Lessons from Buda and beyond

Yes we know we haven't blogged in a while (some of you keep emailing us about it) but have found it a bit tough finding internet cafes with connections faster than snail mail... so here is an update of the past week or so, in amusing 'backpacking lessons'.

Lesson 1 - Romanian mime theatre is not worth waiting 45 minutes for.
On our last night in Timsoara we thought we would take in some of the free stuff happening in one of the squares, a bit of cultural dancing and then waited for ages for the nextact, which was unfortunately mime. We had our fill within 5 minutes. After Timosoara we made our final stop in Romanian in the town of Oradea. It has a massive old citadel and not much else, but we stayed in an awesome old hotel in our own apartment with stained glass windows.

Lesson 2 - Make sure you get up and stand in the train doors at least 10 minutes before the station, otherwise some one may beat you to the door....this is a peculiar trait of Romanians, but Bulgarians and Hungarians also like it.

Lesson 3 - British tourists will get their kit off anywhere to sunbathe
Our first day in Budapest was spent exploring Castle Hill with its amazing views of the city and the Danube. Budapest is a gorgeous city, wide avenues with apartment blocks, statues everywhere and the Danube winding its way through the heart of it all.

We explored the Hungarian History Museum built into the palace, wandering through old cellars and Bianca falling asleep on a beanbag waiting for Julian to finish the weapons exhibition (seriously they are old guns, whats the fascination...). We also bused out to Memento Park which houses heaps of old Soviet statues - the huge ones!

Re the above lesson, we spent our second day on a day trip to Szentedre via a 1 and a half hour ferry trip on the Danube - with the reddening British tourists making the most of the sun on the exposed deck. Most of our time in the town was spent at the massive open air museum they have there, reconstructed houses, windmill and farm with hairy pigs.

Lesson 4 - If we say we are going on a hike, the weather gods listen
A recurring pattern is emerging, we want to take a hike - it rains. Another day trip from Budapest, this time to an old fort town called Visegrad. The weather threatened the whole time we were there, hiking up the 'easy' trail to the top of the hill. Luckily we didn't get wet this time, but did endure myriad school excursions - they are everywhere in Hungary, and boy are they LOUD!

Lesson 5 - Leonardo had far too much time on his hands
Made it back from Visegrad with time to see an exhibition on Leondards Da Vinci's works, makes one feel a little like an underachiever...

Lesson 6 - Museum times are more a suggestion, staff will also suggest you don't enter even when open
Arrived in Eger, which is famous in Hungary for its victory over the Turkish invasion, with time to explore the medieval fortress with its many interesting sounding museums, except we couldn't convince the woman on the gate to sell us tickets as there wasn't enough time (there was still at least an hour). Anyway we wandered round the grounds, avoiding children and teenagers and still had fun (Julian found more cannons). Eger is also famous for wine, you can buy large tasting glasses for less than a dollar - yummy.

Lesson 7 - Markings for hiking trails don't extend the whole way of the hike
We made our way to central Hungary, the great Hungarian plain, and trekked out to visit the nearest national park. This park is well known for its Hungarian cowboys and horse show that they perform every day at 12:15. So you would expect public transport to deliver tourists there around then? We took the first bus of the day, at 11, which deposits you at 11:45 around 2k from the entrance gate. From there we had another 1.5k hurried walk to catch the show, and we made it!

After the impressve show, sychronised whips, we headed out on our hike - of course it started raining. The hike was lovely with interesting fauna and snails, until the trail markings simply stopped appearing. We walked alongside some goose farms, where Julian got mildly electrocuted (rain and electricity, smiles all round I'm sure you can imagine). Like the intrepid travellers we are we pressed on, took some guesses to go down some trails and finally arrived at some train tracks that we were heading for. All in all about 15km since the bus. Happy when it was over :-)

Lesson 8 - While the city of Pecs sounds funny, its not actually pronounced that way. doh!
We left the plain for a quick visit to Szeged, where we discovered that even 12 degree weather will not stop hordes of Hungarians from eating all the icecream that they can.

Back on the bus we went to Pecs (Peach) and while trying to get into a hotel that we wanted we were ambushed by the neighbour and ended up sleeping at their place. Next day we went to a nearby town for a soak in the thermal baths, which while relaxing the smell of rotting eggs (the sulphur) is somewhat offputting. Back in Pecs we learnt that it was yet another public holiday, so it was bye bye museums and hello beer and icecream.

Lesson 9 - While Lonely Planet may recommend a hotel, this does not mean that it was not demolished years ago
We are now on lovely Lake Balaton. Only a short stay in Kestheley, with an even shorter swim for Julian in the very cool waters this morning. We trained this morning to another much prettier town, Balatonfured, and have already enjoyed a pleasure cruise on a sailboat. More trekking (don't use the H word) tomorrow, lets hope it is nice and sunny.

Lesson 10 - Seven weeks of travel will give you really sore feet (although beer makes everything better)