really nice, best city so far. Tonight we take the night train to Sofia where we spent two days then take another night train to Istanbul.

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