Blogs from Pest, Budapest, Central Hungary, Hungary, Europe - page 7

Temetői látogatás, rendhagyó idegenvezetés tanulóink, a KOPINT-DATORG Szakközépiskolaidegenforgalmi szakosai (idegenvezető, protokoll, utazás ügyintéző) számára. Egy novemberi csípősen hideg pénteken elzarándokoltunk a Kerepesi temetőbe. Megtekintettük nemzetünk nagyjainak az emlékműveit, sírhantjait. Meghallgattuk tanáraink magyarázatát, elgondolkodtunk elődeink példáján és sorsán. Első állomásunk Vörösmarty Mihály sírköve volt. Felidéztük a Szózat sorait, amelyet minden tanévnyitó végén igazgatónk mond el. "Légy híve rendületlenül Hazádnak, oh magyar: Ez éltetőd, s ha elbukál, Hantjával ez takar. A nagy világon e kívül Nincsen számodra hely; Áldjon vagy verjen sors keze: Itt élned, halnod kell." A korlátra felkötöttük a nemzeti színű szalagot, tovább sétáltunk. Nem messze Arany János nyughelyét láthattuk, a tölgyek alatt. "A tölg... read more

This is the big one*. A whole 17 days of uninterrupted travel through central and East Europe. Not only was it booked before I left Auckland back in April, but it's the primary reason I left in the first place! Why? One word: Oktoberfest!! I actually made a pact with a few friends in New Zealand last year that we would all be at Oktoberfest 2011, though the Rugby World Cup dissuaded all but one die-hard traveller (She joins me later in Munich). The story starts in Budapest, Hungary, with a whole week to go before we would finally gaze upon the magical gates of the beerfest. I landed late on Friday night with my age-old kiwi friend Hannah, and quickly found our spacious apartment at Boulevard Hostel. We awoke early the next morning for our ... read more

The floor of the Quiet Room was cold, hard and not particularly sanitary. It was also the only place I could find to sleep off the hours before my flight to Budapest. It was 1am and the temperature outside Doha International Airport was pushing 40 degrees. Inside was a chilly 18 (feels like 10 when you’re sleeping on the floor). I woke up and looked at my phone with a start. How could I have slept for 7 hours and missed boarding? Turns out I was worrying needlessly – my phone was still on Kathmandu time and I had only slept 45 minutes. The hours passed in a haze of tea, internet use and aimless wandering before my flight was finally called. Out into the searing heat and onto a shuttle bus, we were soon en ... read more

This is my first entry, i am about to set sail next week on a 4 months long journey on board a luxury cruise ship. I work for the cruise company, my journal will consist of travel notes about the places we visit and other interesting information about life on board a ship from my prospective... The family i am leaving behind is my wife and one month old baby.... I hope you will enjoy reading it and perhaps i can inspire people to travel..... read more

Our first full day in Budapest and unfortunately the local meteorologists were correct with their weather forecast – rain showers. With only two days in the city we couldn’t sit around and wait for the rain to clear so we headed off to catch a tram which would connect with the Metro into the city centre. We had chosen our hotel because of its close proximity to the tramway stop just across the road. Little did we realise that the hotel was surrounded by large apartment buildings reminiscent of the Soviet occupation up until 1991. We purchased tram tickets from the hotel receptionist who assured us they would be good for both the tram and Metro for one trip. Unfortunately the grim looking ticket inspectors at the Metro station disagreed and so extra tickets had to ... read more