A note from yesterday, at the castle, some workmen were working in the road - and they have to measure and lay each of the little cobblestones - very interesting to see.
To the airport, check in and through to the other side to sit and wait for a bit. Then it's boarding and we have to hop onto the little courtesy bus that drives us out to the plane - and how tiny is the plane?! I don't like a plane with propellers...
Just have to pause to cross the runway and then we are there.
While we fly, some reflections on the trip so far - the Irish people are lovely and welcoming and quick for a yarn and a joke. They can park facing either side of the road, which we never got used to seeing...
We saw a lot of drivers with 'L's on the car but only one driver. The country is green and beautiful and full of music and laughter and is a great craic.
The Czech people are much more reserved, some are quite gruff. They are polite and helpful, just not as effusive. They also don't hand you your change, just slam it down in the counter for you to scrape up... The country is old and magical and lovely. There are a lot of people partying on a Friday night in Prague - we saw a couple of British stag weekenders...
It's only an hour and ten minutes and we arrive in Budapest. Collect luggage and head to a shuttle.
Our shuttle driver is hilarious and very sweet. There is a bit of traffic and he is so apologetic about it. He also points out things of interest, like Buda on one side and Pest on the other and the Danube down the middle, and is generally a great guy.
Along the road, lots of this...
Good to see patriotism alive and well in Budapest.
We have joined a tour for this leg and so it's not my choice of hotel - but it is really nice!!
And huge. Lovely room and we opened the window and both gasped like little girls at the view...
That's the castle across the Danube...!
After checking in and admiring our view for a while, it's off for a short walk around - can't tell what things are as yet as we don't know...
This is Vaci Street, looks like a square, we had lunch here.
A couple of lovely statues and the Chain Bridge...
And a brilliant busker playing amazingly complicated tunes.
At 6:00, we head down for our meet-and-greet with Nancy and the rest of our tour group. This is just a brief hello and information get together and doesn't take long. We say hello to a couple of people, it will take a while to get all the names! There is a mother and daughter from Perth and us as the only Australians. We also met Peter and Wendy from England.
After the meeting, we head outside and down for a delicious coffee and cake in an amazing setting...
That's me sitting in the middle there - it wasn't this dark in real life!
Budapest is quite a beautiful city, especially at night. And the people here are very warm and friendly, we noticed that straight away with our shuttle driver. Then the waiter at lunch pretended the visa machine was ringing, pretended to answer it and said, "declined?" I do love that it was Alison that he did that to coz her reaction was hilarious! Took a few minutes to realise he was joking...!
The waiter at our coffee and cake restaurant was funny too, saying he accepted any form of money - Hungarian, euro, me washing dishes... Just funny and happy people. Looking forward to exploring tomorrow.
And just coz it's amazing, here is the view out our window as we retire for the night...
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