Hungry in Hungary

BUDAPEST: Kate has been wanting to make that dreadful joke for weeks so I thought I might as well save it for posterity. Since I last blogged we left Sarajevo at seven in the morning and caught a twelve hour train that took us to Budapest. On two cars, with at one stage only four people on board, it was one of the oddest train journeys I have ever taken. It didn't help that we spent the first couple of hours shivering in an unheated compartment while the conductors laughed at us. A search for clean toilets revealed that the other carriage was heated. We also got to pass through three separate border crossings and enjoy some of Bosnia's best scenery. Parts of North are the industrial heartland of the country and the northbound journey winds alongside a lovely river that would be beautiful if it wasn't clogged with plastic bags and other detritus. Their are also numerous factories pumping sundry pollutants into the waters.

But the journey was worth it when we finally arrived in Budapest. The first day was spent walking in the rain/snow around the castle district. This region, in Buda on the other side of the Danube, gives fantastic views of city however most of these were obscured by the rain. Nevertheless the architecture, ranging from medieval times to a fairytale monument built for the Fisherman's Guild, are a welcome diversion. We spent much of the rest of the day searching for Lonely Planet's and visiting St. Stephen's Basilica. The big highlight, however, came when we rocked up at the State Opera House and secured tickets to Tosca.

One of Puccini's most famous opera's was performed in a bog standard way but the fact that our tickets (we'd asked for the cheapest available) were in a box and we could quaff Hungarian wines in the two intervals made up for any of the deficiencies in the performance. Capping the night of in style we came home and dined on two minute noodles and enjoyed the spectacle of eight college kids (all girls) smoking a hookah in the living room of our hostel.

Day two we walked around central Pest which definitely deserves it's sobriquet "Paris of the East". With well preserved buildings and beautiful streets it is easily the equal of Prague. We also visited the Museum of Fine Arts which includes a good Raphael and a superb Brueghel then capped it off with a spectacular bath in one of the cities biggest bath complexes. Relying on natural thermal water, you are able to bathe outside, in a cloud of steam, despite the temperature in the air approaching freezing. Inside a huge bath hall are a number of saunas, mineral pools and even a big whirlpool.

To finish the evening we feasted at a fantastic restaurant called Menza which was populated by a unique mix of Budapest's bright young things and an army of guide book readers. It was fantastic food, great wine, and an unbelievable bill.

Today we visited the Hungarian National Museum, which has a comprehensive range of exhibits on Hungarian history and the caught the Metro to the Terror House which recounts the various atrocities committed, first by the Nazis and their proxies, and then by the Soviets and their proxies. Know we're sitting around drinking more Hungarian wine waiting to feast on another bowl of goulash and pork knuckle.