Up at 3:30am today to get ready for our transfer at 4:30am. We booked a car through the hotel as its a fair way and the easiest way at that time of day and $58 was ok. We've got into the mindset here too that you tip for public services. Easy trip to Dub airport and we flew out at 7am. Landed at 9am, then a 3 hour wait for the flight to Budapest. It's weird that you cant fly direct between these 2 countries despite them being quite close together. We flew via Zurich - we said hi from the airport lounge haha!
We flew Swiss air for the last leg and they are by far- the best airline so far for food and service. Croatia air is only so-so compared to Swiss - we were really impressed. The cabin crew lady Corin was sooo lovely 😊.
Landed in Budapest and decided on the airport shuttle as a Hungarian passenger told us the bus to our hotel would be quite tricky. They had a system where you bought the tickets then went out and waited for your number to come up that directed you to a numbered shuttle. Easy ride in except for a foreign lady who talked really loud behind us, absolutely non stop the whole way- think we were tired!! We have noticed that a lot of people speak very loudly over in Europe and they dont pause between sentences like we all do and there are So many smokers lmao!
The Corinthia hotel is a beautiful old building with magnificent staircases - I chose this as it is where we are starting out Insight tour tomorrow. I'm surprised it has doormen everywhere and is quite grand given it is the average price of about $300pn.
We realised the 2 quick flights we had done actually took us 13 hours - no wonder we are feeling tired again, I guess though we only had 4 hours sleep last night ! Graeme's feet have swollen to the point he calls them his Hobbits feet- has got really bad with the +30C heat and the flying I think, so he needed to put them up for a while.
Cold showers - then out for a lovely burger at a local place, a beer then a short stop for coke to go with the Ouzo we finally managed to find - oh and some limoncello from duty free!
\\
Day 10
We had a great sleep last night after all the flying, got up and went to Starbucks for breakfast and Skyped with Danni to find out the public transport tips, since she was here this year! Very handy :-)
Then with decided to do what we love best and just explore – we walked a couple of kilometres, came across a market full of antique looking jewelry, and a lot of Russian memorabilia – there was even a woman’s passport for sale with stamps from where she had travelled and old war medals – fascinating stuff.
Wandered through a shopping precinct – you have to get used to how abrupt people can seem, both here and in Croatia in stores. They never hand money to you but slap it on the counter for you to pick up and don’t have any small talk or smiles. This is obviously just the culture and just different from what we are used to!
It was over 30° again today, so we stopped and had a salad and some nice cold beers at a restaurant that was open air with misting machines – it was lovely floating over you :-).
We wandered back through the city – Graeme absolutely loves exploring on our own and just coming across what we come across – we saw a fascinating barber store which we might go back to tomorrow for him to get a haircut - there were men in there having a beer while they waited in the morning!
The city is quite grungy – almost looks a bit derelict and dirty but once you get below that there are beautiful buildings, amazing big doors which I love taking photos of. It looks like a city coming out of a depression, it’s great to explore.
Back to the hotel for a lay down and fell asleep – only to be woken by housekeeping lady banging on the door and walking in unannounced. Gave us a hell of a fright and she took off straight away!
Our insight tour of eastern Europe starts tonight so we got ready and meet down in the lobby where we were taken by coach to our welcome dinner. Turns out it is a Michelin star restaurant. Was very impressive for the food, the waiters and the orchestra. Then back to our hotel where there was another orchestra playing in the lobby – this is some hotel!
1 comment:
Change of scene from now on. Still sounds very hot overall though. Europe has had a sizzling summer.
Post a Comment