Today we took a small break from Budapest so we could experience a different place in Hungary. We decided to head north about 50 kilometres up the Danube to a town on the border with Slovakia - Esztergom.

Although it is a pretty small town today, Esztergom was once the original capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, until it was moved to Buda sometime in the 13th century. As a result it has Hungary's largest basilica with an old castle next to it, dominating the riverside. Seriously, the basilica is pretty goddamn big.

After arriving on a cheap bus we grabbed something to eat, then headed for the basilica. On the way up the hill were a few statues, including that of Árpád, considered to be the founder of Hungary. The basilica was impressive inside, but the best bit was that you could climb up a ton of stairs to get to the massive dome at the top. From here you could not only see the whole town, some mountains and the Danube, but also Slovakia - more specifically, the town of Štúrovo, which would be our next stop.

Since Slovakia had been pretty much the only country in our travel path which we hadn't seen (although I'm probably heading there shortly), we thought it would be nice to cross the bridge and check out Štúrovo. At least then Mari could say she's been to Slovakia, even if it was only one s***ty little town (to be honest, that describes Štúrovo pretty well). We did a couple of laps of the town and bought an ice cream. Not only was it the cheapest ice cream we had to date, the guy doing the scooping thought he was top s*** and was doing barman tricks with the ice cream! Probably bored as I guess. The main visual highlight of Štúrovo was actually the view across the river of the Esztergom Basilica, however it was a pretty good one. Someone had some decks and speakers set up by the river and was pumping drum n bass tunes over them to the four people who were actually watching.... I guess this is weekend party in small-town Slovakia!

Satisfied that we now knew absolutely everything there is to know about Slovakia, we crossed back over the bridge into Hungary and back to the bus stop to travel towards Budapest. Some quality burgers and goulash for dinner, followed by Mari buying some clothes, and we were done for the day.