BUDAPEST

We set off to Budapest with Mum and Dad for a few days. It's only a 2 hour drive from Bratislava with the real difficulty proving not getting there but squeezing down the alleyways and into car-parks. The apartment we'd booked was on the Pest side - I didn't even know they were two spearate cities, Buda and Pest. Ruby was terribly excited just to have her own hotel bed - wonder how long that will be a novelty! Once again we needed a new currency - so much for the Euro, so far we've had to get Malaysian Ringgit (understandable), Euro, Czech Crown, Polish Zloty and now Hungarian Forint.

Our first afternoon in Budapest was spent wandering around Pest - into the magnificent St Stephens where we saw the relic of St Stephen's mumified hand. For approx $2 you could make it light up.....bit strange really. On our second morning we visited one of the oldest baths at Gellert for a soak in the thermal waters. After much difficulty finding the door, then understanding the electronic system to unlock the changerooms, we hit the pools. There were pools of different temperatures ranging from air temperature to 38 degrees. It was especially lovely in the area with an obvious Turkish influence (the Ottomans were just one of the groups who ransacked then rebuilt Buda). Getting out of the baths was quite a comedy of errors as we  jammed the exit gate with Ruby's pram then Oscar was sent all the way back to the changeroom from the exit to unlock the changeroom door. A hearty lunch of goulash and beer at the central market calmed us again and reinvigorated us for a walk along the Daunbe.

The next day we visited the Castle up on Buda - lots of tourists - but beautiful buildings. The booklets claim this area has been rebuilt completely at least three times - not sure about this, some of the buildings seem older than WWII - I'll have to google it. A shame  they allowed Hilton to build an ugly 70s hotel amidst the castle buildings.

Ruby was disappointed that the princess at this castle was also asleep, although she was pleased to get a Budapest snow dome to replace the Krakow one which met an unfortunate end on the kitchen tiles last week.