Bratislava & Budapest

Bratislava is an internet black hole... so hi from Budapest (Adam): Tue 15/08/2006 7:13 PM

Hey everyone

Hope everything is goin well back home. I hear u lot are gettin the same kind of weather we have been, in which case u will b green with envy when I tell u today is a beautiful day in Budapest. However there is a strong chance of rain here tomorrow.

Thanks to all those of u who emailed me to let me know where I was last week. Yes Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia, part of the former Czechoslovakia of which the Czech Republic was the other part.

It is a great place to visit despite having been communist for many years. The old part of town is full of history, with loads of palaces, a castle and of course too many churches.

I got the feeling that as it has not been a capital city for long the Bratislavans are making an effort to please their increasing number of tourists.

The town is full of quirky bronze statues peeking around corners, doing trapeze acts above the streets and emerging from fake manholes... We visited two castles both of which involved climbing enormous hills, one of them is in ruins thanks to Napoleon while the other is just dull.

The view from the top is really strange as on one side of the Danube river is the old town with all its character while the other side are hundreds of tower blocks built in true identical communist fashion.

Our hostel was vaguely reminiscent of a mental asylum with padded doors all over the place and very wide dreary corridors. The bed was only just more comfortable than the floor. Other than that it was all well and good. Carly bumped into some girl she knows from Oxford but couldn't remember her name.

By an incredible stroke of luck we rode the bus several times without tickets but bought one to get to the train station this morning and our tickets were checked. We made it to Budapest on the train some time this afternoon but are unsure whether the time zone is different here or not so I am either writing this at five to eight or five to nine...Who should we see as we step out of the metro station by the hostel but the nameless girl from Oxford, she is staying in the same hostel as us which should make for some embarrassing moments as Carly still can't remember her name.

i thought the money in Bratislava was irritating - 50sk is £1 - but here its practically ten times worse. £1 is 400forints, so I now have a 20,000ft note in my pocket, pretty cool until I realise its actually only worth about £50. So when the barmaid in a cafe hands me a 50ft coin in my change its really not worth the effort of carrying in my wallet. Even if I try to give it to a hobo he will probably throw it back at me... and that would hurt coz its quite large.

Anyway this email seems to b going on and on without really saying anything so I will leave all of you to do whatever u should b doing.

Catch ya later

Adam

Budapest (Adam): Thu 17/08/2006 5:53 PM

Hey Dad

Just a quick email coz Carly thinks u will forget its mum's birthday on Sunday. I expect u probably remembered it already anyway.

Everything is going pretty well here. Went to a park where all the communist propaganda statues from the soviet era are kept today. It was interesting to see how they decorated the city with huge statues of Lenin and Stalin and of happy workers shaking hands with the soldiers.

Hope everything is ok back home.

Love Adam

Budapest, Mum's birthday (Carly): Thu 17/08/2006 5:58 PM

Hi Dad

We're still having lots of fun! In Budapest at the mo and its very hot! Went to the Communist statue park today which was pretty cool, lots of photo opportunities in silly poses!

Hope you're ready to spoil mum rotten on Sunday, you'll have to make an extra effort to make up for us not being there!

Happy Anniversary for Monday!

Cant wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

Lots of Love

Carly xxx

Budapest, (Carly): Thu 17 August 2006 17:54

Hi Mum

We're still having fun here in Budapest, today we went to the Communist Statue park and the city park - probably nice but a bit of a building site at the mo!

Yesterday we did lots of mountain climbing on the pretty Buda side, which it was far too hot for! But we saw inside the walled city with the palace (huge but not pretty) and a lovely church with a mosaic roof! Also had a great view of our side of the river and the parliament which is magnificent!

It was really lovely chatting to you on msn the other day and it will be nice to go to dad's work thing and be on our own the five of us!

I really want to see nan, Clare Megan and Ryan so should we sort something out? lots of love Carly xxx

We're getting the overnight train tomorrow so probably no sleep! Oh and we found a second hand book store!