We jumped on a train out of Krakow that backtracked past some places we had previously travelled through and in one evening crossed through four countries eventually arriving in Budapest around midnight..
Budapest is literallty the culmination of two towns (Buda and Pest) seperated by the Danube river and connected by a few bridges. Another stunning city, we were a little lost on first arrival and immediately found the Hungarian people to be the friendliest we have encountered yet. We basically had an apartment to ourselves in the ´Pest in an old building block. There was lots to see and do and eventually extended our stay to five nights.
We took short city tour taking in all the main monuments and buildings. The Parliament building is the most notible and postcard worthy especially around dusk. We tried to take a tour inside the building however some important folk were around that day.
"The most exciting open air museum in Europe" wasnt quite up to its name but was still interesting. A statue park housing many of the statues and ornaments from the communist era was located a little out of the city.
We caught up with a friend of mine from London at the aptly titled Vig Bar (cheap and trashy, like another Vig I know) and consumed copious amounts of Hungarian beers. The Ludwig museum of contemporary was quite a good little find out in the burbs with a few great Picasso pieces amongst others as well as an interesting piece by Yoko Ono. She really is an strange person..
Anna and David braved the weather and nudism for a dip in the tradional bathes in Hungary, well worth it apprently. I went to the Chinese markets instead which were.. not worth it.
The Hungarian food was quite similar to other places we had been but pick of the week were these ace little Hungarian cakes called Kurtoskalacs at the Christmas markets. They are a traditional Hungarian wedding cake which consisted of pastry dough wrapped around a wooden cylinder, cooked over hot coals and sprinkled with your choice of walnuts, vanilla sugar or cinnamon. Im not ashamed to say we went back to that stall a few times.
We spent the last day hooning a four person peddler around an island on the river and after checking the weather on the coast we took a train bound for Croatia..
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