Budapest

After an early start in Belgrade, we had a relatively uneventful train journey to Budapest. We got here at around 4pm and headed over to the hostel. After leaving our bags in the room we headed out for a few beers and something to eat before turning in after a very long day.

On Monday we went on a Communist tour to the Statue Park where all the old Soviet Union statues are kept, we then were taken to a museum set up like a typical appartment in Communist Hungary. The guide gave us a thorough and enjoyable insight into what life was like for the Proletariat! Afterwards we visited the Dohany Synagogue in Budapest, seeing the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park which has the Tree of Life present. We also seen the Holocaust cemetry. It was a very intersting experience because I'd never been inside a Synagogue before and was very surprised at how much it is just like a Christian church inside, obviously replacing Christian symbolism with Jewish symbols. It was also very cool getting to wear the Kippah! Afterwards Rob went for a snooze, so I headed up to the Ferenc Puskas Stadium to pass the time. A very plain football stadium with nothing exciting to it whatsoever other than the fact it is named after Puskas. In the evening we went out for something to eat and then went for a few beers with some of the lads from the hostel, including a guy we met in Paris at the beginning of our trip and our now reunited in the end!

Today we got up around about 10am and pottered about the hostel before heading out to the House of Terror, which was the building used by both the Hungarian Arrow Party, a puppet government under the Nazi regime, and laterly the Stalinist regime that liberated the country. The building was used as a police cell, for those who spoke out against the Nazi and Communist regimes, where they would be brutally tortured and more often than not, executed. After that we headed to the Szechenyi Furdo, which is a big spa with thermal baths etc. We spent a while there relaxing before heading back to the hostel.

Tonight we were meant to get a free Hungarian meal at the hostel, but the staff member who usually does it is on holiday, so we will just have to make do with one of the local places for our tea tonight. Then it's a quiet night before catching our flight home to Glasgow tomorrow morning.

So that's Europe, the trip has been a really amazing experience, with plenty of memorable moments. At times it has been hard work, a lot of travelling and stress trying to find hostels and make connecting trains. It's hard to pick out a favourite destination, though I have an obvious bias towards Athens. But regardless of the many up's and very few down's it has been a very enjoyable trip and I'm very glad I've done it and feel I've accomplished a lot which brings a great deal of satisfaction for the hard work and effort put in organising and saving up for the trip.

See you all soon.

-Steven