Hungry in Hungary - part 2 of 2

Oops, silly me, this was still in Sezanchandre...




... and this was us on the train on the way back into Budapest.




This building below is actually the train station... it's stunning! All the building are beautiful there - it's a bit like Paris in that regard.





Caught in the act. One of the things we notice whenever we go to mainland Europe is how skinny (well, not skinny, but comparatively skinny) the people are. Maybe it's because they eat decent food - like pastries! Pastry shops are everywhere, selling these little snacks that are so delicious - here the gang are caught in the act - checking out the options...

Me... I keep skinny racing trains.




Cath and Emma both packed their Brazil tops. Thjis is them doing their best dad impression (don't ask me, I just take photos). Apparently that's him with the remote control in one hand and something else in the other. ?????????? Weird family.




This is Heroes square again - but this time at night.





And because I'm such a good photographer... I snapped this of the young couple in love. Alas, the one of Cath and I didn't come out so well.






Aren't we a good-looking bunch.


and here's us eating our leftovers from the medieval meal.


and Cath having a good chuckle at something or other.


The tram system...



And us up at Mattyas church - it begged the question... What is this... a church for ants???!! This is ridiculous...it needs to be at least.... three times bigger than this!




Fisherman's bastion, just around the corner from the church...





And again...



Peeking Toms...



We also headed off to a massive food place in an old railway building or other (as you can tell, I'm really knowledgable about what we did)


Well this had me laughing at my own joke for a good ten minutes... i saw this sign and at the top of my voice yelled out FAKAN ELL! - which had Emz, Delboy and Cath nearly jumping out of their skin - To answer their confused looks, I just pointed at the sign and then proceeded to giggle at my own little joke for the rest of the day.

I find myself WAY too funny.



We bought some uber cool salami at this market actually - it's still in our fridge at the mo cos we're trying to make it last. We had to lug it around Croatia and Liverpool but mmmm - it was worth it. Salami is aparently a very Hungarian thing so when in Rome, well, Budapest... you know what I mean...

Emz hanging around on the Budapest Metro 1 - the cute yellow one. The metro, not Emma... she's kinda pinky-white.

This was the main cathedral - if you look carefully, you can just make out a sexy babe at the top of the steps. In red. No, not you Delboy. Nor you Emma.

And this was inside the cathedral... which you may have had to pay to get into... but no-one asked us and we got in without paying. I think we may go to hell now...



That night was our last at the hotel so the next day we checked out, but only after a photo of all of us in our bathroom. Why? Just cos.





We then headed to the warm spa baths (redundancy there? I think so.) After an argument with the staff there (customer service is not something we experienced in Budapest), we finally went for a dip or three, or four... There are a whole lot more baths inside, each a different heat, and a sauna or four, but we didn't want to take pics there...

Aint she a cutie-pie?

The three long-haired wonders take a swim by the whirlpool pool.

After the swim we haeded off to feed the ducks and have an ice-cream.


but we had to lug our bags everywhere cos the people at the baths were pains in the ass.

Anchorman1

Anchorman2


This was at a church carved into the side of the mountain. I had a look inside and it was quite roomy...

And parliament again, this time from another spot. his was so beautiful it was worth snapping more than once. And we did.

UPC / Chorus broadband supplier

Hi all

Just a quick note:
Cath and I no-longer have internet at our house as the broadband supplier we're with (UPC/Chorus) is pretty crap. We've had endless problems with their service, have complained and await their reply.

For the time being then, I can't upload any new photos.

Later then... watch this space.

Robbie Keane to join Pool

Okay - I'll say it seeing as nobody else has.

WHAT WAS BENITEZ THINKING?

Splashing out 20 million pounds on an average striker!
I can understand trying to bring another Irishman to the club - increase the fan base over the sea and all that. But 20 million? Torres cost 20 million - and they are leagues apart in skill. Keane is quite frankly, an average player - nothing more - like his countyman Steve Finnan who we have also carried in our team.

When I think of the top teams - they don't 'carry' players - everyone in the team is there on merit and they all add something. For too long we've had average players. How we won the champs league with our squad is one of the great all-time mysteries. Now we've just added another also-ran to our ranks.

The point is, we don't have the money of Chelski and United - we have to buy wisely or if we splash out, do it on somebody world-class.

These comments may turn out to haunt me but I actually wouldn't mind that - it would mean Keane is scoring goals. But I doubt he'll get many more than Crouch would have. And if that's the case, it means we've just wasted about 10 million.

Hungry in Hungary - part 1

Why Hungary you ask? Well ask Emma (Cath's sis) and Delano I say - it was to catch up with them that we decided to go to Budapest. They were doing a bit of a European session - travelling around visiting place after place and it just-so-turned out that our dates and their dates saw us both free at the time that they were in Hungary.

Before we left, we used all the resources at our disposal - Kati - our Hungarian friend at our Dublin church was a great help - and gave us some last-minute advice on the church steps before we left.

Of course, we rushed to the airport only to find that our flight was delayed. I mention this because our experience in Budapest with public transport and flights, etc was such an amazing surprise. 'Logic' told us that Ireland should be up-to-date, punctual and impressive while my expectations for Hungary were less-so.
In reality, it was the transport in Hungary that put the Irish transport to shame. They are so jacked-up over there. Wow!
don't forget thunderstorm

No sooner had we landed, Cath was making us a new friend - Noami - a young Hungarian lady who lives just outside Cork but who was originally from Budapest. It turned out she lived on the street of our hotel and so she directed us which trains to catch there, helped us buy tickets (English isn't so commonplace in Hungary so we were very lucky to have her) and chatted with us the whole way. She even bought us some Hungarian snacks - winning us over big-time.



The next day Emz and Del-boy arrived and so after catching up with Noami in the morning, we headed off to pick them up and take them back to the hotel. Then we went out and snapped a few photies.

We found this statue of some dude thjat looked like death....

... and wandered around a bit.



This above was Millenium square (also known as Heroes square) - Seeing as you've seen so many of the same old photos, we thought a different view would be appreciated.

Then we decided we'd take Noami out for supper (but asked her to choose the place) as a thankyou. But SHE ended up taking us out! - and it was a stunning meal at a medieval-type place with tankards and wenches and huge plates of food!



Soup came first - in a hollowed-out roll.



Then the platter, and a belly-dancer that made Delboy and I slightly uncomfortable.



But the food was too much. Five of us, eating our full couldn't even damage the platter and we ended up taking a massive doggie bag home with us. We had no option but to summon the waiter and show the white flag - we surrender - take this plate away!

Before we left I had a piccie with a few of the barmaids... mmm, barmaids...


The next day we headed out to see the sights. Emz and Cath decided to run up an escalator that wasn't working. I thought we'd lost them for a while - they nearly punctured a foofie valve running up the like, 300 steps. Actually it wasn't so bad, but they told us it was a big deal so I included this photo for them.

Parliament was stunning...

Emz and Del-boy were jumping for joy in the park.

We hired one of those 4-man pedal bikes and cycled around the island on the Danube. It was a pretty big island and took us a few hours.

The pedal car was quite cool - we all took turns steering. The girls typically would sit at the back and not pedal, but us boys are used to doing all the work for our girls!

Yep, it was a lot of fun.

Along the ride we came across a sight or two and stopped for a breather more than anything else...

There was also this amazing musical fountain... well, there was music playing over a sound system nearby and the water was timed to rise and fall and spray, etc according to what the music was doing. The musical was uber-cool - some classical type stuff (don't ask me who composed it) and as it hit the crescendos, the water would rise like, 15 metres into the air!

The next day we wanted to get out of Budapest to see a bit more of Hungary. We'd heard there was a great village called Sezanchandre (i think) not so far away so we caught the train there and did a bit of sight-seeing.

This was the centre of the village...

We also popped into a marzipan museum. I think every building in the village was a museum actually. There would be a shop selling postcards that was called 'The toffee museaum' or something random - but it would just be a normal shop - with a room upstairs that was the supposed museum. Admission - a few euros. Probably just a way of getting us to go in. We aren't interested in toffee - but we did check out the marzipan museum cos it looked pretty busy and thought someone must know something we don't.

This was one of the sculptures - made entirely from marzipan...

Then as we began to head off, the caricature dude that wasn't having much business offered us a deal - two caricatures for 10 euro. We couldn't say no - so the girls sat down, Cath first to have their pictures done. I maintain Cath's boobs, teeth and forehead should have been bigger and Emma's boobs were too big but hey, no-one asked for my opinion.



We walked around a bit more, had some ice-cream and lunch by the river and headed back to Budapest.