Behind the former iron curtain HUF 3

Well i know that my Hungarian post has taken a lot of time here but i will try to finish it in this post.

Let me first apologise for not posting much over the last month.Work and general life has taken a lot out of me .2008 was a great year in terms of Travelling and my professional progress but in terms of life in general It seems like something is missing.If i get that missing thing or not only 09 can tell.

Back to my travels which y u are here . Next day left Satako after an early start headed of to see the Gellert Hill,Castel hill(Buda castel) among other attraction .As i have said in my earlier posts I do stress Budapest is a very underrated city which is rapidly turning into a stag party destination .So see it before the It get taken over by drunk people.

views from the Castle are absolutely breath taking and the view of the city with the Danube dividing is really magnificent.Rite out of a bond movie , really

Back to the streets i wanted to get to a eat as much as u like restaurant .My sweet friend from France had mentioned about this restaurant where form about £12 u could have all the food u want plus Wine .That sounded like an offer that i couldn't refuse .

There was a problem all i knew was this restaurant was near Margret Island .This Island is in between sort of Buda and pest part of town divided by the Danube. All kinds of Motorised transport are banned . Very calm and serene atmosphere were i could see Joggers go about Used this time to have a bit of U time . And catch up with my diary on all the travelling that i had done. Had to get it up to date ehh and got my stomach ready for the feast without even knowing where the restaurant was .

After a bit of walking and just lazing around in the Sun .These are the moment when u fell bad about travelling alone!!! I headed out to find the restaurant .Nevertheless at the end of the bridge i could see a place

Went in and i was not served becs they taught i was waiting for somebody!!!!!! then it started from Wine and Goulash to shark ,Deer,Goat,Cat fish etc etc .I am not joking ate there for nearly 2.hours. The food was brilliant and the Wine was good .What more can u ask for ehhhhh....

Andressy station which is one of the oldest metro lines in Hungary .A change in this cute station




Szechenyi bath
This Bath has a lot of pools at different temp so u get in the warm bath and switch to a warmer one and then the warmest of them all and then cold bath at our 12 C and head out to the Sauna.

Want to know how i know this well after chatting with some Hungarians ofcourse, Made it to the hostel and headed out to see Gellerts hill in all its glory under lights and I was blown away .Its one of the best cities under light after meeting some americans and a couple of drinks later it was time to go to bed

Bhu- dha-Pessth under lights

Buda Parliment

Behind the former Iron Curtain - HUF

Szia (hi in Hungarian)

But to say that i had to be Hungary First i came to the Westbhanhoff station with 15 mins to spare before the train took off.As usual prayed that there was no one at the counter, it took me 5 mins and i ran to the Platform saying to myself as always that i wouldn't do it again.This time i had secreatly fulfilled my wish of travelling to another country without even having a ticket 5 mins before departure.

Ran into the train with my Donar kebab in hand tried to have it .Before i knew the train took off .I just tried to make some small talk with the gentleman in front me .Turned out he was a super friendly guy who when asked some questions in how to speak Hungarian, he filled me in on a lot of Hungarian history.

Next thing i know i could speak basic Hungarian and for the next 2 hrs courtesy Gabor .His travel mate listening our conversation appreciated that i tried to learn the language of the country i was travelling to he joined in too , Correction my pronunciation's.

We all had a drink together in the pantry car and approximately 3hrs passed on the blink of an eye .The train stopped momentarily which when these guys told me was tat i had officially entered the former iron curtain.

Around 10:30 the train pulled into the kelati station and i had to make my way to the hostel without any sort of map. I got some basic directions from Gabor who was kind enough to come to Blaha station just to make sure i was ok and the other guy bought me a ticket because i didn't have any Hungarian forients - can i expect a better welcome to this country .

OOH by the way Budapest is pronunced Bhu - Dha -Psst in Hungarian

And thus the journey began came into Aboriginal hostel - http://www.aboriginalhostel.com/
A small but OK hostel but the great thing was the people who ran it .Extremely helpful and would go out of the way to help us .Oh yeh and a great place to meet like minded travellers whats more free Internet and umbrella rental

Fresh day to start .Some facts - I know u can get more from google but here they are ,
Budapest is a combination of Buda and pest which is divided by river Danube and i was living with the Pest side . I was about to leave when i met a Japanese girl and we both decided to go to see the city together first stop Hungarian Parliament which was uber cool its a gloriously archietature.

parliment on the buda side i think

Opera Theater - Another glorious structure which i would have never gone if not for Satoko,Nevertheless it was wonderful inside seeing inside archieture done by using real gold leaf everyone including me could notice what gold can do and y people go crazy becs of it

After this it Terror Hoze .Most guide books miss this as its a museum where most of the details are in Hungarian but Gabor told me to visit it and its in my view a must see museum in Hungary becs it was a former headquaters of the Secret police in the Communist era and before that it was a part of the secret police in the hands of the Nazis.

Terror Hoze

Very brutal but real , its reality that's wht happened right .Its a shame its not in many tourists must visit but it should be

Chain bridge

Came home after a quick nap i went down to see the Danube in all its delight , well people say Paris is romantic and but this city has magic, Ok now it might not have the charm of Paris but this city is the dark house when it comes to the most well lit cities in the night.Seeing the chain bridge and the Danube in the night was something else but the Parliament under lights it was like icing on the cake.

Central europe - Austria

Was on a train back to the developed world .Heading to Wien (Vienna) needless to say the train arrived exact at 22:03 .Caught the tram and headed to Westbhanhoff station hostel west end which was a short 10 min walk from here.

Well the hostel was nice and clean plus a decent breakfast .But to my misfortune there was a large group of school children staying there as a part of their school trip but nevertheless. Woke up in them morning to take the sights and sounds of the city .

Beleverder garden
Spanish riding school
National museum

All very grand and very beautiful and clean.Vienna was beautiful to the core but somehow i preferred Prague well too organised too clean may be doest do for me on top of that every thing was really expensive so no more drinking games for me .

One thing i observed in Wien is the Glorious long legs,blue eyes and blond haired beautiful women .Talked to quiet few of them in the pretext of asking directions even tough clearly i was not lost :)

Well if u come here u shouldn't miss all the magnificent buildings and the National museum .For a guy who doesn't like visiting museums it was very impressive and spent a best part of half a day there.After more walk and some doner kebab later i ended up in Bar Chelsea

Next day quick breakfast i met a Austrian lady who had a done an epic journey from alaska trough Russia all the way to Ukraine well just using Trains .That's impressive just with a 50 liter backpack and a sleeping bag.

Got a lot of good tips from her and hopefully heading that way in some years .

This last day in Austria was the high lite of my time here .I was seeing the 2 classics of Austria

Schloss belvedere
Schönbrunn Palace

one of Wien's simple gardens and palaces

Both these palaces and gardens where impressive beyond my imagination.This place just ozzes with money and it shows in the kind of building they had .Grand huge and the garden looked out of this world .

Well pictures do more justice than words so have a look urself

From here i went on a trip on the personal front .I had heard about a place where the recycle waste in vienna which is apparently a hugely artistic .Went there out of my interest which was good but nothing worth mentioning i think .

ohh did i tell u i was travelling with a ticket that expired 6 hrs ago all this time !!! sorry didn't realise.Well my last journey i didn't want to take a chance so got a single ticket and a doner kebab
and headed out into the westbhanhoff back to my favorite part - the developing world

Hungary here i come