The train to Budapest was packed and when we got to our allocated seats we found they were already occupied. After some conversation, those people got out of the seats - only for some other people to get into them. Eventually, after some back-and-forth with the people (some middle-aged Quebecois ladies in a tour group and their younger tour guide) they left their seats and we sat down. Still not sure what the problem was, since we had our tickets with the carriage number and those seats on it, while they had one for a different carriage but had (apparently) been told by someone that they had those seats in this carriage. But we had our seats, so we didn't care too much. And off we went.
Got to the train station - Budapest-Keleti (mentioning it now since I'll come up again in a subsequent post) - we wandered around for a bit trying to work out where the best place to withdraw money was (the ATMs in both Munich and Vienna had had options were weren't quite sure about how best to use, and I found that I'd gotten some cash out at a much worse exchange rate than I should have) since we needed to pay for the apartment upfront (I've had to do this once or twice before) and didn't have enough on us to cover it.
Once that was sorted, we once again bought ourselves 24-hour passes to the local public transport system and set off to board a metro that would take us to our apartment. And it was a good thing we didn't try our luck at fare-evading, since unlike everywhere we'd been previously, there were ticket inspectors at the escalators down to the metro level. We would encounter them many more times while in Budapest; in fact, the number of trips where we had to show our passes either before, during or even after our journey outnumbered those where we didn't.
Thanks to the relatively early start and short distance we got to Budapest pretty early and decided we'd go on a walking tour; that turned out to be a great choice 'cause we got an excellent guide named Zoltan, who was hilarious.
Later in the evening we went on a boat ride along the Danube, and that was magnificent.
Here the currency is the Forint and it has very little value per unit - so, the notes are in huge denominations. This withdrawal was equal to about 49 AUD.
Zoltan, the tour guide. He told us on multiple occasions that Hungary had made many bad choices over the years, particularly when it came to who they joined forces with in large-scale conflicts; they tending to be on the losing side.
The boat ride.
The Hungarian Parliament building.
Day 2
We got up bright and early - well, relatively - and headed off to find the Great Market Hall. It is aptly named. And unlike the last market we were in, we didn't get scammed.
Walking around Budapest. I think it was somewhere around here we went into a pharmacy ('Apotheke') to find me some cough syrup; I'd picked up a chest infection in Munich and it was interfering with my sleep, so I wanted something that would allow me to get enough rest to actually get over the damn thing. After a somewhat complicated conversation, the person said 'Robitussin?' and we (relieved) said yes.
Also, proper pharmacy stuff and the other, over-the-counter kind of things we have in pharmacies in Australia are sold in different places, which was a bit confusing at first.
Anyway, back to Budapest.
We went to the Szépművészeti Múzeum, the museum of fine art. There was a special Rembrandt exhibit, which was cool - but you couldn't take photos.
A very cool door handle.
Ah, ugly baby Jesus.
Maybe this was someone's attempt at being subversive? He probably had his legs broken.
A time-travelling Willem Dafoe is having impure thoughts about Jesus.
Someone got into the 'shrooms.
"Go away bird, I'm writing."
There's a lot of ugly going on here. Hope they didn't pay the artist the agreed price.
Oh, that expression. Also, another example of an artist who didn't pay attention in anatomy class - either that or he believed Mary was triple-breasted.
St George.
Apparently at some point it was decided that Jesus was, in fact, a ginger.
This is creepy and disturbing. I love it.
Someone's unimpressed.
This might or might not have been a Doge.
"And Marty Feldman as The Pope."
The thing the guy is on was labelled as a dolphin. The artist, presumably, had never seen a dolphin nor had one accurately described to him.
Stern dude.
Saint Sebastian, how I've missed you. Unlike the people shooting you with arrows.
WHY IS THERE A HOLE THERE?
Back outside.
There's a complex in the city the features a few different architectural styles used in Hungary over the centuries.
More random shots around the city.
We went to the Kerepesi Cemetery, which we'd heard was quite interesting. It has a cat.
I tried to convince it to attack Rochelle. It didn't.
Out of the cemetery. The Budapest-Keleti train station is quite impressive.
Not what I expected to see in a Hungarian pub/cafe. And it's signed.
After dinner we went on a 'Vampire and Dark History' walking tour. It was quite a lot of fun; the guide was good, though it was a bit slow for us - could have sped the pace up a bit.
But we got interrupted at one point BY A HEDGEHOG. I wanted to stop and look for more but we couldn't. Still, at least I can say now I've seen a hedgehog in real life.
[This isn't a very good picture; I'll get a higher res version and upload it when I can.]
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