Fulfilling our hunger

Seem to have had a few technical problems yesterday.

This morning we are taking the bus to Eger, a couple of hours outside Budapest. I will quickly fill you in on the last couple of days though there might not be time for photos.

On Wednesday we purchased some lunch provisions from the local markets with the idea of picnicing at the top of a nice hill with panoramic views and the Citadella. We were too hungry though, so thinking we wouldn't find any good spots for picnicing on the way up, we sat on a wall at the bottom of the hill at a busy intersection. Great lunch, but on rounding the first bend in the path on our way up we found a nice table and chairs, and they were all the way up!

Wednesday evening I dragged Tom to the ballet at the Hungarian State Opera House, a very majestic building. We saw Romeo and Juliet - very pretty, but for the first 15 minutes, I kept expecting them to burst into song. Unfortunately the ending was the same as always.

Yesterday we took it pretty easy. We went to a nice Thai-Hungarian restaurant in the evening. Fortunately the 2 cuisines were not combined. I had a Thai dish, and Tom, a Hungarian.

Not sure when next installment will come, as we're off to the countryside.

Pesky non-Hungarian speakers in Budapest

A day of incredible contrasts in Budapest today. This morning was all seriousness, with a trip to the Terror House. It was a very confronting place to walk around with lots of video and photos explaining what went on under both fascist and communist rule in Hungary. Unfortunately the written explanation in each room was the length of a short historical essay, so after a while it was somewhat exhausting.

After the Terror house, we thought it time for some relaxation so we went to the Szechenyi thermal baths (below) for some relaxation. This proved slightly difficult though. After we had worked out through a relatively long process what we wanted (admission to the baths and a massage each) and had booked our massages at a different desk, it came time to pay for all of this. Realising we didn't have enough cash, I asked if we could pay by credit card. This turned out to be a major problem, given we had gone to a cash only window. I do not exaggerate, it took the girl who served us 45 minutes, with much running around and talking to superiors, to work out how we could pay with credit card. Finally one of the attendants at the other booths, which took credit cards, begrudgingly agreed that we could pay there. Lets hope there are no costly repercussions from the form I signed saying I didn't have enough cash and had to pay by credit card.

Once we got in, and I had only a relatively minor language issue with one of the attendants in the change rooms, it was so relaxing.

Vienna has been a vinner

Today we leave Vienna, where we have had such a lovely time, and onwards to Budapest for a few days. The time has come to decrease cake consumption. Tom's credit card is currently stuck in an ATM a few streets away, so hopefully we will be able to retrieve that before we catch our train this afternoon at 3. Lucky we aren't flying. Dad is currently somewhere on the roads in Italy - he had to hire a car to drive to Milan because the airports are shut.

Next update will come from Budapest hopefully!