Budapest!!!

So, we've just finished our second day here in Budapest. It's amazing. I came here uncountable years ago (like 9? I can't be bothered to count) and I really don't remember it from that time. It's so refreshing to be out of Spain; the people, the architecture, the food... The people here generally speak English, at least the ones we have dealings with, and they're all really nice. Even the people who don't understand a bit of English smile and smile and speak to us in Hungarian. I traveled for about 24 hours to get here, from leaving Coria to arriving at the hostel here. Four-plus hours in bus, spending the night in the airport until 6:40am, flight to Brussels, slight layover, flight to Budapest, finding the bus to the metro to the city, finding change for the bus and the metro... But the hostel is excellent as well: we paid 11 euro for a dorm and somehow ended up in a double. The first night, the owner made us some Hungarian soup (delicious) and some sweet bread covered in pancake batter and fried (strange but like French toast). It was very nice. We've also met a lot of cool travelers here. We've just walked around the city a lot, to Castle Hill and Mátyás-templon and the citadel in Buda (nearly caught in a thunderstorm, hiked up two mountains), to Parliament and St. Stephen's basilica, the opera house, and a beautiful synagogue in Pest, where we're staying. All the restaurant food has been really good too. Mmm, goulash.

It's strange to be in a post-Nazi, post-Communist country, now that I understand the significance. Lots of amazing old buildings are covered in grime and some parts of the city just seem dusty. We walked through the Jewish part of town, which used to be the Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation. It's a charming neighborhood, and very hard to believe what happened here over 60 years ago. So much history.

It's incredibly hot here, and just way too humid. I feel like I've been sweating constantly, especially with so much walking. My backpack is so heavy at the moment (16.5 kg at the airport, I can't do the math into pounds), which is just too much. I've been planning to drop things along the way but I don't know how much longer I can carry a bag that heavy. Training for the Camino?

Anyway! This keyboard is really killing me. On Wednesday we're off to Sarajevo, Bosnia, on a 12 hour train. I can't wait! I am also having tons of problems with the currency/exchange rate. 245 Hungarian forints to 1 euro. Yeah. And soon I'll have to deal with yet another currency. It's pretty pathetic (yeah, Mom, sorry for making fun about the problems with euros) and Sydney has to tell me how much to pay usually. Ridiculous bills, too.