The end is closing in...

We left Croatia and journeyed into Hungary, heading straight to Budapest. I never knew this but apparently Budapest is actually two separate places: Buda and Pest. Buda is the hilly side of the river and on the opposite side is Pest which is flat.
I actually quite liked Budapest and wouldn't mind going back for a few days to explore in a little more detail. I didn't really feel we had enough time. Especially as our bus driver got us a bit lost and we spent a lot longer on the bus than we should have. Not for the first time either.
We went up to Fisherman's Bastion where we got some photos of the city from above then we were

dropped off into the city. Marika, Will, Amber, Sam, Josh, Nicole and I all went for quite a long walk but before we got started on it we were stopped in the most beautiful Christmas shop. I could have bought so much but I behaved. It helped that everything was so expensive, but I think if I travel in the winter again that will be the thing that I collect - ornaments from around the world for my tree.
We forced ourselves out of the shop and then went along the Chain bridge which during the war was completely destroyed. When you see the pictures of what is looked like after the war and what is looks like today, the destruction is really brought home to you. We then walked along the Buda side of the river so that we could look back at Pest and see the Parliament houses. The building is stunning. Very fairytale like I thought. We continued along to the Margaret bridge, crossed back and then walked up through town to Heroes square where we chilled out at a cafe for a few hours while waiting for the bus. I had the best tea there. It was Lemon and Ginger tea, fresh made. It was two wedges of lemon, one of lime and one of orange, two tablespoons of crushed ginger and honey and hot water. Wow is the only word.
That night we had a boat cruise down the Danube river. We got dressed up-ish and jumped on the boat for a buffet meal and cruise. I tried all sorts of different dishes but they only one I liked was the chicken in paprika and sauce. Everything else was just was to liberally sprinkled with paprikia. Waaaaaay to liberally.
After dinner we all jumped back on the bus and got dropped in the centre of town for a pretend hen and stag night. The aim of the game was to get the "bride" as many free shots as we could. It was great fun but I had had enough by midnight-ish so a bunch of us taxied back to the site where it was quite chilly.

The next day, bright and early we left the camp site, all packed up, but instead of heading straight out we stopped off at the Museum of Terror. It is a museum about the history of Hungary and Budapest. The building that houses the museum was once used by the government as a place to take political prisoners during the war and torture them for information. We were only given an hour there and it is one of those places where you really need more like three. We couldn't have gone on Monday, the day before, as the museum was closed, so the pushed back our departure time in order for us to at least see some of it. The museum had information sheets in each room though, so what we did was to look at all the pictures and watch a few of the videos and collect the sheets to read later. Budapest and Hungary has a very dark, very sad history.

From the museum we headed off to Austria. On the way there we crossed over into Slovakia, stopping in Bratislava for lunch. I was quite excited to be back and it is even more pretty during the day time. It is such a Christmasy-town sort of place with lots of coloured windows and markets, not to mention the range of statues, including my favourite 'Man in an a manhole'.

We re-crossed the border out of Slovakia and into Austria where we headed to Vienna. After a freezing cold couple of nights my time in Vienna was spent shopping for warmer clothes and a Durndel for Octoberfest as it was cheaper to get one there than in Munich. I still got to see a bit of Vienna but I was more interested in getting the dress. It was 80 euros but it is a traditional one and I saved 20 euros on it. I had put money aside for it so I didn't feel bad about spending 160 NZ dollars on the dress. I know I will wear it again. It is me. I love to dress up.

Prague was our next stop. I love Prague with a passion. We crossed borders again, this time into the

Cechz Republic. My first priority was, after another cold night, hunting out a new sleeping bag with more warmth. I managed to accomplish that task quite early on so I spent the rest of my day pottering around the city until 4.30ish when I met up with the group and we headed out to one of the old bomb shelters which has recently been re-opened as a museum. We went down 60 metres and walked around only about 25% of the bunkers, the rest being closed off. It was interesting to hear about the cold war and the fear of nuclear bombings. I didn't know that once a month they set off the emergency sirens at the exact same time and day to test them out. Also, apparently all the underground train tunnels double as bomb shelters with huge nuclear strength doors that can shut in sections. Albania has the most, but no longer has the population to need all of them. Not that that is a shock, after being in to Albania. It is not a shock that there was a mass exodus from that country. At the end of the tour we got to try on the gas masks. I think I look quite fetching. I am sure I could get me a fella if I wore one of these every day. Hahaha.