It all comes down to this, Beijing to Budapest overland in 38 days, what a ride!

We left Vesna Pension in the High Tatras mountains at 8:30am and began our 4.5 hour drive to Budapest. We were taken in a private car and oh my god it felt great to just be able to sit back, relax and let someone else handle the transport. We drove to with in an hour of the Hungarian border and stopped for a coffee break. I managed to get a magnum.

We crossed into Hungary and arrived at Hotel Medoz at about 1:15pm, I went to grab a quick bite to eat and then came back to collect the passengers for the orientation tour.

I was dreading this orientation above all others, last time I was here, I was here for less than 24 hours and I was sick so I wasn't really paying attention. I also didn't have my trip notes out. I surprised myself by not stuffing it up and not getting lost. I managed to get everyone up to the Matthias church with out incident.

I left the passengers in the Old town and then set off down the hill to Budapest Keleti station via the metro to attempt to get my Bucharest - Istanbul tickets for my next group. The lady at the desk, luckily for me spoke nearly perfect English, but seemed surprised at being handed a request for thirteen tickets to Istanbul from Bucharest. There was much conversation between the attendants in Hungarian, before mercifully I was told, I could buy my tickets here. About an hour later I walked out with thirteen hand written tickets to Istanbul.

As I was sitting there watching the lady write them out, I realized one of those tickets is mine. I'M GOING BACK TO TURKEY! I'm going back to Akbiyik Cadessi and the old strip in Istanbul, I'm going back to Kusadasi and dancing on the bar at Jimmy's, I'm going back to Zafer and the boys at Pacha bar, I'm going back to swim in the beautiful clear blue Mediterranean, I'm going back to a place with a wonderful history and ruins everywhere, I'm going back to a place with wonderful friendly people, I'm going back to manky kebabs and Efes beer, I'm going back to Olimpos my favourite place in the world, but most of all I'm going back to a place I probably never should have left in the first place….quite simply, that lady, in the little ticket office in Budapest Keleti station was writing me a ticket back to Paradise.

It was now 6:30pm and time to get back to my current group, I managed to find a decent restaurant on the way back to the hotel. I reached the hotel grabbed the passengers and doubled back to the restaurant. It was such a nice place, almost like a swanky little jazz club, the man on the piano was even playing My Way by Frank Sinatra.

After dinner I almost ran back to the hotel, it was cold and I was wearing a singlet top. I then proceeded to do all my end of tour paperwork, book 13 more bus tickets for the next group and even write out some postcards to send home. I managed to get to bed at about midnight, tomorrow a new adventure begins as I'm off to London to start a two week contract position in Western Europe with Expat Explore.