Just after I finished my last post, I got chatting to a scottish girl in the hostel who was looking for food and to see some of the city, so what could I do but oblige to act as tour guide. We wandered over towards the river, and saw my first sight of it since last year and it was every bit as good as I remembered. Had a nice al fresco meal of chicken and potatoes in a piquant sauce.
It turned out that she was here for a couple of days before going on to Romania for a month to teach kids and was part of a bigger group organised by universities in Scotland. So afterwards we met up with the rest of the group who had already been here a day, another five girls and a guy. We found a nice little bar near the river which was serving Carlsberg. With the weather being fairly stifling, I could quite easily have done John Mills, but didn't. Got to bed at 1.30am.
So to yesterday, got out about mid morning and went back over to Buda to see the fishermans bastion, but was so disappointed. They are doing renovation work and there is netting covering most of it and blocks and dust all over the floor. Had to console myself with some blackcurrant ice cream. Wandered over to the castle though and to the Hungarian National Gallery, full of hungarian art from 19th and 20th century, nothing special but lots of portraits and lots of country scenes giving a sense of the hungarian folk way of life.
Had a lunch of pizza and beer back in Pest in a lovely italian place with pasta makers and books surrounding the walls, before meeting the girls in the hostel again. Should just point out that they're not all in my hostel, two are in the hostel I first stayed at last year, and the least said about that the better. A south african guy in the hostel also came with us.
Went out for something to eat, but most places we found were too expensive, so ended up in a cheap chinese place where the woman barks at you if you don't make up your mind within three seconds, and then warmed it up in the microwave - decidedly dodgy but everyones stomachs seem ok today.
Wandered again and found a great little bar, authentically hungarian, big wooden tables, smoky atmosphere, big bear of a guy behind the bar and cheap beer at only 270HUF, and even only 350HUF for a Dreher, my first since being back and it was gorgeous!!
Then found a cool club at the top of a tower block, had to climb stairs to get there and you wonder if there is anything actually there. But then you find the bar with red lighting and upstairs again is a roof terrace where you can see over Budapest. Had a little dance as well and celebrated the turn of the day as it is now my birthday (well it took me an hour and a half to realise it was the 4th!)
Another late night, 2.30 this time, so been chilling all morning with some coffee, breakfast and MTV. The girls are heading off too Romania today, and I probably need to buy my train ticket, so that's it for now.