Budapest, Magyar Part 1 (words)

NB: The pictures are in the next blog.

After Krakow we were keen for some relative luxury.ive since forgiven poland and krakow for anything i was dirty on them for. the roads are shit but theres reasons for it and they havent had a good run of late (at least the last 65 years) so im cutting them some slack. and the drive out of the place wasnt so bad. as lauren has described.

so rolling into budapest was quite crazy. it was pretty unusual to be taking klaus through streets with any more then 1 lane between 2 directions so it was a breath of fresh air and things were looking up. of course there was the obiquitous detour because of either roadworks or the council workers forgetting to bring in the barriers and witches hats. most delays/detours could be confused for either.

the inner city ofbudapest was pretty nice and quite easy to negotiate when the gps agreed with the signs. polite drivers and whatnot. we managed to pass some of the most recognisable sights in budapest and we hadnt even reached our hotel yet.

but after the long drive, all iwas looking forward to was getting out of the car and having a beer. so rolling up to the mercure after the hovel we were in for the past 3 days was like swinging into the hilton and having the penthouse suite. we ended up getting an upgrade to a 'mercure privilege' room or something so we thought that

wed be living like queens in Magyar (hungary).

the roomwas luxury but the bar downstairs seemed like better luxury so we showered, went downstairs,and charged a few 7 euro-buck beers back to the room. just because we could. went to an all you can eat/drink mongolian bbq that night and it was honestly one of the best value meals ever. not just because of the 6 half litre beers each we included.

Budapest is divided into 2 parts really. Buda, the hilly, residential part on the west bank of the river... and Pest, the more aesthetically pleasing and touristic part on the east bank. we were in Buda. itwas good because we could get out of the hustle and bustle when we wanted to and we also had a bed for klaus. he slept in the bus bay with the big boys and it seems they didnt hassle hassle him too much. the only issue was that we had to walk through this tunnel which went through Castle Hill, right under Buda castle which is the dominant feature of the budapest skyline from anywhere within the city boundaries. this tunnel was about 800m long with no ventilation, yet bumper to bumper traffic all damn day long. we didnt realise how bad it was at first. it was a bit of a novelty. but as time wore on and as we were doing it 3 times a day, we started to feel it in our throats by the end. to the point where we actually had sore when we swallowed for about half an hour after wed been through the thing. we noticed a sign on the last day that said that walking through was not recommended. our throats agree and havent forgiven us.

wewalked through the centre of pest for a look and got assailed by another bloke trying to flog those open topped doubledecker bus tours. we fobbed him off at first, but walked a few hundred metres and decided that we couldnt be bothered walking that morningso we turned round and succumbed to the hawker with our tail between our legs. well, my tail was between my legs because i take pleasure in telling these people well and truly piss off these days. and those of you who know me would of probly expected nothing less.

so we got on the bus and of course there was a bunch of women that sat behind and would not shut up the whole trip so we couldnt hear alot of the interesting facts about a city with such a cool history. we thought wed get the bus up to heroes square up the other end of town and walk back. heroes square was amazing. hungarians are so proud of their history, as well they should be, and in this monument that pride definitely shines through.
we walked around the attached park then decided to go a different way back to town. we mainly walk to pplaces that are within about 5km because you get a bit of time to soak it up. checking things out and getting a genuine vibe for the place. the only problem is that most hotel maps arent to scale. probly because they want to make it seem like theyre closer to stuff then they actually are. we always fall for it. but its good for the waist to combat all this brilliant food were eating. sometimes i think i should be walking to the next country and leaving klaus behind because my shirts are definitely getting tighter and i dont remember doing many reps of benchpresses in the past 2 months....

had another good feed that night. a massive steak that you practically cook yourself on a hot stone. you pay for it but what the hell,were on holidays!

thenext day we went up the buda castle on the hill. every time weare heading to a castle im thinking 'not another bloody castle, im castled out!', but iget blown away. they are always so opulent and massive. and theyre all so different. we got some cool pics and walked around for a few hours taking in the view of all the spires on the pest skyline. its pretty funny, these guys seem to put spires on their spires. i think the size of your spire on your house or building is meant to be a representation of the size of something else. its hungary's version of getting a v8 car im thinking.

we spent the morning up the but i had to race home to watch the roosters smash the titans (well, live score updates on the laptop) from the comfort and non-heat of the hotel bar. had a heap of beers during and after in celebration so the rest of the arvo was a write off. actually we went on a night river cruise that night but it was meh.

woke up good again the next day, which was a surprise coz we seemed to get pretty drunk of about 2 Dreher, Hungarian beers. we went on another bus tour and got off at Market Hall, where the guide suggested was good for lunch. what he didnt say was that it was saturday and you needed to plough through hundreds of drunk hungarians who were having lunch beers after buying their week's supply of horse livers or whatever that crazy black/brown meat was in the butchers displays. this place was crazy but we managed to score ssome lunch and some more dreher then bailed coz it was getting too much. it was to get out into the fresh air of the 6 lanes of honking traffic after being in that market for a few hours.

because we were sick of having our throats burnt to death every time we went through the tunnel, we decided to stay in buda on our side ofthe hill..... mistake! we picked this place on the net that seemed nice, cheap and close. it wasnt any of the above. itwasnt too far away but we had to walk past this that had deffacated on the footpath probly about 5 mins before we happened by. i say it was probly about 5 mins prior because he had only moved about 10 metres since and was still cleaning out his pants in the bus shelter right there. thats correct, sitting there with nothing covering downstairs, not washing his pants per se, but just scraping them out. i probly shouldnt of told you this story but it paints the nights picture. so we walked past this horror show and were already in asour mood about hungary by the time we got to the restaurant. as soon as they heard english come out of our mouths, the eyes rolled and the crap service began. first of all they said they couldnt understand up when they clearly could. then they waited aabout half an hour to come over and take our orders. then they decided to charge us for large beers when they were giving us smalls. then they gave us pizzas that more resembled grilled cheese on toast. then they tacked on an extra 25% on to the bottom of the bill that was for something in indecipherable handwriting. it was written on underneath the items printed onto the bill. i thought id noticed them snickering and checking to see if we would ark up but by this stage we couldnt be bothered and just paid the bill and left. n hindsight i should of told them to stick the bill but they only would of replied with hands out to the side saying 'i know understand'. so we left and raced home to the comfort of our hotel room. ready for a fresh start in a new country tomorrow.

what the hell would croatia have in store??!!