Budapest

The train from Sarajevo to Budapest should take 12 hours (that's to cover a distance of some 200 miles) - our train took 15! The train left Sarajevo at 0714 with only two carriages and no buffet car. We had 2 bottles of coke; 2 packets of paprika flavored crisps; and a Snickers.
We rolled slowly to the Croatian border, stopped for a while. Rolled on to the Hungarian border - stopped for longer and had my bag searched. We then rolled into some sidings and just stopped. Every few hours we'd move a bit and add some carriages, and at about 6pm we pulled into Pécs - at this point I was ready to eat Kirsten - fortunately I was able to forage for food on the platform. Saved from certain starvation, we pulled into Budapest at 10ish.

Budapest is a proper, large capital city, full of beautiful buildings - somewhat like London in that respect. Yesterday we did hilly Buda, with its magnificent palace/castle overlooking the Danube. We decided to go cheese in the evening with a dinner cruise - this is everything you'd expect - we arrived to "Blue Danube" and were then treated to the greatest hits of Strauss II.



We started day two (late) in the famous Gellért fürdő thermal spa. This place is a mix of medicinal and opulent, and if you wander too far from the grand central pool it does feel like you've stumbled into a soviet era sanatorium. The thermal areas are single sex, which is fine given that I can't take a sauna for more than five minutes without my head exploding. The outside area, while nice, is suffering from faded glory (there was a large fenced off area and the outside of the building is in scaffolding, so perhaps they're rectifying this).

Lunch was at Govinda's - and that's a meal that stays with you a few days - than on to the Terror House. This is a museum dedicated to repression by totalitarian governments; however it really can't make up its mind whether it's a museum or an art gallery, and this somewhat detracts from its impact.

We failed to make it to any more museums (making the Budapest card a bloody waste of money), but meandered round the city park and down to Hero's square, before stocking up on provisions for the uneventful train journey to Krakow.



As a footnote; while I was writing this late at night, a bloke came into the business centre and started watching hardcore gay porn on the terminal next to me. Call me old fashioned, but this seemed to create an awkward atmosphere that drove me out.




Kirsten's Flashpacker Review:
Art'otel, Budapest (http://www.artotel.hu/) - We splashed out a little on this 4-star “design” hotel, on the Buda side of the Danube, for Richard's birthday. It had everything you would expect from an international hotel but disappointed somewhat on the “design” front. The room was tastefully decorated in neutral colours and had a great river view, but certainly wasn't original. Breakfast wasn't included, but was billed as the “best in Budapest” so we gave it a go – breakfasts are obviously not great in this part of the world as this one was decidedly mediocre. Free internet access in the business centre was a plus though (see comment above about using this late at night).