Budapest

Budapest - what a weekend! (I'm exhausted)

Tony & I headed across the continent to hang out with some American exchange students we met here in London a while back.

My oversized travel companion

Stephanie & Ingrid played excellent hosts, we kicked off our sight-seeing tour of Hungary at about 3am on Saturday morning (after more than a few beers) with a walk to the impressive parliament buildings and the Chain bridge.

Photo outside Parliament

We had a rather late start on Saturday but eventually got a bit of sight-seeing under our belts with a walk up Castle Hill to have a look over the city.

The girls had a giant mobile phone in their apartment

and an amusingly titled book...

Saturday evening led to some more heavy drinking with a trip to a Gothic bar called Darkness where we had some drinks on the house (it's great to know people who know people!), later on we moved to a Mexican bar to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a Mexican festival day. there were many beers and Margaritas to be had and needless to say I was feeling a little rough the next day!

Parliament by day, a bit more impressive than the Beehive!

Sunday, another slow start... we eventually started sight-seeing about 4pm with a walk to Buda Castle and then to Heroes Square & City Park.
After our first Hungarian meal on Sunday night (after 2 days!) we played beer pong around at Zach's place. After a fairly dodgy start (I discovered that underarm was a good way to knock cups over and Tony discovered yes he is in fact a klutz) we started winning some games and dominated the table for 3 games on the trot. The we lost again. It was about this point when the low point o f the weekend happened, Ingrid (who had gone home) called to say that their apartment had been broken into and could we come home. One laptop was taken but that was thankfully it.

A memorial to the Jews who were gunned down on the banks of the Danube

The outside of a museum we didn't go into.

Another museum we didn't enter...

Heroes Square

Anonymvs - or Death?!

Beer Pong

We rounded out the trip on Monday watching the forensics guys doing their thing followed by a wander around Margret's Island and a trip to Szimpla, a very chic bar/cafe in a converted warehouse. After a quick dash to the train station for a 50p train to the airport (I love eastern Europe) and we were back on the plane to London, back to working life. Yay...

Chillaxing in the park

We did a lot less sightseeing than would be expected on a 3 day weekend, but we got a good feel for the city, met some cool people and got a good insight into the life and times of the American college student.

To quote my rather tall traveling companion, it was another good weekend of "living the dream".