Day 19: Bratislava to Budapest

Apologies that there has been quite a time gap in updating the blog. One reason is that we were too busy and enjoying ourselves too much and the other is that we had serious technical issues where at one point we though all the pictures from our journey were lost. Fortuntaely Dad managed to recover the bulk of them (except for Macedonia and Bulgaria, but more on that later). Anyway we are back in business for the moment.

The train from Bratislava to Budapest takes only 2.5hrs and again the scenery is quite pleasant with lots of wheat and sunflowers fields. The carriage on the train was one of those that have individual compartments, which we shared with a couple who were either mother and son (or something else) and a guy with cool tattoos. We all enjoyed our snacks and sat in silence for the most part...lovely.

We arrived in Budapest at about 15:00, just in time to check into our apartment.

The apartment in Budapest was very clean and comfortable, though a bit on the small side. The location was excellent, just across from the Ferris wheel, which you can see out the window. Budapest was jam packed with tourists (especially the younger party crowd), which is quite different from the last time Dad was in Budapest 20yrs ago.

There are lots of restaurants in this area of the city, though some are a bit of a tourist trap. We were guided to a gluten-free restaurant just around the corner by another restauranteur. We both had chicken goulash, which was some sort of gnocchi type pasta with chicken and tomato sauce. It was pleasant enough, but mostly just filling. Alex also had the strawberry cheese cake, which he enjoyed.

After lunch we took a walk (following our tourist map) to try to visit some of the sites that were closest to us on the first day (This is the Pest side of the city) . Our first stop was the Dohany street synagogue. We didn't go in as you have to pay to do so. It looks very nice inside.

Of course Budapest is full of beautiful architectural wonders, both on the Pest side and especially on the Buda side of the Danube.

Budapest is also the home city of the composer Franz Liszt. He has his own street and the airport is named after him. He's really rockin' that hairstyle. The city is super vibrant both with the party tourist and the more mature type. I'd definitely consider coming back again.

We got quite a few sites in on the first day and then embarked on a challenge to find the most expensive Negroni (it's a cocktail) in all of Europe. I think Budapest won in the end as it was a real fancy-pants hotel. We did some tourist/people watching while drinking our Negroni and Ice-T (for Alex) and then retired to the apartment for the night.