Cruising The Blue Danube...Day 15, Monday, 7th Feb

Remember this is a blog & it updates backwards! Go to the bottom and find the first post if you want to get the gist of this in sequence...

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Back from Budapest at 22.45 (10.45pm)on Monday & have to be up & signed out of the Hostel by 7am to catch the bus to Prague in the morning.

It was a big day, but worth it.

I enjoyed the bus trip & views of the country from Vienna to Budapest.

It was almost entirely FLAT!

I had expected snow-capped mountains etc, but no such thing. It was as flat as a pancake for hundreds of miles...it's actually called "The Great Plains", so that's a dead give away!

Left the Hostel at 6am, caught the subway & arrived at the bus station at 6.40am. The bus left at 7am, so by the time I did the check in with the pass-port thing, it was good timing.

The temp all day ranged from 10 in Vienna to 14C in Budapest.

The river cruise was nice too.

The place was hardly hit in WW2, so there are rows & rows of beautiful buildings, similar to Vienna, but not as clean!

One thing I must say...if you come to Europe, do all the other countries first & leave Vienna until last...

Everything about Vienna will spoil you for the rest of Europe!

Back to Budapest.

The influence of Franz Joseph & Marie Therese is evident over in BPest too, as he actually amalgamated Buda, Pest & Octova (or some other city at the time) back in the 1800's into one city called BudaPest!

He then set about installing roads, bridges, underground railways etc over the next 40 years & did a great job.

Early in the morning from the bus window about 40 miles out of Vienna. They have many wind farms stretching for miles & miles.

Trying to take pics in a bus gives some ghostly.ghastly images! These were some little farm houses along the way

Very nice buildings everywhere in Budapest...

Note, to save space, they park on the footpath!

They are doing major footpath works all around Budapest at the moment...

The building I used as a directional pointer!

Got a 2 1/2 hr bus tour & 1 hr river cruise for 5,000 Forind  combined, about 20Euros, which is about $28 Aussie Dollars...

More nice buildings...

So similar to Vienna, you can't tell by pictures...

Michael Jackson fans will know this one. Hero's Square, Budapest. One of his Video clips was shot here.

The Museum & Hero's Sq

Their 100 year old Amusement Park...& Zoo

We saw a lady training a horse as we went past the Zoo.

A nice sunny winters day in Budapest!

Lots of work happening in this pond & square.

Castle Hill, which was built to derter invaders way back when.  It's massive.

Budapest...Buda on one side & Pest on the Right side, I think!

On the way up to drive around Castle Hill...

Lots of little stalls on the way up. I bought Kirra an awesome gift here, from the stalls that were operating from behind me, obviously.

Further around the hill. It's almost the highest spot in Hungary the tour guide said! Hungary is a very flat country, mostly, with a few hills on the left side only..

The Tunnel into the Castle area...A castle was built so soldiers could fight  & defend the cities within the walls & by sheer size, deter enemies. A Palace was built for the Emperor or King to live in & hold meetings etc!

The specially designed Chain Bridge...

More of the Castle from another angle.

They love their heroes over here & build statues of them everywhere!

The tower on the Castle...Note the size of those walls!

Another shot of the castle...

Part of the piers that support the walls! The outer part of the wall has been removed to show the amazing construction work behind these mammoth buildings of a bygone era...Look how thick the wall was/is too!

Nice walls...

Laugh at this one! The sign.

What a bastion to have on top of your town hill!

Lots of little eco cars like this here...

Heading off on the Boat Cruise for 1 hour on the Famous Blue Danube River. It is 2,400 klm long..ish & is the largest river after the Volta, in Europe. It has it's beginnings in the Black Forest & empties into the Black Sea!

This bus city tour ticket includes 2 cruises on the river! I only had time for one. Didn't find one with lunch on board, shame.

The city flooded in 1865 & again a year later in 1866 (some time then ish) & they got about & built a wall so it wouldn't flood again. Note the river walls. Must have worked, because no one mentions any more river floods since then.

First glimpse of the English designed Parliament House of Budapest. Someone was commissioned to design & to build one & the guy liked how & where the House of Lords was built in London, on the banks of the Thames & he designed the building based on it!

It's only 3pm on Monday & look how low the sun is in the sky...

There are 22 klm of stairs in the building & so many hundreds of km of corridors. Thje guide said that's probably why Hungarian politicians are always so tired!

A quaint little almost Transylvanian building here!

Actually I didn't see a maccas here either, other than the little scrungy one in the poorer end of town on the way in on the bus. I don't think I saw one at all in Vienna & only one in Frankfurt & have seen NO Kentucky Chooks ...

It was a lovely day again for photos. I have been so lucky with my tours. Perfect camera days! They are restoring this bridge too, as you can see. Massive works going on everywhere here. I hope they become more touristy & get cleaned up faster, now they are no longer a communist country.

A nice shot thru' the boat window...

Saw a "Thank God It's Friday" cafe & went in there to get rid of the last of my Hungary money (they don't take Euros yet & only became part of the E,U in 2005 ish...with 11 other Baltic countries, on 1st May!) I ordered those potato peels we had in USA when we all went & they were not the same shape. They were cut potatoes with the flesh dug out & filled with cheddar cheese (American, yuk), not peeled like an apple, deep fried, coated with cheese, etcetc! Grmmmmph...

Yeah, right...

The Trip bus!

Well,that's my day trip to Budapest!

I got some Hungarian money from the ATM for 10,000 Fl. & felt like a millionaire for a day!

One Euro is about 240 Fl. so I think I got about $50 Ausd out yesterday to pay for the City Day Tour, the boat trip, train pass to the city from the bus stn, food & TGIFridays. Man, that place (TGIF)sure got rid of all my change!

The food in Budapest is entirely different too, with lots of just plain breads & roll type things. No fruit or salad or meats & cheeses anywhere spotted in or around them. Saw some of those big gunky pizza things, only ugly.

Louise...I think I must have seen 100 men who looked like Zoltan!  

They all resemble each other around the forehead & eyes. Can't believe the difference between the men of Vienna & Hungary! Twice the size, but they have a different shape around their chests too. They seem to have a wider & more protruding chest bones or something from around the nipple area up...not that I've seen any, close up!

Their voices are all together different too...more resonance???

Hungary has about 10 million people & Budapest, the capital, has 2 million people. As with all European capital cities, their population is gradually declining each year.

Maybe it's due to the internet & cheap inter country travel by planes here, but the people are moving out to the country areas with space, old or new housing estates with home, yard & gardens etc.

It was worth it to see, but for me, I won't be needing to go back again.

Vienna has ruined me forever & I never expected anything like that to happen there, but I'm still expecting to fall in love with the UK countryside.

I doubt I would really want to live in Vienna long term, as I have to sort out what I want to do for the next 40 years, but certainly it is my favouritest spot on earth thus far I think...after Alaska & the icebergs & glaciers. 

I certainly do most certainly want to visit once every year for the snow & Ball season for a month or so.

Vienna is permeated with such a nice feeling of manners, culture, niceness, order etc. I find these other cities of beauty have a very different feeling about them... so different, yet they look alike in a lot of ways.

Maybe due I think to the building heights of 5 or 6 stories high or so.

Most of the beautiful buildings were erected a couple of hundred years ago at least when people were proud of their trade skills & were encouraged to wax lyrical with them. Awesome heritage they have left for hundreds of years to come.

Total spend to-day...

10,000 FL...Hungary money...probably 50 Ausd??? Will check it out later.