Budapest! After exiting the baggage claim area, and walking through the “non existent” customs I headed straight for the ATM… took out some Hungarian Forint and followed the directions from the hostel to find my accommodation. The buildings in the city here are great as they are built around a courtyard. There are shops in the bottom floor and accommodation on the levels above. These buildings are around 4-8 floors high.
Njoy backpackers : http://www.njoybudapest.hu/ was awesome! The 2 bathrooms have a toilet, XL sink, shower, free towels, hand soap and hand towels. It was like living at home. My room had single beds, not bunks, which were king singles with lockers under the bed. We each had a table and plenty of space for our bags. I would definitely stay here again. After I showered, changed, unpacked and shopped I had some dinner and went online to relax.
Budapest for me was a chillout. I spent a lot of time sleeping and relaxing at the hostel. After the full on family holiday in Bali (Thanks Jay), and the full moon party in Thailand, all I wanted to do was relax. On the 2nd day Nadine and Evelien from the Netherlands took me on a walk around the city. We explored the Citadella and a castle nearby. It was a great day of pictures and looking around. We ended at the market and cooked Mexican for dinner. YUM!!
I can’t remember which night it was, but the owner of the hostel cooked a Hungarian favorite of Paprika Potatoes. It was delicious and filled me up very fast! I’ll have to have a crack at cooking this at home… I took a pic of the recipe.
After a sleep in I went to buy shoes in the mall… I needed shoes to go out in. I paid $50 for a pair of diesel Shoes. It would have cost double in Australia …minimum.
I went out one night with 2 German guys and ended up hanging out with 2 local girls. They were cool and taught me a little about Hungary and Budapest.
The Sziget festival was awesome. The 2 dutch girls and I left the hostel around 2 to make it to the festival by 3. Blue skies and a hot sun greeted us! We scouted out the bar and bought a couple of drinks to kick start the day. The Subways (no idea who they are) were playing and then we went to see some Dutch band, which has been around for a few years. I met Mitchel, from Texas, at the burger stand and he ended up hanging out with us for the rest of the day. He’s cool and we had a good laugh. We had a couple of litre bottles of wine and soda, which rocked. They were an easy way to drink, as we didn’t have to keep buying beers. We met lots of random people and chatted to anyone and everyone. It was really cool. The festival was really well set up. They had lots of free activities… Sumo wrestling, plastic chicken totem tennis, 10 pin bowling, clay modeling, stilts to play on, bikes on stands which you could race, a ferris wheel (which we never saw) and lots of other fun things!!
LMFAO started off a little boring but by the end they were Party Rocking!! It was a great show and they entertained the crowd well! I would see them again.
We ended up getting a taxi home around 2:30… 1000HUF or $4.50 between 3 of us. Bargain!!
On the day after the Sziget festival we all relaxed around the hostel. I think I watched a couple of movies and just cruised online… the hostel had free wifi.
Budapest was a nice city, the people were reserved although once they decided to talk with you they were friendly.
Cheers is pronounced: agire shi gedra (egészségére) …. How much effort!!!
Thank you is pronounced: kirsonum (köszönöm) … a bit easier…. Haha
$1 AUD = 240 Hungarian Forint.
I made my way to Bratislava on a train because all the busses were booked out on the Tuesday. It cost $20 AUD.