And so we say Viszlét to Budapest. I feel like we've done Budapest properly. We wandered through Buda, explored Pest and crossed all four major bridges over the Danube. Budapest definitely has the RV factor. My favourite parts were the beautiful views from the top of Castle and Gellért hills and our two afternoons spent soaking in the hot baths. My least favourite part was the food. It seems the Hungarians haven't discovered vegetables yet.

I'll leave you with this panaromic shot taken of the beautiful view from the top of Gellért Hill.

On our final day in Budapest, we visited St Stephen's Basilica and saw the Holy Right Hand of St Stephen. St Stephen was the first king of Hungary. When they dug him up to canonise him they discovered that while the rest of his body had disintegrated, his right hand had mummified of its own accord. It now has pride of place in its own section, the Chapel of the Holy Right Hand, in the Basilica. They parade the hand through the streets once a year on St Stephen's Day.

We also climbed the Basilica. We decided not to take the lift and climbed the 364 steps to the top. (No problems for me; I'm becoming a pro at this climbing spires business). It's one of the tallest buildings in downtown Pest, but the views aren't as good as those from the hills in Buda.


We stopped for morning tea at the famous Gerbeaud café. We sat outside and had to keep a watchful eye on an army of small but daring sparrows. I was using the facilities when our order was delivered. When Andrew's attention was diverted one bold sparrow seized the opportunity to peck a huge chunk from the corner of my cake.


An indulgent morning tea should be followed with some intense exercise so we wandered across Elizabeth Bridge to the foot of Gellért Hill. We then hiked up a steep incline to the top of hill where the Liberty Statue stands (one of only two communist monuments left in Budapest). She holds a palm leaf aloft, watching over Budapest. The climb was well worth it for the fantastic view. It was another beautiful view of the Danube River and Budapest.


We then hotfooted it back to Pest and headed north to the Hungarian Parliament. We were booked into a 2pm tour. It was quite a rigmarole getting tickets for the tour. As I have already mentioned, we turned up on day two at 10am to be told that the tickets for the day had sold out. Poor Andrew got up at 8am on day four to go and get tickets (while I slept in, isn't he wonderful!). In the end it was only a half hour tour through the lobby of Parliament and into the old House of Lords.

The inside is very gaudy. The décor heavily utilises pink marble and gold leaf. The façade of the building is beautiful, designed in the Gothic Revival style. From the top of hills of Buda this beautiful building nestled on the banks of the Danube adds to the already impressive outlook. Apparently the Parliament is under constant renovation due to the materials it was built from.

We focused on Hungary's Communist past on day three with a visit to the Statue Park. With the fall of Communism, rather than destroy all the soviet era statues they removed them all to a park on the outskirts of Budapest and created a tourist attraction. We toured the park with a guide who had grown up in Budapest during the Communist regime. He provided an interesting perspective on life under Communism.

After the park we returned to the head office of Absolute Walking Tours to view their "replica" Soviet-era apartment. Basically it was a basement room filled with 70s style furniture and decorations. Our guide spoke some more about life in Communist Hungary. In the apartment, there was an old communist version of Monopoly. You were rewarded for landing on squares where good behaviour occurred, such as working hard and punished for landing on squares where bad behaviour happened such as littering or smoking. Instead of being sent to gaol you were sent to Pioneer Camp (a communist version of the Boy Scouts). A socialist version of Monopoly! Slightly ironic considering Monopoly is all about capitalism.


Another busy morning encouraged another visit to the thermal springs. This time we tested the waters of the Gellért Baths. We had walked across the Liberty Bridge in the early evening to have a look at the building and were delighted to find that they were still open! Lucky us!

They have a large outdoor swimming pool with a wave generator. At five past the hour the pool becomes a mini ocean. Andrew and I had great fun trying to catch the waves. A surreal experience when you can feel slippery tiles beneath your feet rather than sand.


We left the Baths at 7pm and decided to have dinner on the way home. Wearing shorts and t-shirts we had to opt for something a little casual. We picked Kisharang, a small diner popular with university students. No veggies with our meals again. Mine was a meal of chicken schnitzel and mashed potato and Andrew tried the turkey and potatoes. For dessert we sampled dumplings covered in vanilla sauce and poppy seeds. It was interesting... and gritty.

On day two, we headed to the Hungarian Parliament House hoping to join a tour. However, when we arrived the tickets for the English tours for the day had sold out. We spoke to some other Aussies who had been through the complex "trying to buy tickets" process and they had been advised to turn up at 8am the next morning to secure tickets. (8am! Who gets up that early when they're on holiday?)

After admiring the outside of the beautiful Hungarian Parliament building, we wandered across Margaret Bridge, the bridge with a kink, and visited Margaret Island. We sat on a park bench for a while, enjoying the gardens (how's the serenity!). Margaret Island is a peaceful retreat from the busy streets of Budapest.

Afterwards we caught the tram up to Castle Hill to have a proper look around. We stopped for lunch and Andrew had a burger which was seasoned with paprika (surprise surprise!). We then wandered around the Castle grounds and then down the hill to the Danube. There are a number of defensive walls and a cobblestone path that winds its way down the hill.

We spent the afternoon soaking in the natural springs of Széchenyi Baths. My favourite room was one decorated with sunny yellow tiles. These tiles enhanced the natural sunlight shining through the windows. We spent a delightful half hour in this room, marinating in a pool with a temperature of 38 degrees. There is also a great outdoor pool. Old men playing chess line the steps of the pool. You can find them there everyday of the year, even when it's snowing.

Dinner on day two was at restaurant called Fatál, not exactly an auspicious name. Fatál reminded me of The Lowenbrau Keller in Sydney. The restaurant is situated underground in a cellar-like room. We sat at huge wooden tables and meals were delivered on large wooden platters (called Fatáls, the reason behind the restaurant's name). We decided to try Gulyás (goulash) for dinner. My system was in need of detox so I thought we'd order also a salad to try and be healthy. When I ordered the tomato salad I didn't realize that this would amount to a plate with sliced tomato on it. Andrew and I giggled when it was delivered to our table.

Hullo! Yes! We're still alive! Sorry for the extended period of radio silence. A combination of a busy period at work and a four-day weekend in Budapest has meant that I haven't had much time to devote to FM. I will try and redress the lack of activity immediately. Unfortunately I'm still quite busy at work (how dare they!) so I can't make any promises.

Four-day weekend! They are wonderful words aren't they? Andrew and I spent the early May bank holiday weekend (with an extra day tacked on for good measure) in beautiful Budapest. Budapest is two cities, Buda and Pest separated by the "Blue" Danube.

I'll try and update FM with our adventures in Budapest over the next few days. Wish me luck!

Day 1 - Birdseye view of Budapest
Our flight to Budapest was scheduled to depart at 8am. A respectable hour you would think. However we still had to get up at 4.45am to make it to the airport on time. It was our first experience at Luton airport. Getting there was a bit of a challenge. We took a tube and then a train and then a bus, and made it to check in a few minutes before it was scheduled to close. (Gatwick is definitely winning the airport battle so far.)

Arriving in Budapest our journey from the airport was less stressful. We'd opted for an airport transfer arranged by the hostel. I love walking out and seeing someone holding a sign with my name on it. Makes me feel special. Our driver delivered us straight to the Boomerang Hostel. We were greeted by the hostel host, a Kiwi, who showed us our room and gave us free beer. Yes, it was definitely "an "Australian" hostel.

We believe a walking tour is one of the best things to do on day one. It provides you with a great overview of a city. You can check out the layout of the city, see some of the major tourist attractions, and decide which ones you might like to return to, all while learning a little bit about the history of the place. We signed up for an afternoon tour with Absolute Walking Tours. Our tour guide Anna spoke excellent English. Our group consisted of 14 people, including 10 Australians. Mostly Aussies from London taking advantage of the Bank Holiday weekend.

In Pest we visited:

• Hero Square - a large square at the end of Andrássy Avenue. Together they form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In the centre of the square is the Millennium Monument, built to commemorate Hungary's 1000^th anniversary in 1896. The Hungarian tribes first arrived in Hungary in 896. A number of the buildings in Hungary were built to celebrate the Millennium, making them a little over 100 years old. (I measure everything up against European Australia so 100 years old isn't that impressive.) On the monument there are statues of important people from Hungary's history. Our guide called them "Hungarian personalities" which made me giggle. Maybe there is a Hungarian version of Bert Newton up on the monument.
  
  
• Széchenyi Baths - the baths! One of the main reasons that we (well I) chose to visit Budapest. Széchenyi Baths are located in the city park. They are not traditional Turkish baths, which means that women and men can bathe together (wearing swimming costumes.) We were able to enter the ticket office and have a quick peek at the outdoor pool area. It looked heavenly! Anna gave us a few quick pointers on buying tickets and gaining entrance to the baths. The baths are very popular with tourists and the older generation in Hungary.
  
  
• St Stephen's Basilica - Budapest's biggest church and one of Budapest's tallest buildings (96m high, signifying the Millennium again. They are obsessed!). It was built to celebrate the Millennium. It is an imposing building, built in the neo-classical style (square and blocky).
  
  
• Dohány Street Synagogue - Europe's largest Synagogue and the second largest in the world.
  
  

We then made our way to the Chain Bridge to cross the Danube into Buda. Some trivia about the bridge - "Among the anecdotes relating to the bridge, the most popular is that the lions were sculpted without tongues and the sculptor was mocked so much that he jumped into the Danube in shame. The lions do have tongues (although they are not visible from below, which is the usual point of view, as the lions are lying on a stone block some three meters high). The sculptor lived into the 1890s, and the only message he sent to mocking people was "Your wife should have a tongue just as my lions have, and woe will be unto you!" (from Wikipedia)

Buda is the hilly side and perched atop the hills of Buda are Buda Castle, Matthias Church and the Fisherman's Bastion and the Statue of Liberty. Ready for a rest after 3 hours of walking, we trudged up to the Matthias Church and the Fisherman Bastion. It was well worth it. The view from there is amazing!

In the evening we sampled our first real Hungarian meal at Karpatia. My dish was heavily seasoned with paprika. We were to discover that all food in Hungary is seasoned with paprika (even the desserts... just kidding!) I also sampled a glass of Tokaji dessert wine, one of Hungary's most famous wines.