Leaving Budapest

I was woke up at 8.30 by the maid trying to come in and change the sheets. Now that's what I call over eager, as check out was not until midday.

I did try to go into the city centre for a relaxing durational Thai massage, however it was like Belfast's Ghost Bus, the website and map said that it existed, but you could not find it even standing right outside ( apparently ).

I managed to find a phone number for a Hungarian massage place, but they were even worse as the directions were a complete work of fabrication. I phoned them up standing right outside where the flier said it was, only to be given a completely new address in another part of town and was told that I would need to book in plenty of advance. So no chance for me to make a flying visit before my flight then!

So other than wandering around for a few hours to kill time I didn't do anything constructive other than go back to the hotel and chill.

With perfect luck I managed to find the only cold morning in Hungary this summer to try and sun bathe for an hour or so after that failure decided to go for the compulsory McDonald and then go to the airport.

The McDonald's was an above average burger and fries but the store let themselves down sadly due to the fact that they have no milk shakes of any flavour. I mean, what's going on ... only time in twenty countries that has ever happened to me.

The buses and tubes all have travel cards for unlimited travel at a cheap rate or a tiny slip of paper with a silvery metallic embossing for 185 Florins (about 70 pence) for a single journey.

The trip to the airport was quick and painless, managed to check in automatically with a display machine inside the main lounge and then had to spend a hour going through security. I had a few doubts about taking my luggage as hand luggage on the return trip but it was all perfectly ok.

For some reason they only had a single scanner working which was what caused the huge delay. And there was not a queue but just a ever tightening mob trying to get through.

Shared the flight back with an American pilot on exchange with the RAF, along with one of his four children. And yes, they do all seem to have that overly funny short haircut, ha ha. We played Uno with a twin pack of cards for the entire flight, it was well chilling.

Had a heart stopping few moments where I thought I was going to miss my last train home, until I remembered to put my clock back an hour ( on my phone as I don't wear a watch or any jewelry ) and then breathed a sigh of relief as I now had plenty of time.

Last days in Budapest

Yesterday was nto very eventful for me, but it was for the rest of the city.

 

I had no idea, or at least had not added two and two together, thus was ignorant that the red bull greatest pilots competition was being held over the Danube just a few short tube stops away from me. Is there a bigger DOH I could ever do !!!

 

Nope, instead I took a day off from my hectic schedule of travelling to finish readin 1984 ( not as good as I had hoped and certainly not the ending I wanted ), get a bit of a suntan and generally get some proper RnR.

 

It was not the anniversary of their independance day, as I was led to believe earlier, but it was St Istvans day - who for some reason the locals all pronounce as Steven. And just as suddenly as I realised that this is where Robert Asprin got some of his character names from, the heaven opened and I don't mean that figaritively.

 

In the cities most violent, localised and sudden storm in living memory a wicked storm brewed up, killed 4 people and injured at least 40 more, riped whole sections of roofs apart - INCLUDING that of the royal palace - and tore down, or at least partly down, several thousand trees over a few adjoining districts of the city.

 

My hotel was not in one of the regions worst hit so all that we suffered was a bizarre battering of rain and small twigs for about 15 minutes and then just as suddenly it stopped.

 

Today was a day of a much more normal effort of sight seing, including taking my camera and getting a local travel firm to escort me round the various districs on a 4 hour whistle stop of the city.

 

We went past many different government department buildings, the 3rd most famous (aparently) hotel in the world, behind one in Dubai and one in New York, saw lots of demolished trees and lots of churches and statues of their saints.

 

According to the guide Hungary was settled by 7 tribes of asians ( mainly from siberia, russia and mongolia ) in around the 800's.

There was lots of talk of battling the turks and that the area of Transilvania, now more commonly associated with Romania and Dracula, was actually at that time owned by the Hungarians. 

 

Quite a few places were built to commemorate the war, and the independance of first the Germans and then the Russians. Also according to our guide they only joined the Germans as they promised once they had conquored the rest of europe and peace was agreed that they would give back Transilvania to the Hungarian empire. Of course this never happened so they still do not own it to this day, although for the most part now they dont want it back as it is less developed and than anywhere in Hungaria.

 

I took some nice photos but it takes forever to try and sort them out for a blog entry, so I will just print them for my album and then scan them and email them to friends in personal emails.

 

The Ibis hotel wa a great choice as it was cheap, friendly, hosted by mostly english speaking staff and the food was top class, regardless of how cheap or the rest of the hotel was.

 

Tomorrow will be more lazing about and then the flight home again.

Travelling

Yes, its been the end to a suitably happy first day in Budapest. The sun was out in full force, blasting down at a quite respectable 33 oC and if you were a man that appreciated the top half of the femenine form you would be in your element here.

 

I got to go on the metro, which was not only cheaper and cooler than the london tube but also less hard to get confused, being only of three lines and them going off in totally different directions from a central station.

 

I also got to go to the Cinema and watch a film with only the merest few sentences in Russian ( they do so love to put at least a bit of foreign dialogue in hollywood movies these days ) and then order a pizza to go.

 

Of course, there was the obligatory purchase of a keyring for mum ( even though I now know that she collects china plates and cups too ) and the thimble for Sue. As normal these are not too hard to find once you start looking, but the fan is and alwazs has been a little more problematic.

 

I have been thinking that these holidays are costing too much regarless of how I plan them or finance them, and its due to a few things but chiefly its that I cant just laze in my room or at the beach alone and apart from just hiding away everything else in life costs money.

 

I have notices that wherever I go I have never really felt threatened or in danger outside of London and my home town. Ok, so there have been a few times when I have turned round and walked away from a possible problematical problem abroad, but at home I have done the same and still ended up in trouble.

 

I very nearly got to drive a tank, go Zorbing ( huge see-through inflatable ball that you climb inside and walk about in, or even run if your an expert aparently ) and go firewalking. The problem with all of these activities was that I am travelling on my own and so unless I wanted to pay for an entire group of 10 people they would not let me book any of these activites.

 

Also there was a few others, like potholing, but the thought of getting stuck underground in a dark wet hole alone AND in a strange country was just a little too much for even my adventurous streak to bare. Plus I know that mum and everyone back home would have gone nuts if i did anything that stupid.

 

It might be that I am travelling alone and thus have a lot of time on my hands between activities but I do so take all of my friends and family with me on each trip. The second I entered the Metro it was just like I was back in Korea with Seung Hee. The moment that I was shown the food hall it was like I was back in Singapore with Daphnie. Gazing out of my hotel room and seing nothing but tall and lush green trees reminded me of being in the Dominican Republic with Maribel.

 

For this reason I cannot say which trip has been best, as for me each gains from the experiences learned from past trips. Also some events which I was curious about before repeat themselves at which point I decide that for me they are in fact a universal truth.

 

Tomorrow is the Hungarian Independance Day, a time when they celebrate splitting off from the Soviet Regime and stepping one giant step towards Democracy.

 

I have not yet taken many photos, but as I have this festival tomorrow and will book a Monday sight seing day trip and night cruise I expect to be able to take many soon.

Budapest, Airports + Music

Touchdown Budapest, but only just.

 

Because I allowed them to offer me the hotel room on the possibility that the flight was overbooked it meant that I arrived and had to wait in the main terminal until the flight had closed.

 

As soon as I did that I realised what a mistake this was, as the whole terminal had turned into a crazy line to go through security. If you have ever played the basic game of "worm" then you will know that is is a game where the worm has to move but gets bigger and bigger and has many twists and turns.

 

This WAS the line for the security. It has many twists and turns, you could never see the end until you had reached it, it eventually even stretched outside the main terminal building, did a gigantic u bend and then even went into the pavement leading up to the main building.

 

It was insanity and it was no joke that I waited for over an hour and a half in that queue. Very bad as my flight left in only 20 minutes. That is right, because they had already booked me in, they had to wait and delay the entire plain just because thez overbooked the flight and did not want to give a refund and compensation. How idiotic is that.

 

During the flight I met a great girl from Budapest called Bridgett, who works in the Argos in Tottenham Court Road, near my office. In a little over an hour I almost had her entire life story out of her, it was very enjoyable.

 

When it landed I had booked into a local hotel that was only a few minutes away from the main terminal. This was best as with the delay I had arrived about 11pm, and did not want to fuss with many different changes of buses.

 

The hotel Ibis, same group as a few of my other trips I think, was fairly clean and well presented. Too far to walk from the city centre, but ideal as a stop over.

 

The rooms brouchures had everything you could want or expect in a hotel, but of course this was Budapest and so it has the local stuff in their too.

 

Hard to say what the weekend will have in store, but i woke up feeling lousy but as soon as I got to the cafeteria I perked right up, as I think the pop music radio helped a lot. I have not realised how much travel music could uplift my spirits and now I am sure that I must get myself an MP3 player and fill it with light and poppy tunes.

 

 

p*rn content

It would seem that not only can i not access other peoples blogs or websites, but that their rules are so strict that I cannot even access my own blog as it says it is a high p*rn content ( spelling changed to protect what little access my site may have left ).

Airport Security

The next step of the big brother / or big nanny as I think of it more as, has developed.

 

Now at airports there are plenty of internet places, all costing one pound for ten or fifteen minutes but all equally flawed in that they have disables the control buttons and some even have the environment so far removed from the original explorer that it is hard to use even for an old hand.

 

With forty minutes I barely had time to search and book a hotel near the airport, as it appeared that I would indeed be wanting a room close to the airport. My contact there, being a daugher of Frank's penfriend has been out of touch for a long while and this has meant that I am not staying with them as was the original plan.

 

The fact that they have a surf cyber nanny which blocks a whole range of interesting sights means that you are very limited. I find it a bit of an attack against my civil liberties but then im finding that lots of people really dont care any more if they have any liberties of not.

 

People go on with their lives and chose at the time which laws to break and which laws to abide by, so ideas like free speach dont exist right up until they want to say something - by which time its often too late.

 

This is one reason why travelling is for me becoming a bore, as nothing now can be done on the hoof, and everything has to be done in advance or face the risk of missing out completely - at least

from the UK side of things. Once abroad you are open to a lot more things, if only you can read the lingo and go know what your looking at when you find it.

 

I have been offered to stay over due to the flight being overbooked, so i might do that if it really is a choice, as i dont want to get there at midnight and the hotel might have a better internet.

 

Plains, trains and automobiles

Wow, what a long weekend this has been.

First off was the whole "alleged" terrorist alert that has screwed up the entire airways network for the UK.

I bet that it wasn't the brainchild of many terminal bosses as it has totally sliced through their sales revenue of things to buy at the airports before you fly.

no one can buy so much as a mars bar before they go through security and that's not a good thing if you run the WHSmiths on the wrong side of the line.

When I arrived in Belfast I then got the update that the barracks was not actually in or near Belfast, but more closer to Londonderry - and for those whose Irish geography is not top notch I suggest you go and get a map to look at how far apart they are.

I wasn't impressed with the Irish hospitality of the north and especially not the rubbish manner of which the main Victoria bus station staff tried to convince me that I had missed the ghost bus.

Oh, they didn't call it a ghost bus, but as I was standing right in front of the bay where it was due from fifteen minutes before it arrive to ten minutes after it was due to leave I'm pretty damn sure that id didn't come in. But when I asked they said that I must have missed it.

So its my guess that it was a ghost bus as it came, dropped off imaginary passengers, collected more spooks and then left again without me or anyone else ( after all I wasn't the only one waiting for it !!! ) even catching a whiff of it.

Perhaps I should have started looking for black cats.

Oh, and on the way back I must mention that your not likely to find the end of a rainbow as from the air I could see it move across the land and thus never having a final resting place its almost impossible for anyone to catch it fast enough to get the pot of gold.

After a few more mishaps, and their taxi bases are also ghost bases as although you can find a stop off or pick up point, you certainly cant find anyone to ask for a quote from one town to another if you manage to miss a bus.

After half an hour more I managed to catch the bus and go over to Londonderry.

From there I got the next updated "location" from Mitchell and this was that he was near a blue shop outside of some other town nearby, and it was just a relief when I spotted him right by the shop as my bus drove past. What didn't impress me is just minutes before on the same bus I passed an airport.

So what stopped him from just going to that airport and flying home ... because his uncle - who lives at the barracks, didn't even know it existed. What a ******.

Anyway, we managed to meet up at about 4 pm which meant that it was close to eight pm when we got back to Belfast, and missed all the shops being open so I had no shaving stuff for the entire trip now - and had begun starting to look like the wolf man.

We grabbed a movie and then it was back to the hotel to drop him off before I went for a midnight stroll.

Despite having a map and having done a tiny bit of research before hand I found a dry old town with places chucking out at midnight regardless of the 24 hour drinking rules and it being Ireland.

I didn't see many nightclubs that were worth a quick fling and I was only glad that my hotel room was booked beforehand as it was full up by about nine pm.

The following morning we barely had time to watch another movie and go play bowling before we had to catch a bus to the airport. No ghost buses this time. And why had we watching another film??? Well neither of us are religious and there is not much else to do on a Sunday in Ireland

The airport was a bit of a nuisance, but not as busy as Stansted. Delayed due to a missing passenger and thus a security check on the entire cargo hold meant that we had missed our connecting trains. This could have been ignored if we could have had hand luggage, but oh no ... We have to put our tiny bags in the hold because of the silly new rules !!! Bah, humbug.

Stansted express, couple of tubes and then a long train journey was the best we could do that night. Bad as we were then going to have to get a taxi for at least an hour at two am to complete the journey and that was never going to be cheap.

Thank my lucky stars for the movie phone with websearch ability. It meant that I could scope out a few hotels and taxi firms (among other things) while we were training it so that the delay was minimal.

A few hours sleep in a hotel before we walked to check in Mitchell for his final flight home. Once he was all aboard, and I so wanted to strangle a rude and massively unhelpful Etihad employee then it was back to the hotel for more sleep, before back home again via a few more trains.

Mess at Stansted Airport

My trip to Belfast has now officially begun and I am far from having a smooth run.

 

Stansted Airport is a complete mess in terms of people and understanding.

 

Do not believe any of the rot that the press are putting out in that flights are not being cancelled and the average passenger is quite happy with the last minute increase in security.

 

There are queues of people in every direction, some looping around and others of no more than a few people.

 

Noone knows what is going on and I am sure that the shops are having a terrible day as noone wants to buy anything before gong to security.

 

I saw a man asked to hand in a bar of chocolate that was of the smallest size you can bu singular and i hated that the guard simply said "its ok, you can buy another one of the other side".

 

That isn't the point though - they should not be taking them away in the first place.

 

I arrived into Stansted on the second earliest train from London, it being the first that was letting on passengers from Bishop Stortford which is where my sister has just recently moved to.

 

There are more people here awating to book into their flight than I have ever seen before at any airport at any time.

 

This whole thing is just totally insane, but then when isn't government legistlation a complete work of lunacy.

 

What makes me laugh is that I am typing this from within the main terminal so as it is a totally unsecured line, with keystroke programs, they now have access to pretty much everything I will ever do online or do officially again.

 

Not bad eh ... even the more ignorant monkey can now access my emails, and from there get into lord knows what else.

 

NOT that I am a sceptic or paranoid in any way, but then as the old saying goes "just because your paranoid if does not mean they are not out to get you" - great Navana track that.

 

I am going to try and add a babelfish link to my blog now, so that I can start posting stuff in Spanish ( when I get a bit better ) and also so that anyone else can easily try their hand at translating it and / or correcting my spelling and punctuation.

 

Less than an hour to go now, so it wont be long.

 

So long and thanks for all the fish...