Yesterday we made our way to Budapest, Hungary. On the way we stopped at the border, still a desolate place that appears to have changed little since the fall of the Soviet Union - well of course there are no longer guns or scary Soviet guards. The place definitely had the feeling of a no man's land. Being out of the Eurozone, we also had our first experience of Hungarian Forints - 250 Forints to the Euro - a good new challenge after so long spent with the euro and pound. Now we have to convert twice: forints to euros and then euros to australian dollars - good maths practice!

Susan also gave us an introduction to Budapest an Hungary's history - in particular its Nazi and Soviet past. It was fascinating and the personal accounts she had accrued from others were very eye opening.

We arrived in Budapest for lunch and a city tour with Anna, a local. She was great and we were able to get a good feel for the city, its history and of course its sights.

After checking into our hotel a few of us were able to squeeze in a visit to the House of Terror: a building that was used by both the Nazis and the Communist AVH (like the KGB) that has now been transformed in order to document and present the events that took place there and in wider Budapest and Hungary to the public. Hungary and it's people really seem to have suffered great hardship and oppression since the break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and especially from WWII onwards. This building contains offices as well as cells and "interrogation" (torture) rooms used by the AVH. It also tells you the stories of victims and perpetrators who were here. The video interviews with locals who suffered under the Nazi and Soviet regimes were particularly sad.

On a brighter note our dinner that night was great fun. We went to a gypsy restaurant where we not only enjoyed delicious food such as traditional Hungarian goulash, but also a band, a singer and dancers performed just for us. They even got some of the boys and a few girls up to join in - everyone really got into it and it was a great way to break the ice with the new people on tour.

After getting up and heading into town very early to visit the Hungarian Parliament, only to be told we couldn't get tickets into the Parliament today without a group booking, we found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands today. It was very disappointing but it gave us an opportunity to walk around exploring even more of this beautiful city. It's still very cheap here but you can really get the feeling that things are improving very rapidly here, that the city is bouncing back from years of oppression and fear. Sadly the financial crises has made things a little tough again, but the people are so lovely and get so excited when you speak Hungarian to them (we've all been practicing a lot).

We walked along the Danube riverbank, that separates Buda and Pest (historically they were different towns), from the Parliament back towards the city centre and passed an amazingly simple but touching memorial to Jews killed here in Budapest. The Nazis and their affiliates didn't bother to hide what they were doing to Jews here and would line them up along the riverbank and shoot them into the water. When they decided this was a waste of bullets, they would tie a group of them together and shoot one that would drag them all into the water to drown. It was a horrific crime that is commemorated by a long line of bronze shoes along the river. It really is such a simple but powerful memorial - other people have even left shoes here alongside the bronze ones.

We walked a lovely old town shopping strip through the middle of the old town, had a look inside the very small St Michael's church, and ended up down at the Market Hall just before lunch. The hall is huge and full of delicious produce (fruit, pastries, salami, etc) downstairs and craft, clothes and souvenirs upstairs. We must have spent at least three hours there looking at every single counter and stall! We also enjoyed a very good lunch there when Anthony ate a hamburger as big as his head - needless to say he was not hungry for the rest of the day!

After negotiating our way through the Hungarian postal system to send some things home, we wandering a little further north up to St Stephen's Basilica, which holds the mummified hand of St Stephen himself, the first King of Hungary. It was a beautiful church and you could barely see the hand anyway - it was easier to look at pictures taken of it.

We meandered back to the hotel before going as a group for a night cruise on the River Danube. Budapest's best views are all along the river so the cruise was a wonderful way to see it all lit up at night.

We finished the evening with a trip to a "ruin bar". Since the fall of the Soviet Union some of the empty and run down buildings have been turned into a bar with old junky furniture, maintaining it's abandoned "ruined" feel. Though we didn't stay long it was a really cool place to spend some time in.

When we came to Budapest I was really unsure of what to expect and I had heard some bad stories. But Budapest is a beautiful city with mostly honest, hardworking and friendly people trying to better their lives after so much hardship. It is full of history, beauty, fun and interesting places. We really had a brilliant time here.