After another long train ride I arrived in Budapesh in the middle of a heat wave. The average temperature was about 40 degrees most days. Budapest is an amazing city and is really the meeting point of eastern and western Europe with influences from both. The hostel, Carpe noctem, was one of the friendliest and welcoming places I have stayed in on my trip. Also one of the most fun! Here I met a bunch of guys from all over the place including new Zealand, England, America, Finland, Canada and of course Australia. The weirdest coincidence was meeting Dave who grew up just around the corner from me and played football with my brother and also knows my dad.. small world! The owners, Suzie and Ian were a blast. To top things off there was an awesome Thai restaurant right across the road.
Highlights of Budapest included trips to the city thermal baths which is the only way to beat the heat there, the terror museum which went through the occupation of Hungary by the Germans and then the Russians and the various atrocities that each regime committed. In the middle of the atrium was a massive tank! One of my favourite experiences so far on my trip would have to be the caving that I did under the city (Pest side). We went squeezing through holes that I could barely fit through and the guide was slightly crazy and would disappear down random holes and expected us to follow.
A trip to Budapest would not be complete without experiencing its nightlife. Some nights involved just watching the Euro-cup matches that were on but the most fun was had on the nights we hit the town. On one of these nights we turned up to a club called Godo which was a massive venue under a big square and had live music every night but on the door was a sign which said that “Our bar is closed tonight, but feel free to enjoy our program and bring some drink and food and treat it like your own private party.” The band was amazing and was a Hungarian hip-hop group called DJ Colombo. The next night we went to a roof-top bar and watched the storm clouds come in before getting absolutely soaked and then partying downstairs till the early hours of the morning.
Sadly I said goodbye to Budapest by getting up at 5am to catch a bus to Slovenia. Unfortunately my big orange bus had transformed into a tiny blue van. The van did not have enough seats for me! So I was stranded at 6am. I found a train that was leaving at 12pm and this took 9 hours to cover about 200km! The scenery into Slovenia was amazing and there were some awesome rain showers as well so it was well worth it.
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