Had seen pretty much all I wanted to see of Budapest, so decided to head to the flea markets.
I took the directions in the travel guide, and couldn't find it when I got off the bus! Also, I left my infamous Highlanders hat on the bus.... many good memories gone with that hat :-(
I think the markets were closed though. I had conflicting information from different sources. I couldn't be bothered wandering around a section of the city, without a map, looking for something that may or may-not be there. So got back on the bus to head back to the city... over-all a pretty crap start to the day :-P
Anyway, I got back to the city and checked out a massive building in the south of Pest. It happened to be the Grand Market Hall of Budapest. There was heaps of stuff in here: meat, alcohol stores, souvenirs and all sorts of knick-knacks. There was a restaurant in there called "Fakanal" hehe. After wandering around for a bit, and getting some yummy fruit, I headed to the Statue Park.
After a bit of a mission (catching about three different buses/trams) I arrived at the Statue Park. This thing was truly weird. After the communist occupation of Hungary, they decided it wasn't a good idea to have all these Soviet Communist statues around the city. So, instead of destroying them, they packed them up and moved all of them to this park that's about 45 minutes out of the city! It was really cool and some of the statues were massive! There was even a flower arrangement in the shape of the Communist Star :-)
Back to the city, chatted with some fellow travellers on the bus (Americans + Aussie). I walked up toward the National Museum, which was quite an impressive site from the outside. During my walking, I bumped into a huge march of Hungarians, all waving flags and chanting. I asked one of the locals what was going on, and it was a right-wing protest against the current government... I guess it was the same thing at Heroes Square the day before.
It was kinda cool to watch for a few minutes, then I got over it. My last stop was the Cow park again. Just to see this truly weird and memorable exhibition. The best one was the "Rubik's Cow"... chosen so because the "Rubik's Cube" was invented by a Hungarian (bet ya didn't know that!) I found it out from a store vendor, who was selling the "secret boxes" designed by Mr. Rubik's as well. It took 7 steps to open this keep-safe box, which was pretty cool.
I made my way back to the hostel, stopping for a bite to eat. Checked my email (for the first time) and found out that Justin (American from Krakow) was also in Budapest! If I had actually bothered checking my mail I would have been able to catch up... oh well, shit happens.
Left for the airport and that's about all she wrote.
Oh, talked to a random Hungarian dude named Czaba (Pronounced "Chubba"). He was living in Germany and could speak English and German. Kept me entertained for the flight home, got his contact details just in case I was heading down to Freiburg in my travels.
Got home and half unpacked before crashing... as I didn't get back home until just after mid-night.
Overall, Budapest was alright. 3 days was plenty for it though, and after seeing Prague and Vienna, it wasn't as impressive.
Next weekend is a big flight though... Istanbul! The largest city in Europe (depending on which rankings you look at of course). Looking forward to it.
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