Buda + Pest = Fun!

Ahhh... finally on the train, to Hungary: famous for Paprika and Atilla the hun, even though the Maygars (the Hungarian name for Hungarians) are not decendants of the Huns at all but were tribes that came from the Ural mountains, then hung out down south with the Turks for a while before ending up in the area now know as Hungary after accidently getting stuck in a war between the Bulgars and the Byzantines! Phew.

Budapest!
13th June
We headed straight to our hostel to get rid of our bags, the train had been an hour late leaving Bratislava so we didn't get into Budapest until 8pm. Our hostel was in a really beautiful old building on one of the main ring roads in Pest, only a short walk from all the main sites. We headed straight out to get our hands on some authentic Hungarian fare. Just up the road we settled into a little diner that had the best food we'd had in ages, stew with rice (this great almond rice) and tons of paprika of course, they have it on the tables here along with salt and pepper. For after we grabbed a delicious baklava type desert to share. We spent the rest of the evening wandering around and seeing lots of beautiful buildings lit up against the night sky, including the national Opera house, a massive Church- St Stephens Basilica, and the Great Synagogue. Andrassay Ut, one of the main streets is Unesco world heritage... the whole street! Thats how prolific the gorgeous old buildings are in Budapest.

The Opera House
St Stephens
The great Synagogue

14th June
We set off to explore the city a bit more in the light of day, jumped on the number 1 tram and saw the fabulous Parliament building and several 'important looking buildings' dotted along the bank of the Danube. Cool Statues

We walked over Szabadsag Hid (Independence Bridge) and headed into Buda. We saw Gellert Ter (Gellert Square) and Gellert Furdo, the most famous of the Hungarian thermal spas. We got on the wrong tram and ended up deeper into Buda- when we'd wanted to go along the waters edge. So we got off the tram, found a little supermarket, bought ourselves a picnic lunch and headed to the closest park to eat and chill out in the shade. I had a long look at the map and figured out we weren't too far from Budapest Castle so we walked through this massive tunnel (like it was ten stories high) and popped out next to the danube and below the castle. The castle was up a massive hill, we both had several blisters and the furnicular up to the castle was a ridiculous amount of money... so we looked at the castle from ground level and decided that was enough. We walked back to Pest across Chain Bridge and headed towards the neoclassical St Stephens Basilica to see it in the light of day and look around inside. Then we headed for a coffee shop to rest our tired feet for a bit and slowly hobbled back to the hostel to rest and cook some dinner.

The Parliament buildings

The approach to St Stephens

The roof of St Stephens

Nice gate at St Stephens

Monday 15th June
We finally got a couch to stay on in Budapest! A very helpful Budapestian (who couldn't host us) suggested another guy, Peter, and he said yes! Hooray!! no more hostel! although the one we were at was ok, pretty small, but there wasn't really scintilating people to speak to so we were happy to move on to Peters. First stop for the day was a big shopping mall to look for some supplies we needed. We were also looking for a small tent to do some camping in Croatia and Montenegro. We ended up spending all day looking for a pair of shorts (I ended up with a skirt instead) and Nick got shorts even though he didn't really need them :)
We headed over to Peters at 5pm, met him quickly before he raced off to the gym. He gave us the spare keys and a phone to contact him on.... what a guy! We headed back out for an early evening stroll around the city and to look for some dinner. We ended up pretty much circling the whole of main area of Pest, its a really lovely city to walk around at night, all the nice buildings are lit up and we ended up on the Danube getting some nice pictures of Budapest castle before catching the tram back to Peter's.
Also I forgot to mention, Peters house is in one of those communist-looking housing blocks, but his is a good height, only 4 floors, not like those massive hulks in Bratislava!

There were these little elephant statues all over the place.

Independence Bridge

16th June
We went out first thing and hit the first wifi cafe we saw, which just happened to be the big chain Costa Coffee (I think they're owned by Starbucks- their logo is the same) for the first hour only english speaking travelers came in, it was funny. Nick and I made some phone calls with Skype- Hi Dad! and looked up the addresses of like every camping shop Budapest has, wrote them down and set off to see what we could find.
After crisscrossing the city all morning we decided the shop we went to first had the most choices, so we headed back there and got our little tent. Its a Vaude Taurus 1- Its a two man that (just) fits us and our two packs and two day packs. If its not raining the packs can sit outside but still under the fly to give us more sleeping room. Its cute and kind of looks like a fat tadpole cos one end is skinny and one end is fat :)

After sorting that out we headed to the outskirts of Buda to Memento Park, where they've relocated some of the old Communist statues from around Budapest to. Its an interesting place, its so far away it almost feels like their punishing you for wanting to see them! The statues are pretty interesting though and its quite humourous that they're all together, it kind of feels like they're interacting with one another.

Aerobics, communist style.

Tin Soldiers


Wait for me guys... it sounded good in theory...


I'm out of here!

Woah.. this dictatorship is getting a little shaky...
Another weary worker...

What more does a good communist need? A gun, a flag and a man hiding under your skirt.


The Iron fist of communism

Humorous coffee cups
Stalin's boots, all that was left after the 1956 revolution in Hungary, the rest of him was pulled down by revolutionary's

We headed back into Peters to drop off the tent and then headed back out to a couchsurfing dinner that was on in the city. We hadn't been to any couchsurfing gatherings before so it was new for us and quite funny all the different kinds of people that were there. All the Budapest people were really friendly and we met some interesting travelers as well. Georgie, a welsh girl, a Turkish guy who grew up in France and is living in Budapest, and a Peruvian guy who lived in France but now lives in Australia.

17th June
We said goodbye to Peter, promising to meet up again, because we didn't have too much time to hang out with him on this visit. Then we headed off to catch our train to Split Via Zagreb....... stay tuned for Croatia and the Adriatic Coast!!