Mercure Budapest Museum 3m

... we found some art galleries and museums and lovely little roadside cafes, and learned some history, we appreciated afresh just where they've come from not so long ago... and could see how proud and how thrilled they are to be finally "free". Even the taxi driver taking us to the airport said "You must come back. You stay at my place - free of charge!" I think he meant it, but we involuntarily laughed... Dear soul.

Thursday 21st May 20:00 So this is like my second day here I guess. I am losing track of days and times, and I'm not even traveling for 2 weeks. Not good. All around me I hear people are traveling for a month, 2 months, 3 months even. I don't know if I could cope with it being that long, but I don't feel like coming back home just yet (sorry mum and dad :P ). Arriving in Budapest and looking for the hostel, ofcourse I went circling the building again. I'm just so bleeping good ...

... market we had ever seen - produce below and souvenirs etc above - clean, orderly, nobody yelled at us - great. Apart from the pigs' faces that Penny didn't like very much and Darren would have loved to photograph but thought it would be a bit obvious. We didn't buy anything, but we did enjoy it! From there we walked up Vaci utca, finding at the end of it we hadn't yet explored quite a few restaurants to try on the the next few nights. Penny also bought a charm for ...

... angels everywhere.....we ended up with our very own little apartment 2 blocks from the Danube, in the heart of Pest. If I was tickled about a laundromat with internet, imagine my absolute delight with our very own place. We made the most of the place by pretty much hanging out 'at home' for the first couple days. We read and napped and cooked and did some serious deep cleaning of our stuff. It was awesome. But after 2 days of relaxing we got stoked for some overdue ...

... war then moved to Zimbabwe where 8 years ago he had his land taken again, we had afternoon tea with this ladies brother who has moved back to hungry from Zimbabwe. Imagine losing everything twice in one life, firstly to communism then to President Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Very very eye opening, made us all realize a bit more how lucky we are as New Zealanders. Some amazing old ...

... at the opera on time. And there it was quite crowded. People were gathering from everywhere and most of them, it is true, dressed up in their evening dresses and suits. But it is also true Su Yeon and I were not the only ones in an informal outfit. Actaully, most of us younger ones looked more or less alike. Besides, it was obvious there were many foreigners. English was probably spoken more than Hungarian and I realised that the programme of summer cultural events in Budapest ...

... down cos there was so many people doing it, it was impossible to keep everyone up. we all got split up during the killers but met up straight after them. Went to a few of the nightclubs then and we stayed till bout 5 in the morn it was really good craic. When we got to the train station met a good few people there that had been at the festival. A few of them were heading to zagreb as well but had been told the train was booked out. They said they were chancing just ...

... the hostel, spending *ll d*y on the internet upd*ting their My Sp*ce p*ges with insightful intellectu*l discussions *bout Britney Spe*rs. H*lf of my l*st d*y w*s seemingly spent *t Keleti r*ilw*y st*tion, lining up to buy * ticket for my tr*in which w*s essenti*lly le*ving *t d*wns cr*ck the next d*y. The computers were down, so it w*s t*king *bout 15 minutes for e*ch ticket to be sold, th*nkfully they would *ccept my credit c*rd.

... too indulgent, beware of massage parlors with private rooms), an excellent dinner at "Eat Me" with Steph, Anya, Nadav, and Isaac, significant shopping at the Weekend Market, we ordered fab new threads (Motty got a suit and some shirts at Rajawongsee, a tailor that suits up folks like the US Ambassador, HW Bush, Tom Ridge, and the like, I had an extravangant floor-length silk skirt made at Queen's ...

... the labyrinth. Caves and tunnels that are under Castle hill go on for ages. They let you wander around a part of it, about 1-2kms and they are supposed to have been used in the Middle Ages for military things. The were quite dark in parts so I was tugging on Adrian's jacket and taking random photos just for a bit of light. One part had a wine fountain, which was very cool. Dave drank from it, brave lad and then realized by the taste that it was probably the same wine recycled ...