11th August

The train journey ended up being really comfortable. I managed to sew on my Romania badge, catch up with the blog, sort our all my stuff and have a good night sleep. We were only woken at the border crossing to show our passports.

Our cabin had a mini sink, so we were able to refresh for the day ahead. The train pulled in and we made our way to the hostel. Although we under estimated the distance. 30 minutes and a few km later we found it. To early to check in, we left our bags in storage and headed our to explore the town.

On route we changed up our money and got some local currency from the ATM. We were meant to self-exlpore, but I managed to get roped into purchasing the 'hop on - hop off' bus tour. In the end it worked out well. We were given a discount book, 2 free boat rides and access to 4 bus routes to all the major sites. Our first stop was on the Pest side. We saw the St Stephens Basilica, Europe's largest Synagogue, Jewish ghettos created in the war, and Budapest largest square the Hosok tere.

Our favourite part of todays tour was heading over the the Buda side and up to Castle Hill, which is a world heritage site. We got off the bus at the base of the hill and walked up the steps directly into Mathias church, this was an absolutely beautiful church. White with intricate architecture and statues everywhere. The top of the hill was cobbled streets lined with colourful buildings. We walked down to the castle complex which was beautiful and huge. From up here you get a great view of Budapest. We stopped off up here for lunch, it was self service buffet. Stevie tried Goose for the first time.

We wanted to walk across the Danube on the Chain bridge as we thought the 0km stone was in the centre. Where all distances are measure against, but we couldn't find it. turns out we walked right past it at the foot of the tram.

Getting hot and tired we jump back onto the bus to see the Citadel, the cities statue of liberty. We crossed back over to Pest and headed to the Parliment building. The one I was looking forward to the most. From Castle hill it looked really impressive. however our hop-on hop-off bus went right passed it. So we got off and walked back to the Hostel. Hoping to see it tomorrow.

The train journey and the touring around town in the very hot weather must have taken its toll on us. We ended up exhausted back at the room even skipping dinner.

12th August

We woke up just in time for breakfast and luckily our new room was ready (we had to move room as the hostel was fully booked and we wanted to add another night) so we moved our stuff and set out for the day first walking to Parliament. It is a fine piece of architecture and you could notice the similarities between the Houses of Parliament in London which this was largely inspired by. We strolled around snapping away and made our way down the banks of the Danube to catch the purple bus to the boat cruise....we wanted to make the most of the bus tickets and coupons we got yesterday.....on the way there was a monument of an assortment of iron shoes which represented the people shot into he Danube in 1944-45.

When we finally reached the boat dock we got there just in time for the next cruise which led us up the Pest side around Margaret Island and down the Buda side of city, we couldn't really hear the commentary but it was nice to get some pictures from the river and to cruise down the Danube for an hour. We decided to walk to the synagogue that we had seen on yesterday's bus tour as it was he largest in Europe and Mark wanted to get some pictures of the arch down the road which signified the beginning of the Jewish ghetto during WW2.

I don't know why we decided not to go into the synagogue, but we made our way instead to the New York Cafe or 'the most beautiful cafe in the world' as it's advertised....it didn't disappoint there were paintings on the ceiling, everything was ornate and elaborately decorated in gold, we didn't go over board but ordered a drink each which still cost more then yesterday's lunch! However we got to claim another coupon and received a free postcard which would be sent for us! The Cafe became famous when different groups of the arts started to host their circle gatherings there.

We were going to get back on the bus after this, but we would have had to have done the whole route again as we wanted to go back a few stops from the cafe. So we decided to walk to the famous thermal baths via the train station to buy tomorrow's tickets to Prague....and a good job we did as there wasn't any cheap seats left on the early train so we ended up booking the 1:25pm, at least this meant we didn't have to set an alarm! Mark finally got his final wish and we had a quick Burger King for lunch. We then walked to the Szechenyi baths (another coupon to use) near heroes square which was built in 1908 and apparently had a dozen thermal baths and 5 swimming pools, although I only counted 3, once we eventually figured out the right entrance, confusing queuing and a locker that worked! It was nice to relax in the hot water. Tere was even some kind of whirl pool in the centre of one of the pools that pushed you around a small section, although not as much as the kids in there! did!! The hottest pool we went into was 38 degrees and surprisingly appreciated it even in the hot weather, we then had to figure out a way for both of us to get changed with one towel and separate single sex lockers.....that done it was time to head back to the room....you just can't stop party animals like us...lol. On the way back we saw a couple of monuments to signify the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall. The Berlin wall was an actual fragment,

13th August

On train wasn't until 1.25pm so we decided to check out at the latest possible time of 11am. It gave us a good lay-in and time to organise all our stuff. We ended up leaving at 11.30am, with our 30 minute walk to the station we only had an 1.5hr half to wait. By the tme we got food and found our platform the train was pulling in. Not bad timing.

We managed to get comfortable seats with a table so were sorted for the train journey. We got comfortable and watched Divergent on the laptop. ah Backpacker luxury travel. The only downer was Stevie brought carbonated water instead of still. The laptop died and we went to sleep, luckily Stevie found a plug point behind the curtain. We were back on for the rest of the journey to watch New Girl and Wolf of Wall Street.

Without passing any border controls, we arrived in Prague 20 minutes behind schedule. We located the hostel really easy, probably because I booked it. Stevie tends to book the cheapest and not the best locatable. Starving from our 8hour train ride we checked-in and headed straight out for dinner. I really fancied Pizza, but on route we discovered a TGI's and ended blowing our budget on the Ribs.

A couple of beers later we headed back to our room and planned for tomorrows jam packed sightseeing.