Hungary - Budapest

A week or two after Zurich we had an itch to travel again so Steve, Kevin and I rented another car from our favorite rental place and took the first road we could find to Hungary. We stopped right on the border the first night and actually stayed in guest zimmer in Slovakia but spent the evening walking around Hungary, trying to find our way in to the Natural Spa there. Unfortunately it was closed so we grabbed dinner and went back to our zimmer. Our dinner was great I had Hungarian Goulash and this giant bowl of Garlic Soup, both were delicious but unfortunately I wasn't feeling well that evening and was not really able to enjoy them.

The next day we hopped the Danube and stated off in Hungary in the town of Esztergom. The first thing you notice while driving into the town is A giant basilica.

Steve has a picture which gives a good size comparison where he is standing between two of the pillars and the incredible size of this because apparent. The inside was beautifully decorated as well.

This place was amazingly acoustic as well. I think it would have been awesome to hear the organ play.

Later that day we found a couple of geo caches and this tobaggon ride. It was kind of cool you could ride a toboggan down a railed track. Steve has some good pictures of this and I will add them when I get his pictures. After freezing from going down as fast as we could we got back into the car and continued on to the next town. This one had these really cool castle ruins. What was left was built into and on the top of the hill /mountain and just had this very imposing look about it.

That night we got into Budapest, we didn't have any hostel reservations but we tried the first one in the Lonely Planet guide and it turned out to be awesome. I haven't stayed in too many hostels but this one was definitely one of the neatest I've stayed at. We got in kind of late due to traffic but the had plenty of room available and we probably spent an hour and a half talking to the girl at the front desk getting suggestions for places to go for a nice drink that night. We ended up going out to one of the places she mentioned and met this Hungarian guy who had just gotten off from school and was celebrating his English proficiency exam with a beer. After we talked with him for a little bit he took us out to all of his favorite places. We had quite a bit to drink that night and I feel bad because we definitely out drank the Hungarian and he was a little sick in the last place we were at. At the close of the night he showed us where to get some good late night gyro style food and then he walked us to where we could catch the bus back.

The next day we got some suggestions for where to go and what to do in the city, but got a late start due to talking to J who had some interesting stories to tell. He had some really good advice for the things to see and do.

The first thing we did was head down to Hero's Square. Which is just this huge open square with large monument of various important rulers of Hungary in and on the gates and the founding chiefs of Hungary in the center topped by and angle. This place was also apparently very well known for trading spies as it is so open that neither side could try and tricks with out the other side being well aware. In honor of this we had some water bottle exchanges / trades.

The Hero's Square Monument

One of the founding cheifs of Hungary.

After spending much longer than any of us thought taking in Hero's Square we went to the House of Terror, which had been converted into a museum about how the Nazis and Soviets desecrated Hungary and particularly Budapest.

The House of terror was a death camp set up for political opposition or any one in general resisting Nazi and Communist oppression set up in a large house on one of the main streets in Budapest. It was very long museum and unfortunately not particularly well set up. There were a number of rooms that had a little bin with a paper to read but frequently it didn't explain the significance of things in the room. The message of the oppression that was imposed upon the people was clearly conveyed which is the most important thing however a little more explanation of certain rooms could have made it more meaningful.

After the museum we went back to the hostel to have our internet meeting and grab our stuff for the thermal spa. It was nice and relaxing the best part was there was one pool that had a set of jets in an inner area of the pool that sent you around in a little vortex. It was a lot of fun. There were also a number of different acidity and temperature pools. The best ones were in the 28C + range. There were a few that were 18C and really cold. Coming back from the pools that evening we passed through Hero's Square again and it was pretty eerie.

Hero's Square at night.

Once we got back I wasn't planning on being up very late but we started talking to a couple of Aussies who were also staying at the hostel and ended up playing this epically long card game. It was fun but I didn't get to bed until around 5am and man was I tired.

The next morning I dragged my sorry rear out of bed and we got going at a half reasonable hour. We stopped for some goodies from the bakery and got on our way. We did stop and get a few pictures of the Parliament building which is just awesome from across the river.

On our way back to Bratislava we drove by a nuclear power plant, and another large church and castles. I unfortunately do not remember exactly where there were just that it is somewhere between Budapest and Bratislava. I was mostly dead after saying up so late from the previous night that every time we got in the car I'd pass out and only wake up if we were actually stopping to see things.

Nuclear Power Plant in Slovakia of unknown location to me.

Church in Slovakia also of unknown location to me. We did find a geo cache near here though.

This is possibly one of the coolest castles I have seen while being here or ever for that matter. Again I'm not sure where it is other than in Slovakia. It was HUGE and becuase we got there so late in the day (16:00 or so) it was getting dark and we don't really have any photos that do it justice :'(. But still when I figure out where it is I'll try and find some professional pictures or something to link to because it is just an awesome huge castle.