Sziget Logs - Part IV

So, I am finally getting around to the last installment of the Sziget Logs. Here it is then:

August 18th, 19th and 20th

I woke up ridiculously early on Monday because ... it was quiet. No music at all. This was it then, the day we break camp and walk off of the island. I started packing up my things and was finished getting all of my wordly possessions into my bag in half an hour. That's camping for you. All that remained was breaking tent. *sigh* It took awhile for the rest to get up because it wasn't such a sweltering morning and there was no heat chasing you out of the tent.

Watching the exodus of people past our tent was kind of odd. Loads of people who'd gotten up even earlier and were already heading out.

When we finally all got going and took the tents apart we made excellent time. There were still loads of tents around us so we figured the warning in the information booklet that you had to be off the island by 8am probably wasn't such a strict one.

Once we'd had our breakfast and a Milli Milk or two we loaded all of our stuff on our backs and headed to the exit. The walk to the HEV train line isn't really that long and because everyone was kept moving there were no traffic jams and we could step right onto a train to take us to Budapest city center.

We found the street our hostel was on no problem but finding the hostel was another story altogether. First we walked the wrong way down the street, then we walked right past the building because I thought it was number 66 (it was number 30 - go figure I would miss that!), then we walked back and found number 30 and had to walk up three flights of murder stairs to get to the hostel entrance. Luckily, Peter, The Hostel Guy was very friendly, let us dump our stuff, freshen up and said our room would be ready at 2pm (it was just after 11, I think, when we arrived).

We had decided the day before that we wanted to use our Sziget discount to go to see the Bodies exhibition on Kíraly út so we headed out (a tad dusty but whatever) to see the human body up close and skinless. On the way we stopped at a café and had a drink or two and enjoyed the shade.

The Bodies exhibition was really amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone living in a city they come to. I mean, you've seen the pictures and drawings of the human body in text books and you've seen the lungs or whatever in the smoking warnings but seeing them in one human form with bits and pieces exposed, or a whole human being but then just the skin - that is just too bizarre. Jenn had decided that she didn't want to see any baby corpses (all of the displays were people who had donated their body to science) and was afraid, since the tour led you from one room to the next in a snake-like fashion, that she wouldn't be able to avoid it. Then we got to a junction where they warned you on a big sign that the next room might be a bit too much for some and that it was the babies. There was an alternate route to skip the baby exhibit and, in the end, Jenn decided that she did want to see. They had the progression of uteran growth on display. Honestly, it was fascinating. At 7 weeks - that's a person. I have never been someone who would be able to get an abortion but this sold me completely. [For the record, I am still pro-choice, but my choice is clear now].

At 3 o'clock we arrived back at the hostel and found out that our five person room was actually an apartment two blocks down and two blocks up. Ooookay. So we got to lug all of our stuff down three flights of stairs and walk a bit to the next place. It was a *very* nice apartment and we were all delighted to get into a real, working shower with hot water and change into some dust free clothes. I got to go first since I had booked the hostel and played leader on the subway trips. :)

Our apartment

After showers and changes and a short jaunt to the supermarket by the boys we went out to dinner. We (read: I) decided that we should go to the For Sale Restaurant since Jenn and Niels ate there last time we were in Budapest and raved about it. I hadn't gone and when we tried to go the next night it was full. So I wanted to try again. The difference being that we were now a 45 minute walk away from it instead of a 10 minute walk. Ah well. I plotted a route past some fun touristy things and, since it was a lovely evening, we had a great walk and built up an appetite for dinner.

Steffie and Werner at St. Stephen's Basillica
St. Stephen's Basillica - day
Jenn, Steffie, Werner and Niels in front of Buda Royal Palace
I have no idea what this statue is for but it's on top of a huge hill and I just had to get a picture. Isn't it great?
Arty shot on the way to the restaurant.

Dinner was fabulous! I had deep fried Camembert cheese with rice and salad, Jenn, Werner and Steffie had the garlic chicken and Niels had the steak "Stroganoff" (Steak in a sauce with mushrooms and pickle - sounds odd? Yes, it does but it was *really* yummy). We got a little bit confused by the bill (damn expensive wine if you sell it by the deciliter) but in the end we made it out with full tummies and smiles.

I had charted a new route home that would take us past the Opera house (among other things) and we set off into the night.

National History Museum
St. Stephen's Basillica by night.
Look! We found George Clooney!
Jennifer gets close to a bronze man

The next day we had a lovely breakfast at the apartment and got all of our things together so that we could hand in our key at the main building. We could have left all of our things at the main building all day but that involved getting it all up and down those stairs again which none of us wanted to do. So we opted to go to the City Park instead. There was a zoo, fun fair, thermal baths and all sorts of things to do there and Jenn and I weren't averse to sitting with all the stuff while the rest were off to the pool.

Jenn and I make a fort and hunker down.

We spent a few lovely hours in the shade reading and doing puzzles and the rest went to the thermal baths. At exactly 3pm we broke up the fort and headed to Keleti station to catch the train to Vienna.

In Vienna we changed trains and that one was an hour delayed by the time we left the station. They had to change the locomotive and then there was a poor boy with food poisoning that had to be picked up by an ambulance. We all felt for him and his friend (who had to get back on the train and leave him behind). We picked up another hour's delay on the way and arrived at Arnhem train station at 12:30pm on Wednesday 20th August instead of 10:30am that same day, as originally planned.

It was good to be home, though.

And there, kiddies, ends my account of our adventures in Budapest. I forgot to tell the tale of the crazy drunk lady that harrassed us at the apartment and Werner and Steffie's tent being robbed but, really, those weren't the highlights of the trip.

Who's coming along next year? ;)
xxx