Croatia to Hungary

Trip from Croatia into Hungary again spectacular. The Great Eastern Plane was very much evident and quite reminiscent of home (well the country out west anyway) with the cropping; wheat and canolla mostly. We arrived into Pest after spending some time in Buda up on the hill (citadel) looking over the Danube at the old town with it's London like parliament buildings. We were now in BUDAPEST! (Danube passes through 5 European capital cities!)

Brandy overlooking Budapest

Dawn on the Danube before Hungarian bath

Budapest was like a lot of the other eastern European cities and remind me a little of Belgrade (atmosphere, people, architecture). Once also ruled by the good old Ottoman Turks (amongst others - I just find it amazing how powerful the Ottomans were...). We squeezed plenty into our spare day here greatly aided by a dawn walk with Suidy (mate on topdeck from Wagga Wagga) while the wives slept (ipad autocorrect wives to wolves!!!) to get some tourist clear photos otherwise unattainable. We also found a Hungarian bath so did that before breakfast too. Language barrier a small issue as we initially forgot our hair nets when getting in and had the equivalent of an Aussie lifesaver (but obese, hairy and smelly ie a stereotypical Hungarian) yelling at us and frantically pointing at his head?!? 100 kuna later we were back in the cold thermal bath (300 kuna = 1€) hair nets on! Apparently the thermal baths have healing properties, didn't cure the headache sadly. Hence, not surprisingly, the patrons were all, no exceptions, old and all wearing the overly revealing togs, again not appreciated. The baths were stunning so overall a good experience to be able to tick off as done. No, no massage by the huge Hungarian man in the change room!!!

Hungarian baths - Igor works here and weighs about 200kg

Whatelse... Hero Square, Terror Museum, fancy shopping (window only), Jewish shoe memorial on the Pest side of the Danube (sad) and sightseeing a plenty! Also did the labyrinth under the palace near the citadel/fishermans bastille which was almost a repeat of our earlier experience at Swarzoski crystal world outside Innsbruck in Austria! This is somewhere NOT worth going. Boo.
A great day in Buda & Pest (pronounced phest) ended with a near fatal meal at the appropriately named restaurant Fatal; Manda had a beef schnitzel with chips that I swear they cook for the Hungarian Olympic weightlifters! HUGE would be an understatement. It was overhanging all edges of the plate, much like the fat men at the bath overhung their speedos! Yeahhhhhh! She didn't finish it. I had an equally impressive pork fillet with you guessed it cabbage and bread dumplings! Giggity... No room for an ice-cream tonight! Did manage to finish the beer!!

Manda, daughter of Igor, with her Fatäl piece of meat!