Hitting the East was as easy as simply turning right instead of left when leaving the hostel. We decided walk across the city instead of taking the metro just to see more of it and get more of a feeling for some of the less seen areas, but in reality you don't miss much by taking the metro. As we were catching the train the next day early to Vienna, we decided to pick up out tickets first.

Budapest maybe as well known for their natural spring baths as much as anything else. There is a large number of them scattered across the city and my understanding is that they are full pretty much every and all day. So we managed to soak up a good 4-5 hours of laying outdoors in hot pools of varying temperatures. I only have a photo of the outside, so you will have to wait for Marie to send me her photos of the inside which was very lush.

Back at the hostel, we hit up some ozzies, frogs and Canadians to go have a night out. Starting in a small dive bar we had a few cheap drinks before hitting the high light of Budapest’s nightlife - Inside/Outside. Strangely enough the outside riverfront club was called 'Inside'. While the indoors was called 'Outside'. The danger was - after your first shot, all following shots were half price. owch. Given it was a Wednesday night, the place didn't really start filling up until 1am and was going strong at about 4am when we crawled home to wake the remainder of the hostel guests.

Awaking from a slumber that challenged sleeping beauty for soundness, Marie and I first headed for the West side of the city - Buda.

Starting with Buda Castle which is naturally situated on top of Buda Hill, this (reconstructed) castle use to house the previous Kings and Queens of Hungary. The Castle is now home to a number of Museums, art galleries and homes for caretakers. The castle has a slightly more modern feel then most other one I have visited. We spent a couple hours strolling around the nooks and crannies of the old town, which is situated inside the castle walls. This time – the hill climb gave us good vistas of the city in the day time.

A sudden brust from the heavens forced us to investigate the underground Caves. What was a natural labyrinth of tunnels was converted some centuries ago into a brick walled vault, which was used for storage, dungeons, dragons, and any other mythical use you can think of. They had tried to be ‘arty’ and ‘modern’ with the caves. There were bizarre drumbeats, obscure statues, underground flowing wine and random mood lighting. Worth the time purely for the ‘errr… what did we just see factor’. Reappearing, the sun was out and it was time for some lunch. We never really discovered what was traditional Hungarian food, but we did have a bit of yummy goulash.

Deciding to leave the natural spring baths for the East (Pest) side the next day, we walked further down the river to a public park on an island in the middle of the river. It was nice and we lay down on the grass for a couple of hours listening to various bands. Feeling refreshed we investigated the parliament building which is obviously copied from the gothic parliament buildings situated in London. They even admit to it. Few more hours were consumed investigating shops before finding a restaurant for a nice meal.

A long day, a hell of a long day. Packing my bags Sunday afternoon before heading into work for a 12hour night shift, my flight flew out the next day about noon. So I was more than a tad tired when arriving. Marie and I easily found our hostel. Which I might add I highly recommend; it was friendly, common areas were comfortable etc. The minor draw back is that it is on the 4th floor so that heavy luggage has to be dragged up some flights.

Budapest looks like pretty much any other typical European city, but there was a distinct lack of people on the streets and although the buildings are of the same style, they have not been well maintained over the last 50+ years leading to them appearing dusty, faded and slightly run down. Giving the whole city a relaxing, slow feeling. Budapest was historically two cities, Buda being on the West side of the river Duna and Pest being on the East. We planned on splitting the next couple of days, first day in Buda and the second in Pest.

The first night I was pretty tired so we went for a walk along the water front, grabbed a meal and headed up Gellert Hill. The city has a Rio de Janeiro type statue at the top of the hill over looking the city. From the top, there are some brilliant night time views of the city with the water front and old (well rebuilt) castle being lit up. Upon returning to the hostel, I promptly crashed and burned out not waking up until late in the morning the next day. This in its self is a rarity given when I normally go traveling I am up at the crack of dawn as to not miss anything.