
Well … we had a great day in Budapest yesterday. Did a lot of sight seeing during the day – saw the Jewish Synagogue, Hero’s Square, and went to the City Park. We also went to St. Stephens Cathedral where they had St Stephans mumiphied hand on display. It was a bit creepy. At night we got as dressed up as we could for living out of a backpack and went to the Hungarian Opera. It was a Mozart piece, very interesting to see.
Since the evening our luck has changed. We left early this morning to catch our train to Vienna and got stuck in the Metro on the way to the station. We didn’t realize you had to purchase tickets upstairs and by the time we got downstairs without a ticket they wanted to fine us. With no national currency on us they held us there (they wouldn’t take visa – guess it isn’t everywhere you need to be) and they wouldn’t tell us what we had to do to get out of there. So finally a Hungarian girl came and helped us break the language barrier. However, since we had been “in holding” for so long we ended up missing our train and now have to wait three hours.
Hungary really is a different place – the currency has two additional zero’s on it so we keep joking that we are payng $100 for a pack of gum and the still don’t really understand what we are spending …. OOPS. The people are a bit bitter – we spoke to a man from here and he told us that that is how the culture is. They are raised with a pessimistic attitude and take it out on the people around them. Sad really, but what can you do? So now we are hoping we don’t miss this next train so we can get to Vienna this afternoon. As long as the metro authorities don’t track us down we should be fine … wink wink!
Cherrettie
Express yourself …