Budapest:
Bratislava:
Arriving in Budapest I was in a bit of a foul mood after being rather Greek’d out. I had to catch a bus and then lug my suitcase onto the metro, but then I sat down and realised I was out of Greece and riding the underground, which it turns out I really love to do. The hostel I arrived at was really nice and for the first time in a couple weeks I had to share a room but the people were really nice and we went out for dinner and drinks. The next day I walked around and discovered Budapest is actually really beautiful and big - I walked further than I had for sometime and I was rather tired by the end of the day. I couldn’t get to my hostel though, as it was in the fenced off and riot-policed guarded area surrounding the path of the gay pride parade (and later anti-gay protest march, who had also gotten permission to parade). I had no idea what the whole street was fenced off for until the marchers finally went by with their colourful umbrellas and bicycle helmets on to protect them from the rotten tomatoes, eggs, dog-shit covered newspaper and firecrackers/pipe bombs that were being hurled at them. There were more police in riot gear than I would have thought were on the entire force, and at least one protester had his face sprayed with pepper spray. A lot of people got very emotional against the parade. Certainly no drag queens in sparkly outfits dancing on floats in this parade.
In Budapest I had to stay in three different hostels due to both staying an extra day and it was very busy that weekend. Moving sucked but I dealt. I also hit up most of the sights to see as well as the thermal baths - I went to the Kiraly baths which are very old Ottoman style (1500s I think) and have a large octagon pool in a central hall with domed roof with hexagonal holes through one of which the sun shone and lit a path through the steam before illuminating one section of the way, ray-of-God lighting style. It was very cool. The main pool was 36-38 deg and there were a couple others, three saunas (one of which I didn't even get the door open fully it was so hot). It was women-only day and a few old ladies had their gear off, but it was very relaxing (though too steamy for me to stay too long).
The best activity in Budapest was what I stayed an extra day for and was the most amazing thing I have done this trip, and indeed for a while. I went caving under Buda in the limestone caves (which are often caused by the path of the same thermal waters). It was a group of 11 people with a guide and we put on overalls and helmets with lights, pocketed our cameras and took off under the earth. The guide was great and everyone was enthusiastic so he took us on some harder paths through the caves - crawling through holes (sometimes on your back, sometimes stomach, sometimes on your side with your head turned in order to squeeze through!) and sliding down tunnels, climbing over rocks and wedging between walls to get through. It was SO MUCH fun really amazing, worth the bruises and sore knees and even worth the big black mark I now have on the LCD screen on my digital camera where it must have been squished against a rock (it still takes great photos - Canon Ixus 860 IS).
Bratislava was cute as a button and I really liked it, but was only there for one short day (though admittedly it is easy to see most of it in that time). Played some drinking games with the kids at the hostel (yeah yeah I felt a bit old, but not too old) which was amusing. In both Budapest and Bratislava the opera and ballet were on summer break, which was a little disappointing. I did seem to go out a lot and drink a lot of beer though, so I guess I made up for it. The Budapest beer Dreher Bak was especially delicious.
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