Budapest and Prague or Wrapping up Eastern Europe

Budapest

Budapest is a big crazy city, and it doesn't help when I take relatively poor notes. I'm going through and recaptioning pictures periodically, though.

Things settled down a bit after the first day, and I managed to find my way around and do things successfully. Took a day to tour the massive Parliament, the Opera House, St Stephen's Basilica, the House of Terror (Nazis AND Soviets found the same building convenient for opressing the people), Heroes Square, Vajdahunyad Vára and spent the evening soaking in the Széchényi baths.

Next day I went to the Great Synagoge, the Great Market Hall, and bussed out to the suburbs to see Memento Park.

Then off to Prague - contrary to what my guidebook tells me, there is no real night train (despite the 7+ hour journey), so I lost a day for this. Plus, the train goes through Slovakia, which is apparantly, NOT on my railpass, so I had to cough up for a ticket to pass through the country. Joy.

Budapest pictures

Prague

Arrived late in the day in Prague - too late to really do any sightseeing. So I went out for a hearty Czech dinner (split a table/conversation with a friendly local business man), and ran into some traveling students (French and Spanish) after I got back, and decided to go out drinking and clubbing. The big 5-story club (Karlovy Lazny) is okay but overrated - found a nice smaller place late in the evening/morning playing some good music. "Don't Stop Me Now" is an even better song at 3:30 in the morning.

Woke up at 8 after a couple hours of sleep, postponed sightseeing a few hours to recover from previous evenings festivities, then went and explored the south-east side of the river - most of the Old and New towns. Went out for some manly food:

and a bit more manly drinking than I really wanted to after the previous evening's festivities, due to being trapped by torrential downpour. Managed to go to sleep at a more reasonable hour.

Final day in prague was spent west over the Charles Bridge, viewing the Little Quarter and the Castle hill. Have just arrived in Salzburg after a long trip on an evening train. No night train again, so this time I cut an evening instead of a morning/day. Just one day in Salzburg, then off on an actual night train into the heart of the Alps, the Berner Oberland.

Prague pictures part 1
Prague pictures part 2