Budapest

Budapest is an amazing city for hundreds of reasons not mentioned in the guide book. They tell you in the guide book that the baths are fantastic. They don’t tell you there could be an evacuation because someone takes a shit. To quote the pool assistant – “there’s a health problem with the water.” Me: “what kind of health problem?” Him: “It’s quite simple really... someone they take a shit”.



They tell you that the Hungarian people are very welcoming. They don’t tell you that strange women come up to you in the middle of the day and hock air in your face (it’s hard to explain). They tell you to drink the mineral water from the hot springs but they don’t tell you that it tastes like rotten egg.



The guide book says Autumn is a lovely time to be in Budapest but fail to mention it’s also when there are riots commemorating the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. We thought there were just ten people involved until we turned around and saw about 1000. Wrong place, wrong time!



The book tells you to it takes 30 mins to get to the Statue park but fails to mention you have to
take the red 7 bus, not the blue 7 bus which takes you to the outskirts of Budapest (pity if you were colour blind). And then it doesn’t tell you where to get off and then it doesn’t sign post the damn park. So a 30 minute trip becomes a 3 hour trip! Taylor and I lost in the suburbs.



One of the statues. This is well worth going to see. Basically it's a waste land for giant communist statues that the country no longer wants but had the foresight to preserve.

The guide book also fails to encompass what an amazing, incredibly, vibrant city Budapest is. It has the best night life, fantastic food, great hostels, one of the best museums I've ever been to - the Terror Museum which runs through everything bad that has every happened to Hungary. It's a lot.

The experience was made all the better by my new mate Taylor from Canada meeting me there. Good times had by all.