It's a fact that more than one person has confused Budapest (Hungary) with Bucharest (Romania), even quite famous folks at concerts and such - Michael Jackson, Metallica, Iron Maiden to name a few. Apparently the done thing these days is to say "Hello Romania!" or "Hello Hungary!" in order to avoid the Budapest/Bucharest temptation. I admit that the title of this blog was, very briefly, Bucharest Blog - I am a recidivist of this particular crime . Suffice it to say when we booked our flights from Paris to Budapest, we checked and checked (and checked) again. Bad enough having to leave Paris, would add insult to injury to end up in the wrong country.

We very rarely pay for specific seating on a plane (in fact, only once and it was on Air India where you pay for most seats anyway). We splurged on our Easyjet ticket from Paris to Budapest and got the works - early boarding, luggage, priority everything and Row 1 seating. Worth every penny in this instance. We had a great flight altogether and our prebooked 'driver & sign' were waiting for us in Budapest for a painless trip into the city. Check in at the AirBnb went smoothly as there was a person waiting for us out the front of the building and (lucky us), the lift was working. (Ever since the powercut in Brussels and having to take the luggage down five flights of stairs, we've been gun shy of broken lifts.)

One of the things that makes life particularly relaxing in the EU for europhiles like us, is the legislation regarding mobile phone usage. We keep an Irish mobile on the go now with 'all you can eat' data/calls/texts in Ireland - but each month it allows 10 GB of data use in the EU and squillions of free calls and texts. Makes life very easy indeed to be able to use WhatsApp, google maps, emails etc from the minute we touch down in an EU state. (It will be sorely missed when we move on from Budapest to Bosnia then Montenegro... but back with us by the time we reach Croatia - woo hoo!) We used to buy individual SIM cards as we pottered about - but having the same Irish number all the time has been outstandingly useful. Anyway. We settled in, had a jacuzzi and then rugged up for a gentle stroll down the main drag towards the Oktogon. We last visited Budapest just before Christmas in 2012 and little has changed. So much so that a buffet restaurant near the Oktogon was still there - and prices had only increased a euro or so. Not bad for 7 years of inflation.

We spent our first 10 nights in a great Airbnb - although it felt often times like we were living in an emergency services depot as police cars, fire engines and ambulances seemed to circle the block with their sirens blaring for the entire 10 days. Advice for choosing an Airbnb - avoid areas with hospitals and Hungarian drivers it would seem. The following 18 nights were about a 20 minute walk away in a quiet area (yay!) with a Hemingway (or polydactyl) cat called Meka. This part of our stay was an oasis of calm by comparison - the peace broken only by church bells and Chairman Mau/Miaow - AKA Meka the Magnificent letting us know it was tuna-time in no uncertain terms.

We spent our first 10 days purposely exploring the Oktogon end of town while we were there. Long walks along the grand boulevards, taking silly photos with many of Budapest's cool statues and enjoying the crisp and fine winter weather (there should be snow on the ground at this time... no one knows where it is). Walks by day, walks by night and really chilling out - a bit too lazy to 'do' anything officially touristy. One of our favourite evening walks was down to the Danube by night to visit the shoe memorial on the river bank. This is one of the many reminders throughout Budapest that WWII was a particularly bad time to be a Jew in Hungary. The shoe sculpture was installed in 2005 to commemorate the 3500 people (including 800 Jews) who were murdered in December 1944/January 1945 by the fascist Arrow Cross militiamen. They were forced to line up at the edge of the river, leaving their shoes in a row, before being shot, with the added convenience to the militia that their bodies went straight into the river and were washed downstream. (Budapest was liberated by the Soviets in 1945... one of those mixed blessing kind of things.) This evening walk was also a fabulous chance to see the parliament and St Stephen's Basilica lit up and beautiful by night. We were quite surprised to see how large the square in front of St Stephen's actually is - when we were here in 2012 it was covered with an ice rink and lots of Christmas market chalets. We clearly remember using our last Hungarian forints at the time to buy some thick, handknitted woollen socks - James wore his to shreds - pretty sure my pair are in storage in Sydney for that hazy time in the far, far distant future known as 'one day'.

One of our favourite outings during our Budapest stay occurred regularly on Sundays when we would visit the Szimpla Farmers Market. This event is held in one of Budapest's most famous ruin bars. This is a building which is literally too far gone to be saved, but apparently not quite so far gone as to stop people running a business from it. We're 99% sure the 'elfin safety' crowd don't get a lot of work done in Hungary, but it didn't stop us visiting and revisiting this market. Great artisan bread, homemade peanut butter & honey (in the same jar!), cheese scones - all scrumptious. Mind you - we only bought the artisanal cheese scones once... we then discovered the Lidl version was just as scrumptious, half the price and not noticeably different. We particularly enjoyed being able to shop at a market like this... In Sydney at our local Potts Point organic market the 1kg loaf of fabulous bread would have been closer to $15 than $5... same with most of the exotic items available for purchase. En route to Szimpla the first time we even found an embroidered badge for the bags and bought our postcards for Budapest - our efficiency knew no bounds.

We have a jacuzzi in our AirBnb apartment which is a great treat and whilst the situation in China with the coronavirus hasn't yet impacted Europe (though of course it will), we are both being careful - it was daunting enough sitting next to two masked-up Asian ladies on the flight from Paris to Budapest. We visited one of Budapest's famous spas/public baths the last time we were here, and whilst incredible, no need to go getting inordinately close to strangers when we don't have to. That didn't stop us taking a fabulously long (and flat) walk out to the public gardens which include the Schenyi Baths. We enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine and picturesque castle and buildings. No urge to go in or visit or do museums or really anything much, but a cracking walk.

Another of our favourite destinations during our perambulations turned out to be the Central Market. Whilst there's always the possibility it will be chock ful of tourists, turns out about 5 pm is a very chilled out time to visit. One stall in particular sold the best cherry strudel we've had anywhere - and was actually cheaper than the bakeries close to our housesit apartment - so 'via the market for some strudel' almost became a destination in itself - especially since one piece was about €1 and enough for the two of us.

Bargain strudel was not the end of the bargains in Budapest. It was sales time in Hungary and we found what can only be described as a second hand mecca - a chain of stores called Cream, with a Union Jack logo. We initially didn't even realise it was second hand clothing - that is how well presented and laid out their stores were. I bought a pair of skinny jeans and a Massimo Dutti linen shirt for around €5 in total due to their 50% then 70% off sales. James bought a pair of cargo pants, new with tags, for €3. We were quite surprised to see people getting a little wheely cart when they walked in, but at these prices you'd have to be bonkers to buy clothes anywhere else. Not only do things eventually fall off us, but our carbon footprint is reduced significantly by giving pre-loved gears another go. And we walk almost everywhere (except when, you know, flying) and we don't own a car. Halo is struggling beneath the weight of all the halo-polish.

We enjoyed the hell out of our quiet and cosy housesit apartment for almost 3 weeks. Our hosts were fabulous and introduced us to their 'too lazy to shop & cook' Vietnamese restaurant a 5 minute walk away. Which turned pretty quickly into our 'too lazy to shop & cook' joint. We know English is a difficult language - and the poor family already speak Vietnamese and Hungarian (neither easy), but luckily the menu and pictures had English subtitles - still, could be a bit hit and miss between the ordered and received status... But we went there something like 6 nights out of 18. Other favourites? Funnily enough, in Hungary, Bufe or Buffet doesn't actaully mean 'All you can eat' - only 'All you can eat' means that. So there was a Chinese Bufe down the road that we discovered at about 7 pm one evening when it was down to not-a-lotta in the bain marie. It wasn't bad. Given it was about $8 for dinner for two... not bad at all. Anyway, we popped in on our 2nd to last day and discovered that lunch was a sumptuous spread and looked incredible. So lucky we didn't discover that place on day one... or we would hardly have grocery shopped at all. We did however enjoy Lidl during two weeks in particular - French week during our stay right in the city and British week during our housesit stay. We stocked up French cheese the first week and went slightly ballistic on the second week with fish and chips, thick cut marmalade, cheddar cheese and red onion relish. Yummo. Speaking of 'All you can eat', the only thing more dangerous is a place that says 'for an extra 1000 forints (A$5) it's all you can drink as well'. So for the grand total of A$40 or about €25, we went ever so slightly crazy - beer, wines of all sorts including bottles of bubbly, juices, coffees the works. James also got a hankering for pork knuckle out of his system... went there three times in the end. Absolutely one of our Budapest highlights.

It may sometimes seem that this housesitting caper (AKA the travelling circus), runs like clockwork. If it seems that way it's because every move, every flight, every airport (or intercountry) transfer is planned to the nth degree - even more so than the average military operation. We are not fond of taxis at the best of times so to minimise the risk of getting ripped off we almost always take a ride sharing service - be it Uber, Grab or in Hungary - a weird hybrid of taxis and ridesharing called 'BOLT' - a taxi app that gives you a clear estimate range and essentially charges like an honest taxi meter. We arranged a 4 pm late checkout from our Airbnb, loaded everything into the car and were at the housesit within 10 minutes. We were introduced to the Vietnamese joint that night and happily waved our hosts off to the airport the next morning - for whatever reason on two different routes and flights to get to Washington, D.C. One made it with 'just' horrendous turbulence via Amsterdam. The other host ended up texting/phoning/emailing and whatsapping while we were at the shops to say her flight via the UK was cancelled and she needed to come home and we had the only keys. Whoa - that was a new one. She made it back from the airport, organised (somehow) a refund and and sorted out a flight out on good old Turkish airlines via Istanbul the next day, thereby avoiding all the Storm Ciara fuss and bother that threw the UK and Ireland into disarray. After the drama it was back out to the Vietnamese that night for the three of us and happy thoughts that at least it was a 2 bedroom apartment.

It's not the first time here have been hiccups of course. There were the hosts who confused arriving home at 8 pm with actually arriving at 8 am. There were the hosts who were back 24 hours earlier than expected and those who were 48 hours later than advertised and, most famously, the lovely couple who invited us over for a welcome dinner on the evening they should have been on a plane from Bulgaria to the USA. Luckily we caught that 24 hours out and they were very grateful we'd quizzed them on what day it was they were due to fly out - they were in the middle of a bereavement and had simply lost track of days and dates. Whatever happens, our travelling circus keeps powering on and we check and check and check again as we move from spot to spot - it never hurts to have a Plan B (and C and D).

All the walking we've been doing around Budapest obviously takes time. We are trying to keep up our Paris levels of fitness and 16,000 steps (the highest we reached here) takes time. And time, well time needs a toilet break every so often. We loved Paris's free toilets scattered all over the city and of course the app that helped us find them. Here in Budapest? Not so much. Anyone with a toilet is keen to charge a euro to spend a penny (how's that for inflation)... and clean, well that's always a relative term. In the end we stuck with tried and true and went to McDonalds - which depending on the area - still cost money! In the city 150 forints (or A$0.75/€0.50) in the main tourist area near the Danube, it went up to 200 forints and the cleanliness went down. It was however a very snazzy McCafe. So. Toilet-omics. Can you dodge the charge, watched over with eagle eyes by the keeper of the toilet entrance? Only with a receipt from McDonalds. Right then - cheapest coffee going was 300 forints - so that's a no brainer - and they had a special of 590 forints/A$3 for a cookie and a cappucino. We would order two, separately, to get two receipts.

Our biggest bargain in Budapest ended up being a hugely successful 'on the offchance' endeavour to find some new old cases for our precious iPhone 5s babies, that help keep us on the road and in business. We've used Lifeproof cases since we got the phones 3 years ago and love them to bits - they have protected the phones from thunderstorms and otherwise lethal drops onto concrete floors, not to mention snow, ice, humidity etc. The cases for the 5s models came out with the phones in 2013 and after a few tries we found a shop with a couple of dusty Lifeproof boxes tucked high up on the shelves - priced at 5500 forints in 2013 - about A$27 (vs over $100 in a shop in Australia). The price has never been increased - heck the label was so faded after 6 years it was a challenge to read it. The owner gave us a good deal on the first one - 4,500 - when we came back the next day to clean out her stock (ie - buy the second case), she only charged 4000 forints. This was an irresistable bargain and given the imminent obsolescence of these phones, we don't mind investing in two more excellent covers to keep them safe in their dotage.

The end of the housesit came around all too soon. By Sunday, 23 February it was time once more for the big bang in reverse - AKA Packing Day! Happily we had used up our garlic mayo, tartare, brown sauce and tomato sauce imported from Ireland to Paris and on to Budapest (no point constantly buying the same products). This meant all the less to bring with us on the coach to Sarajevo. By the Tuesday we had 100% finished our packing and it was time to start the the great laundry marathon. (Oh how we wished we had a clothes dryer.) The house looked like a commercial laundry with bathmats and bed linen draped over clothes horses and radiators. Departure day finally dawned and it was a very relaxed departure indeed. In fact, because we didn't leave the house until 7 pm, we had the whole day to accomplish the housework. We took the chance to do some last minute medication shopping, and went out for lunch at the Chinese 'bufe' - enjoying a superb chicken and mushroom extravaganza with fried rice. Funnily enough, the coach trip made us more nervous than a flight - but come 7pm we heaved the gears into the lift and ordered a BOLT to take us to Budapest's whizz bang international bus terminal. The coach took off at 8 pm on the dot and with 'only' 10.5 hours and a few border crossings to go, we were off to Sarajevo.