Train to Budapest

Budapest, Hungary

Today we sat on a train for 10 hours. That’s how long it takes to travel to Budapest, but that does involve going via Zagreb which we’d left a couple of days earlier. This of course means going through immigration twice – a lengthy process as officials from the country we were leaving and officials from the country we were entering had to check every passport. Mine was obviously a quick check, but this mean I didn’t get any stamps.
By the time we arrived, and had checked into the hotel in Budapest it was about 6pm. Kayla and Karen and Sherin decided to go for a curry and then to a club. As I don’t like curry I didn’t go with them. Instead, after a much needed shower, I went for a walk. I had planned to go into the city centre, but instead, I turned the wrong way when I left the hotel and headed in completely the wrong direction. This did however bring me to Hero’s Square and Millenium Monument, which I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, so not a complete waste. Hero’s Square was where once Communist protests were held, and was originally laid out for the Millenium celebrations in 1896. By this point, it was dark, and the square and Monument and surrounding monuments were all nicely lit up. There was also some sort of music festival, or possibly a BMX bike festival/competition – there were guys on bikes performing on ramps in front of an audience – going on in the square.
After I’d soaked up the atmosphere, I headed back to the hotel and ate some of the food left over from the train journey, and watched some tennis from the US Open on TV.