Budapest, Hungary (Post 42)
Mike writes (with Michele’s supervision)…
We awoke at 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning to begin our long journy to Budapest, Hungary. We started with a 15 minute walk to the bus station where we would catch a bus to Cesky Budejovice from where we would catch the first of two trains. We had intended to take the 6:40 a.m. bus but arrived early enough to take the 6:30 bus (which was actualy scheduled to arrive just 5 minutes before the 6:40). As we were searching around for the appropriate bus, we noticed another couple. The woman had a big backpack but the bloke (he he) was dragging around one of the biggest rolling suitcases i had ever seen. This struck me as quite odd since normally one might see these rolls reversed. We found out they were from Australia and were also headed to Budapest.
We rode the same bus then hoped on our first train together. It turned out they had actually started in a van with some friends of theirs which broke down so much they decided to go their own way. This is why Pete was dragging the huge suitcase. This was where they were carying all of their souveniers. Since they had been in a van, they didn1t need to physically carry this suitcase very far. Otherwise, all of their clothing and stuff was al in the backpack Brenda was wearing. Anyway, the four of us shared some travel stories while we shared an 8-person compartment (only us 4). This couple, Pete and Brenda, had been living in England for the past 18 months alternating between travelling and working. We got some great information from them about some of the places they had been which we will also be going (including Egypt, Morroco and Turkey). This first train ride was about 4.5 hours and took us as far as Brno, Czech Republic.
Since we had a 3.5 hour layover in Brno, Michele and I decided we had plenty of time to look around the town and check out the dessicated corpses of monks and local aristocrats at the Capuchin Monastery. Lonely planet described this as the most gruesome sight in Czech Republic. Sounds great! Anyway, our two new friends opted out of visiting this place. I gathered it was on account of it’s gruesomeness but i cannot confirm this. We bought them a postcard to show them what they had missed since no photography was allowed.
Next we took our second train from Brno, Czech Republic to Budapest, Hungary. When we first boarded, the train was very crowded and we were not able to sit with Pete and Brenda. A couple of hours later, some seats cleared out and we moved nearby. This was also great because we started in a smoking section. It turns out we sat down next to another Australian couple, George and Emma. So, the 6 of us had some conversation during our 4 hour train ride to Budapest. During this time, we told them about the hostel, Marco Polo, at which we had reservations. The four Australians decided to come with us to check out Marco Polo and then ended up staying in the dorms for two nights.
The first night in Budapest, Pete, Brenda, George, Emma, Michele and i wandered around until we found a nice Hungarian restaurant to eat a late dinner in. We all had a few drinks and some great food and headed back to Marco Polo. Marco Polo actually has a decent club/bar downstairs and we had a couple of more drinks with al of our new friends there before going to bed. It was goth night at Marco Polo Club and we heard bands like Nine Inch Nails, Marylin Manson and the Cure. I am not sure which of these bands really qualifies as Goth but i guess the’re close…
Pete had lots of ideas about what to do in Budapest. Late Thursday morning the six of us walked from our hostel to the Gellert baths. The baths were a lot like a combination of a swimming pool and a day spa. They had an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor swimming pool with wave action, an outdoor warm bath and also several different pools of different temperatures.
(this is tag team blogging. Michele takes over from here.) The guys and the girls split up briefly to go into the saunas which were extremely hot. In the separate men and women’s section there were also several pools. One was 36 degrees, one was 38 degrees, and one was even 18 degrees (all celsius of course). It was a very relaxing day. Here is a picture of one of the indoor baths.
Later in the evening the six of us went out to an all you can eat and all you can drink restaurant (Mongolian BBQ). How this works is that a person brings raw meat up to the cooks and they cooked it for you while you get other things you want to eat from the food bar. The meat included horse, rabbit, and Mongolian surprise (we decided not to ask about this). There were also quail eggs and the usual types of meats. We had several rounds of beers and wine since the drinks were included in the price (about 22 US dollars).
The next day (Friday, Aug 26th) we had to check out before moving from Pest to Buda (across the river). The Australians also had to check out. Mike and I went to the train station to buy tickets to Eger, Hungary (which is where we are now) while those blokes (he he) found a place to stay. We then met up again at 3:30 to go CAVING! After two city bus rides we arrived at the caves. We put on overalls and a miner’s helmet with a light before entering the cave with our guide. Here is a picture of the six of us (from left to right George and Emma, Mike and Michele, and Pete and Brenda).
(back to Mike while Michele looks through her pictures for something)
I was a bit afraid of the caving because i have had claustrophobia in the past and we had been told we would have to crawl through some very tight spaces. Our guide was great and lead us through some amazing crawlspaces. You would have to have been there to really appreciate how tight some of these spaces were. Before each of these crawlspaces, the guide would give us instructions as to how we should position ourselves in order to squeeze through. Sometimes feet first, sometimes head first, sometimes on the stomach, sometimes on the back. There was only one time when i though i would not make ith through a space. In this case, my helmet almost came off because it got caught on the passage wall. I am not kidding when i say the diameter (though theses spaces were rarely perfectly circular) was sometimes only about 2 feet! One passage was so narrow some had to breath out before squeezing through! The trip through the cave was about 3 hours long and we loved every minute!
We finally got back into town around 10 p.m. had dinner with Pete and Brenda, said so long to them (they were heading back to England today and George and Emma were heading to Austria) and walked back to our guesthouse. By this time it was nearly midnight. We had so much fun with our Australian friends and hope that we all cross paths again.
Today we took a train from Budapest to Eger, Hungary. We can report on Eger later.
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Tags: Category #12: Hungary
Michele Harmon
The caving sounds like it was really cool! If only we had the money to do it. Anyway, enjoyed reading about your adventures. Keep it up.
-Dana
Mike’s startin’ to look like he could be a coal miner.
You went all the way to Hungary to go to a Mongolian BBQ? There’s one right here in Bethesda! http://www.bdsmongolianbarbeque.com/index.html