Danielson-Walker Europe 2009
Day 4: Thursday August 20, 2009 Hungarian Independence Day
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- Category: Welcome to the Danielson Walker Europe Travels 2009
- Published on Saturday, 22 August 2009 13:09
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An early morning as we got up to move out of the apartment and meet Peter our cab driver to take us to the Holsovice Train station to catch the 7:30 am train to Budapest. We will be going through the country side of Czech Republic, Slovakia and into Hungary. Arrival at Budapest at 14:32.
We left the station in our 1950’s vintage railcar. The four of us shared a 6 person cabin in first class. We only had a little Czech cash left and a few Euro’s as we forgot to stop at an ATM. We were able to get 3 coffees, and orange juice and 4 croissants with what we had and we were on our way.
The area around Prague is relatively flat and agricultural. About 1 hour out, we began to get into rolling hills. We passed a lot of villages, farms, a few nuclear plants and worked our way into wine country. There were vineyards alongside of cornfields. Around Breclav, we were back into flat country with corn, sunflowers and winter wheat. It is a pretty day for a train ride. We continue to be amazed at the amount of graffiti all over the area.
Most of the homes along the way have been of brick or stucco construction with tile roofs. A lot of gardens in their yards and some just by themselves that people came out from the cities to tend.
We crossed into Slovakia at a little after 11 am. There is no border check anymore as the countries have all adopted an open border policy with neighboring countries. At about 1 pm we crossed into Hungary and followed along the Danube for a while and then into Budapest. Our driver today was there and waiting for us. His name was also Peter.
We checked into the Hilton which is in the Castle District of Budapest. It is on the Buda side of town. We are high up on the side of a hill overlooking the city once again. Right next to us is a structure called the Fisherman’s Bastian which has 7 towers and looks quite Medieval.
We slipped over to a local restaurant nearby for a very late lunch which also sufficed for dinner. We really splurged this time, 19,500 Hungarian Forints which equates to about $52 US. There are 200 Forints to a Dollar. The bills are in 10,000 increments and it is a bit confusing. We sampled the Hungarian Cuisine, the guys had their beer and JA sampled the wine. All was fine. After the lunch we went back to the hotel for a quick nap.
The 20th of August is Hungarian Independence Day and the streets are packed with people. There is a giant fireworks show planned for 9 pm this evening and every good spot to view is full of people and it would be terribly crowded. We found a spot on the Fisherman’s Bastian immediately behind our hotel that was selling spaces for $15 per person (3000 Hungarian Forint) and we decided it was a good spend. We had front row seats against the front wall with spectacular views of the city. What proceeded thereafter was most probably the most impressive show of fireworks that we have ever seen. It was worth every cent for the special seating. I captured some on video and if it is good enough we will put a link onto the site.
We returned to the hotel and briefly discussed our plans for Friday and headed for bed (after a bit of Journaling of course)
By the way, if you haven’t figured it out yet, Adam and I are developing a new web site for a domain that we own. www.tripbyday.com is our site for people to blog their journal every day and upload the photos that they want to included. Over the next few weeks you will see improvements in the site and photos integrated in with the text. This site will be available to the general public to use for a fee eventually, but if you have any interest in trying it sooner, it is free to those that we have sent this distro to. No, Adam is not with us on this trip; he is home in Poland working diligently on several projects for Rapid Touch while I am out playing. We really appreciate his efforts on the TripByDay project.
Left click on any photo below to open the slide show:
