I've got something quite Important to tell you. On the reception desk of my hostel there was a note saying 'English person wanted for job'. It turns out there is a company in Budapest that sell allot of electronic mining equipment to the Americans, Australians and sometimes the UK. They needed a representative to fly to these countries on a regular basis and would pay handsomely. I decided to go for the interview and got the job! So I've decided to stay here until my contract runs out (it's a 5 year contract depending how ongoing contracts go with these English speaking countries).
Only Joking!
I woke up at around 7:50am, having just had around 11 hours sleep ... bliss. Heading out at 9:00 I knew I had to be at the meeting point for the free tour by 10:30am ... so I went to a local pastry shop and purchased breakfast.
Eating breakfast over looking the River Danube and Buda Castle district I came to realise just how pretty this city can be ... before this I had been walking down tiny small streets that weren't in a great state.
Hungary certainly has a very soviet feel about it; big apartment tower blocks. At 10:30 our guide turned up; he was a Hungarian who spoke English well. I can only describe him as a young looking Patrick Swayze and he lead us around Pest (pronounced Peshted) looking at monuments and buildings. We finished at Buda Castle and I have to say this tour was very different to the one in Berlin. In Berlin you had academics who had spend numerous years researching the history of Berlin, and then spent a few months working there... there knowledge was beyond doubt fantastic and they were English so were easy to understand. Here the guy was from Budapest and his academic knowledge was not quite as good as in Berlin; English was his second language so it was difficult to understand him sometimes .... however, because he had lived through the Soviet era he brought something new to the tour, first hand experience. For example he told us when Coke and Pepsi cola was first introduced to Hungary in the 1980's his class mates made two groups; those in the Pepsi cola group (which was usually boys as it had more colours in its logo) and a coke group. Overall I think I preferred the Berlin Tours more but this one was still good.
At the end of the tour he showed us to a traditional Hungarian eating join and I had the pork ... again I wasn't impressed. I said my goodbyes, gave him a tip, and went to look around the castle; it was very impressive (which I hope my pictures show) but time was passing on and the tour had taken an hour longer than expected.
My next stop was the impressive Gellert Hill (which looking at it from below looked like a mountain). The gutting thing was that the castle was on a hill, and Gellert hill was a ... err hill. They were both on the Buda side of the Danube but didn't connect; so I had to walk all the way down from the castle just to walk all the way up Gellert Hill. When I got to the top of Gellert Hill I took a breather and opened the second bottle of water I cunningly bought from Spar the other day; however I did make a tiny mistake ... I had bought Sparkling water. Who likes sparking water? It's horrible ... if anyone does prefer sparkling water over normal bottled water please leave a message on here and explain to me why! As I was so desperate for a drink I didn't care and took a few swigs.
I did a quick tour of the top of the hill, stopping to take a picture of the Liberty monument and then headed back down. Time was not on my side; I headed to the national museum only to find there was just an hour before closing ... I decided it wasn't worth it so I will come back again tomorrow (If I have time).
I then set to with my shopping list; 1x book of pictures from Budapest, 1x postcard and a pair of swimming trunks. The book and postcard were easy but the swimming trunks. Anyone who knows we will know, like all men, I hate (really hate) shopping; I want to be able to walk in a shop and buy what I want within a few minutes, if I can't find it I'm off.
I had a look at around the square and found a 'H&M' store ... nope, then I went to the 'America clothes' store ... nope. I was already abit mad; I decided that I would head back to the hostel and ask there. However on my way back I saw a nike shop; it had swimming trunks ... £68! no thank you.
Back at the hostel the lady did point me too a shopping centre; unfortunately it was about 30mins walk away. Further more I had to go to the other end of Pest to reserve my train seat to Brasov in two days time. After an hour and a half I had got my train ticket and walked to the shopping centre. I could of got the tram there but I had no idea how to buy a ticket ... all the newpaper stalls were closed and the machine just said "... put money in here and press button..." how much money? Tired, hungry (not the country) I went in and found a sports shop ... no actual sports equipment just clothes and trainers (this is what I hate about some sports shops throughout the world ... they label themselves as sports shops but don't sell sports stuff).
Anyway just then I found another Nike store, went in and found a pair of, quite tight, short swimming shorts for 7,980ft (£26) ... they were a little expensive but I didn't care at that point ... I bought them and off I went back to my hostel.
Being fed up of Hungarian food I decided that there must be a Pizza Hut, in Budapest, with my name on it ... and so it came to pass.
Tomorrow I plan to visit the baths (however I will not be taking much stuff with me as a Polish girl from the hostel had her lock smashed at the baths today) and walk around the northern park and then back into the main part of Pest for a look around the national museum and the House of Terror.
Until then Toodle Pip!
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