Greetings from Budapest! This is one of the biggest steps we've taken on this trip- we're now behind the tatters of the Iron Curtain, experiencing a different culture, insane language, and people who look more consistently like me (let's hear it for the Slavs!).
Before I launch into my tale, here are three photos I liked from our last day in Venice, which was also our last day in Italy! Definitely a country I could return to in the future.
Where is Mussolini when you need him? We had yet another train adventure on the way from Venice to Budapest. We arrived to the (correct) station in plenty of time to catch our glorious night train. However, when we checked the departures board, our train had "Sop" listed in the "Delays" column. We asked about this at information, and discovered that the train, which had to pass through Slovenia, had been cancelled. According to the information fellow, "maybe strike." Ah, the glorious inevitable strikes of European rail travel! He suggested to us two alternate trains. They had connections, but would get there at roughly the same time. Sadly, we'd lost our reservation fee on the couchettes for the cancelled train. We picked one that connected in Salzburg, Austria, and booked it for the platform. The conductor informed us that it was a full train and to find seats where we could. We picked the first empty compartment we could find. Sadly, no beds.
Shortly, we were joined by some awesome Spaniards (from Madrid) who were on their way to Lublijana, Slovenia for a trip. They were scheduled to be on the same cancelled train as we were, and were scrambling for a similar connection. They were a great, friendly bunch, and we talked for quite a while. We even got a Spanish geography lession out of the deal! They eventually got off the train to make another connection, and we converted our compartment into beds (the seats fold nearly flat into each other). Luckily, nobody else needed to sit with us, so we caught a few winks.
We got to Salzburg about half an hour late (again- paging Mussolini!) and discovered that our connection was long gone. Thus, we elected to stay on the same train, in the same compartment, to continue on to Vienna, where we could catch our final leg to Budapest. When we finally arrived in Vienna, we had a nice amount of time before catching the next train to make reservations properly for a compartment, get some breakfast, and wash up a bit in a bathroom. When we finally set off, we wound up in Budapest only an hour or so later than we were originally scheduled. We all decided that things like this definitely aren't worth getting upset about. After all, if nothing went wrong, this would be a very boring trip, and a very boring blog!
Anyway, Budapest is EXCELLENT so far. It has a different feel to it than any city we've visited so far. It doesn't look as modern as some of the cities, nor as old world as others. It has a character all its own, which I feel is going to follow us through the other former Warsaw Pact countries we'll be visiting. For example, everything's a bit confusing- aside from the fact that we haven't a clue about the language, nothing is labelled well. We were confused greatly as to how to board the tram we needed from the Metro station to the hostel, and wound up taking a packed, smelly Soviet-era bus along a similar route. The trams and one subway line also have similar utilitarian, tin-cannish vehicles that were clearly from Hungary's Communist days. The hostel where we're staying is based in an apartment building that also features a very oldschool design. You enter the front door, open a gate, ascend to the fourth floor in a rickety elevator. This overlooks a central courtyard around which the whole complex is built. Many of the interior windows of the rooms (we're in sort of a suite/apartment of rooms shared with others, though our sleeping room itself is private) open onto nothing but an airshaft containing other windows. However, the ceilings are high, and our room's windows face the street. Everything's in good repair, and it's all very pretty.
We cleaned up, lounged around for a bit, and headed out on the town to explore. Budapest is divided into two "cities:" Buda on the Western bank of the Danube, and Pest on the Eastern. Buda is the "old city," housing the castle district, citadel, and more, while Pest is the more modern area (our hostel is in Pest). We wandered all around, taking tons of photos, until we decided to get some authentic Hungarian food for dinner. For the first time this trip, we paid a reasonable amount and could barely finish all our food. The Hungarian currency is the forrint, of which there are roughly 200 to 1 USD. Dinner for me (a beer, chicken paprikash, and a Hungarian dessert that was reminiscent of bread pudding) cost about 4000 forrints. Let me tell you what, it's crazy to hold a banknote or a check with 10,000 or 20,000 printed on it!
Afterward, we crossed the Danube to Buda, where we climbed a hill to the Citadel, which affords the best view of the city, day or night. Definitely worth the very short, very easy hike. A bunch more photos later, we headed back to the hostel. This is going to be the first city in a long while where we actually set an alarm clock to wake us- we don't want to waste a minute here! Tomorrow we're thinking of visiting the Monument Park, in which is housed all the Soviet/Communist statues that were removed, but Hungarians didn't destroy, after the war. One day we're also planning on trying a Thai or Hungarian/Turkish style massage at one of Budapest's famous Hot spring Turkish baths. Should be fun!
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