Back from Budapest

I was going to do a write up about our trip to Budapest, but then I saw that Carla had emailed a great description of our trip to her colleagues/friends, which I am going to paste in here. :-) And I would like to add my favourite picture from the trip. Me and "Falkie the Falcon" (that's my nickname for him).
"So… trip to Budapest was really good. Actually, it was a lot better than I thought it would be, in so many ways. I was a bit nervous about going on a "bus tour". The tour was made up of everyone from parents and kids (say 8-10 year old kids), to university students/friends, to a few married 40ish couples. So, a good mix – that's for sure.

The bus left the bus station at 7am (on the dot) Friday am. We stopped a few times on the way… for the smokers to have a break and for people to go to the bathroom/grab something to eat. We arrived in Budapest sometime around 2:30pm. Budapest isn't all that far from Zagreb, but by the time you add stopping at the border (them checking every passport) and then the few stops – it did take a bit. The good thing though is that you could just relax, listen to your ipod, sleep, or do whatever.

When we got there they took us to quite a few sights: the Citadel (and lookout over the whole city – BEAUTIFUL!), went downtown and walked along Vaci street (the main street) in the old town. Great shops. We were hungry and not feeling adventurous… so actually ate at McDonalds. I know, I know… I am always one of those people saying – when in Rome do as the Romans, but you know what? Maybe I am getting older, but boy it is nice to have/know what you are getting : ))) Really, it seems the only time we ever eat at McDonalds is when we are on vacation : )))
Well, and one other neat things – is that trying the McDonald's in each country you get to try out their "localized" menu. E.g. Ivan had a "McRoyal" burger. We hadn't seen those before… and we had just been to a McDonald's not that long ago in Hong Kong and Beijing. hahaha.

After a quick stop at the hotel to check in… Ivan and I broke away from the group, took the subway and went to a mall. Always interesting to see malls in different countries – as this is where the regular people go. Budapest had FABULOUS malls. The choice/selection of stores was incredible. Also WAY better than anything I have seen in Ottawa – maybe closer to the Eaton's Centre in TO – but still way different. E.g. they had a JLo store (Jennifer Lopez store selling fashion shoes/boots). That night I again was very excited… ate at TGI Fridays… boy it was nice to have Western food : )))

Sat. the bus took us to various stops/sites: Fisherman's Bastion, Parliament, Heroes Park, various Castles/Museums… The architecture was just amazing. A LOT was built in 1896 for their centennial – and boy they poured $$$ into a lot of these things. You'll see when we send out some of our pics. Sat. night we went to a different mall – again very interesting. Ivan and I are really good at navigating around cities using subways. Budapest has a great subway. It is really easy to use and very efficient. You can get from one area to another in mins.

Should say that our hotel was ok. Nothing to write home about but a good clean 3 star… and came with free buffet breakfast. But man, for the price we paid (approx. $150 Cdn each – bus, tour, hotel/breakfast for 2 nights) the whole trip was an AMAZING deal (perhaps because of
the time of year as well).

Sunday, the bus took us past a couple more places and Ivan and I jumped off to go to a traditional Hungarian hot spring. Budapest is located on natural hot springs – so there are hot springs all over the city. The one we went to looked like a humongous fortress. You go in – pay
your $15 Cdn and have access to all of their indoor and outdoor pools, steam rooms, saunas, etc. The pools range in temp. from 20 degrees to 38 degrees. They had a couple of HUGE pools outside – yes you actually had to venture out of the main building in just your bathing suit in 4 degree weather – running to the pool. When you got in it was heaven – about 38 degrees with steam rising out of it. What is also very interesting is that in various places throughout the outdoor pools you will have old men gathered around chess boards playing chess – in the water!!! Very much like how you swim up to a bar for a drink at all-inclusive hotels. Chess is Very big in Hungary – you can find hand carved chess sets everywhere! Anyway, we didn't stay all that long at the hot springs – as the bus was leaving at 1pm. So off we went – took a subway back downtown and met up with the group for the bus ride home.

All in all it was a great trip! Poor Ivan did have to translate everything bit of info. the tour guide was explaining, but thankfully his English/Croatian is so amazing I don't feel I missed anything – with all the various stories/history, etc.

We arrived home to Zagreb about 8:30pm – and given that we live so close to the bus stain (couple of tram stops away) think we were in our door by 8:45pm."

I highly recommend visiting Budapest to all, as this city has amazing sights for all age groups and likes (history, museums, castles, opera, new malls and excellent shopping).