Eastern Europe Fix

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Graeme here, well we arrived in Budapest in the afternoon on July 2nd. After a lengthy couple of bus rides we arrived at some sketchy hostel but splurged for a private room so it wasnt too bad. Bupapest is apparently called the Paris of the East and rightfully so - its well groomed, for Eastern standards and has amazing architecture. The city is divided by the massive Danube river. Buda, consisting of green hills and old churches and palaces, lies to the west of the river. Pest lies on the East side, where you find most of the city. Together they form Budapest.
We had to use the "Forint" since Hungary doesnt use the Euro. It wasnt THAT cheap to come here. A Big Mac meal costs 3.50 Euro or 5.25 CAD. Budapest is pretty modern and westernized, other than the trams. As always we walked around, seeing the sights. Of interest we went to a Communist era Statue Park (where they dumped all their Commie things when the regime fell in 89), and the famous Turkish baths. The baths were cool but 2 hours was all we needed. Basically its a luxurious swimming pool with different temperatures full of fat old Hungarians. There were so many fricken rules there too, and the staff were so anal. Europes weird like that, you can drink a beer anywhere but you cant step on a patch of grass here and there or you gotta walk a certain pace yada yada...

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Photos

budapest
me and Lenin

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night

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danube

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overlooking

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overlooking

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church

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commies

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night

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awesome parliament on danube

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bridge festival

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pest