Day 7 - Tuesday 30th October 2012 - Balatonfüred, Hungary

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As always I woke up really early to pack my suitcase, then did Fiona’s too. I had a look at the window and it was snowing, sadly it didn't settle though. We took our cases down to left luggage and had breakfast. We checked out and sat in bar area in a little group while people came and said goodbye. The South Africans all left together and Gina and Simon left to continue their trip around Europe. A few of the guys staying in Budapest a few extra days and went out to Turkish baths etc.

We decided to book taxi on the hotel guest computer to pick us up from Anna Hotel to get to airport on Thursday. Getting worried about train reliability and didn't want to miss flight. Definitely seemed worth it for £20 each!

A lots of people were leaving so we decided to get reception to call us a taxi to take us to train station – we didn’t fancy getting underground and trams with luggage cases! We thought it would take a while for it to come but it turned up within a couple of minutes!! Didn't get chance to see Emma and say goodbye – felt really bad. Taxi driver didn't seem to speak much English and took longer than expected to get to station but luckily was set price.

Train station was much smaller and more basic than I had expected, being the main station and all. We managed to buy our train tickets on a machine – we booked first class which was quite cheap. We sat up in waiting area of station – it was massive but very empty, lots of boarded up walls and building works still going on. There was a very old looking shopping area down multilevel pit in front of station – looked bit dodgy and tacky so we didn't venture down there.

We started to get hungry so decided to try find somewhere to eat – thought we try and find a McDonalds as wanted to try a meal from each country we been through and doubted there be any in Balatonfured. My phone lied, it said there was one right behind station, No sign of it – just a car park for station?! Decided phone must be lying and found one further away in the opposite direction. Didn't look too far on phone but very hard going pulling cases along down bumpy streets and across open tram lines and broken curbs – realised we were running out of time to actually eat so had to walk quickly. Had to cross through another station with underground and trams – looked much nicer and newer than ours. Lots more people too and shops and eating places around.

Finally got to McDonalds but service took ages. Not much time before train so had to take away and decided to get tram or underground back to station. Lady at ticket counter tried to be helpful giving approximate times for tram or underground to work out quickest route but didn't really understand. We decided to risk waiting for tram as they seemed more frequent. Think it probably took the same amount of time to walk in the end but def better not having to pull cases along – practically ran to platform for our train and got on just in time! We walked up to the train to find the first class seats – not sure where it said what carriage was what class. The train itself was like an old "Harry Potter" style train with corridor down one side and individual compartments with doors. We walked all the way along the train to the front carriage but no sign of first class – all carriages and seats looked the same. Gave up and found an empty compartment and flopped down into it! Very exhausted and achy after running with cases! We ate our McDonalds which was cold but still good to have food. I bought extra mini chicken ball bites too, which were bit spongy.

The ticket inspector came around and stood for ages looking at our tickets – we started to worry we were on the wrong train or something?! He said something about no first class on train so we could go to a castle and get a refund on difference in price – he just gave the tickets back to us and moved on. The train started to get really really hot so we opened the window to cool down - pretty views of countryside and eventually got to the lake but train going too quick to get good photos. Not much around to look at – lots of flat open countryside and nice break from the concrete of last few days. Again we weren't sure which station we could get off at as the train didn't seem to be stopping at every one on the timetable list – was getting a bit worried! Luckily it did stop at ours – glad to get out of stuffy hot compartment! Luckily there was a man waiting to get on our carriage, he helped lift our bags down onto the very low platform – handy!

We weren't sure where to go as looked different than expecting. Followed a group of young guys with lots of bags out of station but they all got on mini bus. Walked along what looked like main road into centre of town – I used the gps on my phone to try guide us. Very cobbly streets but looked newly done – why would you cobble on purpose?! Very hard going with cases. Eventually we made it to the hotel but couldn't find the entrance. We walked all around but just seemed to be car park around the back. We eventually found the entrance, it was so posh and big looking white stone hotel – very nicely kept grounds and gardens and inside very shiny and clean. Seemed quite empty though for it's size, didn't see any other people around other than staff. Were getting bit worried our booking hadn't gone through and hotel closed or something?!

Luckily all was fine and checked in. Nice girl on reception spoke good English and directed us to room. We took lift up to floor but then had to go up little flights of stairs along a very long corridor. Our room seemed to be in separate area down a different corridor which didn’t seem to fit in with rest of decoration. Older grey carpets and separate doorway concealing it off. The room however was really nice and modern looking but smaller than we were expecting. Two single beds together again - must be European thing?! Tiniest pillows on top of normal ones – not sure what they for! The bathroom was very nice with massive black tiles over floor and walls and two massive sinks and shower cubicle. Lot of excess space in bathroom could have been used to make bedroom bigger. We discovered we had a balcony, although just looked into courtyard roof below. We had another doze as so tired.

We went to explore the hotel and found a different way back downstairs through even nicer looking part of hotel – rooms had huge double doors with outer door shutters too and nice carpet. Huffy puffy man sounded dodging walking opposite way – we thought it was something else coming from one of the rooms we passed until we saw him!

Getting quite late we decided to look for somewhere to eat. We went to restaurant in hotel to save walking anywhere else tonight - very tired and achey still. Walked through little "Anna Café" to get to it – lots of yummy looking cakes behind counter. There were a lot of pumpkins set up on the tables in the dining hall room – first halloweeny thing we seen here! Had to go outside to get to restaurant, nice sounding chicken dish on menu outside restaurant so decided to just eat there, but when we got inside we found it was a set price all you can eat buffet. Food smelt and looked nice so stayed and shown to nicely set up round table. A few other people in there, mostly families on bigger round tables but some couples too. The restaurant was huge with chandeliers and posh looking table setups. Food all along far end of room by the door, not too much we liked but what there was was nice – potato wedges, vegetables (finally!!), chicken pieces, boiled potatoes etc. Stocked up on vegetables mostly, making up for last few days! Puddings best part – very yummy mini cherry pastry bite things, ice–cream, fruit etc. We wanted to take some fruit back to room but felt like we'd need to sneak it out past the waiters. Only us and 1 guy on his own sat behind us by now in restaurant! He kept looking at us funny as we giggling about stealing fruit! I got a small orange up my sleeve and fiona snuck a plum into her bag. The other guy left and casually picked up some fruit as he walked past to exit in front of waiters – they obviously didn't mind after all the sneaking!

We went for a little walk outside, it was very cold – not dressed for it at all! Clear sky and almost full moon - statue in courtyard garden "mooning in the moonlight" quite funny and good photo shot! We sat in lounge area to get hotel wifi to check emails etc. Finally we went back up to the room to go to bed.

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