Day 6 - Monday 29th October 2012 - Budapest, Hungary

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New hotel, new room to get used to, I guess I slept ok. It had snowed a little overnight, nothing really settled though. Went downstairs for some breakfast, it was really strange, there was a big range of foods - pasta, rice, goulash looking stuff…odd! We just had rolls with Hungarian chocolate spread and yoghurt. There weren’t many people downstairs for breakfast, so we sat by ourselves, Pam and Lauren came down shortly after and sat with us.

Today’s itinerary started with and early coach tour to the parliament buildings with a Hungarian guide – she was a bit hard to understand but she was very knowledgeable and nice. We had to wait outside for a bit and it was a little soggy but there was a nice memorial statue with a nice fire on top, kind of kept us warm. When we got inside we finally found a pressed penny machine – surprisingly it was out of order again 😞 We had a short tour around the main rooms, parliament was not in session today so didn't get to see anything going on. We were then lead into the Crown room which was most impressive – although crown itself didn't look like much – Two armed guards either side of it as well as under bullet proof case – seemed excessive! The tour carried on into a few more rooms but it wasn’t long or as interesting as we thought it was going to be – didn't seem much to see but a good opportunity to see inside the Hungarian Parliament building.

Back on coach we headed back to Hero’s square to grab a few photos in the light. I stayed near the coach with Chris, Emma, Darren and our guide. Darren decided he wanted to teach me and Emma some self-defence, it was so funny – I was rubbish.

When everyone got back we headed down to Pest – Pest is the city area of Budapest, it’s more like a city with old cobbly streets and shops, lots of restaurants etc. The traffic system was a little crazy and all over the place. Again, very different to Vienna! Our guide kept pronouncing it "Pescht" – it was very annoying but I suppose it must be correct way to say it as she from here!

We then headed across the Széchenyi Chain Bridge towards Buda and Gellért Hill. Buda is much hillier and greener, lots of big expensive houses and not many shops. Our coach made it up the hill where we all got off the coach for a photo opportunity. You could see the whole of Pest and the River Danube, the views were amazing, so beautiful. There were a few little stalls spread up the road and I bought some Hungarian playing cards. They are really weird – there are 32 cards and the suits are different to - Hearts, Bells, Leaves and Acorns.

Got back on coach and headed off to Buda Castle. It’s a very cool looking castle and still quite intact. Chris parked the coach at the bottom of the castle and we all walked up the steps to the road. Chris came with us this time as we were due to have out professions photo taken. The photo was taken at the top of the castle in front of a statue of Prince Eugene of Savoy.

After the photo we had a bit of free time to explore the medieval town area, we took some group photos with Fiona, Maya, Sue and Ashley – It was Ashley’s birthday today so I wished her Happy Birthday in Hungarian 😊 – so proud I could remember how to say it. Fiona went and bought a postcard and sent it, I couldn’t find anything I really wanted. The majority of the group went and bought Kürtőskalács - doughy cinnamon cones – I tried bit of Nikki's – it was ok but a little cinnamony for me! Back at statue there was man dressed up in old style clothes with a hawk, I decided I wanted to hold it – it did set me back 20 euros but I really wanted to :p Fiona took some awesome photos for me. It started to drizzle and the guy held the hawk next to my head, the hawk was a real gentleman and put its wing over my head like a mini umbrella – so cute! Fiona wanted to have a hold too then we realised were a little late and had to run back to the coach.

We continued the tour around Buda and back across the Chain Bridge into Pest. Chris dropped us off just over the bridge and we had the afternoon free for some shopping. I talked to Emma and the guide about where I could buy some Traditional Hungarian beer for my Dad. They mentioned the beer was called “Dreher” and the best place to actually buy it from was a local convenient shop. So after having the chat with the guys we decided to start the mission of finding the beer. We also decided to go and see the indoor market the guide had mentioned earlier. We hadn’t even walked to the end of the side road and decided to pop into a huge souvenir shop. Fiona bought a photo book and a Budapest moving pen, I didn’t buy anything at all for a change. We carried on walking along the street and we found a mini supermarket – I found the beer but they didn’t have any bags – I felt really conscious walking around holding a bottle of alcohol so Fiona put it in her shoulder bag – I’m not an alcoholic honest.

There were lots of random shops along the street leading to the indoor market – so many hats!! I fell in love with this old style pilot hat with goggles and Fiona saw an awesome purple hat, I think I as the same if not very similar to the one Gina had but it was ultra cool. They were SUPER expensive so we managed to pull ourselves away. After looking at a million hats, we started to get Hungry so popped into a Burger King at the end of the street; you know we thought we’d have a change from all the McDonalds we had been eating. There was a long wait for the food as there were people in front of us having trouble ordering, and I’m sure they overcharged us. The chicken nuggets weren’t nice at all. I think we’ll stick to McDonalds next time, or even something a little more traditional :p

After eating we decided to go to the indoor market, it was nowhere near as exciting as the guide had said it was; it was mainly filled with food stalls, meaty stuff. There were a few clothes and souvenir stalls on the top level, but it was really narrow and just went around in a circle. We hunted for some pressed penny machines but there wasn’t any again, I did however find one of those souvenir coin machines and thought I’d buy one of them anyway. The meaty smell was getting a bit too much for us so we decided to walk back along the high street again.

On the way back we bumped into Ashley, Sue and a few others, they were doing the same as us, hat hunting haha. Fiona couldn’t resist anymore, she decided to buy her purple hat and a Christmas bauble for her mum. The seller in the shop was hilarious, they kept offering Fiona all these purple things as they guessed it was her favourite colour… I never would have guessed :p As for me… I tried so hard to get a discount for the pilots hat as the goggles were damaged but the seller was really rude and was having none of it. I knew if I walked away I’d regret it so I bought it anyway. Everyone at work now calls me Lizzie Biggles :s

We wore our hats down the street, they were so warm we needed it. On the way back we stopped at the Chain Bridge again to look for things to do and instead just mucked about, took loads of silly map pointing photos and some excellent photos of just being stupid. I don’t think they will be making their way onto this blog haha. After much silliness we decided to walk along for more shopping and to visit the Cathedral. Me being the stupidness that I am I managed to twist my ankle in a hole. It was rather painful, a little swollen and hard to walk. That kind of ruined our afternoon oops. It was getting a little cold and dark so we decided to turn back and walk back along the river…. Slowly. There were a lot of statues and memorials along the way; there was also an area where you could see the old roads and buildings through the pavement.

Back at hotel we had a little time to pop back to our room to get ready for the river cruise dinner. I decided I wanted to get some silly photos with my new hat and scarf that involved me spinning… Total fail however I found a cheat and we managed to get at least one decent photo. After some faffing about we went downstairs to meet everyone and hopped back on the coach and headed towards the boat. The car park was sooooo tiny, I have no idea how Chris managed to park the coach, but he was an awesome driver so yeah, all was good hehe. The boat was much bigger that I had expected, there was something like 8 tables around the outside buy the windows and a really huge table in the middle with all the food. There was also a little area for the staff, so Chris, Emma and the tour guide. It was so posh. It was really cold outside and a lot of us inside the windows started to get all steamy and condensed you couldn’t really see much outside. Each table had 2 bottles of wine and a small selection of soft drinks, we sat with Gerald and Leona. I found out they were from Malaysia which is really cool, I could talk to them about my family and they were extremely friendly too, I’m glad we got to sit with them. We decided to try the wine but I really didn’t like it… I guess I’m really not a drinker at all. Fiona thought it was alright so had a little more than me. Just after we set sail the food started to arrive on the long table in the middle. There was a lot of really random foods, paprika chicken, potatoes, rice, curry, traditional Hungarian meals, it was actually pretty good. For dessert they had some miniature Dobos torta and chocolate cakes, the chocolate cake was delicious, the Torta…. Not so much, I want more from Gerbeaud’s :p The boat carried on up the river along to the parliament houses and turned around. On the way back we decided to venture outside onto the top deck. It was SOOOO cold!!! Not many people stayed up on deck but we did manage to grab a few photos. Chris kept commenting about how awesome my hat was and kept trying to steal it. He did eventually and we grabbed a photo. After that I went on a mission to try and get as many of the Contiki’s to wear the hat 😊 I finally felt like I was beginning to make some friends, its such a shame it was the final night together. Always the way!

Throughout the tour the guys had a song, sadly it was a One Direction song however it became our song, every time I hear it I think of everyone and the adventures we had, on that note, Chris started to play the songs on the way back to the hotel and everyone got up and started dancing in the aisle and singing really loudly, it was so much fun!!

Back at the hotel some of the sneaky people who took wine from the boat went back to Nikki’s room for a drink but we decided not to and headed down to the hotel bar. As it was the last night I was expecting everyone to go out clubbing, they did try however most of the places were shut as it was apparently another bank holiday. Instead they stayed in the bar and we all just sat and chilled really. I still felt a little segregated from the group but it was more comfortable in the bar than in any club they would have gone to. Emma was lovely and did try to invite us nearer the group but as more people came down from the other mini party it became crowded and we were pushed out a little again. Fiona spent some time chatting to Ashley and I spent some time talking to Lauren. She is lovely and I’m glad we got to know each other but it was a shame it happened a bit late in the tour. There was a little drama that night but I won’t go into it but it kind of felt good that I wasn’t the first person to leave.



I decided as everyone was here I would try and encourage them all to join the funky pilot hat photo session. It was fun :p It was a really nice way to spend our final evening and I’m glad I got to meet so many nice people. At about 2am everyone started to leave and we decided to head up too. We had a lot of travelling to do the next day and we were so tired it was like as soon as our heads hit the pillow…. zzzzzzzzz

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