Hungary for Budapest
Trip Start
Jul 04, 2006
1
21
50
Trip End
Jan 15, 2007
Budapest, Hungary
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Category one - things that were good
1. our bus tour
- got to see all the major sights in a short amount of time. Even got to see all the protests (though no actual rioting). Man, given his loose lips (and overall ineptitude), that Prime Minister has to resign
2. Hostel
- great hostel complete with fantastic staff and over 1000 movies to chill out with
- cheap beer was also a nice touch
- the guy who owned the hostel took me out wakeboarding
3. my iPod got fixed at the Apple Store (well, kind of)
4. Opera house tour - supposedly the 2nd best sound in all of Europe is found in this opera house. Most interesting bit for me - the wooden fireplace (hmmm...)
5. The baths - learned about the steam room/cold pool circuit to increase blood circulation. Basically taking action to make your blood vessels expand and constrict so they work like a pump.
Category 2 - things that thwarted us
1. Missed walking tour that we wanted to go on x 2
- tour form the hostel wasnīt running on the day we got it
- we missed the walking tour in the city by 5 minutes due to slow trams
2. Opera sold out - sold out operas tickets...come on!
3. First 2 attempts at making it to the baths
- one of the baths closed early and the second closed just as we arrived due to "technical difficulties" (itīs a thermal bath...did the earth stop working?)
4. Wakeboarding - this was a new (and painful) experience on two front as Iīve never wakeboarded before and rather than a boat, you got pulled around by a pulley system. So I never actually made it up on the wakeboard (and was laughed at by a bunch of muscle-bound Hungarians) and even on the skis it was difficult as at each turn the rope would go completely slack and you would have to fight to stay up. Very odd system. I prefer boats.
5. Nazi public transit police - we meant to verify our metro tickets on the platform (as we did before) though were supposedly supposed to do so beforehand. Regardless, we were fined and spoken harshly to (but it was in Hungarian so we didnīt understand anyway)
6. Fixed iPod actually requires a wall charger to charge as not enough power is fed from the USBs on the computers. A wall charger isnīt particularly useful for me as all the countries weīre going to have different voltages and require different plug shapes. So Iīm still music -less.
So the thwarted bits werenīt so bad, but the issue was they all happened at the same time (missed tour so went to opera, but was sold out, so went to baths but there were technical difficulties and the other baths were closed...baaah!)
Anyway, Budapest is a beautiful city which isnīt to difficult to get around even though itīs spread out (just make sure to validate your transit tickets). If you make it here and are backpacking, make sure to check out the Backpack Guesthouse - fantastic hostel.
