I`ve started the long trek home - even longer when you detour via Budapest and Germany (tuesday)!  When I booked my accomodation for Budapest I decided to pay a little extra so I could get a room with a view over the Danuabe river. You can imagine my delight then when I arrived this morning and they upgraded me to a suite overlooking the river! i have a lounge room and a bedroom and the walk in robe is bigger than my ensuite in Ireland! Check out the photos of my room (and the incredible view).

My day here started a bit like an episode out of the `Amazing race` where you have to track down some obscure thing in the middle of nowhere. I stuipdly left the remote release for my camera in my old handbag (the remote release makes taking night time pictures easier and i was wanting to do lots of night time photography). So the recptionist at the hotel gives me a couple of possible places to try, but couldn`t think of how to describe what I wanted in Hungarian so I knew it was going to be trying to explain what I wanted! The first camera store was only about 5 min away and i found that with no trouble but unfortunately got a surely old lady who was as helpful as `t*&%`s on a bull, so it was into an internet cafe to work out the translation. With that in hand I then  had to naviagate the subway system. The trains are really old, but the stations are nice and modern and certainly put Melbourne`s stations to shame (no graffti either!) The esclators in the subways are sooo steep - I had vertigo going up and down them! They are even steeper than the ones in the London Subways if you have experienced them. After some wandering I eventually found the second place I was looking for, but no luck. To tell you the honest truth I don`t think they understood 100% what I wanted either and that was speaking English! So I gave up on the idea and decided I would just have to make do with a steady hand while taking some photos. From there it was a mission to try and find the tram I wanted to take me to the Castle Hill district. Budapest is actually two cities - Buda on one side of the river and Pest on the other. Buda is very hilly and Pest is as flat as a pancake so it`s a real contrast. The views from Castle Hill (Fishermans` Baston) are amazing (check out the photos again). I hung around there until the lights in the city came on so I could get some night time shots with everything lit up. I don`t think they have turned out too badly considering. I then managed to navigate from Castle Hill to my hotel without looking at the map once and actually did very good job if i do say so myself!

Budapest so far seems a real mix of the old (and poor) and the new & modern. it looks like there is still a lot of poverty and you can see areas where rubbish is just dumped with no regard for anything (more along side the roads than actually in the city), graffti everywhere (especially on the outskirts again) houses that have been destroyed or demolished and just left there and all the old communist housing blocks that look like they are crumbling. On the other hand there is a lot of modern and contemporary  looking shops that will be fun to explore! The rrains are acient, but the subway stations are sparkling clean (no graffti anywhere!) and certainly a lot nicer than any Melbourne station.

Tomorrow I`m planning on exploring the Christmas market - Christmas markets are huge in Europe so I`m looking forward to my first experience. I`m also going to the Christmas market in Nuremberg, germany on Tuesday and it is meant to be one of the biggest. I`m also planning on going ice-skating and resting my wearing feet in one of the many thermal turkish baths that are here in Budapest.

Stay tuned for another update!

Mel