So we've now decended from the High Tatras and have wound our way South to the next country en route...Hungary. Our first stop was the capital Budapest, one we've both been keen to visit.

Arrival as ever was interesting, with a couple of detours from the rather complicated ring road system delaying our arrival at the campsite by an hour or three. Not to mention driving 50 km in the wrong direction before we reached the city when M fell asleep at the map and G took matters (and a wrong turning) into his own hands.

Both tired after our exertions in the mountains, so spent the first day doing not much. Wandered down into the village near the campsite early evening to get our bearings and a beer, so got to sample suburban Budapest. Consisted of sitting outside a cafe/bar with the locals who had just finished work (~5pm) and were in full scale party mode drinking beer and local spirits. We particularly enjoyed the chap who felt he had to throw up behind the tree M was sitting in front of when he realised he'd had too much. We laughed along with his mates and made a couple of "ralph & hughie" jokes, which they seemed to get despite the language barrier. The scary thing was, the sick lad then left in a car with his mate (who we were sure had had just as much) to drive home !

Felt up to the trip into the city next day and mooched around the "Buda" part of town doing the obligatory castle and cathedral walk past. We're not getting jaded but cities do tend to have similar things. Then we did the "special" thing for Budapest and went to the baths. We picked the Gellert and weren't disappointed. Three hours soaking in various baths, ouside, inside, hot, cold they had the lot. Left feeling v refreshed after wandering hot streets.

It was hard to top this and day two was one of our "not so great" city days. Not Budapest's fault, it's a nice place but when you're camping outside the city you're already knackered by the time you've been on 2 buses and a tram just to get in! And it is a bit on the hot side for us - 32C. But we saw the market with all the paprika hung up like strings of garlic in France, the shopping streets (M won the bet on the day as it did have a Marks and Spencers) and visited the zoo. The elephants have got a very flash place to stay though the best bit was the palm house where they had toucans and all sorts of beautifully coloured birds just flying around! We'd like to go back to Budapest one day but to actually spend the cash and stay in a hotel in the city.

We're continuing our journey South West after Budapest, heading to Lake Balaton which is billed as the playground of Hungary, and then onto Croatia we hope if we can get in. It might sound ludicrous but we fancy a holiday and the Adriatic sounds like it might be fun.