Budapest

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Arriving 2 hours or so late after a 10 hour train journey we rocked up at Budapest train station and were confronted with a mass of dodgy looking people that didn’t ender the place to us. We gripped our belongings whilst we had to change money at the station so we could pay for the metro to get out and to the hostel, it just didn’t feel like a safe place to be. They first impressions are everything about places and people etc and unfortunately ours wasn’t an endearing impression and unfortunately it sort of stuck with us the entire stay.

Our hostel, Aboriginal Hostel, is one of the smaller ones we’ve stayed in so far however the staff are really friendly and helpful and it has a bit of a homely feel to it. With a tiny kitchen and 3 dorm rooms within the main part of the hostel and movies on call it was good to settle in for the night and get some sleep.

Budapest is split by a river and there are two sides, Buda and Pest. They differ greatly in their atmosphere and cleanliness. We were staying on Pest side which to me seemed like the seedy side of town to be. Walking through the streets the is litter everywhere and what looked like drunks gathering on one of the main squares. Budapest as a whole probably isn’t like this and we may have chosen he wrong part of town to stay as we’ve many friends who have loved Budapest.
Our first day we wondered over the Chain Bridge where they had closed it off to traffic for little stalls selling locally made toys, jewelery etc and on either side of the bridge traditional food stalls. Was nice to walk past and take in the stalls and atmosphere.
From here we walked up to Castle Hill on the Buda side of the river to where the old castle once stood and is just ruins now. There is the National Museum and Gallery up at the top along with several other interesting buildings. We stopped off for a quick coffee at the top and were looking back on one building in particular and it looks like there are shrapnel marks all over the facade of the building from who knows which war.

Walking further along the Castle Hill walls we came to a courtyard with a church on one side and massive statue of I don’t know who in the middle with some dude dressed up with an eagle for tourist to have photos with. No thanks but it was a stunning bird. Still walking along we come to the end of the walled off area at the top and some buildings that are said to have inspired Walt Disney for his Disney Castle logo....took some photos have a look on facebook and see if you agree.

The views over the city are great from here and the riverfront on the Pest side the Parliament building stands out and looks very regal. There are boats moored along the river and many are restaurants or night clubs and lots of bridges linking the two sides. The buildings seem newer or better looked after on the Buda side where as the Pest side they are run down and many seem to have shrapnel holes in their facades and are black with grim.

We ventured out to a jazz gig on a riverboat one of the nights with some fellow hostel residents and had a good time, even though we arrived late and missed the jazz to be left with some average house music. From here I headed back to the hostel with some of the guys returning earlier and left Jay to party on.

My main aim in Budapest was to have my laptop fixed. So Monday morning with map and address in hand I left Jay to sleep in and headed out with a mission. It’s a hot day and walking around streets trying to find an address that I was beginning to think didn’t exist to finally fall upon it. Inside no luck, the Acer guy told me that it was head office and they can’t help me and gave me the number for the service department...yeah, thanks mate! After some serious discussions he finally made a call to get the address of the service agent and I was back off the way I had come to the other side of town. Things we do huh?

Well the service center was located at the top of one of the few hills in Buda and off the tourist map altogether. When I finally got there we had another discussion of the charges and I managed to get it to something reasonable and laptop fixed in 5 minutes. So now a happy camper I returned back to the hostel.

The afternoon was lazed away at the thermal spas. It was a tough way to spend an afternoon I must say but after all the walking well deserved. Jay and I flitted between pools that were on average 38°, to the sauna and then outside to the pools. One pool was heated and had whirlpool in the middle you could get into the “jet stream” of and get pushed around in a circle, very cool. It also had 2 groups of about 10 mini spa jets that every half hour or so would start and you stand on the metal plate and get pulverised by water, or you could just sit on the steps in front of one of the water jets along the side and massage your back or neck. The other pool was a 50m lap pool and normal temperature - cool and refreshing would be the best way to describe it. In all we had quite a relaxing time here.

We spent our final day mainly waiting at the train station to book our journey to Prague and sorting out general correspondence that needed catching up on before heading out to dinner and taking some night shots before leaving.

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