Budapest

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Our arrival in Budapest wasn't the best introduction to a city that we have had on our trip. We tried to do a drive-by of our accommodation, however we were unable to see it from the road so we drove around and around the nearby streets in an attempt to find somewhere to park. We finally came across a small side street where many other cars were parked so we dropped the car and walked back to find the hotel. When we finally found it we were quite disappointed, as we had paid more for this hotel than we had anywhere else and found that standard was quite poor, we didn't even get a bed but had a 1970 fold out couch. We dropped our bags and headed back to the car, only to discover that we had been given a parking ticket, well we could only assume it was a parking ticket as it was written in Hungarian. But sure enough, a quick check with the man at the hotel and yes it was, so we were off to the Post Office to pay our fine.

Budapest is a city split into two sides, with Buda on one side of the Danube, and Pest on the other. Buda is quite hilly, and the main highlight is the castle. While Pest is quite flat and has many thermal baths, museums, the Jewish Quarter, and Parliament.

First stop was the Castle, and the walk up the hill was well worth the view over Pest. We then wandered back down and over the bridge which had been closed to traffic as it was Saturday and the bridge was filled with market stalls selling anything and everything. We had a traditional lunch of Hungarian sausage and pomme frites (fries). From hear we headed over to one of the most impressive parliament buildings we have seen, then spent a couple of hours wandering around the centre of Pest before heading out to Szechenyi Furdo (Thermal Baths) where we spent a good couple of hours relaxing in the maze of thermal pools, all set in a pretty impressive old building complex.

Now that we were fully relaxed and refreshed we headed out for something to eat and a nice drink before heading back to our fold out couch.

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