Season Hostel Budapest

... I have no idea because I'm obviously not from here. Then they asked if I wanted to go with them to the bar. I declined and walked away. About 50 meters later the same thing happened. Two women are looking for the same bar. Funny I thought! Well, after the first two came up to me I knew what they were doing. I met an American guy last night and he told me a story. A story about how some bar tried to charge 2 Irish guys some crazy high price ...

... of the snow. But, we finally got to Chop about an hour before our train was to leave. The Chop train station is a relic of Soviet times. There is an intereresting Soviet mural of the history of life under Communism in the departure hall. Mostly events glorifying uprisings of people, revolution, labor, World War II, the Soviet's first man into space and more. The hall is too big, ugly and unwelcoming. We got on the train for the ...

... an extra price, but we declined. The price was also very reasonable. and we were refunded some of our initial entry fee because we only stayed for 2 hours instead of 3-4, which seems to be the usual amount. During our time in Budapest, we also visited the underground shopping and flea market area near the eastern rail station and walked past the museum quarter and several castles. Our time was too short to properly visit everything, but at ...

... whatever the hell it was. He asked us to be quiet so that we could all take our own personal journey. Obviously, we basically giggled, screamed, and played marco polo in a pitch black room where we were supposed to follow a rope along the wall and, ya know, have a personal enlightenment or something like that. Somehow we escaped without becoming vampires and went back out in to the light. We did some souvenir shopping and I picked up ...

... the dots and life will get much more difficult soon. It's refreshing to have food and clean water and that sort of thing so easy. On the other hand, English is no longer much spoken, so it is back to point, smile, and hope. I do know some German, and for reasons I can't explain, feel like I should understand German, so it's still a little bit of a surprise to wade into a conversation and be reminded, yet again, that I have the vocabulary of a two year old. The ...

... I decided that my first sight of the mighty river Danube should not involve a swim in it so I didn't cross that bridge- saw the awesome Hungarian parliament (it must rank highly as one of the best in the world), I wasn't a big fan of the way people seemed to stare though, and unless I'm much mistaken there were a lot of Austrians there buying cheap televisions and stuff (can't blame them, the price difference is incredible, but ...

... came out from London to see us for the week), we headed through the fantastic Tatra mountains, down through the castles of the Slovakian plains, and into the relaxing capital, Bratislava. We found Slovakia to be a little gem of a country, with great variety in an area half the size of Portugal. The Tatra mountains (from both the Polish and Slovakian sides) were fantastic, and with some of the views you could have easily ...

... make the attempt - give me feedback; I'm curious. But it's certainly keeping protein deficiency at bay. Made my way through a dark, damp 'labyrinth' sporting imitation cave paintings and eerie music. Triggered a touch of claustrophobia, but little else. Shopped, went to a mass at the Basilica (yeah, not a pretty language), and headed back to the hostel. PG warning ahead: really wish you guys had been there! (Mom, Dad, don't freak out. I was in a crowded street ...