Budapest.

After the relaxation of Budapest, it was time to get back on the backpacker (suitcaser?) trail, so I headed for Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Dan wanted to do some more hiking so again we went our own way.

Budapest to me was inconsistent. I stayed there for 8 nights, and had a good time, but still didnt feel as though it was one of my favourite places, although I will say the night life was quite good.

As usual I had no accomodation booked for my arrival, however with the train being 2 hours late (making it about a 10 hour train ride) I arrived in town at around 11pm. For the next hour I walked around town, into some dodgey little lane ways trying to find a hostel and eventual found the Aquarium Hostel. The guy working there was very nice, and the facilities were ok but the place just wasnt for me as it had no real social area, and limited facilities.

When Dan arrived a couple of days later we checked out the Red Bus 2. This was slightly better, but again the lack of a common room made it far from ideal for backpackers.

Eventually we ended up at the Station Guest House. Now this place is a fair way out of town - you really need to get a bus - but I think its worth it. When we first rocked up, we were convinced it was a squat. There was graffiti everywhere and some very shady types around. However the longer we stayed, the more we got to love the place, and I would recommend anyone to go stay there. It has a 24 hour bar, free pool table and free internet, and generally a really good crowd.

With the busses too, they are free. Ok, so they arent supposed to be free, but we rode them for a week without paying. You are supposed to buy a book of 10 tix from a newsagent and validate, but we never once saw an inspector.

The night life in Budapest was a huge drawcard, and we met some people at the Station Guesthouse (Poms, Irish and other Aussies) who were all up for a good time.

One of the bars we frequented quite a bit was called Szimpla (also known as Szimpla 2 as there is another with the same name). If it werent for the small sign you wouldnt know it was there, and from the outside it looks like just a doorway to a dodgey squat, but once inside it opens up into a large bar that keeps going back including a large beer garden.

From there we were recomended a club to go to later on one of the nights, but of course Dan and I got lost trying to find it. At this point, four very attractive local girls arrived and suggested that we go to the club they're about to go to instead. Now normally you would do this without hesitation, but earlier that night, a long term resident of the Station Guesthouse was telling us about 3 young Irish lads who had a similar thing happen to them earlier in the summer, and ended up at a bar paying 1300 euros for their total drink bill (this is also warned in the Lonely planet). So what did we do? Well ok we went with them. Suckers! But the place turned out to be quality. The club was an outdoor venue, located on the island in the middle of the Danube, and not 2 minutes walk away was another equally good club.