Budapest

---

We took a train from Bratislava and arrived at Budapest in the rain. It seems that everytime we arrive in a new place, the sky is wet and grey. We walked about half an hour to our hostel, Caterina Hostel close to the Oktagon, which is very quiet but clean and comfortable with exceptionally friendly staff. After our whistle stop tour of Bratislava, we took the afternoon off before heading to check out some of the local bars.

Saturday morning and we found the new best hangover cure...Thermal baths. The baths at Szechnyi are set in the centre of a public park a few kilometres outside the city centre and are contained in a large, ancient compex. By now the sun was shining and we enjoyed lazing round in the pools before heading for the sauna, plunge pool then thermal baths. It was so nice to relax after our 2 week trip to Budapest and I was greatful for a few hours of slouching in warm water, despite my prune-like fingers. The thing that struck me in particular was the civilised manner of the Hungarian in the baths. Such a thing would never work in the UK.

On the way back to the hostel we noticed a sign for the Kultiplex club in downtown Pest which happened to be hosting an Indie music night. We had a short wonder around the town centre before heading down to the club. It is one of the most bizarre night clubs I have ever experienced. A room full of drunk Hungarians, all staring at a large TV screen at one end of the room, dancing up and down. We stayed until about 2am and then headed home for some much-needed sleep.

Sunday morning saw the Budapest derby game played at 11:30am and we headed down to the stadium to watch Ferencvaros take on champions-elect Ujpest Doza. After queuing for tickets for an hour we got into the stadium 15 minutes after kick-off just in time to see Ferencvaros score the first goal of the game-a penalty. The rest of the game was fairly drab until the last 5 minutes when a brace of goals, sendings offs and fist-fights handed Doza a victory in the stadium of their fiercest rivals. Leaving the ground afterwards we saw a number of hoodlums looking for fights and were herded back down the street by Budapest's riot police section.

In the afternoon we took a walk up to Margit Island, a small island in the centre of the Danube river which is a large park. Unfortunately the weather didn't seem to appreciate our efforts for a sunday stroll and we arrived back at our hostel soaking wet. After the excertions of the last few nights, we went out for a civilized meal rather than giving in to the lure of Budapest's night-life for a third successive night.

On Monday we took a walk into Budapest city centre and absorbed the wonderful views from the top of St. Stephen's Basilica right in the heart of the city. Sweeping views around the city into the hills surrounding made it a worthwhile excertion. From there we took a bus out to the statue park on the outskirts of town which proved to be a complete waste of time. The 2 hour return journey was sandwiched between a 10 minute period of wondering around the statue park, looking at statues from the former communist era.

We headed back to our hostel for the night, stopping off for a Gyro (Schwarma kebab) on the way.

Budapest has been a bit of a blow out after our 2 week whistle stop tour of Europe. There is so much here that we haven't even had time to contemplate (such as the telephone museum, the subway museum, the police museum, the army museum, the ambulance service museum and the fire service museum) but we feel we have agiven ourselves a great taste of this fantastic capital and have vowed to return at some point in the future.

---

Photos

Thermal Baths
Thermal Baths

Ferencvaros
Ferencvaros v Ujpest Dosa

St Stephen´s Basilica
View from St Stephen´s Basilica

Statue Park
Statue Park

Hungarian Parliament
Hungarian Parliament