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August 13th 2008

Published: August 14th 2008

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Huschka

Kip and me on Castle Hill

Well, we got off to a rough start in Budapest and it may have been a bit of a sign of the days to come. I would say overall that I liked Budapest (there was some good aspects, bad aspects), but was definitely glad to leave after a couple days.

First, Budapest is just much different than Krakow. It is two-and-a-half times the size of Krakow and generally not as easy to get around. The Danube River separates the former cities Buda and Pest---several bridges now connect the two cities. Buda is very hilly and has what remains of medieval Budapest. Pest is more commercial and generally where almost all of the sights are located and where everything is happening.

Our problem was that our hostel was not really a good base from which to explore the city. We stayed in Buda and had to cross the bridge and walk quite a ways when we wanted to go somewhere. It was really tough to find a place to eat, or even a bottle of water, close to our hostel. I would venture to say we walked 15 to 20 miles during our short time there. Also, our hostel only

Bridge Connecting Buda and Pest

had one bath and we had a sleeping dorm of sorts that got pretty hot in the evening.

But, I do not want to give the impression that there were no redeeming aspects of Budapest! Indeed, I would say it was almost more our set up than anything that made it difficult to navigate the city. The first day we just went exploring in Pest and saw the Opera House, the Parliament building, St. Stephen´s Basilica. Then we walked down Vaci utca (fashion street) and had a great dinner out on the patio of some restaurant.

The next morning I went for a run along the bank of the Danube River that was quite scenic. Mid-morning we went to a Turkish thermal bath, which Budapest is famous for. We went to the Hotel Gellert, considered to be the best in the city. We showed up and there was a ˝Bath˝and ˝Pool˝option. We had no idea, so we just did both. When we showed up at the bath the guy told us we are supposed to do the pool first. We went outside and basically it was a bunch of people jumping into artificial waves in a pool---like at

Bridge Connecting Buda and Pest

Oceans of Fun for you KC folk. We went inside and lounged in the baths later---they are supposed to be very good for you and supposedly help prevent Parkinsons Disease (and has some other redeeming qualities I cant remember now).

That afternoon we hiked up Castle Hill in Buda which had gorgeous views and scenery. This was probably my favorite part of Budapest. The hiking and trails really reminded me of Colorado in the summer.

Tuesday night we tried, again, to go to a concert at St. Stephens Basilica, but spent two hours at the train station waiting to book our night train for the following evening and, consequently, did not make it on time. So, yet again, we had a couple beers instead.

On Wednesday our train left at 3:00 pm and arrived in Croatia at 7:30 am this morning. We are in Split Croatia right now, and plan to make it over to Dubrovnik tomorrow. I will do an update after we move on from here, but I will tell you this: it is definitely going to be a relaxing, beautiful, sun-soaked couple of days! Also, thanks for all of your comments! Its nice to