Day 6 - Budapest

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Well the overnight train didn’t end up being as uncomfortable as I assumed it to be, they even gave us all a bottle of water, a packet of pretzels and some instant coffee. My first stop was to print out my train ticket for the next leg of my journey – Budapest to Vienna and then I headed to the ATM to get some Hungarian Forints as even though Hungary is in the European Union its currency is not stable enough to transfer to the Euro. Everything so far had been going along so well; then I hit my first roadblock for this leg of the journey. When I attempted to get money out at the ATM my transaction was declined. This was not good. Controlling the rising sense of dread and panic I decided to phone Lloyds to check and see if the problem was on the bank’s side – I’ve heard of people having their card declined by their bank when they are travelling if they haven’t notified the bank. This unfortunately was not the case for me. Turns out my transactions were declined due to the insufficient funds in my account. My pay had not yet come through and it would seem that neither had my bond. Now I was faced with a bit of a dilemma. That being how was I going to pay for transport to my accommodation, and more importantly, how was I going to pay for my accommodation. Looking through my wallet I found 60 euros that I had left over from the original money I had exchanged before leaving the UK. Checking the conversion rate at the Currency Exchange at the station I discovered that this would be my saving grace and I would have enough for my hostel, a metro ticket, with a little left over to buy some dinner. I was saved! And so it was it set off to my hostel, catching the metro M2 to Astoria and then walking the rest of the way. My hostel is really nice. It is called Budapest Bubble. It is a very small establishment and is in a very central location, particularly for the Jewish District. After unpacking my stuff I spent the next 2 hours resting and planning my next few days in Budapest. At 2:30pm I went on the free general walking tour. This took you around all the major sights to see on both the Buda and Pest sides – the Bascillica, Parliament House, the Castle on the hill, Chain Bridge. Our guide was Lara and she did an amazing job. Some of my favourite lines were:



- in regards to water: “if it has a pink lid it is still water, if it has a blue lid it is fizzy water, if it has a green lid it is partly fizzy water, if it has a red lid… it is coca cola.”

- She referred to Jack the Ripper as Belly Cutter Jack.

- Budapest has been occupied by the Turks, the Austrians (Hapsburgs), the Russians.

- Budapest started out on the side of the Nazis during WWII, but in 1944 (when it was obvious they were going to lose) decided to try and switch sides. They were then occupied by the Germans.





After finishing the tour I sat in the park for an hour or so reading my book and then, being stingy decided to walk back to my hostel. It was a lovely walk along the Danube and across the bridge but by the time I got back I was exhausted.

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