Budapest

Budapest is huge, much bigger than Prague. Prague is easy to get around on foot, not so in Budapest. One needs to learn the public trransportation system and take buses, metro and trams. The mighty Danube river cuts the city into half, Buda on one side and Pest on the other. We arrived at the main train station from Vienna at Keleti, a huge Communist style building, looking as forlorn as its Communist days. We saw trains going to Kiev and the Ukraine and the people on board looked rather forlorn. I'll feel the same if I was heading that way especially if it was home. I'd booked online a room at a hotel across the street from the train station and when we arrived, we scan the landscape to looked for the sign to the hotel. Hotel Baross, it was pretty good, rather expensive for Budapest at 66 euros a night. They accepted credit cards. The first few hours was pretty overwhelming, so I decided the first thing to do was to inquire about getting a public transportation card. We bought a 3 day pass which was a great deal and so very convenient. We went everywhere, up and down and never once had to stop to buy another ticket. I thought the best place to start was the covered market and the hotel staff (they spoke English) told us which bus to take. There were numerous bridges that linked Buda with Pest and there are trams that run up and down each side of the Danube and some even cross the bridges, so getting around is really easy. Budapest is much friendlier than Prague. In Prague one gets ripped off easily especially at money changers. Hungarians are much nicer. In Rome we were accosted by Gipsies on an Italian train, there's no such thing in Budapest. We were still careful because the men hanging around the train stations don't look too savory. After a few hours of trying to figure out the lay of the land, we got hungry and we ate at a familiar place, a Burger King.