Budapest

The capital city of Hungary is made up of Buda (on the West) and Pest (on the East), which became a single city through unification in 1873. The six or so bridges that cross the Danube make the two sides of the city easily connected. Buda is hilly and Pest is flat…

Budapest actually reminded in some ways of St. Petersburg, Russia in terms of the city vibe and the way it functions especially the metro with the super long and fast escalators. You see a lot of older people here too.

People were quite friendly – everytime we took out a map, someone or the other would stop to see if we needed any help. A lot of people speak English. I was not able to make sense of much Hungarian. A funny thing was that saying hello sounds something like saying SEE YA!

We ate some good food here in neat restaurants on side streets. Chicken paprika, Hungarian dumplings, beef stew, and lots of cool cucumber salads… There is a lot of International cuisine available too. We had a delicious Middle Eastern meal one night. One of the main streets called Andrassy is modeled after the Champs Elysees in Paris and has a lot of the high-end designer shops. Walking all the way down this street takes you to the Heroes Square and the City Park.

We spent the day on Saturday at the Szechenyi thermal baths. What a great experience! The baths are located in the middle of the City Park and are said to be one of the largest in Europe. The underground thermal springs serve over a dozen pools, some outdoors and some indoors. The water is thought to be medicinal as it contains calcium, magnesium, sodium sulphate, and fluoride. It has a slight sulphuric smell too. It was a rainy and windy day here in Budapest, so sitting outdoors in 38 degree water felt amazing. They had lots of saunas and steam baths as well.

Khang left today back to Vancouver, and now I have 16 days ahead of me before I too return home. I was hoping to go to Krakow, Poland, but after waiting in line for over an hour at the train station this morning, they said the train is fully booked. So I am heading back to Vienna as my next scheduled stop is Cesky Krumlov in Czech Republic. I have three nights to figure out where to go and what to do….!

LINK TO SOME PHOTOS:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=141355&l=1f38e&id=748975520

Bratislava

It was great taking the ferry to Bratislava from Vienna. The Danube river is the longest in the European Union (it originates in Germany and flows East until emptying in the Black Sea). The ride was a quick 1.25 hours and was very windy, but we still chose to sit outside to enjoy the view. Going on the river is also a good way to travel as it takes you from the centre of one city to the centre of the next.

Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a pretty small city with a population of about 425,000. Most of the sights are concentrated in Old Town, which is where our hostel was. There are a lot of restaurants and cafes in the centre where it is pedestrian only, so it is nice to walk around. Novy Most is the new bridge that crosses the Danube and has a UFO like restaurant at the top of a viewing tower.

We took the bus over the bridge to venture into new town which had many Soviet building blocks, and ended up at this big mall complex called Au Park which had just about everything including movie theatre, gym, shopping, outdoor park, rock climbing…

Two nights in Bratislava seemed more than enough. It is more of a stopping place between cities. Good for couples to enjoy evenings of dining and strolls through the streets. It some ways it reminded us of being in the village in Whistler at home in BC…

LINK TO SOME PHOTOS:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=140332&l=b06a6&id=748975520