We had left Krakow at 8.45 and got into Budapest at 4.30pm, found our apartment check in location then had to park the car. A mis-communication meant that I thought when they said the car park was in the street to the left, it was actually on the street around the corner to the left. In fact it was two doors down, on the left, hidden by a closed roller door with no signage what so ever. And Budapest is a city of one way streets, so our GPS had to work very hard getting us back (through very heavy traffic) to get us back to the original location.... this time Greg went in to get directions and was more successful than me. As you can imagine this was a touch stressful. We could have opted for free street parking, but the Lonely Planet warns that its not a great idea to leave your car out on the street. Our apartment is like Fort Knox with locks and swipe cards, so obviously theft is an issue here!
We are at the Locust Apartments and I'm not very happy with them. We chose them because they offered private parking, took credit cards, had a washing machine and wifi. The parking was a huge drama, they would only take credit cards if we paid an 8% fee (so we opted for cash), the washing machine doesn't work and the wifi is a bit iffy. So they won't be getting a great review on Trip Advisor from me! Also reception was not very helpful in pointing out where we were on the map etc. Liam, Bella and I had to play a "where's Wally" game to find our street on the map, which as it turns out is just on the very edge of the centre of Pest - about half an hour's walk into the main part of the city.
We made it into town with my navigation and found Tourist Info, and had dinner. We chose Hungarian specialities and I had possibly the worst meal I've had so far in Europe, I couldn't even eat half of it. Luckily everyone else's meal was fine.
Today we opted to buy the Budapest Card and took Noushka's suggestion to get the Hop on, Hop off bus for the day as Budapest is HUGE and not easy to get around. So we saw a fair bit from the bus, did two galleries - the National Art Museum (home to a few lovely El Grecos) and the National Museum (don't say we aren't filling these kids to the top with fine art & history!). We spent quite a bit of time at the fabulous castle on the Buda side of the Danube, then managed (with local transport) to find the St Lukas baths. Budapest is famous for it's hot springs and there are several to chose from. St Lukas' is free with the Budapest Card, hence our decision to visit. The water was fabulous! So warm and toasty! Right away we could see the big issue would be... getting out. Especially as Greg (who'd decided not to join us and had been sent away to locate and hire towels) emerged with just one sheet thing for all three of us! It was as hard as we thought it would be, absolutely freezing even though we'd been blessed with quite mild weather today - around 17 degrees for most of the day, but overcast. In fact it is the first day I haven't worn thermals under my jeans and it felt wonderful!
We had thought to finish the day with the boat cruise on the Danube included in the Hop on, Hop off bus ticket, but it appeared to be closed! I'm hoping I can talk Greg into doing it tomorrow before we head off to Vienna. Dinner tonight was in a little restaurant across the road which appeared a big dingy and edgy and offered Hungarian cusine. In fact it was quite clean and bright inside and the food, while edible, was hardly a taste sensation. So far Hungary has been quite disappointing food wise, but it's a really beautiful city. Oh, and the pastries are pretty good!
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