budapest, hungary

6-9 October 2006
I loved Budapest. It was a hidden gem. The first East European city I've visited and it has a tangibly different feel than the west.
A little bit dirtier, less sparkly and a bit dated, like it's playing catching up - but so full of character.

I took a long weekend to met up with Beth my friend from home whose doing a 4 month back-packing adventure. We stayed in this very friendly hostel, with the most helpful staff.

They are locals and pointed out all the underground places (sometimes only denoted by a sticker on the door) to go out at night, that you'd never find in a travel guide and even cooked us pancakes for dessert on the first night.

The ornate building in the picture above is the very ornate Parliament building on the bank of the Danuabe River. Basically the east side, old-part of the city is Buda and Pest is on the west and below is what's known as the chain bridge (pictured below with the moon so low it's sitting inbetween the buildings on the far side), one of the many bridges that links the 2 sides.

Known as the jacuzzi capital of Europe, with many thermal spas we couldn't pass an afternoon in a better way. We sampled the indoor baths that looked very Roman with the collonades, the sauna (remember Eastern Europe haven't embraced the boardshort look yet; the speedo is king) and wallowing in the outdoor pool whatching the afternoon sun slide away in water that's body temperature warm (37-38 degrees). Lovely! It's such a local past time you get a refund on your admission price if you leave within 4 hours of arriving.

Apart from doing other customary things like eating goulash, we got our hair cut as a Beth's hairdresser back in Oz was from Budapest and said there were many very qualified, but poorly paid hairdressers - hence is more to Sydney. It was certainly cheaper than London!

Speaking of money, I've very proud of my budgeting having only 74 florints (AUD $0.50) left at the end of my trip. It's the non-Euro challenge of how much money to pull out of the ATM, trying to the balance between not having wads left over and not having to incur bank fees for multiple transactions.

Although, having said that if I did have a few thousand florints left over... it wouldn't have been a problem as I could easily be tempted to return.

6 months on

Hello my dears,

I’m feeling a little out of touch and just wanted to send a hello and let you know what’s been happening.

I’m certainly enjoying being over here – the novelty hasn’t worn off and it still feels like an adventure of sorts. At this point in time I’m still working on a 2 year plan of working in London, which means I’ll have to start thinking of apply for a different visa and the associated hassle and rigamarole of government red-tape.

Davina is still sharing her room with me whilst I look for a place (i.e. room) of my own. Yes it’s been 6 months since I left home! In my defense, the plan was always to stay together until Deev got back from her summer travels and we both benefit from half price rent. She’s been very patient thought and letting me find the right place rather then setting a fixed date for me to move out. It’s such a painful, frustrating process looking for a place which fits all or most of the criteria of location, price and housemates. I can’t wait to find something and settle in.

I’ve been travelling a little – when I first arrived I saw a bit of Spain (south coast, Benidorm to be more exact), Switzerland (Geneva and Zurich) and Austria (Salzburg), and Ireland (the south) and since then have visited Copenhagen for 4 days (not what I expected; good, but you don’t need more than 2 or 3 days there) and Budapest (was fantastic! There’s a sense of discovery about it. The history of the Nazis coming in and then after that the Soviet occupation of the land that ended about 2 decades ago). There are all these cool, grungy ‘underground’ bars, which the hostel pointed us in the right direction of. There’s no signage, just a sticker on the door or a guy sitting out the front. Great architecture and the thermal spas! It’s supposedly the Jacuzzi capital of the world. The locals spend hours there, so much so that you get a discount if you stay for less than 4 hours!). And closer to ‘home’ I spent a weekend visting Matt in Leeds, north of England. My next London escape is to Amsterdam for a long weekend at the end of this month.

It’s been nice making friends and having old friends come for a visit.

The days are getting noticeable shorter week by week and I’m rather scared about the cold to follow. According to BBC weather in the space of 5 days (yesterday to Sunday) London loses 15 minutes of daylight! That’s an incredible rate that we’re losing sunshine (or more correctly grey sky).

Still working for a marketing agency in SW london. And look to be here until the end of the year at least and re-evaluate in the new year.

Only 6 weeks until I’m back home and very much looking forward to catching up with you (all of you!)