Budapest

The Chain Bridge
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We got into Budapest after a five hour or so train ride from Vienna. We rode with our Aussie friends from the hostel so the ride went quick. We made plans to meet back up in Budapest that evening.

We arrived at our hostel known as the Budabase. The owner, Gabor, showed us to our room. Turns out the hostel was nothing more than this guy´s apartment, however, this turned out to be the reason we liked it so much. He gave us a cheap room above the kitchen that had a window with a view of the famous Chain Bridge.

From the Castle above the city
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That night we met up with our friends and headed for a bar known as Szympla. It means simple in Magyar. It turns out that this bar was what is known as a Ruin Bar. It is an abandoned building that has been damaged in someway and is empty until a construction company decides to rebuild the property into something new. This means that for about a year or so bars pop up all around town in these condemned locations until the time comes that they have to leave. Szympla was without a doubt our favorite bar in all of Europe. It had a unique atmosphere like nothing we had ever seen. Couches made from busted bathtubs, a jazz band in the corner, holes in the wall, and a green house variety of plants scattered everywhere. We actually ended up back here the next night as well.

Pest
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Budapest was the city we did the least amount of sight seeing in. Instead we decided to have a real relaxing time. We spent a day in one of Budapest's famous thermal baths, and proceeded to each receive hour long massages for about one tenth the price you would find State side. After lugging around fifty pounds on your back for a month or so, it felt quite good to unwind.

We did spend one evening up at the Budapest Castle, which was on the Buda side of the Danube (Budapest is actually two seperate areas, Buda and Pest split down the middle by the Danube). The Castle affored us great views of the city below and was a fantastic hike. The other thing that can´t be missed in Budapest is the Chain Bridge. The Bridge during the day is nothing special, but at night a thousand or so lights make it quite the place to be.

On the Chain Bridge
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Our last morning we headed to the train station to go to Prague. Sadly, we did not know that our Rail Passes were not covered in the Czech Republic so we had to pay for a ticket through Slovakia and up to Prague. The reason I mention it is because we had this great train car all to ourselves for about two hours. However, the second we arrived in Bratislava four old Slovakian women crammed into our car. It turned into the most uncomfortable train ride ever. To make matters worse the train was delayed by a couple of hours and we were going to miss our check in time in Prague. Problem was our phone had died so we had to convince the train conductor to loan us his to call ahead. He was quite skepticle until we gave him the international grease the bouncer sign of rubbing our fingers together to indicate we would pay him. After the most expensive phone call in Eastern European history, we were assured by our hostel that they would wait for us and not charge us extra. All's well that ends well.