St Stephens Day in Budapest

---

---

We have had a fantastic day here in Budapest. Today is the national day of Hungary and they sure know how to party! Celebrations have been going on ever since we got here but culminated tonight with an amazing fireworks show. It was hard to know where to look there were so many fireworks going off. It was really impressive and even better because we only had to walk outside the front door of the hostel to see them all. We were unsure whether it would go ahead as there was a really bad storm earlier. We were huddled inside the hostel - Pete teaching the locals to play 500 and eating homemade goulash (of course heaps better than we got in the restaurants!). Luckily the storm cleared up in time for the fireworks to go ahead.

We also went to a folk art festival today up at the castle today. It was really interesting seeing all the crafts being done. We had a yummy hungarian style bbq for lunch while watching some children doing the national dance on a big stage against the backdrop of the castle. It was really nice. The final of the red bull air race was also on today which Pete absolutely loved and i have to say was very impressive. As part of the festivities and before the race started a 747 jumbo did an overpass 3 times about one hundred metres up just above the bridge. That was truly amazing. We were also planning to go to one of the thermal baths as well but ran out of time. There was just too much happening. We definitely want to come back to Hungary some day so we will go the spa then.

We have loved our time here in Budapest. It is a beautiful city with a fairly clean river and is easy to walk around. There is lots of history and being here at such a celebratory time for the people has been fantastic.

We are off to Milos in the Greek Islands tomorrow for 5 nights for some R and R. Then on to Italy for 3 weeks.

Here is some photos for you, and a link to our map
http://www.travelblog.org/gmaps/map_4Ag.html

---