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Heroes squareArriving in Budapest we discovered the currency is worth very little compared to gbp and so got out 25000 Hungarian forints (approx £60). After finding a McDonald's (free wifi, not food) we managed to book ourselves a room in hotel bed and roses.
The public transport system was easy to use and we found our way to our hotel located behind the opera house very quickly compared to some of our other hotels!
The woman who ran the hotel was incredibly smiley and really friendly. We had a nice clean room with a cool painting on the wall showing the hotel and how far each of the main attractions are from it. Definitely a step up on some of the hostels we have stayed in. Not to mention it being dirt cheap! We had our own bathroom with shower and hair dryer and access to a shared kitchen including washing machine (which came in really handy - we had run out of clean clothes!).
We found things really cheap and on our first night we ate at a nice restaurant, we had spaghetti bolognese and Camembert with cranberry followed by gypsy style
One of the galleries at heroes squarepork, a few pints and a couple of bottles of wine whilst watching the football. The waiter even asked me to taste the wine to check it was ok which made me feel very posh! I gave it a little swirl, smelt it and swished it around in my mouth, saying "yes, that's fine" - as if I knew what I was talking about!
The next day I went out for a day of sightseeing on my own while the other two spent some time together. I went to see heroes square which is covered in cool statues and surrounded by art galleries and museums which are all lovely buildings. Then had a stroll through the park with a sandwich and fanta lemon.
I met back up with the others in the evening and we went to see the bridge which connects the two sides of Budapest and is overlooked by buda castle. It was really beautiful and we saw lots more statues! There seemed to be a lot of them all over the place. On our way back the heavens opened up and we found ourselves in shorts and t-shirts in a thunder
Heroes square statuesstorm. Forked lightning cracked through the air and the rain was torrential. We stood under the entrance to a shop for a while but still getting wet we made a run for a nearby McDonald's. This time we actually ate there! They have the double quarter pounder and the mcrib as standard burgers on the menu and an amazing ice cream thing with peanut m & m's, strawberry sauce with strawberries in it, ice cream and whipped cream and it's about twice the size of a mcflurry!
We found out whilst in Budapest that there is a real stigma attached to smoking and the only shops that sell tobacco products are these little dark shops that are designed in a way that you feel like your going into a sex shop or something! I wonder if that actually cuts down on smokers?
On our final morning we went back to the nice restaurant we had been to before and had Hawaiian style chicken. Which was basically a piece of chicken with loads of ham and pineapple covered in cheese. Very, very nice.
Then we rushed off to the train station as
With M in front of the Hungarian parliament and riverwe had got our times wrong and where then running late! Luckily we got there just before our train to zagreb was departing.
We were looking forward to sleeping on the train as it was 6 hours and had no changes but obviously that's not how it went down. After an hour we got told in broken English (with the help of a bit of paper) that we had to depart the train and get on a bus which would take us most of the rest of the way. My legs didn't fit behind the seats and it was boiling hot. Really not an enjoyable experience. Then back onto another train for the last leg of the journey. Since it was all young backpackers and the train wasn't stopping we all sat in first class to take advantage of the leg room after being penned in on the bus! It meant we where well behind schedule (much worse for people who had onwards trains!) and hadn't booked anywhere to stay. We couldn't find any wifi and it was the middle of the night but luckily a Dutch guy we had met on the train said he was
On my stroll through the park I found this museumstaying in the cheapest hostel in zagreb and we should go with him.
After a quick tram ride (thankfully they run 24hours) we made it to hostel lika. And I'll write about that in my next blog!
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