After consulting the Magical Book of Possibilities (also known as the European Rail Timetable), we decided to change our day trip from Salzburg to the closer and potentially more interesting Budapest, Hungary.
Budapest was... interesting. It didn't give a great vibe on arrival - the whole area around the train station looks like it belongs in a communist comic book, grey concrete, broken windows, dirty run down shops. We walked along a very very long street and eventually made it to the Danube though, and the city showed a totally different face - the Parliament building is beautiful, the Danube is wide and actually looked fairly clean with cool bridges, and there was even an art show. We actually didn't realise that tomorrow is Hungarian Republic Day or something, so most of the shops were closed (4 day weekend I think), but walking around was pretty good. We eventually found our way to the Heroes Square, which was huge and had really cool statues. Pictures to come when I can find a computer that allows it. (Would you believe this hostel is running Ubuntu?)
Tomorrow night I am catching a sleeper train to Venice, where I can hopefully find a bed for the night - apparently hostels there have never heard of online booking.
Glad you've had a pleasant surprise with Budapest and I'm not surprised that it looked povvy on arrival (the old eastern block) but would you believe the hostel is running Ubuntu 8-......... (sorry that's obviously puter speak- my attempt at humour)
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised they don't book hostels on line- I'm more surprised they have computers!
Chat soon Mum x