4hartsindubai (in arabic قلوب فى دبى): Budapest

Our hotel was on the Buda side of the city. If you haven't been to Budapest - one side is Buda and the other is Pest... interesting huh? We stayed at the Gold Buda which is walking distance from the castle district. Right now I am so wishing that I had written these posts right after our vacation even without pictures... it's hard to remember the names of all of the places, plus I am tired... spent all week decorating the school for Halloween. Ok, back on track!

So Budapest. We spent our first night there in the castle district looking around. It's an historic area that sits high on a hill in the city. Buda is hilly and Pest is flat. We had dinner at an outdoor cafe, unfortunately with each city that we visited the beer got more expensive. Then headed back to our hotel for some much needed rest. We had done a lot of walking the past several days and our feet hurt.

Day 5
In the morning we first had to tackle some money issues. Our bank cards were not working in the machines in Budapest. We ended up going to a bank to take money out and would you believe that the teller didn't give us the right amount of money? We had been warned about checking restaurant receipts, and taxi drivers and such, but were shocked to have that experience at a bank. In any case, I won't waste time talking about the negative stuff.

We walked around the castle district area again. Checked out a few churches and things. Unfortunately most museums were closed on the day that we were there. Later we headed over to the Pest side of the city where we checked out the "shopping street." Larry bought a new pair of shoes for me to help my aching feet. We took a break during the day with a couple of beers and sodas hanging out by a fountain. Then we decided to check out Buda Castle way up a hill side. Yet another hike, but it was fun, we sang and told stories about our trip.

Day 6
For our last day in Budapest we decided to go to the Aquincum which is an ancient Roman city. Afterwards we went to a Turkish bath house. It was pretty cool! Just like in the Aquincum there were 3 pools, one cold, one medium and one hot. We spent about 2 hours there. Interesting to figure out how that kind of thing works, what kind of pass to buy, where to change, etc. It all worked out albiet awkward. We had lunch at a street vendor in the park. It was nice.

Then we headed back to Vienna!