Budapest

I was sad to leave Bratislava, but I was excited to get to Hungary and see Budapest, which many people had told me was incredible. I actually had some trouble booking a hostel there, so that seemed like a good sign too! Unfortunately, I think I'm a little too boring for Budapest. 

First: after only managing to sleep for two hours, I got up, dragged my sorry butt to check out, and then headed off in the direction of the bus station... Whereupon I immediately got lost, then missed my bus. I was tired and frustrated, and when I got to the station at 11.30 (the bus was booked for 11.15, but it was only €5 so I wasn't that upset) and found out the next bus, at 11.45 was full and the next wasn't until 7.30, I pretty much wanted to cry. Actually, that's not really true, all I really wanted to do was sleep, but I felt that dropping unconscious in the middle of the bus station without even having bought a ticket probably wasn't a great plan. Instead, I puzzled out that there was another departure at 16.15, and thinking that four hours' wait wasn't so bad, I headed to the platform it would leave from, planning to nap the afternoon away. But as I walked there, I spotted a bus, about to leave, with "Budapest -11.15" in its window. I dashed to it and found out it was, in fact, my bus! It was even later than I was. I managed to hop on and finally, I was on my way. 

Blogger has eaten the rest of this post twice. So you get a photo dump. I'm going to get some ice cream. 

Heroes Square! Always inundated with tourists. 

Fisherman's Bastion! It reminds me of the White City of Gondor. 

Buda and Pest, with the river between them. I no longer remember which was which... I think Buda is on the right?

Same as before, only with a better view of the bridge. 

The statue and the citadel. Fun fact: the citadel wasn't actually built for defence, but to terrorize the population into subservience. Budapest! Into terror regimes before it was cool!

The huuuuge synagogue! There was an enormous Jewish quarter, though there were relatively few Jewish people left after WW2. 

I don't know. It's a statue, alright?

Parliament from the water! It was a pretty imposing structure. 

A fountain! These are massively out of order. 

In the end, I had a good time in Budapest. It's a nice city, and when I could drag my lame butt out to see things, there was lots of cool stuff to cover. I also went on a pub crawl, and the ruin pub was really interesting - sprawling and massive, with random rooms full of strange items and hookahs available at every corner. I wouldn't mind going back to one of those...