Saturday, June 30, 2012

Buda and Pest

Today was surprisingly not too bad. The itinerary called for an early wake to the train station. Our train was to leave at 7:27am and trek along the tracks for 7.5 hours. We passed through Vienna then finally got to Budapest, Hungary. I spent the time pacing through the second book of Hunger Games. I realise that I didn't load nearly enough books onto my Kindle as I'm onto week 2 and I've nearly finished the trilogy. So I tried to soak in every word, slowly. But I finished the second book and totally loving the series! I downloaded some free Charles Dickens and Jane Eyre, and I'm sure I'll enjoy them but probably not to the level of Hunger Games. If people have suggestions of books for me to buy on Amazon for my Kindle, let me know! Otherwise I might buy and re-read the Otori trilogy. Hungary is completely different. Their words remind me of Russian yet its totally not. The sound of it, I can't even recognise - it doesn't sound like German at all! The people have their own characteristics too. Germans tend to have brows that go upwards and their nose and mouths are pointy and downwards. You know? There's distinct looks for Greeks, Germans, Italians, Asians etc. but Hungarians? I can't really tell yet. We caught the subway to our hotel where the CUTEST receptionist with blue eyes and a tainted accent addressed us to our room and recommended a dinner place. We had a lovely Hungarian dinner serenaded by a group of Gypsy Hungarian music. I was so fascinated. We bought their album haha! It was so funny because I was like to mum, "Nooooo we can't waste money and room in our bags." And she goes, "They're musicians that work hard, they deserve it." And it struck me that I feel happy when people by my album and I was like, "Oh shit, you'd think I would understand better." Hahahaha! BRAND NEW DAY! And seeing as yesterday was a bit of a rest up, today was a little jam-packed! We started off our morning, sleeping in for the first time in a while, then headed to Central Market. We had breakfast there, Hungariano style-o! Then went upstairs to buy knick knacks. I bought a shot glass, sticker and this awesome secret box that you have to figure out to get the key then to open it. SO AWESOME! After that, we headed to Heroes Square then went to the riverside. We strolled about, I ate ice-cream then we walked the bridge that took us from the Pest side to the Buda side. Isn't that interesting? Once upon a time in the 1800's it was two cities called Buda and Pest, now they have smooched together to form……. BUDAPEST! It was such a scorching hot day, so I probably shouldn't have dragged my mum to walk the bridge. Then we caught the tram that climbs the hill to the top of Castle Hill. People still live here but it was once for the Kings - and cars are banned unless you work there, government or buses. The view was gorgeous. Then we walked over to Matthias Church, then to the Fisherman's Bastion which is this gorgeous castle border. So far, all the historical buildings to see in Europe are all same-same but this one was a refreshing site. We walked all the way back and browsed about Buda Castle then caught the little tram back down, walked the bridge then caught the trains home. It was WAY too hot to be about. The sun brought on headaches. P.s Hungarians love paprika P.p.s got new sunglasses, ain't polarized like my other ones but

Tiger feet